Titanium SDK
The LinkedBytes team has grown professionally developing mobile applications since 2004. In these almost 20 years, it has gone from Java MicroEdition (J2ME) to apps for Android and iOS, including BlackBerry, PalmOS, PocketPC and Windows Mobile. Our mobile applications have been aimed at both private users and corporate users, including the industrial environment, and are used by thousands of users from various countries. Over the years we have seen how different technologies have evolved, appearing and disappearing. This gives us a very objective view of what are the best development tools for mobile application development, and Titanium SDK is one of them. It is not the only one, but it is really good because:
- Build native apps: There is some confusion about “Cross-Platform” tools. Titanium is one of these in the sense that it is capable of generating applications for different platforms, but it does so natively, that is, as a cross compiler. This is the basis for some of the points below. Since they are 100% native applications, the development tool requires having the SDK’s installed for the platforms for which you want to generate applications.
- It offers high performance: since the Apps are native, the performance is very high. Titanium SDK, unlike other cross-platform tools, does not generate a web browser-based application that contains the interface, rather all interface elements are native. The performance is so high that it is practically impossible to differentiate it from an application generated with the tools of each platform. Both the interface and the code can have blocks specific to each platform, but it is at compile time when one or the other is used, so that the specific parts of each platform are only present in the App generated for each platform.
- Improves usability: Titanium uses the user controls of each system, so applications maintain a visual style similar to that of the platform on which they run. However, a custom user interface design can be made that uses each platform’s controls on each platform as well.
- Facilitates maintainability: having a single source code makes maintenance easier and we do not need multidisciplinary developers or a team of developers for each platform. With each new version of the operating systems, Titanium SDK releases an update of its tools
- It’s modular: Titanium SDK is extensible. If needed, it can be developed directly on the native platform and then included in our Titanium SDK application as a module. This allows, for example, to make use of the Zebra SDK for Android (EMDK). Additionally, Titanium SDK has a technology that allows using native classes and libraries without the need to wrap them in a module (Hyperloop), which greatly facilitates the use of native libraries for each platform.
- It’s OpenSource: As of March 2022, Titanium is managed by TiDev, Inc., a company whose sole purpose is to keep Titanium open source, updated, and well-documented.
Titanium SDK is a tool with a very fast learning curve, since it uses MVC as a pattern, JavaScript as a language for logic, XML for views and style sheets for design. It is a very easy to use tool for web developers and its community, although small, is very active, enthusiastic and helpful.
LinkedBytes is a sponsor of the project through the sponsorship program (https://github.com/sponsors/tidev)
