Mobile for PHP Developers, 2012 edition

3 hour tutorial explaining mobile development to an audience of PHP/web developers. Topics range from device detection to building APIs for native apps. Delivered as a 3 hour tutorial at the PHPBenelux 2012 conference (#phpbnl12)

Transcript

1. http://www.egeniq.com info@egeniq.com @egeniq phpbenelux, January 2012 Ivo Jansch Mobile for PHP Developers a 3 hour primer
2. About Me @ijansch Developer Author Entreprenerd PHP 2
3. About Egeniq Startup Mobile Tech Knowledge Geeks Development 3
4. Contents ‣Part 1: Putting mobile in perspective ‣Part 2: Browser based mobile applications ‣Part 3: A few words on frontend design ‣Part 4: Cool stuff with PHP and native apps ‣Part 5: APIs for native apps ‣Part 6: Web vs Native: best of both worlds ‣Part 7: Random bits if time permits 4
5. Part 1 Let’s think about mobile for a few minutes 5
6. The Web Is increasingly portable 6
7. It’s revolutionary Much like when the phone lost its wall socket 7
8. The Internet Of Things ivo-imac:~ ivo$ ping fridge PING fridge (192.168.1.138): 56 data bytes 8
9. The Web versus The Internet 9
10. Usage Characteristics ‣On the go ‣Short attention span ‣Avoid typing ‣To the point / ad hoc ‣Omnipresent ‣Context Awareness 10
11. ‘Pocket Essentials’ 11
12. Usage - ‘Couch Computing’ ‣Relaxed ‣Freedom ‣Consumption ‣Convergence ‣Companion 12
13. Mobile Technologies ‣Objective-C (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV) ‣Java (Android, Blackberry, Symbian) ‣HTML5 / Javascript (Any) ‣PHP (Any) 13
14. The App vs. The Browser 14
15. Browser based applications ‣Write once, run anywhere ‣Online ‣Requires browser ‣Page based ‣‘Stateless’ 15
16. Native Apps ‣On- and offline ‣Event based ‣Native device experience ‣Convenient access to device features ‣Stateful ‣Monetization through App Stores 16
17. Some statistics ‣Android Market: 400.000 apps (jan 12) ‣Apple App Store: 500.000 apps (okt 11) ‣Web: 3.000.000 websites optimized for mobile (may 11) Sources: ‣ http://www.pcworld.com/article/247247/android_market_tops_400000_apps.html ‣ http://www.bizreport.com/2010/10/dotmobi-2000-growth-in-number-of-mobile-ready-websites.html# ‣ http://www.apple.com/iphone/built-in-apps/app-store.html 17
18. Predictions 18
19. Part 2 Browser Based Mobile Apps 19
20. Source: freewebmasterhelp.com 10 years ago 20
21. Source: Mobiforge.com A little over 4 years ago 21
22. 4.5 years ago 22
23. 2 ways to render a regular website: ‣Keyhole ‣Scaled Dealing with a smaller screen 23
24. Keyhole 24
25. Scaled 25
26. A pixel is not a pixel 26 640 1020
27. A pixel is not a pixel Viewports: ‣ Invented by Apple ‣ Adopted by others ‣ Unofficial standard, registered at whatwg.org 27
28. A pixel is not a pixel 28 640 320 iPhone 3 iPhone 4 480 960
29. A pixel is not a pixel CSS 2.1 Specification: “If the pixel density of the output device is very different from that of a typical computer display, the user agent should rescale pixel values. It is recommended that the pixel unit refer to the whole number of device pixels that best approximates the reference pixel. It is recommended that the reference pixel be the visual angle of one pixel on a device with a pixel density of 96dpi and a distance from the reader of an arm’s length.” 29
30. Standardization Horror ‣ <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width” /> • iPhone and most others ‣ <meta name=”HandheldFriendly” content=”true” /> • Many feature phones (originally Palm) ‣ <meta name=”MobileOptimized” content=”320” /> • Windows Mobile ‣ <meta name=”viewport” content=”target-densitydpi=device-dpi” /> • Android 30
31. A pixel is not a pixel Recommended reading: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/ by Peter Paul Koch 31
32. Device Detection It’s all in the User Agent • Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version / 4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7 • Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; nl-nl; HTC Hero Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/ 530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/ 530.17 32
33. Device Detection 33
34. Don’t Reinvent The Wheel http://detectmobilebrowsers.mobi/ • Downloadable PHP library for device detection • Online code generator • Donationware • Ugly code, well documented 34
