Mobile JavaScript Application Development: Bringing Web Programming to Mobile Devices

by Adrian Kosmaczewski

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449327859
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/27/2012
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Adrian Kosmaczewski has been working as an iOS developer since 2008. Before that, he was a web developer working with classic ASP since 1996, ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Django, and more. He runs a consulting and training business in Oron-la-Ville, Switzerland. He has a degree of Master of Science in Information Technology from the University of Liverpool.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Fragmentation; Growth of the Mobile Web; New Paradigms; Who Should Read This Book; Book Structure; What You Need; Code of the Book; Acknowledgements; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Chapter 1: HTML5 for Mobile Applications; 1.1 A Bit of History; 1.2 Declarations and Meta Tags; 1.3 HTML5 Applications; 1.4 HTML5 Application Cache; 1.5 Testing for HTML5 Features; 1.6 Geolocation; 1.7 Device Orientation; 1.8 Device Motion; 1.9 Network Connectivity; 1.10 Canvas; 1.11 CSS3 Animations and Transitions; 1.12 Client-Side Storage; 1.13 Rich Media Tags; 1.14 Conclusion; Chapter 2: JavaScript Productivity Tips; 2.1 About JavaScript; 2.2 Object Literals; 2.3 Single or Double Quotes?; 2.4 JavaScript Base Types; 2.5 Dynamic Overloading of Base Types; 2.6 Functions; 2.7 How to Organize Code in namespaces; 2.8 Create Objects and Arrays the Easy Way; 2.9 Create a Singleton Object; 2.10 Scheduling Function Execution; 2.11 Concatenating Strings; 2.12 Iterating Over Arrays; 2.13 Using toString() for Reflection; 2.14 Easy Code Injection; 2.15 Object-Oriented Programming in JavaScript; 2.16 Conclusion; Chapter 3: jQuery Mobile; 3.1 Supported Platforms; 3.2 Key Features; 3.3 At a Glance; 3.4 To Do List Application; 3.5 Codiqa; 3.6 ThemeRoller; 3.7 Conclusion; Chapter 4: Sencha Touch; 4.1 Introduction and History; 4.2 Characteristics; 4.3 Supported Platforms; 4.4 Key Features; 4.5 JavaScript Idioms; 4.6 Creating a To Do List App; 4.7 Using Sencha Architect 2; 4.8 Conclusion; Chapter 5: PhoneGap; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Installing PhoneGap; 5.3 Creating an iOS Application; 5.4 Creating an Android Application; 5.5 Creating a Windows Phone Application; 5.6 Accessing Native Functionality; 5.7 Plug-ins; 5.8 The JavaScript Bridge; 5.9 Conclusion; Chapter 6: Debugging and Testing; 6.1 Your Browser Web Inspector; 6.2 iWebInspector; 6.3 Adobe Shadow; 6.4 Testing; 6.5 Conclusion; Chapter 7: Conclusion; Bibliography;