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We've got a website for that

We've got a website for that

A talk about the FT web app to Magento London and the Digital Pond user groups.

Andrew Betts

April 20, 2012
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  1. 2001: BlackBerry. Now we’re talking. (except ironically we’re not talking

    because Blackberry wouldn’t add phone capabilities for another 3 years)
  2. Adaptive design •  Completely flexible viewport size •  Use ALL

    of the space on the screen •  Nothing partial, everything balanced •  Like it was designed to fit your screen
  3. Adaptive interface •  Mouse and keyboard •  Touchscreen •  TV

    remote •  Games console controller •  3D motion capture •  Speech •  Thought
  4. Flowed columns •  CSS columns not good enough •  We

    measure content and cut it into positioned containers using JavaScript – Deal with fixed elements first – Columnflow library to be open sourced soon
  5. Fastclick •  Touch is instant, but click requires ~300ms linger

    •  Some taps are shorter •  'Fastclick' layer to detect very brief taps, and convert to clicks •  Used for devices that fire touch events •  Used eg. for tapping through pages of an article •  Disables interactions like double tap to zoom •  Open-sourced by Assanka, assanka.net/fastclick
  6. Offline use •  Launching the app offline •  Making text

    content available offline •  Storing content images offline •  Analytics
  7. Booting •  Every page needs to be able to initialise

    using old code, then update itself •  Not all users will see the same thing – We still have some running 6 month old code! •  Don’t break the web – remember you have pages, not a monolithic single page app. – Avoid tedious start-up sequence on every real pageload.
  8. Offline technologies •  Application cache (manifest) is: –  used for

    bootstrap page and static files –  seriously flakey. Use sparing. –  extremely annoying. Set a dynamic comment or auto- change manifest when resources change •  WebSQL / SQLite / IndexedDB is: –  used for indexed content, articles, images etc. –  slow. Consider local storage instead. •  Local storage is: –  used for key/val storage, app settings, config, prefs –  fast and relatively reliable
  9. Rethink the backend •  Build an API framework •  Use

    the API from your JS application •  Multiple API requests per HTTP request •  Multiple ways of requesting a page: – Fully wrapped – Fragment – API request
  10. Unresolved problems •  SSL/padlock: We tell you it's secure, and,

    er, you trust us. •  Social media integration: Twitter/FB SSO mechanism can't be integrated into a one-page app •  Offline adverts: No clicks, no live impression recording, no advanced targeting •  Automated QA: Many times more complex than desktop apps
  11. Useful tools •  Charles – www.charlesproxy.com •  WeinRE – phonegap.github.com/weinre/ •  WebDriver

    for mobile browsers – http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/ WebDriverForMobileBrowsers
  12. In summary •  Ease of use is critical. Adapt, adapt,

    adapt. •  The web can do this •  Web approach retains all the benefits of the web that you give up when building native.
  13. Questions? •  Andrew Betts •  [email protected] •  You should follow

    me on twitter here: – @triblondon •  Build this stuff: – assanka.net/jobs