I’m building a really basic mobile application with Titanium Appcelerator, targeted to both: Android an iOS. I’m using Appcelerator WebViews on both platforms for all the complex layouts on the application.
I’m still worried about loading the HTML files locally or externally, here are some thoughts:
Local
- I will only transfer JSON over the network (smaller files). So the application should load faster (right?).
- Application’s size will be smaller, since all the app files are loaded remotely (cache implemented, anyways).
- I won’t need an iframe to interact with the remote content: you can’t actually interact with an external web view. You need an iframe as a bridge.
Remote
- It’s easier to modify the layout in newer versions (no new versions of the app are needed if we want to implement a quick fix).
- Application size will be bigger (since we have now to include several files into the application, such as all the HTML, CSS and JavaScript).
What are your thoughts about both alternatives?
I think that if your app is designed to have highly dynamic layouts, remote updates are an unparalleled comfort.
If you are using HTML only to avoid drawing layouts with native elements, then keep them local.