Hack Reactor Sponsors Ionic Framework Workshop on Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Developers from Ionic hosted a workshop over the weekend on their popular framework at The Douglas, Hack Reactor’s alumni lounge. Ionic, which is built on top of Angular.js, allows JavaScript developers to build mobile apps for Android, iPhone, Windows and Blackberry, even if they are less familiar with mobile-specific languages. Hack Reactor students and Instructors have been working with Ionic since its fledgling stages, and by the time that Ionic was a fully realized framework, many in the Hack Reactor community were intimately familiar with Ionic development.

The Ionic team held a workshop in The Douglas, Hack Reactor's exclusive alumni lounge.

The workshop, led by Perry Govier and Gerred Dillon, brought participants up to speed on how to use Ionic to build mobile apps on any platform. Govier and Dillon talked about how to build an Ionic app from scratch, various UI elements within Ionic, testing within the platform and how to set-up an environment within Ionic. There was also a good amount of discussion on how well Ionic and Angular.js work together.

“If you’re an Angular developer, you can basically write a cross-platform app [with Ionic],” says Hack Reactor grad Aaron Ward, who attended the workshop.

Even for those without an Angular background, Ionic reduces barriers for Software Engineers to start building mobile apps.

“It’s a very simple way for a JavaScript developer to get into the mobile field,” notes David Johnson, another Hack Reactor grad and workshop attendee. “There are a lot of people who want to do mobile apps who would rather use technologies they are already familiar with.”

The Ionic framework allows JavaScript developers to build mobile apps on many platforms.

The workshop also covered ngCordova, a set of Angluar extensions that allow access to a phone’s hardware (such as the camera).

More than the framework’s functionality and ease of use, Johnson was impressed with the Ionic team’s drive to be at the center of mobile development going forward:

“The team is very passionate and very driven to have this technology be the go-to cross-platform mobile web framework to produce software.”

Tessel Comes to Hack Reactor for an Inspiring Hackathon

Hack Reactor Launches New Alumni Program Features Two New Spaces