Application development system with native feature engine

An integrated development environment (IDE) for developing an application, the IDE comprising:

• a preview module for previewing a project application in a browser on an end-user device running the IDE;
• a native feature runtime engine, wherein the native feature runtime engine includes,
• an application program interface (API) unit comprising plugin APIs of a mobile device,
• an implementation unit, the implementation unit comprises browser implementations of the plugin APIs in JavaScript, wherein the browser implementations enable the application to be previewed in the IDE running in the browser, and
• a proxy unit for selecting a selected browser implementation of a called plugin API used by the project application when previewing the project application in the IDE using the browser;
• and
• wherein the native feature runtime engine is invoked when the preview module is initiated to preview the project application.

A computer usable medium having a computer readable program code tangibly embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed by a processor to implement a method for developing an application comprising:

• developing a project application using a web integrated development environment (IDE) with a preview function via a browser, wherein the application includes a hybrid application using native features of a mobile device;
• selecting the preview function for previewing the application in the IDE;
• and
• in response to the selecting the preview function,
• invoking a native feature runtime engine, wherein the native feature runtime engine comprises plugin application program interfaces (APIs) of the mobile device, and
• running the project application in the browser, wherein the project application has access to local resources through browser implementation of plugin APIs provided by the native feature runtime engine.