How to Develop a Rich, Native-quality User Experience for Mobile Using Web Standards

As the trend toward rich internet applications gains momentum, addessing the needs of mobile users is a priority for application developers. The wide variety of mobile platforms is one challenge, along with the different capabilities of the browsers on each platform. Web standards offer a real solution to these challenges and merit serious consideration by application developers.

The session will briefly assess the current state of mobile platforms from the perspectives of development and deployment, followed by a discussion of practical applications and development tactics. The presentation will have a focus on mobile WebKit and how to achieve native-like quality using web standards like:

• HTML5 — For data storage, offline accessibility, and advanced form control
• CSS3 — For advanced styling (shadows/gradients/opacity) and animations
• JavaScript — For application logic
• Geolocation

Technical solutions and recommendations will be based on the presenter’s experience creating Ext Mobile, a pending release from Ext (we’re aiming to release beta in June). We will focus on practical mobile development strategies like touch-event handling, non-standard user interface components, and graceful degradation for less-capable browsers. After the discussion, attendees will be better capable of forming their mobile application development strategy.