Geek Answers Handbook

Finding recommendations for lightweight mobile HTML5 / JavaScript infrastructure

I know that the title is filled with sound words ;-). I am going to develop a web application focused only on iOS and Android (currently). This mainly concerns forms with data with the wizard component. The only “magic” will be that the user can use individual parts of the application offline (go through the wizard and save the data locally, and then click it on the server when reconnecting to the network).

I am an ASP.NET MVC developer and I have some experience with jQuery, so this is the first time I am going to develop an application with this.

But maybe there is another approach that I should consider? Do you have any recommendations regarding a lightweight structure for this (ideally based on jQuery)?

Everything that I have found so far is not an option, primarily because it is too slow (Sencha Touch and jQuery Mobile).

+7
jquery html5 frameworks mobile
source share
3 answers

The only thing I know is jQtouch. You can also try Appcelerator Titanium Mobile , it works much better than HTML5, since it is native. It does not have all the flexibility of Native Apps, but for what you need, this should be more than enough. It is easy to use. If it is only the Android and iOS that you want to support, this should work.

GUI speed will always be an issue with HTML5. These frameworks are pretty quick because they use CSS3 animations, which are best for Web-Kit browsers. They also detect touch events that are as fast as the browser will behave with user interaction.

The only option I can see to try to do this a little faster is encoding from scratch, but I doubt you will get better performance. I assume that you tested the devices and found that the speed is terrible. On devices like iPhone 3G or 3GS, HTML5 is very slow. Even on an iPad, it can get complicated.

Here's a great article that talks about improving the performance of the HTML5 GUI.

This article talks about JS speed on iPad.

Unfortunately, HTML5 is not a magical solution that everyone expects to be at the moment. I had to deal with too many disappointed customers after you show them the results. They were used for native applications and believed that HTML5 would bring them a cheap solution that would look just as good.

I suggest you inform your boss or client about this in advance. In any case, your application sounds simple enough, which in any case should work perfectly in HTML5. One of the tips I can give you is to avoid Canvas, which would be really slow.

Sorry for the gloomy post.

+3
source share

I used jQuery mobile for a small project (5-7 screens). Its UI / UX is decent, the implementation is simple if you already have some jQuery experience. I had no performance issues (I did not have lists with over 30 items). He also has great community support.

+1
source share

If you have experience with jQuery, give JQuery Mobile a try, still in beta, but I think it is pretty nice and stable, and it has a lot of development.

0
source share

More articles:


All Articles