What is HTML5 mobile application?

Programmers and developers can use HTML5 to facilitate the process of designing and developing mobile applications. Of course, HTML5 apps aren't flawless, and they don't perform as well as native apps.

The HTML5 language, as explained by Wikipedia, is "a hypertext markup language for creating and presenting content for the World Wide Web." This is the fifth revision of the HTML standard, which was created in 1990 and standardized as HTML4 in 1997, and is still under development.

The main goals of HTML5 are to improve the language so that it supports the latest multimedia technologies while being both easily readable by humans and consistently understood by computers and devices such as web browsers, parsers, etc."

Some companies and businesses refer to HTML5 to facilitate and simplify the development process of their store application, as well as to reduce its cost and complexity.

In some cases, HTML5 apps can be a simpler alternative to native apps, provided everything is done right. If a company or organization wants to design and develop a mobile application that is cross-platform and works with both Android and iOS operating systems, it can use HTML5.

Read more: Mobile operating system: Google's Android or Apple's iOS?

HTML5 applications, of course, are not without problems and challenges. These applications have weaknesses in terms of functionality and security. Also, the user experience of HTML5 apps is usually not as good as native apps.

What is an HTML5 application?

HTML5 application can be written once and used everywhere! This type of application is actually a set of web pages that has more advanced capabilities in the field of audio and video display, and graphics and animation files, and it works offline.

HTML5 is rarely used alone. Most HTML5 applications come with CSS, which stands for Cascading Style Sheets and defines the appearance of web pages and how their components are displayed in the browser, and JavaScript, which consists of the APIs needed to work with text, objects, and arrays. , Works.

Most of the main and reliable browsers support these technologies, and provide the possibility of running mobile applications on the web in all kinds of mobile devices.

What is HTML5 mobile app development?

HTML5 mobile application development software frameworks have libraries of CSS and JavaScript files that developers can use in HTML. These software frameworks (framework) manage and solve many problems and errors that occur when creating HTML5 applications.

For example, a reliable software framework can manipulate and restore the elements of the document object model (DOM) and help improve it.

Frameworks make it easier to do things related to JavaScript, such as screen changes and list browsing. As a result, HTML5 application development may be more suitable for beginners and less experienced developers.

Not all frameworks are the same, and each of them has its own limitations and issues; And if an application has many parts and complexities, the possibility of problems and issues increases.

Minor differences and differences between mobile phones and browsers also affect the performance of the application in different environments. Hence, developers usually design their app based on some common parameters between mobile devices and browsers to ensure that their app works correctly in all environments.

Of course, this may harm the user experience (UX - User Experience) of the application, which plays an important role in how much users use the mobile application. However, well-trained and experienced developers can build secure and efficient web applications.

What are the considerations for building an HTML5 application?

Memory and performance limitations are key considerations in HTML5 mobile application development. Developers must carefully control the flow of pages and DOM implementation. The more complex the object model, the longer its implementation will take.

And most importantly, developers should always consider user experience (UX). To ensure the quality of UX, HTML5 mobile apps should be lightweight so that their performance does not suffer.

In addition, the application should be run and tested on different platforms with different screen sizes, browsers, and operating systems and ensure its optimal performance. Most of the applications should be able to work offline as well, so that they don't have problems if the internet is interrupted.

HTML5 app compared to native app

Unlike the HTML5 app, the programming language in the Native app must exactly match the language of the operating system it is going to run on. The main challenge of the native app is that for each platform and operating system, a native app must be created for that platform.

Currently, the two most popular mobile operating systems are Google's Android and Apple's iOS. In the Native app, separate apps must be created for each of these two operating systems. In addition, on some platforms, it is necessary to design a separate application version for each device.

But HTML5 application is not platform dependent. As long as the application can be accessed through the platform browser, that application will run on that operating system. In addition, mobile app developers in HTML5 will only have to deal with one code; And it is not necessary to do separate coding for each platform.

Also, it is necessary to perform bug fixes and updates in only one software; And they will not deal with different software like Native app.

Although the HTML5 app has made many improvements, it still cannot offer all the features of a native app. Features such as multi-touch gesture or optimal communication with phone features and components, such as GPS, are only available in the Native application.

Also, native applications are more powerful in terms of performance, because they are part of the device code. However, if HTML5 app design is not done carefully enough, it will not have optimal speed and performance.

Also, HTML5 apps face the same risks and dangers as other web applications. HTML5 application developers must protect against cyber-attacks, misuse of APIs, and unauthorized access of malicious code via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or SMS.

Native app and HTML5 app together
Hybrid mobile application is an HTML5 app that runs in a native environment. This type of app uses the device's browser to render HTML pages, which are hosted locally on it, and at the same time, like a native app, it connects to the device's tools and features.

The advantage of the hybrid app is that it can access the features of the device, such as the calendar or the list of contact numbers; And also, have only one code and run on different platforms.

The hybrid app can have almost all the features of the native app, such as working in offline mode and multi-touch movement. The hybrid app can even have the same shape and appearance as the native app. However, the hybrid app cannot perform as well as the native app due to its additional layers.