Ionic is a complete

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

SDK for hybrid

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on de ...

development created by Max Lynch, Ben Sperry, and Adam Bradley of Drifty Co. in 2013. The original version was released in 2013 and built on top of

AngularJS AngularJS is a discontinued free and open-source JavaScript-based web framework for developing single-page applications. It was maintained mainly by Google and a community of individuals and corporations. It aimed to simplify both the development ...

and

Apache Cordova Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) is a mobile application development framework created by Nitobi. Adobe Systems purchased Nitobi in 2011, rebranded it as PhoneGap, and later released an open-source version of the software called Apache Cordova ...

. However, the latest release was re-built as a set of

Web Components Web Components are a set of features that provide a standard component model for the Web allowing for encapsulation and interoperability of individual HTML elements. Primary technologies used to create them include: * Custom Elements: APIs to ...

, allowing the user to choose any user interface framework, such as Angular, React or

Vue.js Vue.js (commonly referred to as Vue; pronounced "view") is an open-source model–view–viewmodel front end JavaScript framework for building user interfaces and single-page applications. It was created by Evan You, and is maintained by him a ...

. It also allows the use of Ionic components with no user interface framework at all. Ionic provides tools and services for developing hybrid mobile, desktop, and

progressive web apps Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy pa ...

based on modern web development technologies and practices, using Web technologies like CSS,

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

, and Sass. In particular, mobile apps can be built with these Web technologies and then distributed through native

app store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

s to be installed on devices by utilizing Cordova or Capacitor.

History

Ionic was created by Drifty Co. in 2013. After releasing an alpha version of the framework in November 2013, a 1.0 beta was released in March 2014, a 1.0 final in May 2015, and several 2.0 releases in 2016. Since January 2019, Ionic 4 allows developers to choose other frameworks apart from Angular like React, Vue.js, and web components.

Services and features

Ionic uses Cordova and, more recently, Capacitor plugins to gain access to host operating systems features such as Camera, GPS, Flashlight, etc. Users can build their apps, and they can then be customized for Android,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

Windows Windows is a group of several Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, W ...

, Desktop (with

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kno ...

), or modern browsers. Ionic allows app building and deployment by wrapping around the build tool Cordova or Capacitor with a simplified 'ionic' command line tool. Ionic includes mobile components, typography, interactive paradigms, and an extensible base theme. Using Web Components, Ionic provides custom components and methods for interacting with them. One such component, virtual scroll, allows users to scroll through a list of thousands of items without any performance hits. Another component, tabs, creates a tabbed interface with support for native-style navigation and history state management. Besides the SDK, Ionic also provides services that developers can use to enable features, such as code deploys, automated builds. Ionic also provides its own IDE known as Ionic Studio. Ionic also provides a command-line interface (CLI) to create projects. The CLI also allows developers to add Cordova plugins and additional front-end packages, enable push notifications, generate app Icons and

Splash screens A splash screen is a graphical control element consisting of a window containing an image, a logo, and the current version of the software. A splash screen can appear while a game or program is launching. A splash page is an introduction page on a ...

, and build native binaries.

Supported platforms

For Android, Ionic supports Android 4.4 and up. For iOS, Ionic supports iOS 10 and up. Ionic 2 supports the Universal Windows Platform for building

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

apps. Ionic Framework, based on ''Angular.js'', supports

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was ...

apps.

Performance

Ionic apps run with a mixture of native code and web code, providing full access to native functionality if necessary, with the bulk of the UI of the app built with standard web technology. Ionic utilizes native hardware acceleration features available in the browser (such as CSS animations), and optimizes rendering (avoiding expensive DOM manipulation). Ionic leverages CSS transitions and transforms for animation as a way to leverage the

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...

and maximize available processor time.

Installation

Ionic is an npm module and requires

Node.js Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript code ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, url=https://ionicframework.com/ Ajax (programming) Free software programmed in JavaScript HTML5 JavaScript libraries Software using the MIT license Rich web application frameworks Software frameworks