Rhomobile Adds More Features To Smartphone Development PlatformRhomobile Adds More Features To Smartphone Development Platform

Rhodes 2.1 adds bar codes, signatures, jQTouch to Rhomobile platform for creating native apps that will run on iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile devices.Even ignoring Apple's hurdles to being in their app store, mobile developers eyeing the smartphone market face a big challenge and choice: The leading smartphones have different OS environments, which, in turn, means that a native app -- one that runs on the smartphone, even without Internet connectivity, rather than a mobilized website that renders for a mobile device -- written for, say, BlackBerry, won't run on an iPhone.

(See my June 2010 article in IEEE Spectrum, Cross-Platform Smartphone Apps Still Difficult.)

Fortunately, and not surprisingly, there are a number of platforms and other offerings aimed at "develop once, run 'manywhere'/anywhere," including Rhodes from Rhomobile (pronounced "roam-able" rather than rhyming with Batmobile).

According to Rhomobile, "Rhodes is an open source framework to rapidly build native apps for all major smartphone operating systems (iPhone, Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Android). These are true native device applications (NOT mobile web apps) which work with synchronized local data and take advantage of device capabilities such as GPS, PIM contacts and camera."

Given the on-going kerfluffles about iPhone/iPad apps, I asked Rhomobile to confirm that apps using Rhodes still work on these platforms; here's their response:

"Rhodes does support iPhone (and iPad) and Rhodes-based apps have always been accepted and are continually available at the App Store.

"A couple examples are INNKU's 2Know, which integrates geosocial networks (including Foursquare) into one application. And for a more enterprise-specific application, please see RhoLogic for SugarCRM, which works against changing underlying metadata, allowing it to be fully integrated into business' existing Sugar CRM applications."

The not-secret sauce is a mix of HTML, Javascript and Ruby.

Version 2.0, released earlier this summer, added some interesting features, including:

With the new 2.1 release of Rhodes, Rhomobile has added more goodies of interest to mobile developers and users, including two features that should be of interest for field service and industrial apps:

Other enhancements in 2.1 include a version of jQTouch, "jQuery plugin with native animations, automatic navigation, and themes for mobile WebKit browsers like iPhone, G1, and Pre," according to code.google.com. jQTouch combined with CSS stylesheets optimized for each smartphone, says Rhomobile, "provides developers with an easy way to implement sleek GUI's, animated transitions and themes in a mobile app."

The Rhodes framework 2.1 is available now, and is free under the MIT License.

Some applications may be better or require working with devices' own software development kit and environment, but for developers looking for the widest possible market -- and companies looking to not limit or restrict employee or customer choices of mobile devices -- multi-platform development environments like Rhodes make good sense.