Web Development from your iPhone
Posted by Jon Lee in How-to, Web Development, tags: Apache, Apple, iPhone, mediatemple, SSH, web development
A couple months ago, web services were scrambling to create Facebook applications to reach a wider audience. Now the latest craze appears to be iPhone applications. Every day, developers are coming up with ways of maximizing the usefulness of the iPhone. It’s actually pretty exciting stuff if you own one (I’m hoping to win one from Gary Lee next month).
Here are some ways you can perform your web development tasks on your iPhone:
- SSH Access
Having SSH available really opens up a lot of possibilities (assuming your web host allows SSH access). Although implementation is still unpolished, it seems to be working okay. Here are instructions on how to use SSH on your iPhone. Be forewarned, these instructions are quite technical. - Run a web server
I’m not sure how useful this is but you can run Apache locally on your iPhone for local web development. In addition, iPhone “hackers” have figured out how to run Python, Vim and other open source apps as well. Source here – again, not for the technically challenged! - Web Access
Obviously, you have full web access from your iPhone, meaning you can do anything you could do in a browser. This includes blogging, e-mailing, registering domain names or accessing your web host control panel. As for code development, someone should come out with a web-based IDE. I’ve contemplated writing one myself but frankly it seems like way too much effort. If you want to take on this task, I recommend checking out CodePress as a starting point. - Control your web server (mediatemple)
Speaking of web host control panels, mediatemple has released their iPhone AccountCenter where you can do a lot of your basic administrative tasks (i.e. reboot server, buy domain names, pay bills, submit support tickets etc.). Of course, this is only for people hosted with mediatemple.If you’re on the fence about trying them out, they have a new coupon code as part of the iPhone Account Center promotion offering the largest discount ever (20% off). Simply enter mtiphone at checkout.Expired! Check this post for working mediatemple coupons. And don’t forget to enter “cookielabs.com” in the referral box!
With so many developers working on the iPhone, it’s only a matter of time before we see some full out web development tools. The only thing I see holding the iPhone back is its lack of keyboard and I don’t think the onscreen keyboard is very efficient. I’m sure Apple will have a full-size bluetooth keyboard some time soon.
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