5 ms·

JQuery Mobile Framework Announced

312 points by crescendo 16y ago

jmtame 16y ago
just to clarify--there's nothing that can be downloaded and used right now, correct? it looks like this is a pre-announcement of something they're building.
- adolph 16y ago
  Looks like a call to join the community.
- RedWolves 16y ago
  Correct, we are posting publicly our strategy and plans for mobile and plan to have a mobile jQuery version out later this year.
- jeresig 16y ago
  Yep - that's correct. Since jQuery is a completely community-driven project and funded entirely by donations we wanted to open up right away to bring more people in. While we're rather confident in the direction that we're heading - doing it in a completely open manner is much more inline with what the jQuery project typically does.
  - jmtame 16y ago
    thanks. i'm actually really glad to see you guys taking the lead on this initiative. jqtouch and sencha both have their shortcomings, but it sounds like this is addressing all of those (polished UI, easy to pick up, well-documented, cross-platform/cross-device).
jeresig 16y ago
To preempt a few questions that are bound to pop up: What about jQTouch? While jQTouch is a great framework and we're proud to have it as part of the jQuery community - we really wanted a mobile framework to exist that would truly support all the mobile platforms out there. We chatted with the jQTouch team and there wasn't really any interest on their end to head in that direction. It's obviously going to be a ton of work - but that's something that the jQuery project is very interested in tackling. Is this a response to Sencha Touch? We've actually been working on jQuery mobile for a while now - long before Sencha Touch was released/announced. We're not particularly concerned with Sencha Touch mostly for the same reason that we're building an alternative to jQTouch: We want to support more platforms and do it in a completely seamless way. What data did you use to choose the browsers that you did? We've been talking with a number of mobile analytics firms and large corporations, gathering data, and will be releasing a bunch of the reliable numbers that we've collected on the jQuery mobile blog. Right now we're confident in the browsers and versions that we've chosen - although that'll likely change over the next couple months as the market shifts.
- raganwald 16y ago
  While I laud your transparency, I lament the chilling effect this will have on existing libraries like JQTouch. jQuery Mobile isn't available today but this announcement will make a lot of people sit on their hands waiting to see how things play out in the hope that they won't invest in a dead-end platform. Oh well, not saying you shouldn't have chosen this path, just pointing out the consequences...
  - jeresig 16y ago
    jQTouch has been out for a couple years at this point - a two month "chill" period before release seems totally appropriate. Honestly, I don't see the "chill" as being a bad thing in this regard: jQTouch and Sencha Touch are doing mobile web development a great disservice by only supporting the latest-and-greatest WebKit platforms. If we can get developers to actually think about supporting more of the mobile platforms that are actually used then I will consider the project to be a victory. I discuss this much more in our strategy outline: http://jquerymobile.com/strategy/ http://jquerymobile.com/strategy/
    - dcurtis 16y ago
      "jQTouch and Sencha Touch are doing mobile web development a great disservice by only supporting the latest-and-greatest WebKit platforms." How is focusing on the future doing a disservice to anyone? We're at the very beginning of the mobile-optimized web, and the future is still unclear. There's still room to define it. Supporting the equivalent of IE6 on mobile devices seems like a waste of time to me, especially after we've just spent a decade watching the evolution of the desktop web be stunted by obsessive focus on backwards/cross compatibility. Also, nearly all major device manufacturers have committed to using WebKit. In five years, how many mobile devices will not run WebKit? If Windows Phone 7 isn't dead by then, it might be the only one.
      - _neil 16y ago
        Competition is a good thing. Choice is cool.
aaronbrethorst 16y ago
This is very exciting news, especially knowing that this significantly better-looking theme is coming to desktop JQuery UI. One of my biggest issues with JQuery UI has always been how goofy it looks in comparison to Aristo and Ace (http://www.antipode.ca/2009/themes-sproutcore-vs-cappuccino/ http://www.antipode.ca/2009/themes-sproutcore-vs-cappuccino/)
- jmtame 16y ago
