In this tutorial, you’ll be introduced to jQuery Mobile Basics and Usage, with the help of a Sample Flight Search and Results Page

About jQuery Mobile

The Objective of jQuery Mobile is to deliver top-of-the-line Javascript in a unified User Interface that works across the most-used Smartphone Web Browsers and Tablet Devices. It does that with Perfection, by letting the Developers deal only with HTML and taking care of the “Heavy Weight Lifting”

Getting Started

jQuery Mobile is very unobstrusive as it doesn’t mandate the inclusion of various Javascript files and also there is no need to use Heavy Javascript Calls to achieve the end results. However, you need to include the Core jQuery Mobile Library and the Minified CSS to start with.

Here is a Boilerplate HTML that we will use to build our Sample Flight Search Application. You can use this for any Web page, you plan to build

Page Header

 



Content






Footer

 

In the Head section we include the Core jQuery and jQuery Mobile Libraries, to be used by the Rest of the Pages. Also, the Core CSS Library is included for the UI Element Styling. Note all these are minified versions and greatly improve the Page Load Times on Mobile Devices

Within the Body Section of the HTML Document, the Content is essential divided into 1 Main Section and 3 Sub Sections:

• 
                    
  All the jQuery UI Elements must be wrapped within this Parent Container. One HTML Page/Document can have a Maximum of “1″ Container of this type
                  
                  
  
                    
  
                    
  This Section is the Header Part of the HTML Page, that is Visible at the Top and usually holds the Navigation Buttons. This section is always a “sub-element” of data-role=”page”
                  
                  
  
                    
  
                    
  This Section holds the Primary Content of any HTML Page, where most of the User Interactions happen. This section is always a “sub-element” of data-role=”page”
                  
                  
  
                    
  
                    
  This Section holds the Footer of any HTML Page, where the Copyright and other relevant Links are usually displayed. This section is always a “sub-element” of data-role=”page”
                  
                
                
  All the Magic with jQuery Mobile happens with the “data-role” attribute associated with the containers. HTML Source is parsed at render time by jQuery Libraries and Dynamic HTML/Javascript is displayed on the Browser
                
  For our Tutorial
                
  Let us Create 2 HTML Files (PHP in my case, but it doesn’t make a difference as we are not writing any Server-Side Scripts for this tutorial) – index.php and results.php
                
  The First Page will be the Search Page, with Form Controls and the Second Page will be the Results Page, with results displayed as Lists
                
  Let us Copy the HTML Boilerplate code on each of these files – except the
                
  
                
  is “jQuery Flight Search” for the first and “jQuery Search Results” for the next
                
  Flight Search Page
                
  Let’s decide and plug in content for each of the Content Section of the Flight Search Page – the Header, Content and Footer
                
  Header – Flight Search Page
                
  I want the Header Section to NOT contain any “Back Navigation Buttons”, as this is always the First Page of my Application. Please note, jQuery automatically adds “Back” Navigation buttons when coming into a Page from another Page. So if you don’t need it, you need to tell jQuery that.
                
  Also, I want “Search for Flights” appear on my Header Section. And here is the HTML Code for that…
                
  
  
  Search for Flights
  
   
  
                
  And, this is how it looks on an iPhone
                
  
                
  If not mentioned, jQuery uses the Default Theme and applies it on the HTML Page. You can switch themes by applying “data-theme” attribute on the Containers/Elements. But this is out of scope for this Tutorial and will not be discussed further
                
  Content – Flight Search Page
                
  I want the Content Section of the Search Page to contain the following elements, in the exact order specified:
                
  
                  
  Text Entry Fields for From Location & To Location
                  
  Text Entry Field for Departure Date (Date Picker coming soon…)
                  
  Conditional Text Entry Field for Return Date, toggled On/Off with a Switch Button
                  
  Slider Element to Choose Number of Travellers
                  
  Select List to Choose the Class of Journey
                  
  A Submit Button
                
                
  Note that the code for all these elements must get inside the “data-role=content” section of the HTML Page. Also, I will wrap all elements inside the “form” HTML Tag, though an actual Submit will not happen in this Tutorial
                
  Here is how I introduce the Text Entry Fields for From & To Locations
                
  
  
  
  
  
  
  From
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To
  
  
  
  
  
  ....
  
