Hybrid application system to utilize native device features of a mobile device

1. A mobile device, comprising:

at least one native device hardware feature;

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

a processor executing a mobile operating system;

network interface hardware providing external communication capabilities; and

a mobile application stored in the non-transitory computer readable medium, the mobile application configured to operate with the mobile operating system, the mobile application having an internal browser and at least one Device Feature Application Program Interface (DFAPI) program file having instructions used by the internal browser to access the at least one native device hardware features, wherein the at least one DFAPI program file has been copied to an externally accessible file storage area of the non-transitory computer readable medium belonging to the mobile application, the mobile application having software configured to:

enable access to the at least one native device hardware feature for at least one external website configured to work with the mobile application, the at least one external website hosted on an external web server, downloaded via the network interface hardware and rendered as the primary content of the internal browser, by receiving information from the external website via the network interface hardware to trigger serving the at least one DFAPI program file from the externally accessible file storage area of the mobile application as a localhost to the internal browser rendering the at least one external website thus bypassing the network interface hardware.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the software is further configured to evaluate the at least one DFAPI program file on each cold start of the mobile application for a version change in order to copy it to the externally accessible file storage area.

3. The mobile device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one DFAPI program file is evaluated for a version change based on a single file of the mobile application.

4. The mobile device of claim 2 , wherein the at least one DFAPI program file is evaluated for a version change based on the entire mobile application.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the external website has an external domain that is temporarily loaded in an iFrame contained in a webpage belonging to the internal domain rendering in the internal browser, and wherein the Mobile Application passes information from the internal domain to instructions provided by the external web server running in the iFrame to cause at least one local storage variable for the external domain to be set in the internal browser.

6. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the local storage variable identifies the internal browser as being a part of the mobile application to instructions provided by the external domain when rendering in the internal browser of the mobile application.

7. The mobile device of claim 6 , wherein the instructions provided by the external domain rendering in the internal browser are further configured to request the at least one DFAPI program file from the mobile application as the localhost that enables access to the at least one native device feature of the mobile device upon identification of the internal browser being part of the mobile application.

8. The mobile device of claim 7 wherein instructions provided by the external domain rendering in the internal browser further enable access to the at least one native device hardware feature via application programming interfaces established by the at least one DFAPI program file requested from the mobile application.

9. The mobile device of claim 6 , wherein the instructions provided by the external domain rendering in the internal browser are further configured to request at least one file from the external web server upon identification of the internal browser being part of the mobile application.

10. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the at least one file includes at least one file styled as app-related code to further enable access to the at least one native device hardware features.

11. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the at least one file includes at least one JavaScript file intended to be run only in the mobile application.

12. The mobile device of claim 9 , wherein the mobile application requests a specified file particular for the mobile application.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a mobile application configured to operate with a mobile operating system which is configured to operate with network interface hardware thus providing external communication capabilities, the mobile application having an internal app engine including first website code, an internal browser. and at least one Device Feature Application Program Interface (DFAPI) program file having instructions used by the internal browser to access at least one native device hardware features of a mobile device across a bridge to native code, the mobile application having software configured to:

render the first website code contained in the internal app engine as an internal domain within the internal browser, the first website code contained in the internal app engine configured to:

direct the internal browser to replace the first website code being rendered by the internal browser with second website code from a specified external domain from an external website via the network interface hardware; and

provide the at least one DFAPI file to the internal browser bypassing the network interface hardware such that the internal browser runs the DFAPI file as part of the second website code thereby enabling the specified external domain to access the at least one native device hardware feature of the mobile device across the bridge to native code.