|
On August 11, 2010, nearly two years ago, John Resig (creator of jQuery) announced
the jQuery Mobile project. While focused on the UI framework, it was also a
recognition of jQuery itself as a tool for mobile sites and that work would be done
to the core framework itself, to make it work better on devices. Release after release,
the jQuery Mobile project evolved into a powerful framework encompassing more
platforms, more features, and better performance with every update.
But what do we mean when we say a UI framework? What does it mean for developers
and designers? jQuery Mobile provides a way to turn regular HTML (and CSS) into
mobile friendly sites. As you will see soon in the first chapter, you can take a regular
HTML page, add in the required bits for jQuery Mobile (essentially five lines of
HTML), and find your page transformed into a mobile-friendly version instantly.
Unlike other frameworks, jQuery Mobile is focused on HTML. In fact, for a
framework tied to jQuery, you can do a heck of a lot of work without writing one
line of JavaScript. It's a powerful, practical way of creating mobile websites that
any existing HTML developer can pick up and adapt within a few hours. Compare
this to other frameworks, such as Sencha Touch. Sencha Touch is also a powerful
framework, but its approach is radically different, using JavaScript to help define
and layout pages. jQuery Mobile is much friendlier to people who are more familiar
with HTML, as opposed to JavaScript. jQuery Mobile is touch friendly, which will
make sense to anyone who has used a smart phone and struggled to click the exact
right spot on a website with tiny text and hard to spot links. It will make sense to
anyone who accidentally clicked on a Reset button instead of Submit. jQuery Mobile
will enhance your content to help solve these issues. Regular buttons become large,
fat, and easy to hit buttons. Links can be turned into list based navigation systems.
Content can be split into virtual pages with smooth transitions. You will be surprised
just how jQuery Mobile works without writing much code at all. |