At Daxima, we’ve used a number of hybrid mobile development tools, such as PhoneGap, Ionic, and React Native.
However, more recently we’ve developed a number of applications using NativeScript.
What we love about the tool is that it allows us to develop cross-platform mobile applications with either Javascript, Angular, or TypeScript.
However, since they are one of the latest entrants to the hybrid development market, their development tools have not been as mature as some of the other mobile development frameworks currently on the market.
That is changing with the recent release of SideKick.
SideKick is a GUI tool for Nativescript that is free and comes with a number of intuitive features that will certainly help speed up development.
Table of Contents
Cloud Builds
For mobile developers, one of the more frustrating aspects of mobile development is having to use the right desktop environment to build your apps.
SideKick has eliminated that frustration by partnering with Progress to offer options for developers to build and test their code online.
They have very tight integration within SideKick that lets you quickly build and test IOS and Android applications.
This also includes online emulators so that you can test your apps against a variety of mobile devices.
With the cloud build feature, those days are numbered.
Whether you are using a Mac or PC, you can use CloudBuild to build your application without having to worry about having XCode or Java installed locally.
Templates
NativeScript now offers a number of pre-built templates that you can use to quickly create a prototype or even a full-fledged application.
The templates offer everything you need to get started, such as a navigation menu, list, and detail pages.
While these are not the answer for building complete applications, they are absolutely useful if you want to quickly build out a prototype to test out your ideas.
Plugin Management
Since many of the application extensions with NativeScript, such as Camera control, are controlled via plugins, managing both the installation and update of the plugins is extremely important.
SideKick has greatly simplified that process by providing a user-friendly GUI to manage the installation, uninstall, and update of all plugins.
Asset Management
Every mobile project has a lot of media assets.
This is especially true when dealing with hybrid development tools, where you need custom images per device.
With SideKick Nativescript has greatly simplified this process of managing these assets in one spot.
You can now quickly get access and visually see all your assets in one central location.
Conclusion
NativeScript SideKick has introduced several valuable features that streamline the mobile development process.
With cloud builds, developers can build and test apps across platforms without worrying about desktop environments.
Pre-built templates help accelerate prototyping, allowing teams to test ideas more efficiently.
Plugin management through SideKick simplifies handling application extensions, ensuring smooth integration of additional functionality.
Centralized asset management makes it easy to organize and customize media assets for different devices.
Overall, SideKick enhances NativeScript’s versatility, making it an increasingly powerful tool for cross-platform mobile development.