4900 Final - From the Guide

What are the three requirements for an app to be a progressive web app?

- Capable - Reliable - Installable

In Vuex, what is the role of an Action?

Actions are functions that call mutations.

What are the preferred wireless protocols in internet of things devices? What characteristics make them useful in IOT devices?

Bluetooth is the preferred IoT protocol. Bluetooth is: - Secure - Fast - Small

While Bluetooth was touted as the home wireless start in the evolution of wireless networks, home wifi quickly became cheap enough and took on the role of wireless network in the home. However, Bluetooth has found a niche. How is Bluetooth used today?

Bluetooth is usually used for IoT, including music and phone calls.

What is Capacitor and how does it differ from Cordova? What are the Changes from Cordova to Capacitor?

Capacitor is an open source native runtime for building web-based hybrid mobile apps. New: - Source Assets (vs build time assets) - No custom config files - Platform-Specific IDE

When building hybrid apps one of the issues is to be able to build for both the Android platform and the Apple IOS platform. Often this requires separate development environments and Apple hardware to do these builds. Explain what Cordova is and how it allows you to create apps for both IOS and Android Apps with just HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework for hybrid mobile apps. To run the app, a web view is used for content. The web view used by application is the same web view used by the native operating system.

What is the advantage of businesses building Electron Apps for their internal systems used by employees versus native development approaches for each platform?

Electron apps have to follow a "script" of functionality, and it is hard to break those boundaries. Despite this, native app development can be very costly and time-consuming compared to a framework like Electron.

What is an Electron app and how is it created?

Electron is a framework that enables you to create desktop applications with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. These applications are packaged to run directly on macOS, Windows, or Linux, or distributed via the Mac App Store or the Microsoft Store.

For which platforms can you build apps using Electron?

Electron is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux. (Also accepted: Desktop platforms)

Name three well known apps built using Electron.js.

Examples: WebTorrent. WordPress. Ghost. Beaker Browser. Pexels. Slack. WhatsApp. Visual Studio Code. Tusk. Mailspring. Skype. Discord. Streamlabs OBS. Atom. Etcher. Raven. Temps. Ramme.

In Vuex, what is the role of a Getter?

Getters are a part of Vuex store and they are used to calculate data based on store state.

What company was behind the development of Electron?

GitHub

What are Hybrid Mobile Apps?

Hybrid apps, like native apps, run on the device, and are written with web technologies (HTML5, CSS and JavaScript). Hybrid apps run inside a native container, and leverage the device's browser engine (but not the browser) to render the HTML and process the JavaScript locally.

In Assignment 5 the ToDo App, we introduced Vuex. Prior to Vuex, how was information passed from one component to another in a Vue application? How has Vuex changed this?

In Vue: - Props are used to share state from parent to child - Custom events share from child to parent. Vuex has created a system for an app-level shared state.

What is the Ionic Framework and How does it relate to Vue.js and Quasar.js. Also explain one important difference in the way these frameworks are supported.

Ionic and Quasar are both frameworks to develop progressive web apps, and they are generally used with Vue to do this. Quasar is built on an older framework, and it is still being maintained, but it is older. (Ionic is built on Angular and Cordova) (Quasar is built on Vue and Cordova)

Explain how Managed Container Apps are built and the advantages and disadvantages of these mobile apps.

Managed container apps are compiled into an executable that is optionally installed directly from the host website. They can access system sensors and some commands, and they are very convenient compared to native apps. They're somewhere between RMA and MWA.

Explain how MWA (Mobile Web Apps) are built and the advantages and disadvantages of these mobile apps.

Mobile Web Apps are websites that are optimized for mobile use. Mobile websites trade functionality, such as sensors and system calls, for the convenience and speed of visiting a website.

What is a mobile first strategy and why are companies adopting this strategy?

Mobile-first strategy is an approach to innovation that maintains digital technology should be designed for smaller devices, then scaled up. Because mobile designs are more difficult than desktop, the mobile-first approach makes it easier to adapt responsive mobile designs to larger screens and devices.

In Vuex, what is the role of a Mutation?

Mutations are a responsible for single state changes.

What two main technologies were combined to create Electron.js?

Node.JS & Chromium

How are push notifications enabled in a Progressive Web App.

Push notifications are enabled by service workers

Explain how RMA (Resident Mobile Apps) are built and the advantages and disadvantages of these mobile apps.

Resident Mobile Apps are built, compiled, and applied to be listed on an app store. Mobile apps can do so much more with data, but they have to be listed on an app store and the user must install them.

How can a Progressive Web App work offline on essentially any device?

Service workers and caching provide offline functionality to PWAs

What is the role of the Service worker in a progressive Web App.

Service workers are scripts that run in the background in the user's browser, enabling such features as push notifications and background synchronization.

How is a virtual desktop provided by Citrix or VMWare Desktop to mobile tablets and phones?

The desktop is displayed on the mobile device, with (OS-supporting) additions of larger buttons and a back button. The process is called VDI-in-a-Box or Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

What value do Ionic and Quasar bring to existing JavaScript frameworks like Vue, React and Angular in building mobile friendly web and hybrid apps?

The new frameworks provide new options for developing new types of apps. This adds extends the lives of the original frameworks and fosters innovation in app development.

In Vuex, what is State?

The state object contains the application state, and is shared with all the components.

What is the role of the Manifest in a Progressive Web App.

The web app manifest provides information about a web application in a JSON text file, necessary for the web app to be downloaded and be presented to the user similarly to a native app.

Explain how Progressive Web Apps are installed on a desktop computer or android device.

The website asks you if you want to install the PWA, or you can prompt the install in some browsers.

Why are businesses building so many applications using the Hybrid app approach?

This ensures that work is not duplicated when developing for multiple platforms.

Explain how Cordova apps can gain access to the Camera, Geolocation and other features of a mobile phone.

This is performed through Cordova Plugins, which provide access to device and platform functionality that is ordinarily unavailable to web-based apps.

Compare WiFi wireless standards to Digital Cellular Network technologies such as those delivered by major carriers such as Verizon, AtT and T-Mobile. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each wireless network?

WiFi is fast and generally has a high or unlimited data cap, but it has a limited reach. Cellular data is upgrading often, but it is normally not as fast as WiFi, and can have data caps.