UI Development using jQueryMobile
Introduction to jQueryMobile
Following is an extract from jQueryMobile site -
jQuery Mobile: Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets
A unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. Its lightweight code is built with progressive enhancement, and has a flexible, easily themeable design. Alpha Release Notes
Seriously cross-platform & cross-device
jQuery mobile framework takes the "write less, do more" mantra to the next level: Instead of writing unique apps for each mobile device or OS, the jQuery mobile framework will allow you to design a single highly branded and customized web application that will work on all popular smartphone and tablet platforms. Device support grid
iOS
Android
BlackBerry™
Bada
Windows® Phone
Palm webOS™
Symbian
MeeGo™
Touch-optimized layouts & UI widgets
Our aim is to provide tools to build dynamic touch interfaces that will adapt gracefully to a range of device form factors. The system will include both layouts (lists, detail panes, overlays) and a rich set of form controls and UI widgets (toggles, sliders, tabs). Demos
Themable designs: Bigger and better
To make building mobile themes easy, we’re dramatically expanding the CSS framework to have the power to design full applications. For more polished visuals without the bloat, we added support for more CSS3 properties liketext-shadow, box-shadow, and gradients.
Demo Video
Getting started with JQueryMobile
There are two parts to jQueryMobile
jQuery - (Event Handling, DOM Manipulation and Ajax)
jQuery Mobile UI
jQuery - ( Event Handling, DOM Manipulation and Ajax)
This is out of scope for this Article. Please refer to w3c Tutorial on jQuery - http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/default.asp
jQuery Mobile UI
jQuery Mobile Declarative UI
This is the best part about jQuery Mobile. The UI is not declared by using HTML 5 style "data-role". This makes the UI development a breeze. Building a prototype of jQuery Mobile UI (wireframe) would not require any coding, but just html tags.
Lets try to build the following Page in Phone Gap
Step 1 - Include needed Javascript and CSS
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.css" />
<script src="jquery-1.4.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.js"></script>
</head>
Step 2 - Declare different Pages
home is the first screenshot and search is the second screen shot.
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
.....
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
.....
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="recent">
.....
</div>
</body>
Step 3 - Declare Header and Page Navigation
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
<div data-role="header"> <!-- This div with data-role is the header, shown in the black -->
<h1>AlternativeTo Home</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content"> <!-- This div is the body of the page -->
<p>Find Alternatives To Your favourite Softwares </p>
<p><a href="#search" data-role="button">Search Alternatives</a></p> <!-- navigation button's href points to other page -->
<p><a href="#recent" data-role="button">Recent Alternatives</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
<div data-role="content">
<ul data-role="listview" id="list"> <!-- Special Widget which is List View to show data in a list -->
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</body>
jQuery Mobile API
The jQuery Mobile API talks about Page Loading, Transition, Dialog box handling, List View manipulation, item click etc.
Complete API reference - http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.0a3/
JQueryMobile + PhoneGap
Boot Events
The main thing when using any Javascript library is to be handle the library boot strap event. A Boot strap event is when js library hells that it is ok to start using its api
A Boot strap event handling in case of jquery is the as follows
$(document).ready(function() {
//Its ok to use all jquery functions here
});
A Boot strap event handling in case of jQuery mobile is as follows (read more here)
$(document).bind("deviceready", function(){
});
or
document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
These bootstraps need to be chained (i,e one calling another one), in order to properly bootstrap both jquery/jquerymobile and phonegap.
Ideally following should be enough ( PS- I need to verify the following code)
$(document).ready(function() {
$(document).bind("deviceready", function(){
});
});
Rest of Integration
The Rest of the Integration is using jQuery selector, event handling to call jQueryMobile and phonegap api.
