The question is simple, What mobile frameworks are you using in ASP.NET?
We are using Mobile Controls + WURFL.
Thx in advance,
I've used a combination of mobile controls, custom scripts, MDBF, WURFL, DeviceAtlas and more.
hawhaw.net also looks interesting, but haven't had a chance to check it out yet.
We are using http://www.51degrees.mobi/Products/NETMobileAPI it is a free open source .net mobile api which gives detailed information of the mobile device making the request. It makes use of WURLF database. Along with this it also provide free mobile controls which includes Google Maps, Location, Image and Adsense Controls
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I am wondering if there is a framework to develop mobile web applications which does not use javascript or jquery. Our client do not want to use any javascript or jquery in the projects. But when i look around for mobile web solutions, i see lots of jquery.
A "mobile" website does not require any special frameworks. You just have to design the site (HTML+CSS) so that it looks great on the smaller screens. Other than that it is the same old HTML forms as was 10 years ago (with the exception that you can use the new fancy HTML5 input types like calendar out of the box).
But you should dig deeper for the reasoning of "no JavaScript" since without it you will have to resort to whole page refreshes even for very small things (like 'hide field X when you choose USA in the address') and that will very negatively impact performance, especially on mobile devices where the network is slower.
If you use mobile MVC views, why use a framework? Why not create your own minimalist design that doesn't incorporate a lot of those features, but has the basic core HTML to define your user interface, and just allow the application to postback to the server? That would work well, and be efficient in mobile.
I have an existing website for schools and colleges management which is developed in ASP.NET,C# and SQL Server.
Now I am planning to support for the mobile applications (like basic models from Nokia/Samsung and for opera mobiles). I know the normal site we can access through some of the devices without any change, but needs to be optimized.
I am preparing another version which will be only few required fields and easy navigation for mobile. For that which method I need to use.
Normal ASPX files with optimized HTML code.
Or using WAP controls
Should I use HTML 5
Please help me to decide.
I recommend using the HTML5 templates(includes Modernizer) that come with ASP.NET MVC 3 and the jQuery Mobile framework. Let the jQuery Mobile framework do all the multi-device heavy lifting for you.
jQuery Mobile Supported Devices
you can use normal aspx pages without any issue. only thing you need to optimize the file size.
you can develop better solution using HTML5 but only problem is, it is not supporting all the devices.this is used html5
or just use any from List of mobile frameworks
You can use normal ASP.NET Web Forms in conjunction with HTML5. Take a look at HTML5Boilerplate which includes Modernizr.
Use a combination of feature detection and CSS Media Queries to serve up the appropriate files, layout and images for a particular mobile device.
Do not fall for "Responsive Web Design" techniques that cost too much in terms of performance and esthetics (basically re-skinning desktop browser version of site and calling it "mobile-ready"); disclosure: this links to blog post from me.
Use ASP.NET Mobile Controls: ASP.NET Mobile Controls
.. (i.e. How to add mobile pages to your asp.net site)
You will build a few UI controls, in a short amount of time, specifically for all mobile devices and it will be a much faster and much better user experience on mobile devices.
The UI renders minimal HTML and you control what gets rendered, meaning much less bandwidth required. Even though I have a 4G phone, so many times we are in a building that does not give a 4G signal and I much prefer sites that have mobile-specific output.
The UI is mobile-specific, users will not have to zoom around the page left/right up/down and zoom in to be able to click buttons or elements that were made for viewing in 1024x768 or higher.
Users with the latest 4G and dual core phones, and that happen to have 4G connection at the moment can always switch their phones into 'full HTML version' if they want more functionality than what you build using the ASP.NET mobile controls. However, if you go the other route and adopt JQuery-based or HTML5 code, you are excluding all previous generation phones from accessing your web site at all in many cases (besides it being slower and not as good a user experience as mobile-specific rendering). Even if you decide to focus only on the latest phones, you will also have to deal with html rendering issues, cross browser compatibility, besides the slow and UI complexity issues.
Good luck.
Using .NET Mobile Framework is always a good option as well as Web Forms which will appear on all mobile devices regardless of carrier/phone model, plus lots of phones support ajax, and other client side scripting that'll work. HTML5 is a growing standard though, and when more phones start supporting it, you'll reap tons of the new benefits.