  the mobile ui elements the jquery team is building is the best i've seen so far. they've done a spectacular job there. i hope that as with jquery themeroller, the ui elements for mobile will be customizable.
  - jeresig 16y ago
    Yep - they're going to be 100% Themeroller-able. It's going to be a bunch of work on our end but the ability to have a unified, good-looking, UI that works across all platforms is just too enticing to ignore.
    - evilhackerdude 16y ago
      Did you consider pre-rendering stuff client-side using SVG? I assume adjusting a few parameters in a JSON file is easier than going to a site, pushing buttons and downloading and replacing files.
      - Toddparker 16y ago
        We're looking into every possible idea we can to shave file size and images down for mobile. Look for very aggressive use of CSS3 that falls back gracefully. We're hoping to eliminate all images (!) or radically reduce their use compared to current ThemeRoller. Using SVG is an option on the table for some elements but I think we'll end up using a TR style tool for this to generate static CSS for performance and compatibility.
- julianz 16y ago
lyime 16y ago
This is great news. I have been working on a client project for a company to replicate the iPhone App Store in webkit (enterprisey) I have basically had to roll out my own framework with the help of jQtouch and jQuery. It's been a struggle to say the least, especially while trying to recreate some of the UI interactions such as the elastic scroll and animated slides. Looking forward to contributing to this project.
weixiyen 16y ago
How will it compare to jQTouch and sencha touch in terms of file size? Looking forward to it.
jsdalton 16y ago
The initial designs look outstanding: http://jquerymobile.com/designs/ http://jquerymobile.com/designs/
- mortenjorck 16y ago
  A bit of iOS's proportions, a bit of WebOS's textures, a bit of Android's color – yet they've managed to keep it looking clean and unified instead of middling or compromised. Outstanding indeed.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - newman314 16y ago
    Maybe it's just me but the inital designs still feel iPhone/iPad centric. The UI/UX for webOS are more gesture-like and I do not see that reflected here as an alternative. However, it's a good start and it is heartening to see that Palm has signed up for this.
    - dpio 16y ago
      This is great. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to mesh with webOS.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- Toddparker 16y ago
  Thanks for the positive feedback. You nailed what we were going for. Glad people seem to like the direction of the project!
samratjp 16y ago
Damn, this should give both SproutCore and Capuccino something to mull over, if not help build better builders.
stevenwei 16y ago
This is great news. I had to hack apart jQTouch to get it to degrade more gracefully on non-Webkit browsers, and development seems to have stopped as the devs have moved onto Sencha Touch. Nice to see that the jQuery team is taking the project on, and I'll be very excited to use it once it is released.
bhellman1 16y ago
Thank heavens! The learning curve and lack of tutorials for Sencha Touch made JQuery mobile a desperate need. I believe JQuery mobile will be the winner of the various mobile app platforms 1 year from now.
pkulak 16y ago
The design shots hint that you are going to have toolbars locked to the bottom of the screen. In Webkit that's impossible to do without taking control of everything yourself (including scrolling) ala Pastry Kit. Is that really what you guys intend to do, or is that just an over achieving mockup?
- Toddparker 16y ago
  It's definitely a goal to support fixed toolbars but we're still looking at how to achieve this cross platform in a lightweight way because these can be pretty heavy. We may end up offering a lightweight version that fades/glides in on scroll like the GMail floaty and hooks to support any scrolling fakery script you choose. Looking for input and ideas since were still at the R&D stage!
wenbert 16y ago
I feel that I owe John Resig a lot.
winterlightning 16y ago
This is f*ing awesome, I can't wait to use this. This presents such an awesome addon for framework like appcelerator titanium and rhomobile.
flog 16y ago
Does anyone know if there's any source code in a public repo at the moment? I've been asked to present a talk on this, and would like to get in early.
- jQueryNinja 16y ago
  According to this post here http://jquery-howto.blogspot.com/2010/08/jquery-mobile.html http://jquery-howto.blogspot.com/2010/08/jquery-mobile.html it is not available right now and will be available in October 2010.