Demo Apps
Following is the Demo App, with complete index.html file of the UI
Source Code
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>PhoneGap</title>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="phonegap-0.9.3.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.css" />
<script src="jquery-1.4.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$( function() {
$('#searchButton').click(function() {
$.getJSON('http://api.alternativeto.net/software/'+$('#searchBox').val()+'/?count=15',
function(data) {
var items=data.Items;
var list = $('#list');
list.html("");
$.each(items, function(key, val) {
list.append(
$(document.createElement('li')).html(val.Name)
);
});
list.listview("destroy").listview()
});
});
document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
} );
function reachableCallback(reachability) {
// There is no consistency on the format of reachability
var networkState = reachability.code || reachability;
var states = {};
states[NetworkStatus.NOT_REACHABLE] = 'No network connection';
states[NetworkStatus.REACHABLE_VIA_CARRIER_DATA_NETWORK] = 'Carrier data connection';
states[NetworkStatus.REACHABLE_VIA_WIFI_NETWORK] = 'WiFi connection';
alert('Connection type: ' + states[networkState]);
}
// PhoneGap is loaded and it is now safe to make calls PhoneGap methods
//
function onDeviceReady() {
navigator.network.isReachable('phonegap.com', reachableCallback);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
<div data-role="header">
<h1>AlternativeTo Home</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<p>Find Alternatives To Your favourite Softwares </p>
<p><a href="#search" data-role="button">Search Alternatives</a></p>
<p><a href="#recent" data-role="button">Recent Alternatives</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
<div data-role="header" data-position="fixed">
<h1>Search Alternatives</h1>
<div class="class= ui-body ui-body-b">
<input type="text" name="search" id="searchBox" value="" data-theme="a" />
<button type="submit" data-theme="a" id="searchButton">Search</button>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<ul data-role="listview" id="list">
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="recent">
<div data-role="header">
<h1> Recent Alternatives</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<p>This app rocks!</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Download Demo Source
Download Demo Source here - PhoneGap.zip
This is a working Demo of PhoneGap Client of site - http://alternativeto.net
Issues to watch out
The issue you will notice first and not like is that of ListView with header and footer.
Here is an example
Notice the scrollbar starting from top of page and going it the bottom
Notice the header missing in the second image, (it is missing because it has moved up)
Ideally we would want
Scroll to start below header and end above footer
Header and Footer to be fixed
Fortunately, the fix for this could be provided very soon. Here is an experimental source of jQuery mobile handling the issue - http://jquerymobile.com/test/experiments/scrollview
I would wait for this fix and still bet on jQuery Mobile.
Following is an extract from jQueryMobile site -
jQuery Mobile: Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets
A unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. Its lightweight code is built with progressive enhancement, and has a flexible, easily themeable design. Alpha Release Notes
Seriously cross-platform & cross-device
jQuery mobile framework takes the "write less, do more" mantra to the next level: Instead of writing unique apps for each mobile device or OS, the jQuery mobile framework will allow you to design a single highly branded and customized web application that will work on all popular smartphone and tablet platforms. Device support grid
iOS
Android
BlackBerry™
Bada
Windows® Phone
Palm webOS™
Symbian
MeeGo™
Touch-optimized layouts & UI widgets
Our aim is to provide tools to build dynamic touch interfaces that will adapt gracefully to a range of device form factors. The system will include both layouts (lists, detail panes, overlays) and a rich set of form controls and UI widgets (toggles, sliders, tabs). Demos
Themable designs: Bigger and better
To make building mobile themes easy, we’re dramatically expanding the CSS framework to have the power to design full applications. For more polished visuals without the bloat, we added support for more CSS3 properties liketext-shadow, box-shadow, and gradients.
Demo Video
Getting started with JQueryMobile
There are two parts to jQueryMobile
jQuery - (Event Handling, DOM Manipulation and Ajax)
jQuery Mobile UI
jQuery - ( Event Handling, DOM Manipulation and Ajax)
This is out of scope for this Article. Please refer to w3c Tutorial on jQuery - http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/default.asp
jQuery Mobile UI
jQuery Mobile Declarative UI
This is the best part about jQuery Mobile. The UI is not declared by using HTML 5 style "data-role". This makes the UI development a breeze. Building a prototype of jQuery Mobile UI (wireframe) would not require any coding, but just html tags.
Lets try to build the following Page in Phone Gap
Step 1 - Include needed Javascript and CSS
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.css" />
<script src="jquery-1.4.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.js"></script>
</head>
Step 2 - Declare different Pages
home is the first screenshot and search is the second screen shot.
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
.....
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
.....
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="recent">
.....
