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I am using RhoElements since I can create applications using HTML5/Javascript - I do not have any programming experience outside of PHP. However, I have to pay to license every device that I deploy my application to. I have close to 1,000 devices in field. I understand that PhoneGap used to support WM but it seems to not have much documentation and that it may be phased out.

What alternative solutions are available?

pfmaggi
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tylerofathenry
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  • What kind of windows mobile devices are you targeting? and what kind of application you need to build? – pfmaggi Sep 17 '13 at 05:57

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I don't know of any other cross-platform framework based around HTML5 that directly support Windows Mobile and Windows CE. The main reason is the lack of supported HTML5 browser for those platforms.

RhoElements, when you build for Windows Mobile and Windows CE includes in the build an optimized build of webkit for Windows Mobile or Windows CE.

Keep in mind that Webkit is a uge piece of software, at this moment, with the new version that will be released end of September 2013, the minimum memory requirement is 128MB of RAM for these devices.

You can find out more on the release notes of the latest beta, that, regarding memory states:

Memory Considerations

RhoElements 4.0 introduces support for our older device families such as the MC9000 and MK4000. The devices supported by RhoElements span the entire range of the performance spectrum and therefore care should be taken when developing applications, especially for these older devices. Please have the capabilities of your target device in mind when developing your application, the following points will help with this.

  • Devices must have a minimum of 128MB of physical RAM to support RhoElements
  • JavaScript libraries such as Sencha touch or JQuery Mobile can use a significant amount of memory at runtime. The more Javascript libraries loaded into the DOM then the greater the RAM footprint of the web page will be.
  • Out of the box you will find JQueryMobile will not be included automatically in your views on Windows Mobile / CE devices, this is to give the best possible performance.
  • There are APIs available in the product to monitor the memory including memory logs and a Memory API. You can use these tools to get a handle on the requirements of your application. Resources are available on developer.motorolasolutions.com to help create great looking, streamlined apps including blogs and webinars.
  • Online performance tests for Javascript and CSS, particularly those involving DOM manipulation will often be written to target desktop computers and may not run on all supported devices.
  • On some of our lower end CE devices you may find you need to increase the program memory available to install RhoElements and you can do this from the Control Panel. Out of the box you will have sufficent memory on your device but if you have already installed a lot of programs you may need to allocate more program memory or delete your existing files.
  • The more RhoElements applications you run on your device the greater the required memory will be. Consider using the TabBar in a single application rather than multiple separate applications.
  • Windows Mobile 5.0 is not supported in this release, devices should be updated to Windows Mobile 6.x where possible.

If you want to find out more on RhoMobile you can take a look at the MotorolaSolutions Launchpad website that has video, documentations and forum around this Suite of crossplatform tools.

pfmaggi
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  • Currently only ZetaKey is a HTML5 option on windows mobile. But you have to pay license fee too. A single browser does not compare to the RhoMobile suite. The only alternatives are Visual Studio 2008 (ASP mobile) or other programming (C#, VB.NET, native C) where you only pay the development license, indpendent of the count of devices. – josef Sep 18 '13 at 04:06