The iPhone OS is pitched as the entire Internet in your pocket…minus Flash. This works most of the time, but what if you just want to design a site or form that looks like a native iPhone App?
This is where iWebKit comes in. iWebKit is a free framework package for creating websites and applications that are optimized for the iPod Touch, iPhone & iPad. The bulk of the framework is CSS3 which can work its magic to makeover any dreadful site and make it look fresh.
I will be covering the web-form aspect of creating an optimized site, but iWebKit has many deeper features that can communicate directly with the OS. Its documentation is excellent, so dig around or check out the demo site on your iPhone to get inspiration.
When designing for the iPhone OS, you should use the iPhone simulator available in the SDK to get an idea of where your design is heading. You can also use Safari to get a pretty close representation, but nothing beats using a real physical device. It’s amazing how cool it feels and you really do get the impression it’s a native application.
Getting Started
Here is what the form looks like on the iPhone before we optimize it.
It’s pretty dull looking, to say the least. Below is the original HTML code being used. We’re going to get Apple-blood running through it and give it a makeover.
<html><head><title>Test Form</title></head>
<body>
<form method="post">
Name: <input type="text" size="12" maxlength="12" name="name">
Password:<input type="password" size="12" maxlength="36" name="passw"><br />
Gender:<br />
Male:<input type="radio" value="Male" name="gender"><br />
Female:<input type="radio" value="Female" name="gender"><br />
Favorite Food:<br />
Steak:<input type="checkbox" value="Steak" name="food[]"><br />
Pizza:<input type="checkbox" value="Pizza" name="food[]"><br />
Chicken:<input type="checkbox" value="Chicken" name="food[]"><br />
<textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="quote" wrap="physical">Enter your favorite quote!
Select a Level of Education:<br />
<select name="education">
<option value="Jr.High">Jr.High</option>
<option value="HighSchool">HighSchool</option>
<option value="College">College</option>
</select><br />
<input type="submit" name="" value="Submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
This code needs to be in an HTML file in the same folder as the iWebKit framework. I called it index.html.
The first step is to add these lines between the <head> tags.
<meta content="yes" name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" />
<meta content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type" />
<meta content="minimum-scale=1.0, width=device-width, maximum-scale=0.6667, user-scalable=no" name="viewport" />
<link href="css/style.css" type="text/css" />
<script src="javascript/functions.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="homescreen.png"/>
<link href="startup.png" rel="apple-touch-startup-image" />
These lines tell the iPhone browser that this page is designed for it. It also references the CSS, JavaScript and images for the iPhone Home Screen and a startup image.
To create the top title bar we need to enter the following code immediately after the <body> tag.
<div id="topbar">
<div id="title">Test Form</div>
</div>
If you load up the page in your iPhone simulator browser you will see this bar at the top.
Now we need to start our main content with the following <div> tag.
<div id="content">
All the form fields will be inside of this <div> and we won’t close it till the end of the form. The first form fields we want are the Name and Password fields.
Replace the original code:
Name:<input type="text" size="12" maxlength="12" name="name"><br />
Password:<input type="password" size="12" maxlength="36" name="passw"><br />
With this:
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="bigfield"><input placeholder="Name" name="name" type="text" /></li>
<li class="bigfield"><input placeholder="Password" name="passw" type="password" /></li>
</ul>
Our Name and Password fields have now been transformed.
The <ul> container represents the white box while the <li> tag is to signify separate sections inside of the white box. You could also put each of these fields in their own <ul> containers and they would look like two separate boxes. To save screen space, I group similar items together. Now lets replace those old fashioned radio buttons from the Gender question.
Replace this:
Gender:<br />
Male:<input type="radio" value="Male" name="gender"><br />
Female:<input type="radio" value="Female" name="gender"><br />
With this:
<span class="graytitle">Gender</span>
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="radiobutton">
<span class="name">Male</span>
<input name="gender" type="radio" value="M" />
</li>
<li class="radiobutton">
<span class="name">Female</span>
<input name="gender" type="radio" value="F" />
</li>
</ul>
The radio buttons are changed for the better.
Next up are the checkboxes under the Favorite Food question.
Replace this:
Favorite Food:<br />
Steak:<input type="checkbox" value="Steak" name="food[]"><br />
Pizza:<input type="checkbox" value="Pizza" name="food[]"><br />
Chicken:<input type="checkbox" value="Chicken" name="food[]"><br />
With this:
<span class="graytitle">Favorite Foods</span>
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="checkbox">
<span class="name">Steak</span>
<input name="steak" type="checkbox" />
</li>
<li class="checkbox">
<span class="name">Pizza</span>
<input name="pizza" type="checkbox" />
</li>
<li class="checkbox">
<span class="name">Chicken</span>
<input name="chicken" type="checkbox" />
</li>
</ul>
Now instead of check boxes, we get those pretty on/off sliders we’re accustomed to inside the iPhone OS.
