| page.title=Best Practices for Web Apps |
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| <h2>See also</h2> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/webview/pixelperfect" |
| >Pixel-Perfect UI in the WebView</a></li> |
| <li><a href="http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/responsivedesign/" class="external-link">Creating |
| a Mobile-First Responsive Web Design</a></li> |
| <li><a href="http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/high-dpi/" class="external-link">High |
| DPI Images for Variable Pixel Densities</a></li> |
| </ul> |
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| </div> |
| </div> |
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| <p>Developing web pages and web applications for mobile devices presents a different set of |
| challenges compared to developing a web page for the typical |
| desktop web browser. To help you get started, the following is a list of practices you should |
| follow in order to provide the most effective web application for Android and other mobile |
| devices.</p> |
| |
| <ol class="bold"> |
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| <li>Redirect mobile devices to a dedicated mobile version of your web site |
| <p>There are several ways you can redirect requests to the mobile version of your web site, using |
| server-side redirects. Most often, this is done by "sniffing" the User Agent |
| string provided by the web browser. To determine whether to serve a mobile version of your site, you |
| should simply look for the "mobile" string in the User Agent, which matches a wide variety of mobile |
| devices. If necessary, you can also identify the specific operating system in the User Agent string |
| (such as "Android 2.1").</p> |
| <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Large screen Android-powered devices that should be served |
| full-size web sites (such as tablets) do <em>not</em> include the "mobile" string in the user agent, |
| while the rest of the user agent string is mostly the same. As such, it's important that you deliver |
| the mobile version of your web site based on whether the "mobile" string exists in the user |
| agent.</p> |
| </li> |
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| <li>Use a valid markup DOCTYPE that's appropriate for mobile devices |
| <p>The most common markup language used for mobile web sites is <a |
| href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xhtml-basic-20080729/">XHTML Basic</a>. This standard |
| ensures specific markup for your web site that works best on mobile devices. For instance, it does |
| not allow HTML frames or nested tables, which perform poorly on mobile devices. Along with the |
| DOCTYPE, be sure to declare the appropriate character encoding for the document (such as |
| UTF-8).</p> |
| <p>For example:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
| <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML Basic 1.1//EN" |
| "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic/xhtml-basic11.dtd"> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>Also be sure that your web page markup is valid against the declared DOCTYPE. Use a |
| validator, such as the one available at |
| <a href="http://validator.w3.org/">http://validator.w3.org</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| |
| <li>Use viewport meta data to properly resize your web page |
| <p>In your document {@code <head>}, you should provide meta data that specifies how you |
| want the browser's viewport to render your web page. For example, your viewport meta data can |
| specify the height and width for the browser's viewport, the initial web page scale and even the |
| target screen density.</p> |
| <p>For example:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no"> |
| </pre> |
| <p>For more information about how to use viewport meta data for Android-powered devices, read <a |
| href="{@docRoot}guide/webapps/targeting.html">Targeting Screens from Web Apps</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
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| <li>Avoid multiple file requests |
| <p>Because mobile devices typically have a connection speed far slower than a desktop |
| computer, you should make your web pages load as fast as possible. One way to speed it up is to |
| avoid loading extra files such as stylesheets and script files in the {@code |
| <head>}. Instead, provide your CSS and JavaScript directly in the <head> (or |
| at the end of the <body>, for scripts that you don't need until the page is loaded). |
| Alternatively, you should optimize the size and speed of your files by compressing them with tools |
| like <a href="http://code.google.com/p/minify/">Minify</a>.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| |
| <li>Use a vertical linear layout |
| <p>Avoid the need for the user to scroll left and right while navigating your web |
| page. Scrolling up and down is easier for the user and makes your web page simpler.</p> |
| </li> |
| |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>For a more thorough guide to creating great mobile web applications, see the W3C's <a |
| href="http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/">Mobile Web Best Practices</a>. For other guidance on |
| improving the speed of your web site (for mobile and desktop), see Yahoo!'s guide to <a |
| href="http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/index.html#rules">Exceptional Performance</a> and |
| Google's speed tutorials in <a href="http://code.google.com/speed/articles/">Let's make the web |
| faster</a>.</p> |
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