JavaScript in Android

Question

Is it possible to use JavaScript in Android?? if so, how? Please provide some examples.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I am way late to the party here, but I had this exact need. iOS 7 now includes JavaScriptCore natively and it is really easy to use (despite limited documentation). The problem is that I didn't want to use it unless I could also use something similar on Android. So I created the AndroidJSCore project. It allows you to use your JavaScript code natively in Android without requiring a bulky WebView and injection. You can also seamlessly make asynchronous calls between Java and Javascript.

Update 27 Mar 17: AndroidJSCore has been deprecated in favor of LiquidCore. LiquidCore is based on V8 rather than JavascriptCore, but works essentially same. See the documentation on using LiquidCore as a raw Javascript engine.

From the documentation:

... to get started, you need to create a JavaScript JSContext. The execution of JS code occurs within this context, and separate contexts are isolated virtual machines which do not interact with each other.

JSContext context = new JSContext();

This context is itself a JavaScript object. And as such, you can get and set its properties. Since this is the global JavaScript object, these properties will be in the top-level context for all subsequent code in the environment.

context.property("a", 5);
JSValue aValue = context.property("a");
double a = aValue.toNumber();
DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat(".#");
System.out.println(df.format(a)); // 5.0

You can also run JavaScript code in the context:

context.evaluateScript("a = 10");
JSValue newAValue = context.property("a");
System.out.println(df.format(newAValue.toNumber())); // 10.0
String script =
    "function factorial(x) { var f = 1; for(; x > 1; x--) f *= x; return f; }\n" +
    "var fact_a = factorial(a);\n";
context.evaluateScript(script);
JSValue fact_a = context.property("fact_a");
System.out.println(df.format(fact_a.toNumber())); // 3628800.0

You can also write functions in Java, but expose them to JavaScript:

JSFunction factorial = new JSFunction(context,"factorial") {
    public Integer factorial(Integer x) {
        int factorial = 1;
        for (; x > 1; x--) {
            factorial *= x;
        }
        return factorial;
    }
};

This creates a JavaScript function that will call the Java method factorial when called from JavaScript. It can then be passed to the JavaScript VM:

context.property("factorial", factorial);
context.evaluateScript("var f = factorial(10);")
JSValue f = context.property("f");
System.out.println(df.format(f.toNumber())); // 3628800.0

Answer 2

Do you mean something like making a native app using Javascript? I know there are tools like Titanium Mobile that let you make native apps using web tools/languages.

You could also make Web Apps. There are loads of resources and tutorials out there for that. Just search "Android Web App tutorial" or something similar.

Answer 3

Yes you can, just create a wrap up code that points to html page and includes your javascript and css.

There are different libraries that can help you with this:

• http://www.phonegap.com/
• http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/
• http://jquerymobile.com/