Model View Controller is always good to follow. Allows for scalability and for components to be abstracted.
I have a mobile website. I need to detect mobile web browsers by screen size or resolution and display the website accordingly.
Can anyone help with detecting web browser and screen size?
Also, how can I open my website according to the screen size?
I suspect that you don't mean a WAP browser but rather a mobile browser. (As you've tagged your question with iPhone & Android.)
You need to use a device capability database to do this on the server side.
There are lots of options (see other answers and link below), but as you're using ASP.NET, I'd recommend looking at http://51degrees.codeplex.com/. This uses WURFL data and is the defacto replacement for MDBF (which used to be the best asp.net solution).
More information on using the 51degrees solution can also be found in blog post by Scott Hanselman and Steve Sanderson.
There are lots of other similar questions about this here on SO: https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=detect+mobile+browser+capabilities
For the detection part, I recommend to use WURFL. There is also a similar question/answer on SO.
For the resize part, I recently did something similar for a web application of us. I tried to keep it really simple and make the elements floating/dynamic resizing.
To test it, there are several emulators available, I used those for BlackBerry, Android, and Windows 7 Phone.
You can use DeviceAtlas for this: http://deviceatlas.com/
I use Mobile Device Detection and Redirection from 51 degrees.
Here are the properties that you can use:
Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice
Request.Browser.ScreenPixelsHeight
Request.Browser.ScreenPixelsWidth
I'm working in a web mobile application to support a mimimal subset of operations for an existing website.
My base tools are, asp.net 4.0 with simple css to try to archive a more extensive range of devices.
My questions are:
- I'm in a good direction? ... or ther's a better way to do it? (other kind of controls, etc..)
- My device (mobile) is a Nokia e71 and i'm starting to see some glitches:
- autopostback properties dont work
- clientvalidationscripts dont work
Please give me some hints and advices. Thank u all.
Are you using the Mobile controls in ASP.NET, or just the regular ones? There is a separate set that are intended to support and adjust to various mobile devices somewhat better.
For a first-effort mobile site, I would look either at a well-established mobile framework (to be honest, I've never extensively used the ASP.NET Mobile Webforms controls), or to do something where I'm building my own HTML much more directly, to be sure to keep things mobile-safe.
That's one of the reasons I use ASP.NET MVC more myself, now... but that is a bit of a leap to make, and especially if it would just be for mobile use.
So anyway, if you are already using the ASP.NET Mobile controls, my answer is irrelevant!
Always, regardless of the type of website, design for "Progressive enhancement".
In other words, get everything working using the minimum (no javascript, very simple CSS). Then progressively enhance it so that additional functionality is available to those with browsers that can support it.
Many ASP.NET controls have javascript behind them. Ensure that you design so that they continue to work without javascript, or use other controls that don't require javascript at all.
WRT your client validation - You should always validate on the server side as well. In that case the fact that on some devices the client validation isn't running makes no real difference.
Do not use any asp.net control on a mobile site, .net rendering by device usually screws things up.
Do not use .net server forms.
If you can use MVC
Simple javascripts should work most of the modern devices.
Ajax works too but don't use jQuery, write simple ajax post/get functons
I've been putting together a small web form for our technicians to use from their phones out in the field. However I'm having a lot of trouble getting things working using ASP.NET Mobile, and there seems to be few resources out there to help learn this stuff. I'm also having trouble getting help.
So the thing is, do I really need to use the mobile controls? The phones will all have web browsers, so I'm thinking if I'm careful with the interface I can get as good or better results than using the mobile controls.
The only thing I would like from the mobile controls is the PhoneCall control... so the follow up question would be: Can I get the functionality of the PhoneCall control without using it?
Depends which phones your customers will use. Not all phones support the full and rich HTML produced by classic ASP.NET controls. Mobile controls tend to produce simpler and specific for the device. Certainly there are limitations on the controls, but this is due to the limitations of the end devices.
So, test if the classic ASP.NET pages are working with your target device, before doing a Mobile version.
Use mobile controls has same adventages that web controls in web. Using Mobile Controls + Controls Adapters + WURFL helps to developing very fast to many devices.
Yes, you can use WTAI primitives of WML: <a ref="wtai://wp/mc;34123456789">Call</a>
You can always navigate to a page that has those phone controls when needed