35. On to a more advanced mechanism ‣General tip: • don’t rely on device • rely on capabilities ‣WURFL • Wireless Universal Resource FiLe • Contains info on 500+ capabilities of 14.000+ devices • http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/ • Clients available for many languages 35
36. WURFL in PHP: Tera-Wurfl ‣Download Tera-Wurfl • http://www.tera-wurfl.com • Renamed to ‘Scientia Mobile Database API’ ‣Install in document root • e.g. in /var/www/yoursite/Tera-WURFL • Make sure data/ dir is apache read+writable ‣Create empty database 36
37. Tera-WURFL Setup ‣Copy TeraWurflConfig.php.example • Edit database settings ‣Browse to: • http://yoursite/Tera-Wurfl/admin/install.php 37
38. Tera-WURFL Setup 38
39. Tera-WURFL Setup 39
40. Tera-WURFL Administration 40
41. Tera-WURFL code samples 41
42. Tera-WURFL code samples 42
43. Tera-WURFL code samples 43
44. Tera-WURFL code samples 44
45. Tera-WURFL output 45
46. Alternatives ‣http://www.deviceatlas.com • Commercial database of device properties • Available online, as API and downloadable json file • Free for development • ~99$/year for production 46
47. Exercise! ‣Create a page that displays the Sneezing Panda video on devices that support Flash. ‣Display ‘Sad Panda’! on devices that don’t. • Examples of device that can show flash: browser • Example of device that can’t: iPhone • Tip to simulate mobile devices: http://techie-buzz.com/ tips-and-tricks/emulate-mobile-browser-in-firefox.html • Don’t have a laptop? Team up! 47
48. Browser Detection In Practice ‣Let’s optimize a site with what we’ve learned so far. ‣Let’s take advantage of ZF’s powerful MVC set up • View scripts determine layout of actions • Layout script wraps everything into main layout • Use Bootstrapper to detect device and setup MVC 48
49. Zend Framework mobile site 2 ways for mobile layout: ‣Separate files ‣Separate folders Detection in bootstrap 49
50. layouts/scripts/layout_mobile.phtml 50
51. views_mobile/scripts/index/index.phtml 51
52. Bootstrap.php 52
53. Result Try it at http://egeniq.com/demo/zf/public 53
54. Zend_Http_UserAgent ‣Since Zend Framework 1.11 ‣Can work with WURFL or Device Atlas 54
55. Dealing With Mobile Browsers ‣Considerations: • Don’t redirect to homepage • Offer ‘classic’ option • Don’t make assumptions on physical screen size 55
56. Part 3 A few words on front end design 56
57. UI Design ‣Hover = evil ‣‘Finger Friendly Design’ ‣‘Touch Driven Development’ ‣Screens are getting bigger and (!) smaller 57
58. Scalable websites http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/09/nyts-opinion-pages-continue-the-march-toward-app- inspired-design/ 58
59. HTML5 is easy ‣<!doctype html> - period. ‣<script> or <style> - period. ‣Semantics: header, footer, section, article tags 59
60. HTML5 is powerful ‣localStorage ‣<video> ‣<canvas> ‣<svg> ‣<input type=”number”> and many other form fields ‣ navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(); 60
61. Browsers love HTML5 Browsers supporting HTML5: ‣Firefox ‣Safari ‣Opera ‣All the mobile browsers ‣IE (sort of, no support for <article> until IE9) 61
62. Things to consider ‣Don’t just scale the layout, scale content too ‣Consider ‘scenario based content management’ 62
63. jQTouch 63
64. jQTouch ‣iPhone experience in HTML5 ‣http://jqtouch.com/ (beta 4) ‣ jQuery / Zepto based ‣MIT License ‣Give it a try: http://jqtouch.com/preview/ demos/main 64
65. Alternatives ‣jQuery Mobile • 1.0 was released on November 16, 2011 • http://jquerymobile.com/ ‣Zepto • jQuery interface compatible, optimized for mobile WebKit • http://zeptojs.com/ ‣Sencha Touch • From the makers of jqTouch • Tablet support • http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/ 65
66. Simple tricks Making phone calls from a web page: 66
67. Simple tricks Open Maps application: 67
68. You already know PHP Your PHP skills + HTML5 = easy mobile websites 68
69. Exercise! ‣Get jqTouch ‣Modify demo to include #phpbnl12 menu item ‣Add tutorial schedule 69
70. Part 4 Doing Cool Stuff With PHP And Native Apps 70
71. QR Codes ‣http://phpqrcode.sourceforge.net 71
72. QR Codes: URLs 72
73. QR Codes: MECARDs 73
74. QR Codes: MECARDs 74
