December 2014 Summaries

In an effort to streamline their deployment process, the team at Ionic optimized their use of Docker by leveraging Docker volumes and the uWSGI touch reload feature. Initially, any code change required building a new Docker container, resulting in a time-consuming deployment process. By separating the application code from the Docker container using host volumes, and utilizing uWSGI's ability to reload when a specific file is touched, they reduced the deployment time from over 20 minutes to approximately 10 seconds. Ansible scripts facilitate this efficient workflow by pulling the latest code from GitHub and triggering the uWSGI reload, allowing for quick and seamless updates without the need to rebuild the entire container. This approach highlights Docker's capability to maintain infrastructure separately from code, significantly enhancing deployment efficiency.

Ionic 1.0 Beta 14 marks the final beta release of the Ionic framework, transitioning it into a comprehensive suite for hybrid mobile app development. This release focuses on performance improvements, including caching views, enhanced view transitions, and platform-specific changes, alongside an update to Angular 1.3, which boosts performance and introduces new features. The introduction of $ionicConfigProvider and $ionicHistory allows developers to customize app aspects and track navigation history efficiently, supporting multiple histories for apps with complex structures like tabs. The team plans further enhancements, including integrating Chromium builds for Android to improve performance, introducing a "swipe to go back" feature, and expanding animation capabilities. Ionic.io will soon offer services like analytics and app updates without app store submissions, setting the stage for Ionic v1.0's upcoming release candidate and further solidifying its role as a robust SDK for mobile app development.

In its first year, Ionic, an open-source framework for building hybrid mobile apps, has seen remarkable growth and adoption, becoming one of the top 50 most popular open-source projects with over 12,000 GitHub stars. Over 320,000 apps were created using Ionic in 2014, utilized by developers ranging from freelancers to Fortune 50 companies and featured in both Apple and Google app stores. The community has contributed significantly through forums, IRC, and collaborations, while partnerships with Heroku, AngularJS, and Firebase have bolstered its ecosystem. Notable projects include ngCordova, which wraps Cordova plugins with AngularJS APIs, and Ionic Lab, a tool to streamline development processes. The introduction of Ionic Ions and the 700-icon Ionicons pack further enriches the platform, with the upcoming Ionic 1.0 release promising enhancements like view caching and dynamic platform transitions. As Ionic prepares to launch its first commercial offering, Ionic.io, the framework aims to shift from an AngularJS foundation to a comprehensive mobile development platform, driven by ongoing community support and innovation.

Ionic Lab, a newly introduced feature in the Ionic CLI tool, enhances the testing capabilities for hybrid app developers by allowing them to view their apps on multiple screen sizes and platforms simultaneously, specifically iOS and Android. This addition is part of Ionic's broader strategy to offer a superior SDK and toolchain that bridges the gap between hybrid and native app development. Users can access Ionic Lab through the command `$ ionic serve --lab`, which builds on the existing serve command by displaying apps in a browser with Live Reload support. This development signifies Ionic's commitment to continuous improvement and innovation in providing valuable tools for developers.

Since its inception in July 2014, ngCordova has evolved from a small idea into a popular open-source project, gaining over 1250 stars on GitHub, thanks largely to the contributions of the open-source community. Initially supporting 14 basic Cordova plugins, ngCordova now supports 47, with enhancements facilitated by 230 pull requests from 49 contributors, leading to the resolution of over 170 issues. Future developments for ngCordova include an automatic deviceready check to simplify plugin usage, an enhanced demo app with detailed examples and unit tests for all supported plugins, and improved documentation. Additionally, Paolo Bernasconi, ngCordova's lead developer, has created a Google Chrome extension called Cordova Mocks to assist with browser testing by simulating a phone environment, with plans for further extensions for Firefox and potentially Safari. The project continues to grow, welcoming new ideas and plugins, while encouraging users to report issues or request support for specific plugins.