MobileMapStarter

https://github.com/gregallensworth/MobileMapStarter

A starting framework for mobile maps using Cordova/Phonegap. A minimal but functional, standalone mobile app from which to build your own creations.

This is the jQuery Mobile version of MobileMapStarter

If you use Ionic, you may be interested in https://github.com/greeninfo/IonicMapStarter instead.

Getting It

I recommend a tested, known-stable build:

https://github.com/gregallensworth/MobileMapStarter/releases

You can grab master if you're feeling adventurous, or if you want to help with MobileMapStarter.

Compiling and Launching

This is a ready-to-run starter application for Phonegap/Cordova. Assuming that you have the Cordova build environment all set (run "cordova" from CLI, for instance) you should be able to run this and have a map app:

# Android
git clone https://github.com/gregallensworth/MobileMapStarter.git
cordova prepare android
cordova run android

# iOS / Xcode
git clone https://github.com/gregallensworth/MobileMapStarter.git
cordova prepare ios
open platforms/ios/MobileMapStarter.xcodeproj in Xcode
use curly-R to run it on your device.emulator

General Walkthrough

jQuery Mobile -- A mobile-style user interface theme. Includes jQuery which makes JavaScript useful.
Leaflet -- Quick, pretty, easy tiled maps.
File API and L.TileLayer caching system -- Cache Leaflet tiles to device storage for offline use.
HTML/CSS/JS layout -- The www folder has Leaflet, jQuery Mobile, etc. built into a nice starting place for your map app

Phonegap Build

The content of the www folder should be ready-to-run app with Phonegap Build. You should be able to ZIP up that content and upload to PGB.

Tip: I myself don't use Phonegap Build due to some issues. Most notably, Android apps are not set to singleTask mode, meaning that when the user taps the icon and the app is already running, a new instance is started without the prior state, selections, etc. Additionally, you can't set more advanced settings such as hiding the taskbar in iOS, using plugins beyond the few supported by Build, and so on. If you have trouble with Build, consider setting up a Mac with a build environment.

Customizing Your App

Check out config.xml to start personalizing your app: the name, author attribution, permissions, and so on. You'll also need to do this in iOS via Xcode.

To change the name of the app after you've edited config.xml, it's easiest to simply remove and re-add the platforms using cordova platform rm ios android and cordova platform add ios android. The platform tool will read config.xml and generate the Xcode file and the AndroidManifest based on the tag in config.xml But then you'll want to re-instate a few platform-specific hacks:

For iOS you probably want to disable the status bar. This is done via Xcode: see the Info section and set "View Controller-Based Status Bar" to false, and the General section to set "Status Bar Style" to "Hide during application launch".
For Android, you'll want to set singleTask mode, so the app can be reopened if the user switches to something else. Open platforms/android/AndroidManifest.xml and look for the element. Add this attribute: android:launchMode="singleTask"

Swap out splash screens and icons. See platforms/ios/MobileMapStarter/Resources and platforms/android/res

Now start customizing index.html and index.css and index.js to make your app.

And check out the possibly useful utility functions library.js

Enjoy!

Bugs / Todo / Wishes

See the Issues page on Github for a full list.