HTML5 Mobile App in App Stores 2021
How to Design the HTML5 Mobile App in App Stores
If you read this you may already have a decent idea of what the HTML5 mobile app is, but you may not know how to actually find it in the Apple App Store or Google Play.
You can submit a fully customizable web application to both stores as you would a traditional application (even if you do not have a Mac), and in many cases the application may look, sound and work just as well as native applications - as long as the app is well-designed.
I created this step-by-step guide to guide you to the right place - wherever you are on your app store trip, this article should help give you the context you need.
Understand the Differences Between Indigenous, Hybrid and Web Applications
Before you get started, you should understand why you are building a mobile app with tech and what is the difference between a web service, and what is commonly called a hybrid program, and a traditional standalone app.
If you are short on time, here is a little infographic I made that highlights the appeal of the hybrid approach in a very simple way.
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| Mobile app design 3d illustration |
You will find many ideas on what is the best way to make mobile applications among options such as:
• Indigenous iOS / Android
• Ionic
• Answer the native
• Xamarin
• Flutter
• NativeScript
…and more. In the end, they are all capable of making good plans in the right conditions and with the right people. The only sensible answer to which way to go is always "to". This article focuses on using the hybrid / HTML5 method of building mobile applications, so I will focus on related aspects.
Create Your Application
Before you commit to a certain procedure, make sure you have your specific needs and that your approach will meet those needs.
If you would like to create a continuous web application (a fully functional Internet application, rather than distributed in traditional app stores), then you will be able to access only the features found in the browser. Make sure all the functionality you need is available here. Don't worry if you later decide to install a native app, it's easy to convert your PWA into a hybrid app and distribute it to traditional app stores.
If you want to access specific native APIs or want to submit your app to the app stores (or both) then the hybrid method will be your best bet. The same process for creating an app is the same as for a standard web / PWA application, except that we wrap it up with a traditional package. We'll talk more about integrating Cordova / Capacitor to access native APIs and wrap up your app over time, but make sure the functionality you need is available as a Plugin API in Cordova or Capacitor, or that there are 3rd Cordova / Capacitor plugins available for performance what you need (anyone can create their own Cordova / Capacitor plugin that accesses traditional functionality).
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| Mobile app development |
When designing your app keep in mind the iOS Human Interface guidelines and Android Design guidelines. Keep in mind that some of the details in these guidelines will be specific to native applications, so don't worry too much about it. Just make sure you follow the best design principles that are most common in mobile apps - your app should look / behave / feel like standard native apps.
If you are developing an app that will be distributed through Apple and Google Play app stores, you need to play by their rules. Be sure to follow the Apple App Store review guidelines and Google Play Developer Program Policies. That's where the advantage of distributing your app as a Progressive Web app comes in - using an open web means we don't have to override someone else's hooks.
Apple in particular may not consider its use of guidelines, but if you violate any of these (sometimes or not) your application may be rejected and you will have to rectify the problem and resubmit. Here are a few gotchas you should be aware of that might see your application being rejected:
• Your app is more like a web page than a mobile app
• You do not manage online / offline regions
• Your application is slow or unresponsive
Your app does not use traditional features (e.g. there really isn't a reason to distribute it as a traditional app instead of the standard website)
Apple is generally stronger than Google when it comes to review.
Build Your Application Using Framework and UI Kit / Design System
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| Mobile app development template |
HTML5 UI Kits / Design Systems (such as Ionic) and frameworks (such as Angular, StencilJS, React, and Vue) are the cornerstone for developing advanced HTML5 mobile applications. Trying to build an entire mobile app from scratch yourself is useless and useless. You’ll spend a lot of time trying to duplicate the mobile user interface - with all the smooth graphics, integration, and screen changes involved - and the chances that you won’t get close to the quality you can get from the ion out of the box. They have already done hard work for you, there is no need to re-invent the wheel.
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| Mobile app developer coding |
Check Your Request with a Browser
The great thing about developing mobile apps with HTML5 is that you can test it using your browser.
When you create a web / PWA program, by the time you have completed this section your application is ready and ready to go. You just need to take it to the web. But if you want to create a hybrid program that can access native APIs and be delivered to the app store
Submit Your Request
You can use technologies like Cordova or Capacitor (built by the Ionic team) to wrap your web application into a traditional wrapper and act as a bridge between your app and Native APIs for the device.
If you want to build iOS apps but don't have a Mac you can use an app like the PhoneGap Build, or the Ionic Package app. To build iOS you need the right SDKs to be installed on your machine, and you need a Mac for that, however, if you do not want to use one of these building services you can also do something like setting up a virtual machine provide access to the required MacOS software.
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| HTML5 Mobile App in App Stores 2021 |
Cordova / Capacitor's core role is:
• Cordova / Capacitor creates a native app that contains web views
• All your app resources are stored within this traditional app
• Cordova / Capacitor uploads your web-based application to web view (web viewing is not seen by user)
• Web view shows your application to the user
Access Indigenous APIs (optional)
You can just use Cordova / Capacitor to pack your app for shipping to app stores, but why stop there? We are able to access all of these native applications now!
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| Team design mobile app |
With Cordova or Capacitor, we can access almost everything a traditional app can. Instead of communicating directly with the device, we may use Cordova to transfer messages between the device and our application.
Check Your Request on Device
I mentioned earlier that one of the great things about HTML5 apps is that you can test them with your browser. Once you start integrating Cordova / PhoneGap / Capacitor and the traditional API even though browser testing is not so good.
To test an application that accesses native APIs you will need to use the application on a real device. But how do you fix a bug without debugging tools in your browser? Don't worry! You can still fix the error directly on your device and access the same bug fix tools in the browser, you can check out the videos below for more
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| Mobile app development |
details on how to do just that:
• Debugging Ionic Applications When Posted On Android Device
• Debug Ionic Applications When Shipped to iOS Device
It is an important step, wherever it is, to test on a device, whether you are using traditional functionality or not. The behavior of the actual device may be different from what is viewed in the desktop browser.
Sign Your Request
To distribute your apps in the app stores you will need to "sign" your app, and in the case of iOS you need to sign your app before installing it on the device.
In the iOS system you will need to create a personal .p12 profile file and a provisioning profile. You can easily sign up for an iOS app if you have a Mac and XCode but you can also sign up for an iOS app without a Mac (the article I linked above explains how to do that).
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| HTML5 Mobile app designing 2021 |
To sign up for the Android app, you just need to create one key store file. Ionic texts contain some examples of how to perform the signing process.
If you want to use Capacitor to distribute your apps, I have a complete signature / distribution guide available here:
Spread Your Request
If you think you want to spread your app in traditional app stores, you'll need to sign up for the iOS Developer Program (in fact, you'll have to do this to create your own profile and so on) and like Google Play Developer.
If you want to publish your app as a Progressive Web Application, you don't need to do this (and you don't have to worry about signing your app again).
You will need to configure your app store listing on both platforms and provide specific details about your app. Navigating to Google Play will enable you to upload
your .apk file with the developer console. To transfer to the Apple App Store without a Mac however you will need to use the Application Loader or XCode program, which is only available on Macs. You can use a service like Macincloud.com to circumvent this, however.
Summary
I hope this article has been able to give you some context around how to build and send the HTML5 mobile app to the Apple App Store and Google Play. There are a lot of steps in between, yes, and this is just a very high-profile view.
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