13 8 / 2010
jQuery Mobile: A New Mobile Framework That Shows the True Power of the Web
The jQuery Project has just announced a new mobile framework called jQuery Mobile to be available later this year. The project is really aiming big, since it will not only support iPhone and Android like some projects, but a full spectrum of devices including devices running iOS, Android, Blackberry, Samsung Bada, Windows Phone 7, Palm WebOS, Symbian, and MeeGo. To me, this is the most exciting aspect of the project, and it shows off the power of the web as a write once, run anywhere platform. As more devices come out and support is added to jQuery Mobile, your app will automatically just work on those platforms - no work necessary for you!
The following paragraph is an excerpt from jQuery’s Mobile Strategy, and it says really well why a true cross platform framework like this is absolutely necessary.
It’s important to note that in the jQuery project we see no reason to limit ourselves to a few of the top mobile browsers (the iOS Browser and Android, most notably) simply because it doesn’t take into account the full scope of the mobile market. The Blackberry browser, Opera Mobile, Fennec (mobile Firefox), and Mobile Internet Explorer are all very actively used; ignoring them would be a great disservice not just to those that wish to develop for those browsers but to the larger mobile open web.
The devices supported by jQuery Mobile are determined by the project’s Mobile Graded Browser Support Chart which assigns a grade to each browser based on a test suite. The browsers graded A or B will be fully supported by the framework.
The framework itself will combine jQuery Core and jQuery UI to create a touch framework that works across all devices. This means that you will be able to use the jQuery you know and love (the selector engine, the DOM manipulation, the animations, etc.) without having to worry about it working across all of these wildly different browsers and devices. Additionally, the jQuery UI project is working to create touch enabled widgets and layouts that not only work across all devices, but look good and fit in with the surrounding environment of the device. If you know how difficult it is to build a cross browser UI framework for 4 or 5 desktop browsers, you can imagine how difficult it is to build and test a cross platform UI framework for more than a dozen mobile browsers, all with major limitations. Not a task for the feint of heart!
The project has already released some initial UI designs for controls that work across smartphones, tablets, and the desktop. Besides having a great looking default theme, all of the UI controls will be completely themeable and customizable using the jQuery UI Themeroller tool which makes this task incredibly easy to do.
I am very excited to see where this project takes the mobile web. It has the potential to unite all of the modern mobile platforms under the sun with a single development tool. This is great for both developers and users, and it is a great step in the right direction for the open web as the platform of the future!
You can check out the announcement of jQuery Mobile here, the jQuery Mobile website here, and jQuery’s Mobile Strategy here. Exciting work!
