Titanium Appcelerator - should I use the alloy framework?
I'm developing an app using Titanium Appcelerator.
It's a simple flashcards app for iOS which allows users to scroll through a selection of foreign words, and view the equivalent english translation on 'the other side' of the card (flip transition!). Each card has an audio link and there are a few options for the user to choose also.
I would like to know if anyone reccommends the use of the alloy framework?
Does it speed up the development time?
Are there any use cases where alloy would not be appropriate?
Answer
I think your app is definitely appropriate for alloy, the same things appropriate for Titanium in general work with Alloy. One of the key things to think about is that using Alloy will not necessarily speed up development time. That is not the goal, the goal is to separate the concerns (Model View Controller), and provide cross-platform and multiple form factor support. If you are interested purely in speed of development stick with regular Titanium.
However, where it can speed up dev time is in your persistence strategy, sql integration of models is built in with Alloy. So, if this flashcard app your thinking of creating has the users creating flashcards on their phone, then using them later, I would definitely go with Alloy to take advantage of the model stuff.
Take note that the documentation is kind of sparse, I ported an existing clients project to Alloy and really had to find my own way on a lot of things, but It was not a simple app.
Essentially, if you want to 1) Release to multiple platforms and form factors and not have migraines, 2) Have a built-in easy to use persistence strategy, 3) Be able to maintain your code at a later date, or have other people look at it and be able to tell whats going on, then I would definitely use Alloy.