The Mobile Web on Drupal!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Where are we going today?
Mobile Web development theories and philosophies
Reality check!
Core tenets I like to stick to
So, about Drupal...the good and the bad
Digging in and putting some pieces together (CODE!)
Stuff to read so you can learn more
Thursday, January 13, 2011
How technical is this going to be?
We’ll start high level (everyone)
We’ll talk about strategy and device grouping (everyone/solution architects)
We’ll talk about Drupal’s strengths and weaknesses and 3rd-party stuff. (everyone/somewhat technical)
We’ll look at code for a hypothetical module and work with Drupal hooks and whatnot. (devs/code)
We’ll talk about mobile theming strategy. (designers)
I’ll recommend some books, blogs and mailing lists. (everyone)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Nope.
This topic is huge. We won’t have time to talk about:
Detailed (HTML/CSS) markup for mobile devices.
The finer points of device-specific support for technologies (CSS/JS/HTML5/whatever).
Design and UX best practices.
Testing.
All of these areas are incredibly important, though!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
By The Way
This presentation is based on Drupal 6
My current feeling about D7*
* SorryThursday, January 13, 2011
Leading Philosophies of Mobile Web Development
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The “One Web”
Thursday, January 13, 2011
One Web means making, as far as is reasonable, the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using. However, it does not mean that exactly the same information is available in exactly the same representation across all devices. The context of mobile use, device capability variations, bandwidth issues and mobile network capabilities all affect the representation...
...it is considered best practice to provide as reasonable experience as is possible given device limitations and not to
exclude access from any particular class of device, except where this is necessary because of device limitations....
Errr...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
That means...
Separate mobile site or domain (e.g. m.mysite.com) is discouraged.
All users should get, for the most part, the same text, features, markup, images, functionality, etc. (within reason, which you get to determine).
Develop once (I do like this part).
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Responsive Web Design (RWD)
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RWD
Using sophisticated markup and CSS techniques to make the “One Web” ideal more attainable.
Using CSS Media Queries to adapt content, allowing for “One Web” success
Fluid grid designs
For the most part, send the same HTML markup and media (e.g. images) to everyone
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
Thursday, January 13, 2011
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen and (max-device-width: 480px)" href="shetland.css" />
I am a CSS Media Query:
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Progressive Enhancement
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Progressive Enhancement
Not just a mobile concern
Luke W’s “Mobile First” credo is in the same family
Design your baseline site for mobile, then go from there
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Server-Side Device Detection and Adaptation
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Who goes there?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Server-Side Device Detection
Based on using User Agent strings to make an educated guess at what a device is and what capabilities it has
Several device libraries support this. Two of the best known are:
WURFL
DeviceAtlas
Thursday, January 13, 2011
WURFL
http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/
Maintained/moderated by Luca Passani.
Exhaustive details about mobile device and client capabilities based on User Agent.
Contributors have created APIs in several languages.
Free and open source.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Let’s Look at some WURFL Capabilities
Tera-WURFL Explorer
http://www.tera-wurfl.com/explore/
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DeviceAtlas
Licenses run from $99/yr (per server) to ... well, more.
You get guaranteed updates.
API is PHP, Java, .Net
Analytics as well.
Web site is free and a useful reference for looking up devices right quick.
http://deviceatlas.com
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Client-Side Adaptation
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Whereas server-side detection asks “Who goes there?,” client-side adaptation allows you to say things like:
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Oh, yeah? prove it.
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Client-Side Adaptation
Determining real client capabilities a la Modernizr
Using CSS Media queries
Taking delivered markup the final mile
Ensures that the client can walk the walk
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Modernizr (A Quick Aside)
Runs tests on the client
Adds CSS classes to the <html> element based on what it discovers
You, noble developer/themer, can:
Write your CSS accordingly
Use JavaScript to extend your stuff
Based on what the browser can actually do
http://www.modernizr.com
Thursday, January 13, 2011
So, that all sounds lovely and clean and unicorn-shaped.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Reality
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Thursday, January 13, 2011
Love,The W3C
Dear Puny Human,
Make one Web site such that it’s, like, the same on all devices, except, well, make sure that it is appropriately different on some devices. Don’t exclude anyone, except when “device limitations” force you to.
