Question

When utilizing PhoneGap vs. an Objective-C based iPhone app (i.e. native app) making webview calls that load html/js/css content, what are the key differences?

Does PhoneGap make uiwebview? From my understanding of PhoneGap, it does but I am looking for clarification.

Ultimately, I would like to build a hybrid iPhone application, utilizing both Objective-C and html/js/css? An appealing approach is to utilize Objective-C to communicate with a server in the background and utilize html/js/css to build the view.

Answer 1

The key difference between a PhoneGap app vs an Objective-C based application making webview calls is the library of javscript functions PhoneGap offers to utilize native functionality without needing to write native Objective-C code.

You are absolutely correct that PhoneGap utilizes the UIWebView class within the iOS library but keep in mind the appeal of PhoneGap is the ability to utilize a single code base on multiple platforms.

Hybrid Objective-C and html/js/css applications are indeed possible with PhoneGap. If you check out what PhoneGap generates for the iOS platform, it is simply a template application with plenty of Objective-C and you simply need to make a flow that achieves the desired structure of your application.

Keep in mind though, the biggest appeal to PhoneGap is the ability to build cross platform apps with a single code base. Everything you write in Objective-C will need to be written again if you wish to launch on Android or WindowsPhone.

Other Notes

You may also want to check out jQueryMobile, it a really great mobile web framework that works well with PhoneGap. There is a chapter in Master Mobile Web Apps with jQuery Mobile that outlines this fairly well.