I'm trying to list Web features (HTML, CSS, Javascript, APIs)
that can be used for mobile web pages, things we don't usually
use on Desktop browsers.
So far, I have:
geolocation
orientation
viewport (width, scale)
touch-events
tap-highlight-color
map and youtube links open in a dedicated app
tel: links support
specific keyboard layout depending on the form (type=number, email, ...)
What do I miss here?
The question would be: "If I am a Desktop Web developer, what should I consider to build a mobile version of my website?"
Actually, a lot of these are already in the HTML5 standard. They are not, in fact, Android/iPhone specific.
For example, the following are part of the HTML5 spec:
Geolocation: already implemented in Gecko (Firefox) and Webkit (Safari/Chrome)
Viewport: accessible using Javascript
Number/email/phone number-specific fields: implemented in part by several browsers
Your major concern when dealing with mobile versions of your site (assuming you mean touch-enabled smartphone) is the size of your icons/buttons/text/controls/etc. Anything else, including multi-touch, is simply an extra.
As for other extras, you could consider using something like JQTouch (http://www.jqtouch.com/) to provide a more "native" look and feel on the mobile client. JQTouch provides things like native animations, AJAX interface, specialized buttons/toggles/text fields, and themes that make iPhone web apps look better. It should also work on Android, since its browser is also based on Webkit.
For more information on iPhone/Android web frameworks, see http://distractable.net/coding/iphone-android-web-application-frameworks/.
Related
I am creating a mobile site and was thinking jQuery Mobile would be the right platform. However, in getting through the requirements it seems what's needed is CSS for styling - nothing extreme, HTML forms with some dynamic elements (i.e. select option 1 and some things change), and some AJAX for grabbing data.
Do I need jQuery Mobile to make sure a site with that simple of an architecture is uber-cross browser compatible? I'd like to hit iPhone 3 & 4, Blackberry, and Android. Don't have to worry about tablets or the like, this is strictly mobile phone. We'll show the desktop site to everyone else.
jQuery Mobile is actually more about using mobile (mostly ios) type components, and gesture support. Yes, it helps to create a consistent cross-browser experience, but you don't need it to have your site show up correctly in various browsers. For that, you really just need to make sure all your code is valid, and that you're not using css (or other) hacks.
I have seen a blog which claims that we can develop iPhone applications in HTML5. Untill then I was aware about Objective-C on Mac.
Can we develop an interface with backend support application in HTML5 on iPhone? Will it be secure and scalable?
If HTML5 is a markup language, then how can I make conditional statements in it? Would it be via jQuery or Javascript?
Which IDE should I use to develop an iPhone app in HTML5?
A great place to start when developing an iPhone app in HTML5 is PhoneGap.
You could either go the full-blown app route by developing an iOS app using PhoneGap, or only selecting certain tools/frameworks to help build a web-based app for mobile devices.
And very much like how it works with websites, HTML is used for the structure, CSS for presentation and JavaScript for behaviour. So yes, JS is used for conditional statements, etc.
Yes.
You can develop an HTML5/CSS3/Javascript app, then wrap it in PhoneGap or Apache Cordova to make it native and put it in the App Store (or Android Market...), as well as publish it on the web. You can do this with whatever tools you're comfortable with.
Using a tool like PhoneGap has many benefits over browser-based Mobile Web Apps, such as allowing you to parse iPhone contacts and access the local hardware.
It's great in combination with jQuery Mobile, but since performance is a MAJOR issue you must be very cautious to really streamline your images, CSS, and Javascript.
See this link to learn more about Mobile Frameworks.
I have seen a blog which claims that we can develop iPhone applications in HTML5. Untill then I was aware about Objective-C on Mac.
If you want to write a native iPhone application, then Objective-C is your only option. However, as the iPhone’s web browser has a lot of capabilities (e.g. offline caching), you can develop applications that run in its web browser, as opposed to natively. They can’t access all the features of the iPhone, and they are simply websites (so you need a server to serve them), but before the iPhone SDK was released, Steve Jobs himself described web apps as the way to write software for the iPhone.
Can we develop an interface with backend support application in HTML5 on iPhone? Will it be secure and scalable?
I have no idea what that means.
If HTML5 is a markup language, then how can I make conditional statements in it? Would it be via jQuery or Javascript?
Correct: JavaScript. (jQuery is just a JavaScript framework, and it’s probably a bit heavy to use on current iPhones.)
The HTML5 spec blurs the distinction between HTML and JavaScript by defining the DOM interface for the HTML elements it specifies, and defining new DOM features (e.g. offline caching) that aren’t technically part of HTML. Apple (and other people) have further blurred the term “HTML5” by using it to encompass various CSS features like animations and transforms, which you’ll probably find very useful for making web apps feel more like native apps.
