Sencha, the leading provider of HTML5 frameworks and tools for desktop and mobile application developers, is expanding the range of technologies it offers to include services in the cloud. Sencha.io, now available in beta preview, is the first client-centric cloud technology designed specifically for JavaScript developers. When used in conjunction with Sencha frameworks, Sencha.io lets a developer focus on building client-side application logic while leveraging cloud services to make the application come to life.
Sencha.io enables application developers to build shared experiences that all run in the browser. Developers do not need to worry about writing server code, or dealing with hosting. Using the Sencha.io service and the SDK, application developers write their applications entirely in JavaScript, and Sencha.io utilizes cloud services as necessary. Using Sencha.io, developers simply write a client-side Sencha Touch application and use the power of the cloud to make their app come alive.
“To build a mobile experience that is multi-device, shared and enriched, a developer needs three things: frameworks, tools and cloud services,” said Aditya Bansod, senior director of product management at Sencha. “Sencha.io extends the range of technologies we offer developers, giving them a way to quickly add data, messaging and features to their apps, and to then deploy them from the cloud for smooth and reliable execution on any device. In comparison to more traditional server-side platform-as-a-service solutions, we’ve simply eliminated the need for server-side code.”
Read more about the beta 1 release of Sencha.io on the Sencha blog. Beta 1 of Sencha.io is available for developers at developer.sencha.io.
Sencha.io enables the creation of shared, multi-device Web experiences
The proliferation of social interaction throughout applications and websites means that the mobile Web is now an increasingly participatory experience. Developers no longer want to build applications that focus on the single user experience; instead they want to build applications that allow sharing between users, and for users to share their data between their devices. But designing and building apps that can do this, while simply managing disconnected state, multiple accounts, and synchronization is a daunting problem.
For example, even in a simple online poker game, each player needs identification (online/offline), role (sequence of play), and status (chips at hand and in play). Sencha.io dramatically simplifies the task of developing this class of Web application by providing four core services:
1. Login — allows users to log in to applications using Facebook or Twitter accounts, or accounts specific to the application. Login makes it simple to retrieve user data and store information about an app’s users.
2. Data — Sencha.io Data makes it simple to store data in the cloud with just one line of code in a Sencha Touch application. Data is synchronized across all devices and can be shared between users. Even when a mobile device is offline, applications can still read and write data and Sencha.io Data will transparently sync when the device rejoins the network.
3. Messages — easy person-to-person and system-to-system messages is a critical service for a cloud. Sencha.io Messages enables users and applications to communicate easily with each other. For example: notifying a friend it’s their turn to play, or moving an in progress game from your mobile phone from your desktop.
4. Deployment — even client applications need to serve code; Sencha.io Deployment makes it easy for developers to deploy their applications and optimize their application images for various mobile device screen sizes. Deployment includes a management portal that allows developers to manage versions of their applications and a fully sandboxed development environment for testing and collaboration.
“Now that users are constantly on the move from their desktop to mobile devices, we can provide the best app experience with Sencha.io Data and Sencha.io Deployment,” said Luc Stakenborg, owner and consultant at Oxida. “Using Sencha.io Deployment to deliver high- and low-resolution images, and Sencha.io Data to share user settings across devices was essentially ‘plug and play.’ We didn’t need to develop a custom solution, so we were up and running in the cloud in a few hours.”
