Beginning iPhone and iPad Web Apps: Scripting with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

This book will help you join the thousands of successful iPhone apps developers without needing to learn Objective-C or the Cocoa touch APIs. If you want to apply your existing web development skills to iPhone and iPad development, then now you can. WebKit’s support for HTML5 means any web developer can create compelling apps for both the iPhone and the larger-screen iPad.

Beginning iPhone & iPad Web Apps takes you through the latest mobile web standards as well as the specific features of the iPhone and iPad. You’ll learn about WebKit and Mobile Safari, HTML5 and CSS3, vector graphics and multimedia support. You’ll discover the built-in hardware features of the iPhone and iPad and how best to take advantage of them.

The market for web apps for the iPhone and iPad is expanding rapidly. You’ll want to know about all the advantages, and Beginning iPhone & iPad Web Apps is the perfect starting point.

What you’ll learn

• How to take your existing web skills and deploy them on iPad and iPhone
• User interface design basics for both the smaller iPhone screen and the larger iPad display
• The keys to web app development built into HTML5, WebKit, and Mobile Safari
• How to support mobile-media with iPhone- and iPad-specific features
• How to take advantage of advanced features of CSS3 for graphics
• How to address Apple’s touch screen interface and interact with Cocoa touch APIs

This book is for web designers and developers who want to use their hard-earned skills and knowledge to create compelling mobile web experiences for iPhone and iPad users.

Table of Contents

1. Development Tools
2. Development Environment
3. Introducing Developer and Debugging Tools
4. The Anatomy of a Web Application
5. User Experience and Interface Guidelines
6. Interesting CSS Features for Your Web Application User Interface
7. Bitmap and Vector Graphics and Downloadable Fonts with Canvas and SVG
8. Embedding Audio and Video Content in Your Web Application
9. Handling Transformations, Animations, and Special Effects with CSS
10. An Object-Oriented JavaScript Programming Primer
11. Cross-Document Communication
12. Ajax and Dynamic Content
13. Using Touch and Gesture Events
14. Location-Aware Web Applications
15. A Better Handling of Client-Side Data Storage

It seems that everyone and her sister has developed an iPhone App—everyone except you, the hard-working web professional. And now with the introduction of the iPad, you may even feel farther behind. But the time has come where you don’t need to struggle through Objective-C or master Apple’s Cocoa touch APIs. WebKit’s support for HTML5 means any ambitious web developer can join Apple’s second mobile App wave and create compelling apps that address the unique features of both the iPhone and the larger iPad.

Learn iPhone & iPad Web App Development takes you through every aspect of the latest Mobile Web Standards as well as the specific features of the iPhone and iPad. You’ll go beyond Web 2.0 and Ajax to learn about WebKit and Mobile Safari, HTML5 and CSS3, Vector Graphics and Multimedia support. You’ll discover what built-in hardware features of the iPhone and iPad you can use and how to take advantage of these device-specific capabilities.

The market for Web apps is expanding and the combination of iPhone and iPad makes this a very hot area—as well as a competitive one. You’ll want to know about all the advantages available to get ahead and stay ahead, and Learn iPhone & iPad Web App Development is the perfect starting point.

What you’ll learn

• How to take your existing web skills and deploy them on iPad and iPhone
• User interface design basics for both the small iPhone screen and the big iPad display
• The keys to web app development built into HTML5, WebKit, and Mobile Safari
• How to support mobile-media with iPhone- and iPad-specific features
• How to take advantage of advanced features of CSS3 for graphics
• How to address Apple’s touch screen interface and interact with Cocoa touch APIs

Who this book is for

Web designers and developers who want use their hard-earned skills and knowledge to create compelling mobile web experiences for iPhone and iPad users.

Table of Contents

1. Development Tools
2. Development Environment
3. Debugging
4. WebApp Anatomy
5. Device limitations
6. Mimic the iPhone UI
7. Interesting CSS features
8. HTML5 features
9. Vector graphics
10. Multimedia support
11. Javascript OOP primer
12. CSS3 advanced features
13. DOM and selectors
14. AJAX
15. Touch and Gesture events
16. Location API
17. Data Storage
18. Optimization
19. Linking to native applications
20. Using Frameworks

Chris Apers has more than 12 years experience in web technologies and mobile development, including PalmOS, webOS and iPhone, He is IT Manager at Lagardère Active and participates in open source project like porting development libraries and software to mobile devices. With the creation of the open source framework WebApp.Net, he provides an easy way to create mobile content. For more, visit http://webapp-net.com and http://www.chrilith.com.

Daniel Patterson is currently a front-end developer at Newsweb / Lagerdère Active in Paris. He joined the company in April 2009, and enjoys the opportunity to work on interesting projects and develop his skills.

Daniel has an MA in Comparative Literature, and he penned a memoir on intergrating literary theory into fictional works, taking novels by Umberto Eco, Milan Kundera, and David Lodge as examples. After his university years, Daniel entered web development and has been passionate about it ever since.