Hi I have been recently exploring some of the Javascript mobile frameworks that can be used for developing mobile web apps like Sencha, JQTouch, JQuery mobile etc.
I know the adv and disadvantages of both.
I just need some recent stats which show the market's adoption or opinion.
I tried three ways to develop mobile applications.
First method is to use frameworks that will take your html/css/js files and package them into mobile applications depending on your targets (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, ...). I used PhoneGap (known today as Cordova). I didn't like it at all because the UI's rendering is so ugly on some devices and the user experience is broken. I had to use it with jQuery Mobile because it gave me a good UI design start. I tried some Phonegap Android generated applications on my personal device and it's really horrible. Some of them got rejected by Apple because of that ...
Second method is to use Appcelerator Titanium SDK. One word to sum it up: Awesome. One language to use (javascript) to create your UI/Controller. It's so easy to learn, so powerful to develop with and it has many out-of-the-box functionnalities (like facebook API, Yahoo Query Language, ...) that will allow you to put in place solutions easily for both Android and iPhone. BlackBerry is coming soon. What I liked the most is that it converts the written Javascript into the targetted platform with the default UI. It's really great. And, above all, the UI is easily customizable (with a css like system).
Personally, I put in place apps that can: Take a photo with the device then send it to a remote server, send messages to twitter/facebook, advanced geolocation, etc.
Third method: Native! It would take time if you target both iPhone and Android but, the big advantage is that you can create anything you want without being tied to a Framework for areas such as games, augmented reality , etc.
In my opinion, if you want to create simple applications with some nice features (weather, twitter feeds, sending on a facebook wall, ...), use Appcelerator Titanium SDK.
It converts your code into NATIVE.
If you have time to spend learning native languages, do it. It's the best way ;)
Hope it helps.
Regards.
I've summed up my thoughts on the whole "native vs. web" discussion in a blog post here: http://www.springenwerk.com/2011/09/thoughts-on-mobile-ui-design.html
In a nutshell: You can't get around getting to know the platform you are targeting if you want to provide a great user experience. Plus, you shouldn't try to mimic native UI/UX in a web application, it will only disappoint your users.
here are some pros and cons of native apps vs. web apps:
Native apps:
Native apps have more security
Native apps have higher user engagement, it has higher click-through rate (CTR) among the ad-serving publishers
When it comes to aesthetics and overall user experience, it is incredibly difficult for web apps to trump native apps
you don't have to buy a server and maintain it, therefore, for small businesses it is the ideal solution, not web apps which require a server.
Web apps:
it's cross platform - that means your one app will work on both iphone and android
cheaper and faster to develop and maintain
you will find programmers easier than native apps
updates are easier
Check out this post for some more opinion - http://www.thorntech.com/2013/01/html5-vs-native-apps-which-will-win-the-mobile-app-development-battle/
In particular, the last paragraph is worth noting. If you go down the path of building an HTML5 app, it is worth having some type of background "syncing" of content so you are not always pulling it from the web in real time. The app will be much more responsive if you load HTML pages from disk.
From my experience, the success rate of a native apps are much better than html or javascript based ones. I do not have sufficient numbers to back it up, but these are some issues that may crop up when trying to build html5 apps for different platforms. e.g.
Browser OS or webkit differences can cause unexpected bugs, css issues that could take quite a while to debug.
Your app is running on top of a webkit browser engine which takes up additional resources.
Older or non-smart phone devices may not have a modern webkit engine.
Nevertheless if you have good web skills over native, then getting an app to the market the quicket and cheapest route would be html5. Some apps lend very well for html5 such as data listing, and text content driven apps. I have written a writeup on HTML5 vs Native on my blog. Hope its useful.
I am trying to create a Mobile version of my website. It is an online application, but I would like to make a mobile version through the web format.
So if they visit, www.example.com it takes them to the mobile version. (Which it does currently). But the problem that I am having is creating a nice user friendly interface between the multiple devices, ie: BlackBerry, Android, iPhone. And I am sure this is near impossible to get the same. But I would like some similarities.
Is there any form of template that I can start from? I have noticed that it is better to use "EM" font-sizes verses any other to create a more stable consistency.
I really enjoy this layout of TweetDeck
I like the layout of the buttons along the bottom. Is there anything I can do to create this consistency? Do I create this in my browser at 100%, or do I need to detect the width of the browser FIRST and then create the UI?
You really should look at some of the mobile javascript libraries. They do all of the hard work for you and you just have to deal with the API that they present. Here are a few that I have found in my own research:
Sencha Touch - http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/
JQTouch for JQuery folks - http://www.jqtouch.com/
And if you are a .NET component person - http://www.componentone.com/SuperProducts/StudioiPhone/
I'm beginning the process of learning the ins and outs of developing sites for mobile web browsers. Are there any good resources/communities online that discuss mobile specific site development issues?
