Question

I will soon be writing a native iPhone app for my web site. The web site is already mobile optimised so could potentially just sit in a UIWebView. How does the Facebook app work? Does it do something similar?

If I did use a UIWebView then how would I store user credentials so they don’t have to log in every time and how would they upload photos? These are my two main requirements.

Answer 1

The facebook app is going to be a native app. It is different from the mobile website.

There are two things you can do here. If you’re going to make your native app just a UIWebView then don’t bother! You can have an apple icon embedded in your website which will show if a user bookmarks your website on their home screen. To use this use the <link rel="apple-itouch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png" /> code to do it.

The second is make a fully native app. I know the benefits of a UIWebView app, but the negatives are plain to see. UIWebView apps are tacky, nonfunctional and terrible to use. A mobile website is not an app (unless done very well). You will have links to click, pinch and zoom, awful bounce effects on the web view, links that may possibly allow users to navigate away from your mobile website but within your app. Again, unless done cleverly, you will have to provide browser controls on your app which will make it look like a tacky web browser.

My suggestion would be either stick with your website, optimise it for touch based input, make it a really good mobile website, or create a fully functional native application. Remember not all websites need to have an app to go with it. If your app isn’t necessary then its merely counter productive to make an app for it. I don’t know about anyone else, but I spend more time in my web browser than I do in apps.

With regards to uploading and auth then a) auth should be done already in your website. A UIWebView is just an instance of safari working within your app, so it will be able to get and store cookies and all sorts. I believe these degrade at the end of the app session, however its easy to pass to the objective c and store in an stored preference. b) uploads not going to work even if you put your site in a web view. You will have to (at some point) hand off to an upload screen in your app which is running natively.

I would suggest that you start off with a simple native app. Let the users log in, upload stuff and do other basic stuff – whatever they can’t currently do on your mobile website. Then move on to other things as people ask for them, or as you have the time to make them. You don’t have to launch your app with a fully functioning version of you website (in fact this would be silly because the only thing they cannot do on your mobile website on their phone is upload stuff). I’m sure people will request features as your product evolves.