I’ll leave deciding what a device limitation is as an exercise for the reader.
http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#OneWeb
“One Web” is vague
Thursday, January 13, 2011
RWD has performance and bandwidth implications
Image resizing on devices can be inefficient and uses bandwidth you might not need to use.
CSS media query support is fragmented and only on modern devices.
For the most part, images hidden in CSS still get downloaded.
We’re sending the device bytes that it is not going to use.
http://www.cloudfour.com/css-media-query-for-mobile-is-fools-gold/
Thursday, January 13, 2011
http://www.cloudfour.com/adventures-on-the-mobile-web-frontier-wrangling-drupal-third-party-apis-and-server-oomph-into-an-enterprise-class-
experience/
Adventures on the Mobile Web Frontier, Nov. 4, 2010
—Lyza Gardner (Me)
*Sorry about that URL; my bad*
Shoving a 153,600-pixel image at a phone that only has about 16,000 pixels of real estate to work with is like giving 4-by-8-foot sheets of plywood to a kid who wants to build a miniature birdhouse. Even if wood is cheap, it tastelessly wastes a lot of trees...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Hello, Web Server, I am a sheep!
Server-side device detection via UA is not infallible...
Who goes there?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Web Server! I am also a sheep!*
*Not really a sheep.
Who goes there?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Client-side enhancement can be pretty tricky if your user’s device isn’t up to it
“Hi, I’m BlackBerry version 4.5. You’d be surprised at how many people at big companies still use me and love me.
You cannot manipulate my DOM and my JavaScript performance is very sad.
Sorry.”
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Duct Tape Programmer, Sept. 23, 2009Joel on Software
—Joel Spolsky
“Duct tape programmers are pragmatic...
“A 50%-good solution that people actually have solves more problems and survives longer than a 99% solution that nobody has because it’s in your lab where you’re endlessly polishing the damn thing.
“Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it.”
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2009/09/23.html
Duct Tape Programming
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
So, how do we keep our nose clean in this tragicomical environment?Staying True to a Couple of Tenets...
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1. Don’t send bits to a device that it won’t use
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bits == dollarsbits == waitingbits ~= processing
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2. The client is always right*
* This one gets me in a bit of trouble
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Remember how I said that User Agents aren’t always 100% honest and forthcoming? Or, at least, sane?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Whose User Agent is this?
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X10_5_7; en-us) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0Safari/530.17
Thursday, January 13, 2011
A Sane Person would guess...
Desktop Safari
And that’s what WURFL will tell you, too
Thursday, January 13, 2011
But
It’s Skyfire for Android.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
http://www.skyfire.com/product/android
Skyfire Web Site
Laughing all the way to the Bank or whatever,Love,
Skyfire
“Load web pages as either traditional Android user agent or as a desktop browser. The desktop option gives you more flexibility in accessing web sites and allows discovery of video content that might not be visible on the mobile site.”
Thursday, January 13, 2011
What do we do?!
So, the User Agent for Skyfire’s desktop mode is cruel and manipulative.
What should we do?
Me: Give them the desktop experience. They asked for it. If it sucks enough for enough people, Skyfire will hopefully adapt.
This is not a universally-embraced opinion, to say the least. And leaves some folks out in the cold.
What do you think?
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Let’s make something that works
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Device Classes
A device class is a collection of attributes and capabilities that define a group of mobile devices.
There are no industry-standard device classes, but there are some rules of thumb and generalizations that can help you define your device classes.
We usually end up with about 3-5 major device classes per project.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Device Classes: Why?
Keeps you sane.
Helps you focus on your target users.
Gives you a context to think within when designing UX and IA for your site or app.
Roughly, device class == context
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Some Advice about Device Classes
Don’t get too distracted by pixel dimensions.
Choose your “baseline” class carefully. Who’s your main audience?
