Smashing Mobile Web Development

UI Frameworks/Utilities

When you are building mobile web apps, you have tons of frameworks to help you build the UI without having to hire a designer. These UI frameworks help make your application look and feel native using cross browser technologies and CSS3 properties. For older browsers that may not support these features, there are utilities libraries that help you determine if certain JavaScript or CSS3 functions are available to the user.

Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch has touted itself as the best HTML5 Mobile Web App framework. It has built-in support for many browsers; it supports iOS, Android, and BlackBerry 6+, meaning that it has support for non-WebKit browsers. Most developers consider Sencha Touch to be the kitchen sink of JavaScript frameworks. It contains both UI and JavaScript methods, but unlike other frameworks that I mention, it doesn’t have the same syntax and may be confusing to a first-time developer not well versed in object-oriented JavaScript programming.

jQuery Mobile

Released in late 2011, jQuery Mobile is a plug-in for jQuery that enables developers to make rich web apps without having to touch a line of CSS. The framework brings the power of jQuery to mobile with specific methods and functions that are formatted for mobile use. jQuery Mobile includes easier ways to detect screen orientation, and provides swipe events and full navigation using the jQuery History plug-in. The downside to this framework is that it requires jQuery (31KB) and weighs in at an ...