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Moodle To Drop Native Mobile Apps, Move to HTML5

• By David Nagel
• 07/12/12

Moodle HQ is ending development of native My Moodle mobile apps for iOS and Android, according to a blog entry posted by Moodle founding developer Martin Dougiamas last night.

"After much thought Moodle HQ is changing how we support mobile development for Moodle," Dougiamas wrote. "Our current approach of native apps per platform was costing a lot while not moving very fast and not serving our community."

Instead of native versions of the apps, Moodle's mobile components will move to HTML5, which will allow updates to be released across platforms simultaneously and will allow for modularity and greater participation from Moodle's developer community. Dougiamas said the HTML5 version will lose a bit of speed but should also improve some areas of performance through the use of the REST architecture.

"Although we will lose a little speed and smoothness in the interface when moving to HTML5, I think the idea of building up community effort around a cross-platform mobile client will far outweigh that and sets us up better for the long term," Dougiamas wrote.

He said the iOS version of the mobile app will continue to be available and will continue functioning "for a long time yet." Moodle HQ has released the Objective-C code for the iOS app under a GPL license to allow independent developers to continue to build their own apps.

The Android version was never completed.

The new HTML5 mobile app will be released under a GPL license and is expected to be available around the end of the year, about the same time as the anticipated release date for Moodle 2.4. Additional details can be found on moodle.org.