You’ve heard this nag before,: don’t assume everyone has an iPhone or Android.
device class != theme/layout
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Example Device ClassesDevice Class Criteria Notes
“Mobile Webkit”• Webkit-based browser• Minimum resolution 320x480• Sophisticated CSS/JS/XHR support
“There is no Webkit on mobile”.—Peter-Paul Koch, QuirksMode
Smartphones• Resolution 240-320px• Robust XHTML support• Reasonable AJAX and JS• Quite possibly less awesome CSS
Don’t neglect this class! BB5, Win 6.x, etc.
Dumbphones• Resolution 128-240px• HTML support• Cookie/HTTPs support• Limited CSS support
a.k.a. feature phones
Thursday, January 13, 2011
And Then you draw the line somewhere
e.g. “For a mobile device to be successful using this Web-based application, it must support images, cookies and HTTPs, and have a resolution of at least 128px.”
Thursday, January 13, 2011
And the rest, you gently kick to the curb. Gently.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
OK, Here comes the Drupal part...
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First, some good news
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Drupal is great because:
We can easily extend it by writing modules or using those that others have kindly already written
The theming stack and hook architecture is flexible enough that we can override almost anything we need to
Sub-theming gives us even more power here
There are already some third-party modules that can help us
Your site may already be running on it.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Now some bad news...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Drupal makes kittens cry because:
Drupal 6 doesn’t have a definitive hook for managing CSS and JS
Theme inheritance can only go so far
WYSIWTF
There is no simple, 3rd-party solution you can just drop into place. I bet there will be in the future. But.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
WYSIWTF
How the heck can your site’s editors create content that will look right on all devices?
CKEditor can’t save your butt here
Don’t blame Drupal per se: No one has nailed this one
I don’t have a good answer for you here...yet
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Everything you learn today is obsolete tomorrow
Case in point: This just in!
http://drupal.org/project/tinysrc
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Modules: Theirs (3rd-party)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
mobile tools
function mobile_tools_device_groups() { return array('iphone', 'ipod', 'android', 'opera mini', 'blackberry');}
“The Mobile Tools module currently doesn't provide information on the device characteristics such as screen size, browser capabilities, javascript support, etc ...” (from the project page)
A lot of stuff in this module, and it can integrate with WURFL or BrowserCap.
These are your device classes. Take ‘em or leave ‘em.
Generally, I find that I want a bit more control than this module gives me, but it could serve as a great starting point.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
wurflUses PHP API
Recent rewrite...not backwards compatible so much. UGH.
Doesn’t expose everything from the PHP API, but does encapsulate some.
Multiple sites? You’ll be replicating the WURFL data.
Install process is a bit painful.
But, overall, a good place to start, and we’ll be using it in our examples tonight.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Putting it Together
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Alert! Code!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
We are going to...
Use and depend on the wurfl module
Create our own module
Detect Devices
Switch Themes
Create and implement a Device Class Definition hook
Define some device classes
Test devices against defined device classes
Create some mobile themes
Add some useful code to our themes to strip certain JS and CSS
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Disclaimer!
OMG! Don’t take this code too literally. It’s meant as:
A. A stepping-off point and
B. Pseudo-code
It is based on real code (which has been tested) but has not been tested in its current form.
You don’t have to implement it this way! These are just rough ideas for yah.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Our Module: mobile_web (structure)
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First Pass at the hook_init()
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Create a Hook for Device Classes
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Device Class Definitions
This can be read:((is_wireless_device == TRUE) && (ajax_xhr_type != ‘none’) && (mobile_browser === ‘Safari’ || mobile_browser === ‘Android Webkit’))
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Define some Device Classes
In the interest of brevity, only two device classes here and “Webkit on Mobile” is over-simplified.
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Second Pass at hook_init()
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Matching Device Classes
Get the code for mobile_web_device_match(), if you want it, at http://pastebin.com/jtufBq38
Returns TRUE if the current set of device class capabilities match the current user’s device
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Themes!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Creating some Themes
Consider your DOCTYPE
Familiarize yourself with what’s supported in XHTML-MP
Drupal-specific gotcha: You’ll need to override theme(‘table’) if you want your code to validate in XHTML-MP 1.2 (<thead> is invalid).
