Use Web Skills To Build Mobile Apps

Slides from a talk I presented with coworker Matt Baxter, at the Big (D)esign Conference in Dallas, TX.

Transcript

1. Use Web Skills To Build Mobile Apps with Matt Baxter & Nathan Smith SATURDAY — JUNE 2, 2012 — DALLAS, TX http://bigdesignevents.com
2. Put down that pen! (or not) You can get the slides here: http://j.mp/web-skills
3. Who are we?
4. We do mobile/web UX & JavaScript at http://projekt202.com @mbxtr & @nathansmith (In case you want to talk smack on Twitter)
5. We’re hiring JavaScript savvy developers to join our team at projekt202. (You can talk to us after the presentation) An urgent (not desperate) announcement http://projekt202.com
6. The Rise of Mobile
7. http://flickr.com/photos/djwudi/382030798 State of mobile in 2007 — The year the iPhone was introduced
8. Handset design was quite diverse “way back when.” Industrial designers were still (awkwardly) searching for the best form factor…
9. http://zackmorriscellphone.com
10. Technology is cyclical. Good ideas are often “borrowed” and make their way to products from multiple vendors. http://engadget.com/photos/hp-envy-15-vs-the-macbook-pro
11. The state of mobile in 2012 — Touch screens reign supreme
12. Not everyone can rock the giant cell phone forever… http://hulu.com/watch/76560/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-saved-by-the-bell-reunion-update-3
13. <old-man-voice> Nowadays, it’s more about the software on the device. </old-man-voice>
14. http://lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1506 317,124 newborns begin life 1,450,000 mobile devices activated Each day, on planet Earth…
15. The one thing all these phones have in common (besides Angry Birds) is they all have decent web browsers. http://paulirish.com/2010/high-res-browser-icons
16. “Obama orders agencies to optimize Web content for mobile…” http://flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/7161178504
17. http://computerworld.com/s/article/9227412/Obama_orders_agencies_to_optimize_Web_content_for_mobile
18. Mobile web trivia time… — PhoneGap on Windows Phone uses the IE9 engine (it is pretty good) — WebKit is the dominant rendering engine across most mobile devices — iOS, Android, Blackberry, webOS — Blackberry has one of the best WebKit-based browsers available
19. So, what should I build? [A] Desktop web app [B] Mobile web app [C] Mobile native app
20. [D] All of the above Note: We’re not saying you have to build all-in-one… But it is possible.
21. http://alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design Whither Responsive Web Design? Responsive web design using @media queries (with one codebase for all devices) typically works best for web “sites” (not apps). As a general rule of thumb, if your content can be read via RSS and still make sense, it is a good candidate for RWD.
22. Benefits of native development — Default OS look & feel (UI conventions) — Performance (“closer to the metal”) — Access to device hardware (GPS, etc) — App store/marketplace distribution — Benefit from latest OS enhancements
23. Drawbacks of native development — Tied to the particular OS you built for — Maintaining a multi OS team/skill-set — Dealing with app store approval process — Keeping app in sync with OS updates
24. LinkedIn’s iPad app is 95% HTML5 We did users studies in-house, and I don’t think people noticed a big difference. Nobody said, “Oh that’s native,” or “Oh, that’s web.” As long as we can make the experience fast enough, nobody can tell the difference. It still feels right. — Kiran Prasad http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/02/linkedin-ipad-app-engineering
25. Benefits of hybrid development — Common codebase for multiple OS’s — Access to device hardware (GPS, etc) — App store/marketplace distribution — Skills you already have (HTML, CSS, JS) — Potential code reuse in web site/app
26. Drawbacks of hybrid development — Build for lowest common denominator — 3rd party SDK’s might lag behind OS — Want to use feature X? Wait for an implementation in abstraction layer. — An abstraction layer can have bugs of its own. Have to determine if a bug is in your code, the abstraction layer, or OS.
