What is jQuery Mobile?

On August 11, 2010, nearly six years ago, John Resig (creator of jQuery) announced the jQuery Mobile project. While it focused on the UI framework, it was also a recognition of jQuery itself as a tool for mobile websites and that work would be done to the core framework itself to make it work better on devices. Release after release, the jQuery Mobile project evolved into a powerful framework, encompassing more platforms, more features, and better performance with every update.

But what do we mean when we say a UI framework? What does it mean for developers and designers? jQuery Mobile provides a way to turn regular HTML (and CSS) into mobile-friendly websites. As you will see soon in the first chapter, you can take a regular HTML page, add the required bits for jQuery Mobile (essentially, lines of HTML), and your page is transformed into a mobile-friendly version instantly.

Unlike other frameworks, jQuery Mobile is focused on HTML. In fact, for a framework tied to jQuery, you can do a heck of a lot of work without writing one line of JavaScript. It's a powerful, practical way of creating mobile websites that any existing HTML developer can pick up and adapt within a few hours. Compare this to other frameworks, such as Sencha Touch. Sencha Touch is also a powerful framework, but its approach is radically different, using JavaScript to help define and layout pages. jQuery Mobile is much friendlier to people who are more familiar with HTML as opposed to JavaScript. jQuery Mobile is touch-friendly, which will make sense to anyone who has used a smartphone and struggled to click the exact spot on a website with tiny text and hard-to-spot links. It will make sense to anyone who has accidentally clicked on a Reset button instead of Submit. jQuery Mobile will enhance your content to help solve these issues. Regular buttons become large, fat, and easy-to-hit buttons. Links can be turned into list-based navigation systems. Content can be split into virtual pages with smooth transitions. You will be surprised just how jQuery Mobile works without writing much code at all.