In my previous blog I wrote about how to install and configure the various SDKs and applications required to build a PhoneGap app on your own Windows PC. Since then I've discovered a whole new way of building PhoneGap apps for more than just the one platform. In my previous blog I created an Android app and would have had more work to do to build the same app for iOS, Blackberry, Symbian or webOS.
I've discovered a website called PhoneGap Build. It does all this donkey work for you. You install nothing - well, maybe Git.
In a nutshell, it will build your HTML, JavaScript, CSS and other assets into apps for up to 5 target device operating systems.
- Your files are hosted on GitHub.
- You give PhoneGap Build the URL of your GitHub repo[sitory]
- PhoneGap Build builds your apps
- PhoneGap provides clickable links to download your apps, and where supported, a 2D pixel code to download it directly to your device.
This all comes without installing anything besides Git if you didn't already have that. GitHub provides versioned source control (free for open source projects) and PhoneGap Build builds your apps for you. It's the easiest way to create phone apps I have ever heard or seen and provides multiple target device support out of the box.
PhoneGap Build is still in Beta and they people building it are doing amazing stuff. This is an amazing service.