27. Titanium from Appcelerator http://appcelerator.com/platform
29. Areas where Titanium shines — Native UI — Great for iOS, crapshoot on Android — Build for iOS, Android, and Blackberry — Some code reuse across platforms — Entirely JavaScript based — Uses CommonJS’s AMD approach — Except for WebView (HTML/CSS too)
30. http://j.mp/bachmann-eyezed
31. Abstraction layers tend to be harder to debug than “native” languages — Objective-C, C#, or Java — whilst using an IDE such as Visual Studio, Xcode, or Eclipse. With “the web,” you have familiar browser-based desktop tools in Chrome, Firebug, or Opera Dragonfly.
32. http://phonegap.com PhoneGap from Adobe
34. Areas where PhoneGap shines — It is “the web you already know” — Debugging via desktop browser — Access to device API’s (GPS, etc) — Strives to implement W3C specs — Camera API, etc. — Supports Windows Phone 7, too
36. http://youtu.be/nOEw9iiopwI
37. — It embeds a WebView in a native app — Native app gives access to OS API’s — All the UI is built via HTML/CSS — JavaScript handles everything else — The app wrapper compiles via… Xcode, Eclipse, Visual Studio, or “the cloud” → build.phonegap.com How PhoneGap works
39. http://host.sonspring.com/handlebbbars Handlebbbars demo of Handlebars.js and the Dribbble API
41. http://handlebarsjs.com
42. http://dribbble.com/api
43. Dribbble API: JSON
44. Handlebars template <script type="text/x-handlebars" id="_template-list-item"> {{#each shots}} <li> <p> <b class="big"> {{title}} </b> <img alt="{{title}}" class="frame" style="background-image:url({{image_url}})" src="data:image/png;base64, iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAYAAAC09K7GAAAAEklEQVQIHWP8//8/AzJgJCg AAB+ICPuLaDnAAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" /> </p> <table> <tr> <th> Designer: </th> <td> <b>{{player.name}}</b> </td> </tr> {{#if player.twitter_screen_name}} ... {{/if}} {{#if likes_count}} ... {{/if}} {{#if short_url}} ... {{/if}} </table> </li> {{/each}} </script>
45. <script type="text/x-handlebars" id="_template-list-item"> {{#each shots}} <li> <p> <b class="big"> {{title}} </b> <img alt="{{title}}" class="frame" style="background-image:url({{image_url}})" src="data:image/png;base64, iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAYAAAC09K7GAAAAEklEQVQIHWP8//8/AzJgJCg AAB+ICPuLaDnAAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" /> </p> <table> <tr> <th> Designer: </th> <td> <b>{{player.name}}</b> </td> </tr> {{#if player.twitter_screen_name}} ... {{/if}} {{#if likes_count}} ... {{/if}} {{#if short_url}} ... {{/if}} </table> </li> {{/each}} </script> Handlebars template
46. ... {{#if player.twitter_screen_name}} <tr> <th> Twitter: </th> <td> <a href="http://twitter.com/{{player.twitter_screen_name}}"> @{{player.twitter_screen_name}} </a> </td> </tr> {{/if}} {{#if likes_count}} <tr> <th> Likes: </th> <td> {{likes_count}} <span class="mute">&hearts;</span> </td> </tr> {{/if}} {{#if short_url}} <tr> <th> URL: </th> <td> <a href="{{short_url}}">{{short_url}}</a> </td> </tr> {{/if}} ... Handlebars template
47. ... {{#if player.twitter_screen_name}} <tr> <th> Twitter: </th> <td> <a href="http://twitter.com/{{player.twitter_screen_name}}"> @{{player.twitter_screen_name}} </a> </td> </tr> {{/if}} {{#if likes_count}} <tr> <th> Likes: </th> <td> {{likes_count}} <span class="mute">&hearts;</span> </td> </tr> {{/if}} {{#if short_url}} <tr> <th> URL: </th> <td> <a href="{{short_url}}">{{short_url}}</a> </td> </tr> {{/if}} ... Handlebars template
48. Sweet, responsive Handlebbbars action http://host.sonspring.com/handlebbbars
49. @font-face { font-family: 'Open Sans'; // For all good browsers, including IE9. src: url('../fonts/OpenSans-Regular-webfont.woff') format('woff'), // For older IE, and Android default browser. url('../fonts/OpenSans-Regular-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'); } @font-face { font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-weight: bold; // For all good browsers, including IE9. src: url('../fonts/OpenSans-Bold-webfont.woff') format('woff'), // For older IE, and Android default browser. url('../fonts/OpenSans-Bold-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'); } All modern browsers support *.woff or *.ttf
50. http://fontsquirrel.com
51. http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/post/9494864300/submission-the-compulsively-tidy-ursus-wehrli CSS served to browser Neatly organized *.sass
