How to wrap a website in a phone app?

Question

I have seen a lot of mobile phone apps that just open a web page without the controls. Just the page.

I am looking for guidance and links to start something simple like

Answer 1

For android, you will want to use a WebView.

Answer 2

For iOS/iPhone, you can encapsulate a web app or web page inside an app's bundle, and display the site inside a full-height UIWebView. To add non-HTML5 features (which may be required for Apple to approve the app for their App store distribution), you can trap custom URLs via the shouldStartLoadWithRequest: delegate method and handle them with native Object C code.

Answer 3

If I understand what you're asking for, on Windows Phone 7 you cannot get such an application approved in the Microsoft Marketplace. Section 2.10 of the Application Certification Requirements for Windows Phone says "Your application must have distinct, substantial and legitimate content and purpose. Your application must provide functionality other than launching a webpage."

A colleague of mine recently had a similar style application rejected by Apple for just that reason.

I think that on both platforms you may have been able to get these kinds of applications accepted in the past, but no longer.

Answer 4

There's a lot of general information out there in regards to Regular Webapps vs hybrid apps (web but designed for mobile) vs mobile apps (client software). What you're probably looking for is just typical HTML5 or mobile compliant web code.

For android, this is a good read: http://developer.android.com/guide/webapps/index.html

Answer 5

If you would like to wrap a website in Android you may do so with this code, from Roskvist

package com.webview;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.Window;
import android.webkit.WebView;

public class WebViewTest extends Activity {

    WebView browserView;
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        //Removes the title bar in the application
        requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        //Creation of the Webview found in the XML Layout file
        browserView = (WebView)findViewById(R.id.webkit);

        //Enable Javascripts
        browserView.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);

        //Removes both vertical and horizontal scroll bars 
        browserView.setVerticalScrollBarEnabled(false);
        browserView.setHorizontalScrollBarEnabled(false);

        //The website which is wrapped to the webview
        browserView.loadUrl("http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/camptocamp
        /mobile/trunk/examples/iol-iui.html?rev=9962#_map");

    }
}

And here's the main.xml contents

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<WebView  
    android:id = "@+id/webkit"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" 

    />
</RelativeLayout>

You would then have to compile and load it to your device via USB.