The jQuery team has launched jQuery Mobile, a touch-optimized Web framework for smartphones and tablets. The jQuery Mobile framework will enable developers to design a single branded and customized web application that will work on all popular smartphone and tablet platforms.
The goal of
jQuery Mobile,
which is expected to be delivered in late 2010, is to provide a unified
user
interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on
the
jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. According to the jQuery Mobile
Website, the framework's lightweight code is built with progressive
enhancement, and has a flexible, easily "themeable" design.
The
jQuery project delivered a fast and concise JavaScript library that simplifies
HTML document traversing, event handling, animating and Ajax
interactions for rapid Web development. The tagline or slogan for jQuery is
that it enables developers to "write less, do more."
The
jQuery mobile framework takes the "write less, do more" mantra to the
next level: Instead of writing unique apps for each mobile device or OS, the
jQuery mobile framework will allow you to design a single highly branded and
customized Web application that will work on all popular smartphone and tablet
platforms, the jQuery mobile Website said.
"Absolutely
critical to us is that jQuery and the mobile UI framework that we're developing
work across all major international mobile platforms (not just a few of the
most popular platforms in North America),"
jQuery creator Jon Resig said in a
blog post describing jQuery Mobile. "We've published a complete
strategy overview detailing the
work that we're doing and a
chart
showing all the browsers that we're going to support."
Resig
also said: "Not only is the core jQuery library being improved to work across
all of the major mobile platforms, but we're also working to release a
complete, unified, mobile UI framework."
jQuery
Mobile has been targeted at the
leading smart device platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Palm webOS,
Windows Phone, Symbian, Samsung bada, Maemo and MeeGo. A look at the mobile
browsers and devices jQuery Mobile supports can be found
here.
According
to the jQuery Mobile team, one of the group's
primary aims is to provide tools to build dynamic touch interfaces that will
adapt gracefully to a range of device form factors. The system will include
both layouts (lists, detail panes, overlays) and a rich set of form controls
and UI widgets (toggles, sliders, tabs).
And,
"To make building mobile themes easy, we're dramatically expanding the CSS
framework and ThemeRoller tool to have the power to design full applications,"
the team stated on its Web page. "For more polished visuals without the bloat,
we're adding support for more CSS3 properties like text-shadow and box-shadow."
So
far, the sponsors of the jQuery Mobile project are Palm, Mozilla and the
Filament Group, a Boston based design and coding shop that uses jQuery. The
jQuery Project is financed entirely by donations and contributions from the
jQuery community.
In
a blog post, Dion Almaer, director of developer relations for Palm, said:
"What are we doing? We are going to sponsor some of the great work that will
go into jQuery Mobile from jQuery
team members such as the
Filament Group who are well known for their work on
jQuery UI and ThemeRoller. First and foremost, we want to allow the team to
focus on making a great jQuery experience across the mobile Web.
"Secondly, we will be working hard to make sure that webOS itself is a
fantastic host for the product. This will mean testing help, and also some
jQuery plugins that show off some of the great abilities of webOS (e.g. the
notifications system) in a progressive way."
Moreover, Resig's blog post quotes Pascal Finette, director of Mozilla
Labs, as saying, "As a longtime supporter of the jQuery project and its wider
community we are excited to extend our support to the jQuery Mobile
project. jQuery Mobile has the
potential to make cross-platform Open Web development significantly simpler."
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