Quickest way to make a web app for iPhone

Question

I am looking to make a iPhone app for a simple anonymous discussion website I launched this week (blurba.com).
I would like it to be native, available for free download in the app store.
I am looking for the fastest, easiest way to do this.

I have been looking at these options.
1. Build a native app in Obj-C
2. Build with JQ touch, use PhoneGap to make it native

I am more than open to other ideas (maybe frameworks I don't know about, to make this easier?)

NEEDS:
Ajax requests via GET and POST.
Data received back in JSON and displayed.

PS. I have NO experience making iPhone web apps, but do have basic experience with iPhone development

THANKS,

Answer 1

Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick two.

If you want it fast and good, you're going to have to pay someone who knows what they're doing which means it will be expensive.

It seems weird that you say you have no experience making web apps, yet you said that you "launched" a discussion website and your StackOverflow bio says "I am a web developer using PHP, MySQL, jQuery." So which is it?

Is your site based on WordPress or some CMS? Interfacing with that will depend upon the API the CMS provides. You will probably have to roll your own JSON requests. You don't need AJAX if you're building a native iPhone app. The J in AJAX means JavaScript. It's only relevant if you are accessing data from a web page which you wouldn't be in a native app.

Anyhow, sounds like you've got some big ideas here, but you're going to have to crawl before you walk.

Best regards,

Answer 2

Eclipse is one of the best and easiest (both) frameworks I ever seen. You can develop iPhone web apps with eclipse. I suggest you take a look at this tutorial.

Answer 3

The "easiest" way to get a Web property on the app store (which seems to be your goal) - create an app that does nothing but create a UIWebView. That Web View is more or less a shell for the mobile version of your site. If you want it to have an iPhone look and feel, you would craft a mobile version of your site that takes advantage of WebKit features.

You may find that there are things you miss out on by not going completely native, but the above approach is the quickest.

Answer 4

Take a look at Dashcode. It's part of the SDK and though your App is not going to be in the App store, it's a real web App.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/Dashcode%5FUserGuide/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/Introduction/Introduction.html

http://developer.apple.com/safari/

Here are some existing Dashcode Web Apps

http://www.apple.com/webapps/

-t

Answer 5

To do what you're trying to do, I would suggest using iWebkit and then using PhoneGap to make it native. iWebkit does not have the sliding interface, but is much easier to use and will work with PHP much, much better than JQuery. Plus iWebkit has a [forum] (community.iwebkit.net) where you can get help with anything, and a lot of people there have experience with PhoneGap, NimbleKit and other similiar tools.

Answer 6

Check out iWD - http://www.mgateway.com/iwd.html

It really is the fastest framework currently available for iPhone app development.

Answer 7

If you are comfortable enough with javascript, you can try SproutCore or Sencha :)