  
  
                
  Each Form Element must have the “data-role=fieldcontain” and jQuery Framework takes care of the rest.
                
  The Same way I introduce the Text Entry fields for Departure and Return Dates. The Date Picker is coming soon in the next release…
                
  
  
  
  Start Date
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  One Way
  
  
  
  Return
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Return Date
  
  
  
  
  
                
  The Form Element with “data-role=controlgroup” and “data-type=horizontal” with Radio Buttons under it, provides the Switcher Control that can be toggled On/Off. It’s purpose is to Show the “Return Date” if toggled On and Hide it otherwise. We will wait a moment before making it functional (Note I have assigned an id=”return” to the Return Date field, which we will use)
                
  Next I will introduce a Slider Element to select the Number of Travellers and the upper limit will be “10″
                
  
  
  
  Travellers
  
  
  
  
  
                
  Note the min and max attributes of the Slider Elements, that makes things very simple for the Web Developer.
                
  Next I will add a Select List to choose the Class of Travel
                
  
  
  
  Flight Class
  
  
  
  Economy
  
  Business
  
  First
  
  
  
  
  
                
  For illustration purposes, I use 3 Class types – Economy, Business and First
                
  Finally, I will add a Submit button. Submit Button doesn’t need any wrapper around it and automatically processed by jQuery
                
  
  
  
                
  I will use a small piece of jQuery Code, to Show/Hide Return Date field on using the Toggle Switch
                
  Add this jQuery Script to the Top of the HTML Page, within the 
   section, to Hide the Return Date on Page load
                
  
  
  
                
  Add this jQuery Script to the Bottom of the HTML Page, before the 
   section ends, to Show/Hide the Return Date when Toggle Switch is used
                
  
  
  
                
  Footer – Flight Search Page
                
  On the Footer, I just need the Copyright Text, Symbol and the logo. The following code does the trick for me
                
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2010
  
   
  
                
  Here’s how the Finished page looks on an iPhone
                
  
                
  
                
  
                
  Search Results Page
                
  My Search Results Page essentially will have a List of Flight Search Results and a Navigation back to the Search Page
                
  Header – Search Results Page
                
  I want the Header Section to have “Back Navigation Button” to the Search Page. Also, the text on it should read “Search Results”
                
  
  
  
  Search Results
  
   
  
                
  Content – Search Results Page
                
  jQuery provides you quite a Good Number of List Types like – Basic List, Numbered List, Nested List etc. For our Tutorial, we’ll use a Simple “Inset” List with Multiple Lines
                
  Here’s the code to be used in the “content” section of the Search Results Page. Note the “data-inset=true” property in the List, that introduces a simple margin around the List Element
                
  
  
  
  
  
  Paris (CDG) to Munich (MUC)
  150 EUR
  12:50 to 14:15 (1h25) Direct
  
  
  
  Paris (CDG) to Munich (MUC)
  175 EUR
  15:00 to 16:15 (1h15) Direct
  
  
  
  Paris (CDG) to Munich (MUC)
  225 EUR
  16:00 to 20:00 (4h) wait 2h Frankfurt, Germany
  
  
  
  
                
  Notice the nice way in which the multiple lines appear within the List Element
                
  Finally, I need a link to go back to the Search Page. A Simple Anchor tag with a “data-role=button” will do the Job and jQuery will style it for me
                
  
  Search Again
  
                
  The “rel=external” creates a Direct Link to the Page – otherwise, by default jQuery tries to make an AJAX call to the target, with the “loading” Spinner
                
  Footer – Flight Search Page
                
  On the Footer, I just need the Copyright Text, Symbol and the logo. The following code does the trick for me
                
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2010
  
   
  
                
  Here’s how the Finished page looks on an iPhone
                
  
                
  
                
  Conclusion
                
  In this tutorial we had a very quick Overview of jQuery Mobile and how it helps Web Developers to create Nice Looking Mobile Pages with Little or No Javascript. For complete details on jQuery Mobile, Demos and Documentation – visit the Official jQuery Mobile Site here
                
  You can also download the source of the example used here!
                
  Photo Credit: Team Traveller on Flickr
              
              
  
                Filed Under: Best, jQuery Mobile, Mobile Web
              
            
  
  
          
  
  
          
  
            
  
              
  
                
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