75. Tiqr demo ‣Authentication with a smart phone ‣Components • Client: iPhone, Android • Server: Zend Framework, simpleSAMLphp or plain PHP • Standards: OATH OCRA, SHA-x, HOTP, SAML • License: BSD ‣http://www.tiqr.org 75
76. Tiqr Diagram 76
77. Tiqr Integration 77
78. Device Notifications ‣A way to get attention ‣Use with caution 78
79. Notifications ‣Apple • Push Notifications • http://code.google.com/p/apns-php/ ‣Android • Cloud To Device Messaging (c2dm) • https://github.com/mwillbanks/ Zend_Service_Google_C2dm/ ‣BlackBerry • BlackBerry Push Service • CURL 79
80. Notifications 80 Apple Push Notification Services Your App Your Server deviceToken message payload signature message payload
81. Notifications 81
82. Notifications - Android 82
83. Notifications - Android 83
84. Notifications - Notes ‣For Apple: • Get certificates from the developer portal ‣For Android • Need to register an account and request a quota ‣Note: deviceTokens can change! 84
85. Token Exchange 85 Apple Push Notification Services Your App Your Server deviceToken message payload signature message payload Token Exchange deviceToken notificationToken notificationToken deviceToken notificationToken http://tokenexchange.googlecode.com
86. Exercise! ‣Let me scan your contact details • Use MECARD format • Use phpQRCode library (http:// phpqrcode.sourceforge.net/) • (Note: requires GD extension in PHP) 86
87. Part 5 APIs for Native Apps 87
88. PHP’s role in native apps iPhone App Android App Blackberry App API 88
89. Optimize APIs for mobile ‣Content optimization ‣Scalability ‣Longevity ‣Security ‣Client/Server considerations 89
90. Content Optimization ‣Consider CPU and memory constraints • Prefer JSON over XML • Compress data • Keep responses small • But not too small (connection / routing overhead) 90
91. Content Optimization ‣To REST or not to REST ‣RESTful API design: • http://someapi/pages • http://someapi/pages/1 • http://someapi/pages/1/comments • http://someapi/pages/1/comments/3 ‣Scenario Driven API design: • http://someapi/dashboard 91
92. Content Optimization ‣Rest: • Developer friendly (intuitive, logical) • Light, but also heavy • Easy to maintain, loosely coupled ‣Scenario driven: • Mobile friendly (optimized for few connections and data) • Specific datasets, fewer calls • Tighter coupled to application functionality 92
93. Scalability ‣AppStore featured/top listings Slashdot effect ‣Consider the 80/20 rule of app popularity though 93
94. Scalability Case: RTLNieuws 365 94
95. Scalability Case: RTLNieuws 365 ‣API: • LAMP + Varnish • Scenario Driven Design • Content pre-generation ‣ Cron + Command Line PHP • Very important: caching headers and ‘TTL’ ‣Controlled launch process: • Soft launch: sneaky talkshow plug at 23pm day before • Build up buzz throughout launch day • News item in 19.30 RTL News 95
96. Scalability Case: RTLNieuws 365 96
97. Scalability Case: RTLNieuws 365 ‣News item had > 1 million TV viewers ‣40.000 installs on day 1 • 30% of which in 5 minutes following news item ‣~ 100.000 apps installed in week 1 ‣No 1 app store position for 8 days in a row 97
98. Scalability Case: RTLNieuws 365 ‣Setup: • 1 * PHP api server live • 1 * PHP api server hot standby • 2 * varnish + 1 * spare varnish ‘just in case’ • 1 * mysql live • 1 * mysql hot standby ‣Conclusion: PHP + Varnish = Awesome APIs 98
99. Longevity ‣Apps have different deployment patterns • No ‘quick fix’ in the application as in web apps ‣Client/Server asynchronous updates • Backwards compatibility ‣ Versioned API URLs: - http://iportfolio.api.egeniq.com/portfolios/1.0/mvb/collections.json 99
100. Longevity ‣How long do you support your APIs? • Can’t force people to delete their Apps • Provide clean fallback • Synchronized instead of real-time data ‣Implement status check API calls ‣API ownership 100
101. Longevity - API Ownership ‣Own DNS records ‣Own the initial entry point of the app ‣Don’t hardcode URLs ‣By the way: also own the developer account 101
102. API Security ‣TLS/SSL ‣Basic Auth ‣OAuth, XAuth ‣PKI / TLSAuth ‣Signed URLs 102
103. Signed URLs ‣Prevent parameter tampering ‣Allow API use by specific client only ‣Simple but effective way to protect API 103
