How to Develop Native Mobile App With DrupalGap

Drupal, being a versatile web development tool, has evolved a lot in recent years to cater to the increasing demand for processing mobile content. It has empowered many enterprises to build compelling websites and web portals. Building web application with Drupal also lets you present your content in the best way on the mobile devices.

Moreover, DrupalGap which is an open-source mobile app development kit, uses Drupal, PhoneGap, jDrupal, and jQuery mobile to build Drupal websites. This app development kit can help developers to easily develop and customize a multi-platform Drupal mobile app that communicates with Drupal websites. This kind of mobile apps can be easily installed on Android and iOS devices. And once the installation is done, the app smoothly interacts with the website developed using DrupalGap.

However, native mobile app development with DrupalGap brings two major benefits – distribution via mobile application stores and access to native functionality. The best part of native app development is it offers the ability to use the inbuilt features for various mobile operating system. You can set up such native applications seamlessly to cache data locally. This even makes the applications work effectively when any device is out of range.

The DrupalGap kit includes three major components:

1. DrupalGap Module: It sets up a secure connection between a Drupal website and an application. It uses data source modules that facilitate seamless interaction through JSON.

2. DrupalGap mobile app development kit: This kit allows you to develop custom multi-platform mobile app. It uses jQuery Mobile to create the user interface for mobile applications and PhoneGap helps in compiling the developed mobile app.

3. DrupalGap web app development kit: This kit can help you develop web applications via DrupalGap.

Here is a step-by-step guide for developing a native Android mobile app via DrupalGap.

Step 1: Configure Drupal website

To create an Android mobile app with DrupalGap, the first thing you require is an active site that runs on the latest Drupal version. If you already have a website powered by Drupal, you can move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Enable DrupalGap Module

By enabling the DrupalGap Module, you ensure that the interaction between the website powered by Drupal and the mobile app is convenient.

Step 3: Set Up Mobile App Development Environment

Once you’ve enabled the DrupalGap Module, set up the environment for mobile app development that provides support for the execution of DrupalGap. The environment set up can be similar to the one possessed by PhoneGap.

Step 4: Mobile App is Ready

Congrats! The mobile app is now ready for the execution. Run the mobile app to ensure that the performance is consistent on mobile devices. If it runs smoothly, you can publish the app in the desired app store.

Drupal is a well-known platform leveraged by several enterprises having a global customer base. So, harness the power of DrupalGap to build mobile apps not only for Android platform but also for iOS.

Did you try developing iOS or Android mobile application via DrupalGap? Share you experience with us in the comments below.

5 Must Have Mobile Apps for Sales Professionals

Sales professionals are perpetually on the move. Be it for client meetings, conducting off site team trainings or traveling to make presentations. In such a scenario, mobile apps are not just a ‘nice to have’, they are a necessity. Apart from enterprise email accounts and software, mobile apps can make the lives of salespeople, easy, educational and sometimes fun.

We have compiled a list of the top 5 applications we believe a salesperson must have on his smartphone.

1) Dragon: A nifty app for those who hate writing notes. Dragon auto-translates voice memos to text. It can do the vice versa for text messages and emails as well.

2) Mobile CRM App: No matter which CRM your organization uses, you’ll certainly be better off if you download the mobile app version of the CRM. For those stuck in long meetings or extended travel, a CRM app makes it easy to add information on the go.

3) CamCard: In the age of mobile, there are still many of us who hand out paper business cards. Sales executives tend to collect a lot of cards, but what if they’re lost? CamCard helps to digitize cards with a simple photo and auto-saves the information on your device.

4) Dropbox: Client needs a copy of that 20MB deck? And your laptop just crashed when you tried to send it? Fear not. With Dropbox’s mobile app, you’ll never see a ‘your file is too large’ error message again.

5) eSignature: Signature apps are very handy when a customer is ready to commit to a contract. If your company uses DocuSign or Adobe EchoSign, it maybe a good idea to download their mobile app so that important documents can be signed no matter where you are.