You can mostly disregard WML these days.
I sub-theme quite a bit (http://drupal.org/node/225125)
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Might I suggest?
I’m a big fan of sub-themes.
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Another Variant
For hybrid desktop/mobile sites.
I also advise using the admin_theme module such that the admin interface stays sane.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Don’t Panic!
You’re not going to have to implement full-fledged themes for all of your devices!
Our device class themes usually contain:
Additional CSS for that device class (in addition to default mobile or overrides)
Device-class-specific JS
Overrides for templates on an as-needed basis.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
My CSS and JS are Out of Control!
In D6, theme has final say-so of what JS and CSS get delivered
First call to drupal_add_js() always adds jQuery and drupal.js
I’ll show you how to get around this, but it is ugly
A brief D7 interlude: This is remedied in D7 with two new alter hooks for CSS and JS
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Control your JS and CSS
You’ll have to do this in a theme’s template.php file.
If you have themes subclassed from a single mobile theme, you can put this in one place (the top-level mobile theme).
I do it from a hook_preprocess_page(&$vars) implementation.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Stripping JS and CSS
The premise of the code is:
Declare some JS (or CSS) that is allowed for the mobile theme at hand.
Iterate through the JS in the ‘scripts’ var (all current JS/CSS set up to be in the page) and make sure each entry is “allowed.”
Remove those that are not.
For JS, if only drupal.js and jQuery.js are left at the end, remove those, too.
Re-set the ‘scripts’ var by calling drupal_get_js() with the updated array of JS (or the same concept with CSS).
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Simplest Way to strip Extra JS...
The same approach works for CSS (the ‘styles’ variable).
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Sorry. That was a bit fugly.
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Thursday, January 13, 2011
Where to from here?Use the device class to help determine how theme functions behave, both on the theme level and module levels.
Use the imagecache module to serve appropriately-sized images to different device classes (or maybe tinysrc!).
Expand device class definitions to add any sort of arbitrary data you’d like.
Keep a WURFL object (or other data structure representing the WURFL attributes) available; you can ask about a device’s specific capabilities anywhere in your code.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Exercises for the Reader
Some things we’ve done to make this stuff cooler:
Build an admin interface for managing allowed CSS/JS and other goodies.
Build logging to capture User Agents and their device class results (might not want to leave this on in production!)
Consider running a Tera-WURFL setup.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Where are things heading?
More client-based stuff as mobile browsers get beefier
More 3rd-party Drupal support
This era is kind of like the JavaScript browser insanity of the late 90s
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Resources and Further Reading
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Read these books and blogs
Programming the Mobile WebMaximiliano Firtman (O’Reilly)
Beginning Smartphone Web DevelopmentGail Rahn Frederick/Rajesh Lal (Apress)
Because JS is Important for mobile:
High Performance JavaScriptNicholas C. Zakas (O’Reilly)
JavaScript: The Good PartsDouglas Crockford (O’Reilly)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Read these books and blogs
QuirksBlog by PPK (Peter-Paul Koch)http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/
Andrea Trasatti’s tech notes and morehttp://blog.trasatti.it/
Communities Dominate Brands (Tomi Ahonen)http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/
Luke Wroblewski aka @lukewhttp://www.lukew.com/ff/
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Super Useful Groups & Mailing Lists
mobile-web Yahoo! Grouphttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mobile-webAn active, useful list
wmlprogramming Yahoo! Grouphttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wmlprogrammingDespite the misleading name, this mailing list focuses on WURFL. Expect a rollicking time.
Mobile Portlandhttp://mobileportland.com/http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-portlandMeets the fourth Monday of each month
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Who Am I?Lyza Danger Gardnerco-founder, mobile Web developer type of person
Cloud Four
http://www.cloudfour.com
http://www.lyza.com
@lyzadanger
Thursday, January 13, 2011