In the part one of these series we have checked what PhoneGap mobile application framework is, downloaded its latest version and have created our initial first project for iOS smartphone platform. I have also outlined frame for example mobile app we are going to build and the set of web APIs that we will be using to make this example application somewhat useful for its users.

In this part of the tutorial we will take a closer look to PhoneGap framework structure, its main files and will write code to consume data from the web based APIs. Lets call it slightly advanced “Hello World” example which instead of printing just simple text will display 5 yummy receipts retrieved from external web service.
We will continue working on the code of the initial project created in the part one of this tutorial. You can follow the steps we took last time, they are quite simple.
As we have much more code in this part, the all source code for today’s finished tutorial is located at the bottom of the post. Feel free to download and use it for testing. Now, lets get started.

PhoneGap structure for iOS mobile project

Let’s take a look at the structure and contents of the project created by PhoneGap script. Open the project with XCode (key tool for developing iOS based mobile applications). The structure will look the same as I have pictured below, with the key files for iOS project as well as PhoneGap specific www directory and few configuration files.
For iOS apps main.m objective-c implementation file represents the main loop application is constantly running. From the contents of this file we see that AppDelegate is being referenced as a main controller. Quick view to AppDelegate.m implementation file shows us that it sets some configuration parameters for the mobile project. Cache size, window size, splash screen, default start page for view controller (project default is always index.html) and other properties. The main directory where all application files have to be placed is www and they will be served via special custom view (web view).

AppDelegate.m implementation file for newly created PhoneGap iOS project.

This is the first part of the tutorial. Second part can be found here. Third part will follow soon.

After receiving good reader feedback for HTML5 widgets tutorial for iOS digital books today I’m starting with new tutorial for developing hybrid mobile applications with the help of PhoneGap framework (or Apache Cordova wrapper as some people like to call it).

The goal is to create a fully working and somewhat useful mobile application from the ground up. To make things more interesting and useful for our readers I’m planning to implement (and go into technical specs) today’s most used mobile application functions. Web services (the way for client devices to communicate with servers and each other over the World Wide Web network), Authentication (after which mobile applications can consume online resources on behalf of third parties), Geolocation, Maps and on device Storage.

I’m estimating that it will take little bit of time to get to the end of the project and to write everything in blog post format. Therefore I will split this tutorial into several parts and will publish them separately here on htmlcenter. It will make it easier to follow for everyone who is reading as well.
You are much welcome to join the discussion any time by posting comments or asking questions. There is much work ahead so lets get started!

Recently I had a chance to take a closer look at relatively new tool for creating interactive iPad tablet reading experiences called iBooks Author. It was released by Apple in January 2012 and is aimed at book authors and publishers to allow for an easy publishing of their books on Apple iBook platform. Application supports its own format .ibooks as well as .pdf and .ePub formats for exporting.

But what really caught my attention was the possibility to embed interactive elements inside actual ebooks. It can be done in the form of HTML5 widgets, with CSS styling and JavaScript support for building interactivity.  As it was a good fit for one of interactive digital mobile content projects we will be crafting at PopularOwl and I went through the process of creating and adding HTML5 widget to iBook project to understand how it all comes together.

In this tutorial I’m going to walk you through the steps for building fully working HTML5 widget to be used in iBooks Author projects. This sample widget will help eBook authors to easily add social follow option to their digital books so their readers can interact from within the eBook.

Source code for finished widget project is located at the bottom of this tutorial, feel free to download and test it. The final result:

Andrew Holden is co-founder and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Weever Apps. Andrew is a web development expert and frequently writes about mobile visitor engagement and online best practices.

HTML5 is everywhere this year!  Google supports it.  Facebook’s all over it.  It’s clear that HTML5 is the future for mobile.

Ok, that’s cool. So what is HTML5 and what does it do for mobile?

Great question! HTML5 is the latest version of HTML – the standard for presenting and structuring content on the World Wide Web.  One of the great advancements with HTML5 is that it allows websites to function like mobile apps by offering design capability that is mobile friendly, as opposed to laptop/desktop friendly.  This means websites can be designed to fit mobile screens and have a user interface that is easy to control and highly functional with a touch screen. The term used for this technology is “web app”.

For practical purposes, there are two ways to implement a “web app”.

1. Websites can be designed so that they can scale from a desktop monitor down to a smart phone screen.
2. An independent web app can be designed, which will open when a website is accessed on a mobile device.

This new approach of presenting mobile content is breaking down barriers – including time, money, and the ubiquitous App Store.  The doors are now being opened to individuals and small business.  Big players are also gravitating to this alternative as they recognize the benefits.

Here are the facts about the mobile market:  50% of all local searches are now on mobile devices.  This is largely due to smart phone ownership surpassing cell phone ownership in the US and other countries.  Despite this notable adoption, most businesses don’t have any mobile solution of any kind – let alone the subsequent marketing benefits.  Unfortunately, traditional app development is just too time-consuming, expensive, and technical.

Earlier this evening, I was reminded of just how primitive the HTML5 support was in Firefox 3.5/3.6. While we have seen three major version releases since 3.5, it was actually still the latest version of Firefox less than 6 months ago (and was that way for almost 2 years). Therefore, Firefox 3.5.x still holds a decent amount of market share (probably as much as, if not more than IE6 did a year or two ago). Looking at a handful of websites for which I have analytics data, versions of Firefox prior to 4 still accounted for anywhere between 2% and 15% of the total visits to those sites last month. With all of that information, it’s probably still important to make sure your sites work in versions of Firefox as far back as 3.5.

There are two somewhat major gotchas in the way Firefox 3.x handled HTML5. The first is easily fixed with a few lines of CSS. The second can only really be fixed if you rewrite some of your HTML.

As we continue to transition whole-hog into HTML5 with new Web development, there are a few things you might need to know before deciding how to handle certain situations. I have discovered two somewhat major gotchas over the last few months that really made me reconsider my usage of the new technology.

While articles, asides, headers, footers, etc. are a fantastic way to introduce semantics into your page designs, there are a few elements and attributes that might not do quite what you’d expect.

Because Opera is not an extremely popular browser, most developers probably aren’t aware of one of its greatest features: Opera Show mode. Opera Show mode is the official name of the full screen mode for Opera (technically, it’s only called Opera Show when a projection media style sheet – discussed below – is present); and it brings with it a great possibility.

More than two years ago, Opera added support for the projection media mode in CSS. Whenever the browser is expanded to full screen mode, it activates the projection media, allowing you to apply a completely different stylesheet to the full screen page than you have in other settings.

As we’ve discussed on this blog in the past, HTML5 introduces a lot of new elements that are intended specifically to imply semantic information. One of the elements being introduced is the <article> element.

For the most part, the <article> element is supposed to denote a block of information that can stand on its own (essentially, the main content of the page or post). When developing a blog template. The spec currently describes the <article> element with the following verbiage:

There’s been a lot of talk about HTML5 and all of the new elements it introduces. Forms will be built and used completely differently, the structure of documents will be much more semantic, and new features will be available to website and application developers.

But, what are these semantic elements? Are they really anything new? Will they change the structure of your document at all? The simple answer is “no”. The new elements, for the most part, just make your documents easier to parse and understand (for machines and for people using assistive technology). Very few of the new elements are really all that new; they’re just the same old elements with new names for new purposes.

As more and more browsers begin to support HTML5 and its elements, one of the nice things we can all begin using is the <figcaption> tag. When coupled together with the new <figure> tag, the <figcaption> tag semantically connects a caption with an illustration (not necessarily an image illustration; it can be a text illustration).