52. CSS Sass Compass http://sonspring.com/journal/sass-for-designers
53. http://compass-style.org
54. Compass makes vendor prefixes easy...
55. Compass brings sanity to gradients...
56. Text editors and IDE’s that support Sass/SCSS syntax Aptana http://aptana.org BBEdit http://barebones.com/bbedit Chocolat http://chocolatapp.com Coda http://panic.com/coda E Text Editor http://e-texteditor.com Eclipse http://eclipse.org Emacs http://gnu.org/software/emacs Espresso http://macrabbit.com/espresso GEdit http://projects.gnome.org/gedit Komodo http://activestate.com/komodo-ide Netbeans http://netbeans.org PhpStorm http://jetbrains.com/phpstorm PyCharm http://jetbrains.com/pycharm RubyMine http://jetbrains.com/ruby SubEthaEdit http://codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit Sublime Text http://sublimetext.com/dev TextMate http://macromates.com Vim http://vim.org Visual Studio http://microsoft.com/visualstudio http://sass-lang.com/editors.html ^ We  recommend
57. IE9 gets jQuery, other browsers get Zepto <!--[if gt IE 9]><!--> <script src="zepto.js"></script> <!--<![endif]--> <!--[if lte IE 9]> <script src="jquery.js"></script> <![endif]-->
59. // Redefine: $, window, document, undefined. var APP = (function($, window, document, undefined) { // Expose contents of APP. return { // APP.go go: function() { // ... }, // APP.init init: { // ... }, // APP.util util: { // ... } } // Parameters: Zepto/jQuery, window, document. })(typeof Zepto === 'function' ? Zepto : jQuery, this, this.document); http://host.sonspring.com/handlebbbars/assets/js/application.js Overview of Handlebbbars’ application.js file
60. markup = $('#_template-list-item') .html() .replace(/\s\s+/g, ''); template = Handlebars.compile(markup); Where the magic of Handlebars happens Yes, this looks underwhelming. That’s the point. It’s code you don’t have to write yourself! :) http://host.sonspring.com/handlebbbars/assets/js/application.js
61. Private “constant” variables…
63. Application “skeleton” object…
65. Nav shortcuts: J/K keys, swipe left/right…
67. Handling “state” changes…
68. Maintaining an app’s state can drive you crazy @MikeTownson dared us to use a “lolcat” — Challenge accepted!
70. Pop out external links (for PhoneGap)…
72. Rudimentary caching, for one hour…
74. Ajax call (JSONP) to Dribbble’s API…
77. PhoneGap tip: Declare “safe” domains on iOS http://anujgakhar.com/2011/11/22/phonegap-gotcha-error-whitelist-rejection
79. Underscore.js is a power tool for working with collections of objects and arrays… — Collections — sortBy — pluck — uniq — extend — flatten — each — filter — find — Utility functions — throttle — chain — times and  much  more!
80. “Real artists ship” — Steve Jobs Hopefully we have inspired you to create more rapidly shippable software today :)
81. Want to reread something? You can get the slides here: http://j.mp/web-skills
82. Questions? We (might) have answers. @mbxtr & @nathansmith If you think of something later, feel free to ask us on Twitter…