Mobile JavaScript Application Development : Bringing Web Programming to Mobile Devices

When developing apps for the latest smartphones, you’re faced with several vexing questions. How many platforms do you need to accommodate? What level of support do mobile browsers provide? To help you address these and many other key issues, this guide provides a hands-on tour of the most powerful JavaScript frameworks available today. You’ll build sample apps with jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, and PhoneGap to learn the unique advantages—and disadvantages—of each framework. From there, you can determine which one is best for your project. This book is ideal for web developers familiar with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Experience the simplicity of jQuery Mobile for building cross-browser applications Learn how Sencha Touch’s architecture, widgets, and blazing-fast rendering engine makes it a good choice for enterprise software Use PhoneGap to package your web app into a native iOS, Android, or Windows Phone application Discover the impact of various HTML5 features on mobile app development Pick up JavaScript productivity tips as you delve into its object orientation, closures, and coding conventions Test and debug your app with a collection of tips, tricks, and tools Table of Contents 5 Preface 9 Introduction 9 Fragmentation 9 Growth of the Mobile Web 10 New Paradigms 11 Who Should Read This Book 12 Book Structure 12 What You Need 13 Code of the Book 15 Acknowledgements 16 Conventions Used in This Book 17 Using Code Examples 17 Safari庐 Books Online 18 How to Contact Us 18 Chapter聽1.聽HTML5 for Mobile Applications 21 A Bit of History 21 Declarations and Meta Tags 22 A Minimal HTML5 Document 22 Doctype 22 Charset 22 JavaScript and Stylesheets 23 New and Obsolete Elements 23 HTML5 Applications 23 Add Web Apps to Home Screen in iOS 24 Add Web Apps to Home Screen in Android 25 Metadata for HTML5 Applications 25 HTML5 Application Cache 28 Manifest Files in Apache 31 Manifest Files with PHP 31 Manifest Files in IIS 31 Manifest Files in .NET 32 Debugging Manifest Files 33 Testing for HTML5 Features 33 Geolocation 34 Device Orientation 35 Device Motion 35 Network Connectivity 37 Canvas 38 CSS3 Animations and Transitions 40 Transitions 40 Animations 42 Final Considerations 43 Client-Side Storage 44 SQL Storage 45 Rich Media Tags 46 Conclusion 47 Chapter聽2.聽JavaScript Productivity Tips 49 About JavaScript 49 Some Coding Tips 50 Object Literals 50 Single or Double Quotes? 51 JavaScript Base Types 52 Dynamic Overloading of Base Types 52 Functions 53 How to Organize Code in namespaces 54 Create Objects and Arrays the Easy Way 54 Create a Singleton Object 55 Scheduling Function Execution 56 Concatenating Strings 56 Iterating Over Arrays 57 Using toString() for Reflection 57 Easy Code Injection 58 Object-Oriented Programming in JavaScript 59 The self Trick 60 More Ways to Do the Same Thing 60 Another Common Way to Create Custom Types 61 Passing Options 62 Conclusion 63 Chapter聽3.聽jQuery Mobile 65 Supported Platforms 65 Compatibility 66 Compatibility with Older Mobile Platforms 67 Key Features 67 At a Glance 68 To Do List Application 68 The HTML File 69 Pages 70 Lists 72 Buttons 74 Customizing the Look and Feel 75 Navigation 76 Page Lifecycle 76 Forms 77 Plug-ins 78 Storage 79 Codiqa 81 ThemeRoller 82 Conclusion 83 Chapter聽4.聽Sencha Touch 85 Introduction and History 85 Characteristics 85 Supported Platforms 86 Key Features 86 GUI Controls 86 CSS Transitions and Animations 88 Touch Event Management 88 Application Data Support 88 JavaScript Idioms 88 Descriptive Dictionary Pattern 89 Object Orientation in Sencha Touch 90 Creating a To Do List App 92 Create the HTML 92 Starting the Application Code 93 Transitions 95 Creating Instances 95 Stores, Proxies, Writers, and Readers 96 The Data Model 98 Creating the List 99 Creating a To Do Item Form 100 A Controller to Rule Them All 102 Reacting to Events 105 Navigation 105 Using Sencha Architect 2 106 Conclusion 108 Chapter聽5.聽PhoneGap 111 Introduction 111 Supported Platforms 112 Supported Features 112 Basic Usage 113 Installing PhoneGap 114 Creating an iOS Application 114 Creating an Android Application 118 With Eclipse 118 With IntelliJ IDEA 120 Creating a Windows Phone Application 122 Accessing Native Functionality 123 Plug-ins 123 The JavaScript Bridge 124 PhoneGap Kitchen Sink 124 The deviceready Event 124 Multitasking Events 126 Network Connectivity Events 126 Battery Events 127 Accelerometer 128 Address Book 129 Audio Recording and Playback 132 Camera 134 Connection Status 135 Filesystem 136 Location and Compass 138 Notifications 140 Storage 141 Conclusion 142 Chapter聽6.聽Debugging and Testing 145 Your Browser Web Inspector 145 Inspect the HTML of your app 146 Log Messages in the Console 147 Set Breakpoints in Your JavaScript Code 147 iWebInspector 147 Adobe Shadow 148 Testing 151 Jasmine 151 Siesta 154 Conclusion 159 Chapter聽7.聽Conclusion 161 Bibliography 163 Books 163 Generic References about Mobile Web Technologies 163 Websites about HTML5 164 Websites about CSS3 164 Websites about JavaScript 164 Other Frameworks 164 When developing apps for the latest smartphones, you’re faced with several vexing questions. How many platforms do you need to accommodate? What level of support do mobile browsers provide? To help you address these and many other key issues, this guide provides a hands-on tour of the most powerful JavaScript frameworks available today.You’ll build sample apps with jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, and PhoneGap to learn the unique advantages—and disadvantages—of each framework. From there, you can determine which one is best for your project. This book is ideal for web developers familiar with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.Experience the simplicity of jQuery Mobile for building cross-browser applicationsLearn how Sencha Touch’s architecture, widgets, and blazing-fast rendering engine makes it a good choice for enterprise softwareUse PhoneGap to package your web app into a native iOS, Android, or Windows Phone applicationDiscover the impact of various HTML5 features on mobile app developmentPick up JavaScript productivity tips as you delve into its object orientation, closures, and coding conventionsTest and debug your app with a collection of tips, tricks, and tools This book is ideal for web developers familiar with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. ... Experience the simplicity of jQuery Mobile for building cross-browser applications; Learn how Sencha Touch's architecture, widgets, and blazing-fast rendering engine makes it a good choice for enterprise software; Use PhoneGap to package your web app into a native iOS, Android, or Windows Phone application; Discover the impact of various HTML5 features on mobile app developement; Pick up JavaScript productivity tips as you delve into its object orientation, closures, and coding conventions; Test and debug your app with a collection of tips, tricks, and tools"--Page 4 of cover Developers will learn how to create mobile applications using jQuery Mobile and SenchaTouch, how to choose between these frameworks, how to compile applications for distribution in app stores, and best practices for making JavaScript work efficiently in mobile environments.