NativeScript Sidekick For Assisted Project Creation And Cloud Building

I was recently at NativeScript Developer Days 2017 and I was anxious to learn more about Telerik’s new developer tool called NativeScript Sidekick. I had heard about Sidekick prior to the conference, but I never had the chance to see it in action.

After seeing Sidekick in action, I must say, it is wonderful!

We’re going to see why Sidekick is so great for NativeScript development and how to get the most out of it for your own Android and iOS projects.

Native To Hybrid And Back Again

I was recently attending NativeScript Developer Day 2017 in New York City, which is Telerik’s very own NativeScript conference.

This was a fantastic conference where I was not only a participant, but also a speaker at the event. At this event I had given a fresh presentation titled, Native to Hybrid and Back Again, where I had discussed my own personal experiences when it came to mobile application development.

I want to take the opportunity to summarize what I discussed during this event and share the slides that went with my presentation.

Use Google Analytics In A NativeScript Angular Application

So you’ve spent time creating an awesome mobile application, but how do you know how it is performing in each of the available app stores? How can you gauge the user interactions with your application to better improve what you’ve built? The easiest way, and in my opinion the best way, would be to incorporate Google Analytics. With Google Analytics we can track application events, screen views, and other things without leaking any identifiable information about the user.

We’re going to see how to include Google Analytics in our Android and iOS mobile application built with NativeScript and Angular.

Request Android Permissions In NativeScript Using Angular

With every version of Android comes more security measures dropped into place. For example, in Android 6+ the user needs to grant permissions when doing certain activities, such as using the camera. These security measures are more aggressive than the previous form of asking permissions in the manifest file.

So what if we want to prompt the user to grant permissions at a time other than when trying to use the feature that requires the permissions? For example, asking for camera permissions when the application loads, rather than when we try to use the camera feature of the application?

We’re going to see how to request permissions in an Android NativeScript project with Angular.

Determine Network Availability In A NativeScript With Angular Mobile App

When developing mobile applications, there is often a need to perform certain tasks when a network connection is available. Not only this, but sometimes you only want to perform tasks depending on the type of network connection. For example, what if you wanted to backup large photos only when the Android or iOS device is connected to WiFi rather than 3G or 4G? To accomplish this, we need to determine the network availability and monitor it for changes.

We’re going to see how to check the network connection type and monitor it for changes within an Android and iOS mobile application using NativeScript and Angular.

Use Fingerprint Authentication In A NativeScript Angular Application

More than a year ago, before I started using Angular, I had written a tutorial on the topic of fingerprint authentication in a core NativeScript application. Since then, I’m doing almost all of my mobile development with Angular which means that the previous article deserves an upgrade.

I recently released a mobile application called Solar Flare for Cloudflare that protects your account with device level fingerprint authentication. We’re going to see how I included fingerprint authentication, sometimes referred to as touch id, in a NativeScript with Angular application.

Apache Cordova And Ionic Framework Apps Are Not Native Mobile Apps

If you’ve been keeping up with my content since the birth of The Polyglot Developer, you’ll know that I was once a huge advocate of Apache Cordova development using frameworks like Ionic Framework. Having been a web developer and coming from native Android development with Java, cross-platform development using hybrid technologies seemed like a logical next step. Fast-forward to now, I’m no longer using Apache Cordova with Ionic Framework and have gone back to native development.

I recently came across an article by Ionic’s CEO, Max Lynch, titled, Cordova/Ionic Apps are Native Apps, trying to explain that Ionic applications are native mobile applications. There are some valid points made in this article, but as someone who spent several years using the technology as well as using applications built with the technology, it is not something I agree with as a whole.