My initial understanding is that to cover different phones you need to build one site that is enabled for browsers with the webkit engine (iphone, android, etc.) and another more basic site for other older browsers, is this assumption correct?
Also what does developing for webkit mean exactly? How is it different than just using javascript/css/html? Is it the same except that you limit yourself to webkit specific functions and css? I looked on the webkit site, but it didn't explain it in those terms.
Are there any other snafus I need to watch out for when developing for mobile browsers?
Your assumption is correct, you will need to develop multiple versions of your site targeted at different browser types.
Webkit is the engine used by Safari (mobile Safari), Chrome, and Andriod Browser (mobile Chrome?) you can use standard Javascript, XHTML, and CSS, the main thing, is making your site "fat-finger-friendly" since these devices are all driven by touch screens.
What I mean by "fat-finger-friendly" is that you have large links/buttons that are easy to hit with your finger, most mobile browsers are good at approximating which link you intended to touch, but if you have alot of stuff jammed together, it frequently gusses wrong.
Another consiteration is screen size, and thus the width/height of your site.
The best illustration I have of this is from Ars Technica -- checkout their site in your desktop browser, then check out their site in your mobile browser. Its a very slick version of the site. (http://www.arstechnica.com/)
Webkit is rendering engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. It provides the set of classes to display the web content in windows and implement different features which are provided by browser (such as links, fwd/backward etc).
You don't need to build the different sites for different rendering engines such as webkit. Designing of mobile web site should consider the screen size and how different components look/behave in different rendering engines.
Look at this question for more details of how to build the mobile friendly site.
If you want to support older browsers, then you should have multiple sites. But take a look at mobile browser stats first to decide if it's worth it. If you just want to make your existing website work for iPhone/Android or other phones with A-grade browsers, then you can customize with a mobile friendly CSS (for small screens). But to get good performance on mobile devices on slow/unreliable connections, you probably need to have a separate stripped down html.
Apple has a very good guide to help you optimize your site for iPhone. Most of it will also work on modern mobile browsers:
http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/UsingtheViewport/UsingtheViewport.html
Peter Paul Koch has done an excellent research on different mobile browsers. He has several articles, but this one is a good start:
http://www.quirksmode.org/mobile/browsers.html
Like Nate Bross mentioned, you should optimize for touch devices. Unfortunately it's very difficult to know if a device has touch or not, since there is no media query for it. You can do user agent sniffing for some devices, but I don't recommend it. More discussion here: Optimize website for touch devices
For the moment, I detect touch events (with an exception for Chrome). If this returns true, I inject a touch CSS. A bit nasty, but the other options are worse:
function() {
if( /Chrome/i.test(navigator.userAgent) ) {
return false;
}
try {
document.createEvent("TouchEvent");
return true;
} catch (e) {
return false;
}
}
You specifically asked for sites for mobile web browsers, but you might also check out the possibilities of creating a mobile web app. It looks like an iPhone app (or Android for that matter), but it's built with the help of HTML5. You can do pretty slick animations with the CSS3 in the webkit image, and iPhone also has meta tags to hide the Safari navigation toolbars. Users can then bookmark your page to their home screen, and it will work just like a normal iPhone app. Of course you're limited to the browser and it's performance. But you can create multiplatform apps :) HTML5 + JS is the only multi-mobile-platform language Steve Jobs approves, and with the help of PhoneGap you can even get it into the AppStore!
If web-app sounds interesting you should check out jQTouch, jQuery CSS Transition plugin and of course Building iPhone apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript by Jonathan Stark.
If your site is pretty simple (just content delivery) I'd suggest a service like mobify: http://mobify.me/
A lot of big publications use it, and I have too. In fact, Ars Technica (which Nate Bross pointed to in an earlier reply) uses this service to display their mobile content.
You have control over style, and that's about it, so if your site is more complex it might not be for you. Otherwise, it's a good service. You can have a mobile site up almost as quickly as it takes for the DNS for your mobile site's address to update.
I disagree that you need to build multiple versions of a Web site.
One simple HTML5 Web site will work across all mobile browsers and desktop browsers too.
The beauty of the latest developments of HTML5 is that you could use new Iphone/Android features like Geolocation, and older browsers will simply ignore the JS code if you carefully put it within try catch statements.
For "fat finger" type problems you can serve a different CSS which makes buttons bigger if you really must. Good browsers should make default buttons easy to press in any case.
Keep it simple and you won't have to see these fragmented & costly device dependent approaches. Write HTML5 by hand and use a validator. Good luck!