Mobile Apps Get More Native-Like with Sencha Touch Update

November 5, 2013 Alex Woodie

Sencha last month rolled out an update to its Sencha Touch framework that makes it easier to develop HTML5 applications that work more like native mobile apps written for iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry devices.

Sencha (formerly ExtJS) develops a JavaScript library for developing touch-enabled apps that execute in browsers running on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. The framework uses HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript to create user interface “themes” that make apps look like they were developed for specific operating systems.

With the Sencha Touch 2.3, the software offers support for additional themes, including iOS 7, previous iOS versions, Android, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10. It also now integrates with Apache Cordoba, which provides a shell that allows apps to behave more like native apps and access device functions, such as the camera, the compass, and the microphone, that the HTML interface doesn’t support.

Version 2.3 also makes it easier to present and access large amounts of data on small screens. The Sencha Touch Grid lets users manipulate their grid columns to fit data more effectively using pinch gestures. Users can also edit data in the table, one row at a time, with the new grid. There is also a paging toolbar that lets users easily page up and down; to select multiple rows simultaneously; and to pin rows of summarized data to the top of grids.

Sencha CEO Michael Mullany says HTML5 has become the “lingua franca” of the application developer community. “When you are developing for the enterprise, Sencha Touch 2.3’s tools equip you with both native and HTML5 features, so you only need to create your applications once in order to run on any device without limitation,” he says.

Sencha Touch can be used with IBM i applications. For example, CM First uses Sencha Touch framework to create Web-based mobile interfaces for RPG applications generated with CA‘s 2E and Plex products. We’ll have more information on CM First’s use of Sencha Touch in a future issue of this newsletter.