312 points by crescendo 16y ago

just to clarify--there's nothing that can be downloaded and used right now, correct? it looks like this is a pre-announcement of something they're building.

adolph 16y ago
Looks like a call to join the community.
RedWolves 16y ago
Correct, we are posting publicly our strategy and plans for mobile and plan to have a mobile jQuery version out later this year.
jeresig 16y ago
Yep - that's correct. Since jQuery is a completely community-driven project and funded entirely by donations we wanted to open up right away to bring more people in. While we're rather confident in the direction that we're heading - doing it in a completely open manner is much more inline with what the jQuery project typically does.
- jmtame 16y ago
  thanks. i'm actually really glad to see you guys taking the lead on this initiative. jqtouch and sencha both have their shortcomings, but it sounds like this is addressing all of those (polished UI, easy to pick up, well-documented, cross-platform/cross-device).

jeresig 16y ago

To preempt a few questions that are bound to pop up: What about jQTouch? While jQTouch is a great framework and we're proud to have it as part of the jQuery community - we really wanted a mobile framework to exist that would truly support all the mobile platforms out there. We chatted with the jQTouch team and there wasn't really any interest on their end to head in that direction. It's obviously going to be a ton of work - but that's something that the jQuery project is very interested in tackling. Is this a response to Sencha Touch? We've actually been working on jQuery mobile for a while now - long before Sencha Touch was released/announced. We're not particularly concerned with Sencha Touch mostly for the same reason that we're building an alternative to jQTouch: We want to support more platforms and do it in a completely seamless way. What data did you use to choose the browsers that you did? We've been talking with a number of mobile analytics firms and large corporations, gathering data, and will be releasing a bunch of the reliable numbers that we've collected on the jQuery mobile blog. Right now we're confident in the browsers and versions that we've chosen - although that'll likely change over the next couple months as the market shifts.

raganwald 16y ago
While I laud your transparency, I lament the chilling effect this will have on existing libraries like JQTouch. jQuery Mobile isn't available today but this announcement will make a lot of people sit on their hands waiting to see how things play out in the hope that they won't invest in a dead-end platform. Oh well, not saying you shouldn't have chosen this path, just pointing out the consequences...
- jeresig 16y ago
  jQTouch has been out for a couple years at this point - a two month "chill" period before release seems totally appropriate. Honestly, I don't see the "chill" as being a bad thing in this regard: jQTouch and Sencha Touch are doing mobile web development a great disservice by only supporting the latest-and-greatest WebKit platforms. If we can get developers to actually think about supporting more of the mobile platforms that are actually used then I will consider the project to be a victory. I discuss this much more in our strategy outline: http://jquerymobile.com/strategy/ http://jquerymobile.com/strategy/
  - dcurtis 16y ago
    "jQTouch and Sencha Touch are doing mobile web development a great disservice by only supporting the latest-and-greatest WebKit platforms." How is focusing on the future doing a disservice to anyone? We're at the very beginning of the mobile-optimized web, and the future is still unclear. There's still room to define it. Supporting the equivalent of IE6 on mobile devices seems like a waste of time to me, especially after we've just spent a decade watching the evolution of the desktop web be stunted by obsessive focus on backwards/cross compatibility. Also, nearly all major device manufacturers have committed to using WebKit. In five years, how many mobile devices will not run WebKit? If Windows Phone 7 isn't dead by then, it might be the only one.
    - _neil 16y ago
      Competition is a good thing. Choice is cool.

