Sample mobile app created in the cloud

For my first test mobile app I've used Tiggr which is a cloud based development tool which uses jQuery Mobile under the hood. You can drag and drop screen elements, add event handlers and add sections of your own script as well. It also includes a data mapping tool to easily integrate RESTful services into your app. It's a great tool especially if you're new to mobile development like me or you wish to whip up something quick - maybe for prototyping.

My sample app (shown below) is very simply as you can see... One input field and a button. When clicked it stores the contents of the input field using html5 local storage and then navigates to the second page, which in-turn reads the value from local storage and displays it in a label element. (Gotta start somewhere!)

Initial screen

Saved in HTML5 local storage

Tiggr development does have a cost.... $45 per month but the first month is free. (Note: see comment below about free plans.) After speaking with the developers you can enable and disable your account whenever you like to avoid continually being charged. Your files will be removed however. To avoid losing anything just export your project so that you get to keep all the source files. They are thinking of enabling an archive mode so that you can stop using the service but all files are kept in archive for when you're ready to start developing again.

Speaking of the developers - I can say that their support is good and I haven't had to wait more than a couple of hours for a response to questions.

Main development screen

Next step is to sign up as an Apple Developer so I can test out PhoneGap and turn this into a native app (in reality I'll probably build something a little more substantial). You need to be signed up as an Apple Developer to get the necessary security and provisioning keys so that you can actually build an iOS app. I'm also busy learning about Ruby and Sinatra for building backend RESTful services, but I'll leave that for another blog post...

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UPDATE: 18 Jan 2012
Tiggr have changed their name to Tiggzi and updated their plans (including a free one):




Also check out an overview of Tiggzi's features for building apps.