Reasons To Build Cross-Platform Apps With Sencha Ext JS

In today’s digital era, businesses worldwide create web and mobile applications. These apps enable businesses to communicate with their customers more effectively, build brand loyalty and improve customer relationships. However, creating a web or mobile app isn’t enough. You must ensure your apps are accessible and work on multiple platforms, such as Android, Windows, and iOS. However, creating an app for each platform from scratch is time-consuming and involves high costs. This is where cross-platform development is helpful. It speeds up the app development process and helps save time and resources. As a result, businesses are using reliable cross-platform development frameworks like the Sencha Ext JS framework to build high-performance cross-platform apps.

But what does cross-platform development mean, what are its benefits, and what’s the best framework for developing cross-platform apps? Read on to learn.

What Does Cross-Platform Development Mean?

Cross-platform development process involves creating software applications that can work on multiple operating systems and devices. This means cross-platform apps are compatible with the most popular and widely-used devices, such as Windows, Android, and iOS mobile devices, laptops, and tablets.

Creating cross-platform apps means developers only have to write code once, and they can then compile it for various platforms. Hence, cross-platform app development helps create apps faster and saves time, money, and resources. These apps help businesses reach a wider user base and increase brand visibility because they can function on any modern device.

What Is The Difference Between Cross-Platform And Native App Development?

In the past, app developers used to build native apps for each platform or operating system separately. Hence, they had to develop a separate software version and codebase for each app. This process was hectic and time-consuming and required lots of resources. However, with cross-platform mobile development, you can create mobile applications for different operating systems using a single codebase. Developers today use efficient cross-platform app development frameworks like Ext JS to build such apps.

Developers use both native and platform-agnostic code that can adapt to multiple platforms to create cross-platform applications. Hence, these apps have a native look and feel. In contrast, a purely native app is built for a specific OS, such as iOS or Android, using a framework and programming language native to that OS.

What Is Ext JS?

Ext JS is a leading JavaScript library/framework that allows developers to create data-intensive, enterprise-level web and mobile apps. The web apps built with Ext JS can work flawlessly on all major web browsers, such as Safari 6+, Google Chrome, Opera 12+, IE6+, Firefox, and more. One of the most liked features of Ext JS is that it enables developers to build cross-platform apps with a highly responsive interface using a single codebase. Thus, apps developed with Ext JS are compatible with any modern device.

With Ext JS cross-platform app development framework, you get over 140 pre-built and fully tested UI components for your apps. These include menus, buttons, progress bars, sliders, icons, checkboxes, text fields, calendars, and many more. All these ready-to-use components are designed to work together seamlessly in any modern app. The robust framework also offers powerful data grids, charts, and D3s for creating data-intensive apps. You can even use extensions from the Sencha community.

Ext JS also has various supporting tools that streamline the stages of the Software Development Lifecycle. These include Sencha Cmd, Sencha Test, Sencha Architect, Sencha Themer, Sencha Stencils, and more.

Why Choose Sencha Ext JS For Cross-Platform Development?

Ext JS was initially used for creating desktop apps, and Sencha Touch was used for mobile apps. However, Sencha Touch has now been merged with Ext JS. You can use Ext JS version 6 and above to develop apps for both mobile and desktop using a single codebase. It is compatible with all the latest versions of Windows, Android, and iOS mobile operating systems.

Here are the key features of Ext JS that make it one of the best cross-platform mobile app development frameworks:

Single Codebase

Ext JS allows you to build modern cross-platform apps for multiple platforms with a single codebase. This means developers don’t have to write code for each OS separately from scratch.

Wide Range Of UI Components

Ext JS offers 140+ fully tested and ready-to-use UI components for creating functional and beautiful UI for your apps. These include buttons, menus, tooltips, carousels, charts, D3s, grids, sliders, forms, and more.

Efficient MVC Architecture

Sencha’s MVC (Model-Viewer-Controller) architecture makes it easy to develop large client-side apps. It efficiently organizes your code and minimizes the amount of code you have to write to create large apps with many features. In MVC, Model is a set of fields and their data, View refers to any component, such as panels or grids, and Controllers are dedicated places for placing all of your code that is essential to make your app work.

Advanced Features

Ext JS cross-platform framework offers advanced features, such as data binding, routing, and state management, for creating high-performance complex apps. It also has a robust data package that decouples the UI components from the data layer.

Strong Community Support

Sencha has a large active community of developers. You can learn more about the usage of resources and ask for help related to your Sencha app from the community.

Extensive Documentation

Ext JS has extensive documentation consisting of all the details about software setup, the working of components, and other features. It also has a quick start guide and several coding examples for using the UI components in your apps.

What Are The Benefits Of Cross-Platform Apps?

Here are the key benefits of cross-platform development:

Cost Effective

Native app development requires lots of resources because you have to develop apps for each platform separately. However, you can create cross-platform applications using a single codebase and a common API. Hence, you don’t have to hire different teams of developers that specialize in creating apps for a specific platform. This results in reduced development costs.

Faster Development

Cross-platform app development enables developers to share the code across various platforms. Hence, cross-platform app development accelerates the development process and provides developers the flexibility to use other advanced technologies when needed.

Uniformity

When you’re creating an app for multiple platforms and devices, you need to ensure that it has the same look and feel across all platforms. This can be difficult to achieve when you’re developing the app separately for each platform. However, cross-platform development allows you to create the same design for Android and iOS apps easily.

Impact On A Large Number Of Users

With cross-platform apps, businesses can reach a wider user base and enhance brand visibility because both iOS and Android users can access your app.

Easy Implementation

Cross-platform app development frameworks like Ext JS help streamline the app development process, making it easier for developers to build apps for various platforms.

What Are The Challenges In Creating Cross-Platform Apps?

One of the biggest challenges developers face while creating a cross-platform application is related to the app’s performance. This is because they have to implement an extra abstraction layer to these apps to extend compatibility, which slows down the app’s performance. Additionally, in cross-platform development, we need to integrate non-native components integrate with native components, which can cause integration problems and design inconsistencies. Cross-platform mobile app development also involves security risks because cross-platform apps generally have a lower update frequency than native apps. This makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

However, with Ext JS, you can build high-performance and highly secure cross-platform applications and ensure consistent design with robust UI components. You can use other Sencha tools like Sencha Cmd, a command line tool, and Sencha Test to develop and test your apps efficiently.

Conclusion

Cross-platform app development allows developers to create apps for several platforms and operating systems, such as iOS, Android, and windows, using a single codebase. It speeds up the app development process, saves time and costs, and allows businesses to reach a wider audience. However, cross-platform development involves performance, design consistency, and security issues. But, with Ext JS and other Sencha tools, you can quickly create high-performance cross-platform applications with beautiful and interactive UI.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are cross-platform apps?

A cross-platform app is an app that is compatible with various platforms, such as Windows, iOS, and Android.

Can we develop cross-platform applications quickly?

Cross-platform mobile app development frameworks enable developers to share code across various platforms. Hence, it allows you to create apps faster.

Start using Sencha Ext JS today and build high-performance cross-platform apps quickly!