</div>
</body>
Step 3 - Declare Header and Page Navigation
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
<div data-role="header"> <!-- This div with data-role is the header, shown in the black -->
<h1>AlternativeTo Home</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content"> <!-- This div is the body of the page -->
<p>Find Alternatives To Your favourite Softwares </p>
<p><a href="#search" data-role="button">Search Alternatives</a></p> <!-- navigation button's href points to other page -->
<p><a href="#recent" data-role="button">Recent Alternatives</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
<div data-role="content">
<ul data-role="listview" id="list"> <!-- Special Widget which is List View to show data in a list -->
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</body>
jQuery Mobile API
The jQuery Mobile API talks about Page Loading, Transition, Dialog box handling, List View manipulation, item click etc.
Complete API reference - http://jquerymobile.com/demos/1.0a3/
JQueryMobile + PhoneGap
Boot Events
The main thing when using any Javascript library is to be handle the library boot strap event. A Boot strap event is when js library hells that it is ok to start using its api
A Boot strap event handling in case of jquery is the as follows
$(document).ready(function() {
//Its ok to use all jquery functions here
});
A Boot strap event handling in case of jQuery mobile is as follows (read more here)
$(document).bind("deviceready", function(){
});
or
document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
These bootstraps need to be chained (i,e one calling another one), in order to properly bootstrap both jquery/jquerymobile and phonegap.
Ideally following should be enough ( PS- I need to verify the following code)
$(document).ready(function() {
$(document).bind("deviceready", function(){
});
});
Rest of Integration
The Rest of the Integration is using jQuery selector, event handling to call jQueryMobile and phonegap api.
Demo Apps
Following is the Demo App, with complete index.html file of the UI
Source Code
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>PhoneGap</title>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="phonegap-0.9.3.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.css" />
<script src="jquery-1.4.3.min.js"></script>
<script src="jquery.mobile-1.0a1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$( function() {
$('#searchButton').click(function() {
$.getJSON('http://api.alternativeto.net/software/'+$('#searchBox').val()+'/?count=15',
function(data) {
var items=data.Items;
var list = $('#list');
list.html("");
$.each(items, function(key, val) {
list.append(
$(document.createElement('li')).html(val.Name)
);
});
list.listview("destroy").listview()
});
});
document.addEventListener("deviceready", onDeviceReady, false);
} );
function reachableCallback(reachability) {
// There is no consistency on the format of reachability
var networkState = reachability.code || reachability;
var states = {};
states[NetworkStatus.NOT_REACHABLE] = 'No network connection';
states[NetworkStatus.REACHABLE_VIA_CARRIER_DATA_NETWORK] = 'Carrier data connection';
states[NetworkStatus.REACHABLE_VIA_WIFI_NETWORK] = 'WiFi connection';
alert('Connection type: ' + states[networkState]);
}
// PhoneGap is loaded and it is now safe to make calls PhoneGap methods
//
function onDeviceReady() {
navigator.network.isReachable('phonegap.com', reachableCallback);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div data-role="page" id="home">
<div data-role="header">
<h1>AlternativeTo Home</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<p>Find Alternatives To Your favourite Softwares </p>
<p><a href="#search" data-role="button">Search Alternatives</a></p>
<p><a href="#recent" data-role="button">Recent Alternatives</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="search">
<div data-role="header" data-position="fixed">
<h1>Search Alternatives</h1>
<div class="class= ui-body ui-body-b">
<input type="text" name="search" id="searchBox" value="" data-theme="a" />
<button type="submit" data-theme="a" id="searchButton">Search</button>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<ul data-role="listview" id="list">
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div data-role="page" id="recent">
<div data-role="header">
<h1> Recent Alternatives</h1>
</div>
<div data-role="content">
<p>This app rocks!</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Download Demo Source
Download Demo Source here - PhoneGap.zip
This is a working Demo of PhoneGap Client of site - http://alternativeto.net
Issues to watch out
The issue you will notice first and not like is that of ListView with header and footer.
Here is an example
Notice the scrollbar starting from top of page and going it the bottom
Notice the header missing in the second image, (it is missing because it has moved up)
Ideally we would want
Scroll to start below header and end above footer
Header and Footer to be fixed
Fortunately, the fix for this could be provided very soon. Here is an experimental source of jQuery mobile handling the issue - http://jquerymobile.com/test/experiments/scrollview
I would wait for this fix and still bet on jQuery Mobile.