I was wondering is it possible to convert Appbuilder Cordova (+ Kendo Mobile) project to NativeScrtip project, and if it is - how ?
2 Answers, 1 is accepted
0
Accepted
Martin
Telerik team
answered on 30 Jun 2017, 11:57 AM
Hi Luka,
Hybrid mobile apps and NativeScript mobile apps both rely on JavaScript to get the job done, but are actually quite different on how they work:
Hybrid mobile app - It is an app that runs inside a WebView which is basically a chromeless browser inside you mobile app. As the WebView is actually a browser, you use web technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript) to build the app. You rely on Cordova plugins to access native device APIs. A plugin is a package of injected code that allows the Cordova WebView within which the app renders to communicate with the native platform on which it runs.
NativeScript app - NativeScript is not based on HTML and does not use WebViews. Typically, the design of the UI is developed and stored in XML files. NativeScript lets you access all native APIs from the underlying platform without the need of a plugin but instead relies on modules. You may read more on how NativeScript works here.
As you can see NativeScript and Hybrid mobile apps both use JavaScript to write the logic of the app but use different UI components (XML vs HTML) and different ways to execute the JavaScript code and access the native API of the device. Therefore there is no automated way to convert a Hybrid mobile app to a NativeScript app. You would have to manually re-write the UI and app logic to convert a Hybrid app to a NativeScript app.