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I am less of a coder myself and more of a lurker, but I'm familiar with the app development scene for games on mobile phones, and I would suggest taking a look at http://xamarin.com/, which not only provides a platform for cross-platform development in C# (code once and it runs on darn near anything), but also has a service for cloud testing on simulated devices, so that you can test your app without having a bunch of different tablets and phones on hand. I don't know what the prices are like; I know that a license for Unity, the game engine that's based on this platform, can be a bit pricey (though cheap compared to other engines). On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Will Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Lots of good info here, thanks. > > You don't say what this app is supposed to do, and that might >> influence your decision. [...] If you are going to provide >> services that are on your website, it likely makes little sense >> to build apps. >> > > That's the idea: make our stuff available through phones. And I agree, an > app makes little sense. Sadly, it's not my choice to make -- that decision > was made further up the chain of command, without consulting me. > > Your website looks homegrown [...] you might consider Drupal or WordPress >> ... >> > > Ye gods, I wish it were homegrown. I'd have done a better job of it. Or > rather, I'd have done it in Drupal, which I worked with for years at a > different institution, including developing custom themes and modules. > Drupal's a solid system. I miss it. > > But no, we're stuck in a poor excuse for a CMS called "OmniUpdate", which > is written in an unholy mixture of XSLT and Cold Fusion. It was selected > by the marketing department, is mandated across the campus, and makes my > job way harder than it has to be. OmniUpdate is damage to work around, not > a system to work with. > > I've done the best I can with it, but there are limits. In theory, an > OmniUpdate site can be made responsive -- but in this case, that means > making the entire campus web infrastructure responsive, because we share a > common template with the entire university. That's a good idea which > probably needs to happen, but also a MASSIVE undertaking -- largely because > it rapidly gets into some fairly heated campus politics. > > So in the meantime, I'm going to do research on this and put together a > project prospectus laying out the possible approaches and challenges, to > see if my bosses really want me to do this. If the really do, it'll > probably eat all of my time and then some for the foreseeable future. > > Will Martin >