aaronbrethorst 16y ago

This is very exciting news, especially knowing that this significantly better-looking theme is coming to desktop JQuery UI. One of my biggest issues with JQuery UI has always been how goofy it looks in comparison to Aristo and Ace (http://www.antipode.ca/2009/themes-sproutcore-vs-cappuccino/ http://www.antipode.ca/2009/themes-sproutcore-vs-cappuccino/)

jmtame 16y ago
the mobile ui elements the jquery team is building is the best i've seen so far. they've done a spectacular job there. i hope that as with jquery themeroller, the ui elements for mobile will be customizable.
- jeresig 16y ago
  Yep - they're going to be 100% Themeroller-able. It's going to be a bunch of work on our end but the ability to have a unified, good-looking, UI that works across all platforms is just too enticing to ignore.
  - evilhackerdude 16y ago
    Did you consider pre-rendering stuff client-side using SVG? I assume adjusting a few parameters in a JSON file is easier than going to a site, pushing buttons and downloading and replacing files.
    - Toddparker 16y ago
      We're looking into every possible idea we can to shave file size and images down for mobile. Look for very aggressive use of CSS3 that falls back gracefully. We're hoping to eliminate all images (!) or radically reduce their use compared to current ThemeRoller. Using SVG is an option on the table for some elements but I think we'll end up using a TR style tool for this to generate static CSS for performance and compatibility.
julianz 16y ago

lyime 16y ago

This is great news. I have been working on a client project for a company to replicate the iPhone App Store in webkit (enterprisey) I have basically had to roll out my own framework with the help of jQtouch and jQuery. It's been a struggle to say the least, especially while trying to recreate some of the UI interactions such as the elastic scroll and animated slides. Looking forward to contributing to this project.

weixiyen 16y ago

How will it compare to jQTouch and sencha touch in terms of file size? Looking forward to it.

jsdalton 16y ago

The initial designs look outstanding: http://jquerymobile.com/designs/ http://jquerymobile.com/designs/

mortenjorck 16y ago
A bit of iOS's proportions, a bit of WebOS's textures, a bit of Android's color – yet they've managed to keep it looking clean and unified instead of middling or compromised. Outstanding indeed.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- newman314 16y ago
  Maybe it's just me but the inital designs still feel iPhone/iPad centric. The UI/UX for webOS are more gesture-like and I do not see that reflected here as an alternative. However, it's a good start and it is heartening to see that Palm has signed up for this.
  - dpio 16y ago
    This is great. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this is going to mesh with webOS.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Toddparker 16y ago
Thanks for the positive feedback. You nailed what we were going for. Glad people seem to like the direction of the project!

samratjp 16y ago

Damn, this should give both SproutCore and Capuccino something to mull over, if not help build better builders.

stevenwei 16y ago

This is great news. I had to hack apart jQTouch to get it to degrade more gracefully on non-Webkit browsers, and development seems to have stopped as the devs have moved onto Sencha Touch. Nice to see that the jQuery team is taking the project on, and I'll be very excited to use it once it is released.

bhellman1 16y ago

Thank heavens! The learning curve and lack of tutorials for Sencha Touch made JQuery mobile a desperate need. I believe JQuery mobile will be the winner of the various mobile app platforms 1 year from now.

pkulak 16y ago

The design shots hint that you are going to have toolbars locked to the bottom of the screen. In Webkit that's impossible to do without taking control of everything yourself (including scrolling) ala Pastry Kit. Is that really what you guys intend to do, or is that just an over achieving mockup?

Toddparker 16y ago
It's definitely a goal to support fixed toolbars but we're still looking at how to achieve this cross platform in a lightweight way because these can be pretty heavy. We may end up offering a lightweight version that fades/glides in on scroll like the GMail floaty and hooks to support any scrolling fakery script you choose. Looking for input and ideas since were still at the R&D stage!

wenbert 16y ago

I feel that I owe John Resig a lot.

winterlightning 16y ago

This is f*ing awesome, I can't wait to use this. This presents such an awesome addon for framework like appcelerator titanium and rhomobile.

flog 16y ago

Does anyone know if there's any source code in a public repo at the moment? I've been asked to present a talk on this, and would like to get in early.

jQueryNinja 16y ago
According to this post here http://jquery-howto.blogspot.com/2010/08/jquery-mobile.html http://jquery-howto.blogspot.com/2010/08/jquery-mobile.html it is not available right now and will be available in October 2010.