Home // International Journal On Advances in Software, volume 11, numbers 1 and 2, 2018 // View article

A Study of Cordova and Its Data Storage Strategies

Authors:
Gilles Callebaut
Michiel Willocx
Jan Vossaert
Vincent Naessens
Lieven De Strycker

Keywords: Cross-Platform Tools; data storage; performance analysis; API coverage; Apache Cordova/Phonegap.

Abstract:
The mobile world is fragmented by a variety of mobile platforms, e.g., Android, iOS and Windows Phone. While native applications can fully exploit the features of a particular mobile platform, limited or no code can be shared between the different implementations. Cross-Platform Tools (CPTs) allow developers to target multiple platforms using a single codebase. These tools provide general interfaces on top of the native Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Apart from the performance impact, this additional layer may also result in the suboptimal use of native APIs. More specifically, this paper focuses on Apache Cordova; the most used CPT. Via a data storage case study, the impact of the abstraction layer is analyzed. Both the performance overhead and API coverage are discussed. Based on the analysis, an extension to the cross-platform storage API is proposed and implemented. In addition, the Cordova framework, including the employed bridge techniques, is studied and elaborated.

Pages: 45 to 54

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2018. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2018

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2628