Elgg App

Guys, I want to know elgg's official stand regarding app development. I do not see any activity regarding this on elgg forums.

I have developed a hybrid app with phonegap/cordova and want to release the code/plugin to the community for other users/developers to user and contribute as well. Elgg mods please let me know if this is something you guys are interested in.

  • In times of responsive design you rarely benefit from having separate app that reimplements your site's frontend. It's just poor ROI - you split your resources and your audience if you happen to have different capabilities of web users and app users. If you want your brand to be more "serious" by having app, you can use Cordova as a simplistic webview wrapper, sure. You can also think about using web app manifest which is used by this community page. So ie. if you create bookmark for elgg.org on android phone using chrome browser, you get very similar experience to webview app (you can hide browser controls, configure icons and splashscreen).

    BTW as a user myself I tend to not use dedicated apps when I don't have to. I see no reason to have 20 apps that will take ton of space for every service I could use from time to time.

  • IMO, if you want to share something, you just do it. I don't think you need community's permission. It might come in handy to somebody somewhen.

  • Don't ask permission to share something that the community can benefit, just do it.

  • Please do share your app. I am sure lot of user must be intrested in the app.

  • Yes, In fact there are various  social networking  usecases which demands , more of mobile app. and particularly when there is chat involved, app is better  client . and If your app handles, data caching, offline pages very well then. people will surely love it.  

    I have also spun similar idea by brand name called enGap, specifically  handles the elgg entity listing , syncing,  and caching in smart way.  However so far only 3-4  customers are using it.  not much, may be because I have not made the cordova JS code open.

  • @Gluck thats good..community members/developers would love it. So share it..thumbs up.

  • I have worked with apps for a while and i have noticed a tread or pattern, most people do not like the apps.

    Apps tend to work well in company phones e.g banks, insurance companies, and medical or health care phones but not personal phones. why?

    Most of the Companies phones have very few apps on the phone and enough memory to handle future app upgrades. Personal phones do have memory issues due to pictures and video file sizes stored on phones.

    Users from time to time will be forced to uninstall some apps in order to upgrade their favorite apps. Also, some apps will take ton of space!

    I think responsive site will serve users better than apps on personal phones. Maybe that is why Facebook and others are investing tons of millions on responsive site than app.

    Posted from a smartphone

  • I think there is big difference between native app and the responsive design. I myself have 3 more other websites they are fully responsive and I even made WebView App as well for one site but to be honest they are not better as Native App.

    Native Apps are much faster because things load all on one page based on Ajax technology and uses less resources on the web. On the other hand responsive site just fits well on mobiles but really does not work faster as Native Apps.

     I have asked many people & developers on various platform and all are agree with this thing. 

    I am not sure now what is true and false.

    But I would say a big YES to the native app for Elgg, I would love to use it and please do share it with the Elgg community don't ask for permission. 

    Here are lots of people some would say No and some would say Yes like me ;)

    Look forward to your App bro :)

  • I think apps are useful if they provide something unique to the user experience.  Apps for websites rarely do.

    There's a lot of duplication of effort, a lot of work to make sure the branding is consistent and you can do most of the same things you can do on the site proper.  There are security concerns, where once you had to be concerned about security of your site, now you have to be concerned about the security of your site and the security of the app.  If one is compromised that could affect the other.

    That said, there is a lot of demand for such apps.  At Arck we've developed a few and are getting into it more heavily just due to demand.  I believe this demand is purely marketing driven.  Even the work we've done in this area I don't see the value of.

    So I say down with website apps!  Get a haircut and get off my lawn.

  • Guys thanks for your response. I agree that there is going to be duplication but the reality is elgg is a social networking site and mobile is the best way to target socially active people. Look at whatsapp and facebook apps. I understand there are going to be issues but I am going to to try to take a stab at it. 

    Does anyone know who maintains the webservices plugin? I think there are security shortcomings with the existing implementation like you cannot use json post for submitting data, only query strings and form posts work. Anyway I am going to use the next few days to clean up my code an make it free of customization as possible. Hopefully it is going to be a New Years Gift!