Web Application Design Standards
In a recent article, I explained how to build an iPhone-compliant website quickly. In this article, I'm going to tell you about some meta tags (and more), which can both make your website visitors' experience more enjoyable and save your web development efforts.
All the methods described in my articles have been successfully applied in one of my web projects. I used some screenshots of my website as illustrations in this article.
Well, let's start.
1. Detect the user's device by user-agent (PHP)
It's very easy to find out whether the browser is Mobile Safari, just use following code: The example shows how my site z-music.ru adapts itself to the user's device.if(strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPhone') || strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPod'))
{
// Code for Mobile Safari.
}
else{
// Code for other web browsers.
}
If you want to detect Android users too, modify the selection criteria:
if(strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPhone') || strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPod') || strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'Android'))
2. Forbid increase/decrease of webpage size
If your webpage is optimized for Mobile Safari (width limited to 320px), surely you don't want it to be increased or decreased by the user. To disable pinch zoom, use the special meta tag:<meta content="minimum-scale=1.0, width=device-width, maximum-scale=0.6667, user-scalable=no" name="viewport" />
3. Show your webpage scaled 1:1
To make sure that the user sees you site scaled 1:1 immediately after its loading, add the following tag (in this case, pinch zoom is not disabled).<meta name = "viewport" content = "width=device-width">
4. Turn your webpage into a web application
Even in times of iPhone's first firmware versions, before AppStore was launched, web applications were extremely popular. What's so special with them? Unlike usual webpages, web applications don't use Safari's standard UI, so the user doesn't see the usual address line and navigation panel. To tell the web browser explicitly to treat your website as a web application, add the following meta tag:<meta content="yes" name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" />
It's very easy to add a web application, just do the following:
Enter Safari > press + on the navigation panel > select "Add to Homescreen."
4.1. Add a splashscreen for your web application
It's nice to add a splashscreen for your web application, otherwise the user will be looking at a blank screen while the app is loading. The picture size must be 320x460 pixels.<link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="/images/startup.png">
4.2. Add an icon
Use the following tag for installing the icon. The icon size must be 57x57 pixels. Following Apple's standard, the browser automatically adds a rounded "glare" to the icon, although it's possible to disable the glare (see below).<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/custom_icon.png"/>
4.3. Add a plain icon (without glare)
If glare is undesirable, you can easily add a glare-free icon: just name your icon file as apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png and put it into your website's root directory. (Make sure that you use exactly that filename and put the file into the root directory, otherwise it will not be found by the web browser!)4.4. Change the color of your web application's status bar
To change the status bar color, use the following meta tag:<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black" />
Here's how it looks:
That's all I wanted to say for now, thanks for your attention!
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PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition) Long Description
Reviewed by:
Seth Rosenblatt
on November 07, 2008
PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition) takes an old-school approach to mobile computing. Instead of hosting programs online, PortableApps is a comprehensive application suite that fits onto and runs from almost any device with at least 512 MB of space.
The suite s flexibility is impressive. It manages some of the best freeware applications from a taskbar menu that runs instantly when clicked on. User-favorites Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are here, as well as the entire OpenOffice.org office suite, a calendar and day planner app, an instant messenger manager, an anti-virus program, and even a Sudoku game.
Impressively, the range of supported programs goes far beyond those in the Standard Suite. Others you can download include a media player, a Web page editor and even a version of the Mac OS. Along with all the software, PortableApp provides support for all your ancillary settings, plug-ins, buddy lists, and document and media files.
The download and installation is quick, if not lightning fast, and the interface menu looks as good as it is straightforward. We d like to see a way to synchronize settings and extensions in future versions, although if you use portable apps exclusively you simply take your settings with you.
Publisher s description
From
PortableApps.com
:
PortableApps Suite is a collection of portable apps, including the integrated PortableApps Menu and the PortableApps Backup utility along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut. Just drop it on your portable device and you re ready to go.
PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition) includes ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Firefox Portable (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager) and Thunderbird Portable (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.
