Developers now have the ability to create natively packaged iOS applications from both Mac- and Windows-based computers with today’s release of Sencha Touch 2.
Sencha, a provider of software tools to create and deploy mobile and desktop applications for multiple platforms, announced the release of Sencha Touch 2, which the company is calling a “cornerstone” in its HTML5 development ecosystem, which also includes Sencha.io, Ext JS and Sencha Designer.
The native packaging takes an iOS application and removes the dependency on the Xcode compiler to wrap the code, as Sencha Touch 2 offers one-click deployment from both a Mac- and Windows-based machine. This means that developers can create cross-platform applications on any desktop running Mac OS or Windows, said Aditya Bansod, senior director of product management at Sencha. Applications created with Sencha Touch 2 can now be deployed to the App Store, and applications can be written and packaged for the Android Marketplace.
Bansod said the updates to Sencha Touch 2 will also allow developers to create user experiences on cross-platform applications that are much more identical experiences. Sencha, he said, paid close attention to improving performance, such as how the application behaves when end users click on a button, or when the application makes a call to a server, on Android applications. This is something, he said, that the 300,000 registered community members at Sencha were concerned about.
Sencha Touch 2 will ship with customizable templates that incorporate some of the most commonly used APIs, such as those for Facebook and Twitter.
Some of the key additions include cross-browser normalization, so that application performance will be stable from device to device. This is particularly important on the Android operating system, according to Bansod, so developers will now be able to gauge user experience on Android tablets and mobile phones.
Sencha Touch 2 also includes a richer data API, access to more native APIs (which enable access to the native camera, location information, WiFi detection and other native features on devices), and support for MVC development.
By the end of spring, Bansod said the entire HTML5 platform will be updated to enhance the performance of applications for end users, and give developers a better user experience when creating applications.
