jQuery Mobile Web Development Essentials

Book excerpt: Build a powerful and practical jQuery-based framework in order to create mobile-optimized websites About This Book Build websites with jQuery Mobile that work beautifully across a wide range of mobile devices Become a competent jQuery Mobile developer and learn the building blocks of jQuery Mobile's component-driven design This book covers key concepts but with a focus on providing the practical skills required Who This Book Is For This book is for any web developer who is looking to create mobile-optimized websites. Basic knowledge of HTML is required. Minor familiarity with JavaScript would help but is not required. What You Will Learn Create mobile-optimized sites using simple HTML Structure your sites so users can browse them on mobile devices Find out how to work with multiple pages in the JQM framework and embed multiple pages in HTML files Enhance simple pages using various toolbars Include mobile-optimized forms for interactive sites Convert desktop sites into mobile versions Use HTML5's local storage feature in jQuery Mobile to include persistent client-side storage Explore the rich sets of widgets and themes available and discover how to modify them for use in your jQuery Mobile site In Detail jQuery Mobile is a HTML5-based touch-optimized web framework. jQuery Mobile can be used to build responsive cross-platform websites and apps for a wide range of smartphones, tablets, and desktop devices. The jQuery Mobile framework can be integrated with other mobile app frameworks such as PhoneGap, IBM Worklight, and more. Introduction to jQuery Mobile explains how to add the framework to your HTML pages to create rich, mobile-optimized web pages with minimal effort. You'll learn how to use jQuery Mobile's automatic enhancements and configure the framework for customized, powerful mobile-friendly websites. We then dig into forms, events, and styling. You'll see how jQuery Mobile automatically enhances content, and will find out how to use the JavaScript API to build complex sites. We'll introduce you to how jQuery Mobile can be themed as well looking into how JavaScript can be used for deep sets of customizations. The examples are ready to run and can be used to help kick-start your own site. Along the way, you will leverage all the concepts you learn to build three sample mobile applications. Style and approach Through a set of easy to follow instructions, we'll show you how to use jQuery Mobile's features one easy-to-use widget at a time. You'll see examples for each feature as well as screenshots to demonstrate what they should look like on a mobile device. You can then take these example files and modify them as you learn to experiment.