Development

Apple iOS - iOS is Apple’s mobile OS that runs on an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch hardware. Apple provides tools and resources for creating iOS apps and accessories for these devices. As an iOS developer, you can program in native languages such as Swift or Objective-C or build cross-platform native applications using React Native (JavaScript) or Xamarin (C# & F#).

To develop iOS apps, you need a Mac computer running the latest version of Xcode. Xcode is Apple’s IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for both Mac and iOS apps. Xcode is the graphical interface you'll use to write iOS apps. Xcode includes the iOS SDK, tools, compilers, and frameworks you need specifically to design, develop, write code, and debug an app for iOS. For native mobile app development on iOS, Apple suggests using the modern Swift programming language.

Explore the tools, technologies, capabilities, and languages included in the iOS SDK that make app development possible. Some iOS SDK essentials are the Cocoa Touch frameworks that include the UIKit, GameKit, PushKit, Foundation Kit, and MapKit. These frameworks and others allow you manipulate the iPhone or iPad camera, add voice interaction using SiriKit, explore music with MusicKit, expand viewing and listening via AirPlay 2, and even add iMessage Business Chat to your application. iOS 11 added the power of machine learning with Core ML and augmented reality (AR) experiences with ARKit.

It is important to note that Xcode only runs on Mac OS X and the only supported way to develop iOS apps.

Once you have built and tested (using XCTest framework or iOS Unit test) your app, you can invite users to your apps and collect feedback using TestFlight prior to deploying to the App Store. This is a good time for testing Push Notifications, data storage using Core Data, and making network calls to 3rd party APIs. To get going, you simply upload a beta build of your app, and use iTunes Connect to add the name and email of testers. The testers will install the TestFlight app for iOS so they can interact with your app and provide valuable feedback.

Testing your iOS app on real devices is critically important since the performance of the real device, different operating system versions, modifications made by manufacturer and carriers firmware may lead to unexpected issues with your app. Testing on real device gives you a more accurate understanding of how your users interact with your app.

On the other hand, obtaining physical devices for testing is a logistical challenge. This is where cloud testing comes into play. With cloud testing, you can test your application on real devices that are accessible on the cloud. You can perform a manual test or run automated tests to ensure the quality of your application.

Once you have built, tested, and beta tested your iOS app, you can deploy to the App Store. At this point, you must join the Apple Developer Program. As a member, you’ll get access to beta software, advanced app capabilities, extensive beta testing tools, and app analytics.

Android Google Play - Before start building an Android app, it’s important to select an IDE for programming.

The official IDE for Android development is Android Studio. Android Studio is the best overall IDE for getting started. The IDE download includes Google’s Android SDK, NDK, Java, and Kotlin support along with all the necessary Android SDK tools and emulators. Native Android applications can be written in either Java or Kotlin and Android Studio provides support for both languages.

Other IDEs to consider are Intellij IDEA or Eclipse.

Once you download, install, and configure your environment, you can create your first Android project. It’s important to understand the project structure of an Android app. The 'src' folder contains all the source files. The assets folder contains raw images, strings, and xml layouts that get compiled into an .apk file. The res folder also contains similar objects as the assets folder but includes alternatives or subclasses of those resources to support screen orientations, different languages, or OS version. Each file in a res directory is a pre-compiled ID for quick access to these resources.

build.gradle is also another important project file. You'll typically see two build.gradle files in your Android project. One is for the project (Project: <project-name>), and the other one is your app module (Module: app). You'll mostly work with the app module's build.gradle file to configure how the Gradle tools behave and build your app

AndroidManifest.xml – The manifest file describes the fundamentals of the app and defines its components.

Once you code and build your Android app, you can interact with the app through an Android Emulator or a physical Android device attached to your computer via USB. An Android emulator simulates an Android phone, tablet, or TV device on your computer. An emulator provides almost all the capabilities of a real Android device, and you can configure them to emulate a specific manufacturer, OS, and tools to fit your needs. An Android emulator is no substitute for real devices, and you should always test on real devices before shipping to testers and app store marketplace.

Testing your Android app on real devices is critically important since the performance of the real device, different operating system versions, modifications made by manufacturer and carriers firmware may lead to unexpected issues with your app. Testing on real device gives you a more accurate understanding of how your users interact with your app.

On the other hand, obtaining physical devices for testing is a logistical challenge. This is where cloud testing comes into play. With cloud testing, you can test your application on real devices that are accessible on the cloud. You can perform a manual test or run automated tests to ensure the quality of your application.

As an open platform, Android developers have a few choices for distributing their apps to users, customers, developers, and business associates. The most common and official Android app marketplace is the Google Play Store, which enables publishing apps to a marketplace with the broadest audience. In addition to the Google Play Store, another popular app marketplace for Android apps is the Amazon App Store. For beta testing and getting your pre-marketplace Android app published, you can utilize the Google Play Console to get your app in the hands of testers, or specific groups to provide valuable feedback.

Before submitting your app to the Google Play Store, you should understand a little about the Google Play Services and why it’s important when developing an android app. Google Play Services first appeared in 2012 and is a platform (provided by Google) that provides a way for developers to access the Google APIs such as Google Play Game Services, Google Maps, Location, Mobile Ads, and Google Wallet.

Desktop Portal - PHP, HTML, CSS - HTML, CSS, and PHP are acronyms for different coding languages used for displaying webpages on the internet. Each has a different purpose and function and they work together to deliver beautiful websites with updated content to your web browser.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, CSS for Cascading Style Sheets, and PHP for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. (Yes, the acronym is recursive. Computer nerds like to do silly things like this as a joke.)

The 10-second explanation: HTML is the flesh and bones of a website, defining its structure. CSS is the clothing, allowing designers to make site-wide changes more easily while PHP assembles each piece of the website and prepares it for your viewing pleasure.

No doubt these explanations of the acronyms has completely enlightened you about what these languages are used for. But if you want more detailed information (and I know you do), continue reading below.