This comprehensive tutorial series will walk you through the process of building a food recipes mobile app using Ionic 3x and Angular 5. In this first part, we'll set up our development environment, create an Ionic project, and explore the basics of Swift app development.
In the past, developers had to learn native languages like Objective C for iOS, Java for Android, and C# for Windows Phone to build mobile apps. However, with the rise of mobile frameworks like Ionic, Sencha Touch, Jquery Mobile, and Kendo UI, developers can now build mobile apps using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These hybrid apps are hosted inside a native wrapper that utilizes a mobile platform's WebView.
One of the most popular native wrappers is Apache Cordova, which not only enables hybrid apps to access device capabilities like accelerometer, camera, contacts, and more but also allows for a single code base for multiple platforms.
What is Swift App Development?
Swift app development refers to the process of building mobile applications using the Swift programming language. Swift is a modern language developed by Apple for developing iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps. It's designed to give developers the ability to create powerful, modern apps with a clean and easy-to-read syntax.
Getting Started with Ionic
The Ionic platform is a popular application framework for building hybrid mobile applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With Ionic, you can use TypeScript to create mobile applications that can be deployed on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. Ionic provides similar functionality to frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Materialize but targets mobile applications.
Setting up Your Development Environment
To get started with Swift app development using Ionic, you'll need to set up your development environment. This includes installing NodeJS and NPM (Node Package Manager) on your machine. You can download and install NodeJS from the official website.
Once NodeJS is installed, you can verify the node and npm versions by running the following command in your command window:
node -v
npm -v
Installing Ionic
To install Ionic, you'll need to run the following command in your command window:
npm install -g ionic@latest
You can verify the Ionic installed version by running the following command in your command window:
ionic --version
Ionic CLI
Ionic comes with a command line interface (CLI) that allows you to perform various tasks, such as creating, building, testing, and deploying Ionic apps. The Ionic CLI is a powerful tool that can save you time and effort when building Ionic apps.
Creating an Ionic Project
To create a new Ionic project, navigate to the directory where you want to create your project and run the following command:
ionic start food-recipes-app
You'll be asked to choose one template from the list of ready-made app templates Ionic provides. For this tutorial, you can choose the sidemenu template.
Running Your Ionic Project
Once your project is created, navigate to the newly created folder using the following command:
cd food-recipes-app
Run your project using the following command:
ionic serve
In this part of the tutorial series, we've set up our development environment, created an Ionic project, and explored the basics of Swift app development. In the next part, we'll dive deeper into Ionic app themes and styles, as well as customizing Ionic themes and colors.