104. Signed URLs 104 Client API Sign Params With Signature Verify Signature W Params + Signature
105. Signed URLs 105 W
106. Signed URLs 106 W
107. Signed URLs 107 W
108. Client/Server considerations ‣Image Processing in the API, instead of App • Use Imagick / GD etc. • Trade-off between bandwidth and processing power ‣Apps support threading / asynchronisity • Fire-and-forget API design • Prepare/getResult call duos ‣Push features into PHP APIs for reuse 108
109. PHP’s role in native apps ‣PHP has native support for: • Web services • JSON • Compression • Image manipulation ‣Egeniq’s number 1 choice for App APIs ‣25-30% of App development time = API 109
110. Part 6 Web vs Native: Best of Both Worlds 110
111. HTML5 in the App Store ‣HTML5 on the server, supports PHP: • IPFaces - http://www.ipfaces.org/ ‣HTML5 on the device, no (or limited) support for PHP: • AppCelerator - http://appcelerator.com/ • Phonegap - http://phonegap.com 111
112. Cross Compilers = Instant Coffee 112
113. Part 7 Random bits if time permits 113
114. Testing ‣Various options for testing: • Get your boss to buy you devices • Firefox with user agent plugin • Use Simulators/Emulators • Use a service such as DeviceAnywhere 114
115. Running PHP on the device First: Why??! ‣PHP For Android (PFA) • http://phpforandroid.net/ ‣PAMP for Symbian • http://wiki.opensource.nokia.com/projects/PAMP 115
116. Symfony Mobile • Mime-type based optimisation • http://www.symfony-project.org/blog/2008/06/09/how- to-create-an-optimized-version-of-your-website-for-the- iphone-in-symfony-1-1 116
117. ‘Lemon ADE’ AST editor 117
118. Resources for PHP/Mobile • http://www.egeniq.com/blog • http://mobile.phpmagazine.net/ • http://thoomtech.com/iphone/ objc-for-php-developers-part-1/ 118
119. Thank you! Questions? http://www.egeniq.com info@egeniq.com @egeniq http://joind.in/4746 http://www.egeniq.com ivo@egeniq.com @ijansch
120. Credits Pictures used in this presentation are creative commons attribution licensed pictures. Here are the owners and the URLS where the originals can be found: ‘Dow says POO’ by Stepleton - http://www.flickr.com/photos/29407923@N03/2899705638/ ‘The telephone’ by Tylerdurden - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/529028040/ ‘Web’ by Kurtxio - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtxio/2182760200/ ‘Heavy cloud, no rain’ by Robynsnest - http://www.flickr.com/photos/robynsnest/12405841/ ‘Wireless fridge’ from http://www.wirelessgoodness.com/tag/srt746awtn/ ‘Army iphone app’ by Soldiersmediacenter - http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/4271795260/ ‘Carbon Fibre Wallet’ by Ryan Loos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rh1n0/4157547404/ ‘Keys’ by Jamison Judd - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamisonjudd/2419601050/ ‘Phone Girl’ by Steffen - http://www.flickr.com/photos/re-ality/460465894/ ‘Icon_safari_hires’ by Hans Dorsch - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansdorsch/2861804087/ ‘Thinking’ by Karola - http://www.flickr.com/photos/karola/3623768629/ ‘Jus'a web’ by Jusfi - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jusfi/2921202536/ ‘iPad :)’ by Korosirego - http://www.flickr.com/photos/korosirego/4334862666/ ‘I've got a monkey on my back’ by Keven Law - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevenlaw/2698946160/ ‘Add a spoonful of coffee’ by Martyn Wright - http://www.flickr.com/photos/35521221@N05/5181647830/ ‘Locked steel’ by Darwinbell - http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/321434733/ ‘4 Biscuits’ by Barnoid - http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnoid/2025811494/ ‘pining for maui’ by D’Arcy Norman - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/2223663304/
121. Credits Pictures used in this presentation are creative commons attribution licensed pictures. Here are the owners and the URLS where the originals can be found: ‘Seeing my world through a keyhole’ by Kate Ter Haar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/katerha/4592429363/ ‘Dear CNN, please send me push notifi...’ by Alex Valentine - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexvalentine/5644423659/ Ivo’s portrait in intro, photo by Jelmer de Haas - http://www.jelmerdehaas.com