Why did we create a new port for Android?
Web Applications are a hot topic these days, and more and more people in the industry want proper solution that provides HTML5, CSS3, SVG and Device API.
By the time we decided to support Web Applications on Android, there was no proper solution. The WebKit in Android, worked by Google, was based on the code that was quite behind. That made it hard or unavailable to support features like recently-added HTML5 in WebKit and SVG. Besides, it was not able to provide a way to make web-based mobile application frameworks like WAC 2.0.
That’s why we made a new WebKit port for Android. And today, I’d like to say that we are pleased with the results of our WebKit Android NDK Port.
WAC 2.0 Support
Major objective of this port was to fulfil WAC(Wholesale Applications Community) requirements and the Web Standards Specification*. We needed to include several HTML5 and CSS3 features, SVG Tiny 1.1, View modes and Widget-URI. We also had to meet with WAC 2.0 which demanded non-web standard requirements like Device APIs and Remote JavaScript Debugging.
* WAC 2.0 Core Specification: Web Standards
Our WebKit Android NDK Port can support all of these features. It provides SVG Tiny 1.1 like Google Chromium. Also, Camera Device API and Remote JavaScript Debugging are supported at the engine level. Device APIs can be implemented in front-end via custom JavaScript Object method.
Here is related posts.
- Camera API
- Remote JavaScript Debugging
Based on Up-to-date WebKit
The Android’s default WebKit was far-behind from current WebKit source tree. That made it hard for us to support recently-added features and optimizations. We started from up-to-date WebKit; the code base can be rebased to WebKit tree on a regular basis easily, and it also provides unsupported features from the Android’s default WebKit.
Conclusion
We made another WebKit port for Android. And the test results are as below. For more details, please contact us.
Notable Test Results
Here are impressive test results about features for Web Application support.
This port had been tested on Nexus S, Android 2.3.2 ~ 2.3.4.
“Android” on the graph means default WebKit-base browser on Nexus S, Android 2.3.4.