Author:

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 APIs. Apart from the performance impact, this additional layer may also result in the suboptimal use of native APIs. This paper analyses the impact of this abstraction layer using a data storage case study. Both the performance overhead and API coverage is discussed. Based on the analysis, an extension to the cross-platform storage API is proposed and implemented.