The textbox is pretty simple since it just creates a nice white box around the textbox.
Replace:
<textarea rows="5" cols="20" name="quote" wrap="physical">Enter your favorite quote!</textarea><br />
With this:
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="textbox">
<textarea name="quote" rows="5">Enter your favorite quote!</textarea>
</li>
</ul>
Lets move on to the dropdown menus. Dropdowns always use the iPhone’s built-in method and help create the feeling of a native app.
Replace this:
Select a Level of Education:<br />
<select name="education">
<option value="Jr.High">Jr.High</option>
<option value="HighSchool">HighSchool</option>
<option value="College">College</option>
</select><br />
With this:
<span class="graytitle">Level of Education</span>
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="select">
<select name="education">
<option value="Jr.High">Jr.High</option>
<option value="HighSchool">HighSchool</option>
<option value="College">College</option>
</select>
<span class="arrow"></span>
</li>
</ul>
Notice the arrow span class adds the down arrow to the right of the selection box.
As far as the form goes, all that’s left is the Submit button and to close the <div> tag.
Replace this:
<input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Submit" />
With this:
<ul class="pageitem">
<li class="button">
<input name="Submit" type="submit" value="Submit" />
</li>
</ul>
Now close the content <div> tag with the following:
</div>
Finally, we may want to put a footer at the bottom of our page. It’s nice to also support the iWebKit folks.
<div id="footer">
<a href="http://iwebkit.net">Powered by iWebKit</a>
</div>
That’s it for the HTML portion. Two nice little touches you can do are for when someone adds the page to their home screen. When browsing the page, click the “+” button and select the Add to Home Screen option. You will see an icon that, by default, is a screenshot of the page. You can customize this by making your own 58×58 pixel image and referring to it in the <head> section. Mine is named homescreen.png and I’ve already included the code at the beginning of the article.
Now when this page is added to the Home Screen, it will look and feel like a native app. Why not have a startup screen displayed while the page loads? iWebKit also has this feature and you simply need a 320×460 pixel image that again, is referenced in the <head> section. I have called mine startup.png.
That’s it, we’re done! iWebKit has many other features that you should check out. You may get some inspiration for an app or at least look good to your boss when you pretty up that old form that’s been around for years. All the files used in this article are also attached for your viewing pleasure along with a short video walkthrough of this tutorial.
Project Files: iwebkit-tutorial-files.zip (94 KB, ZIP)
I was pretty excited to hear that the iPad supported a hardware keyboard. With my history in Unix, I’ve become pretty comfortable as a touch typist, enough so that there is no faster way to get words out of my head and into the text editor. My excitement was short-lived, however. Soon after receiving my Bluetooth Apple keyboard in the mail, I found that most of the keyboard shortcuts I was hoping for were not there.
Scrabble
Words with Friends
Game Table
UNO HD
Strategery
Theme Checkers
Board Box
Ludo
Moonlight Mahjong
Honey, That’s Mine!
Apple hasn’t made any secret about its plans to get into the mobile advertising game. It 
For many iPhone users held hostage by AT&T’s second-rate 3G network, the announcement that a nationwide rollout of the AT&T 3G MicroCell will begin in April sounds like a long-awaited promise of coverage rescue finally coming true.
Photoshop
iMovie
Screen Sharing or Remote Desktop
Hulu
An Improved iTunes App
Looking for people who is interested in auto sport to become a TestFlight pilot for up-coming new release of
PC Games on Your iPad, Courtesy of HTML5
The iPad is already a strong entry in the mobile games realm, with its large, high-resolution display, touchscreen interface and support for external devices like keyboards. Plus it has the iPhone/iPad development community cranking out innovative games all the time, too.
Gaikai was shown running on an iPad (on Touch Arcade), and playing World of Warcraft on the device. Whether it’s a good thing to put WoW in the hands of addicts wherever they happen to go is another question entirely, but the promise of PC games running untethered on a device in your lap is intriguing indeed. I’m not a WoW player myself, but Starcraft II is landing late this July, and I somehow doubt it’ll be accompanied by a native iPhone port at the same time.
But will the gatekeepers at Apple allow Gaikai to invade its playground? The move could potentially have serious consequences on the App Store’s economics, since conceivably, Gaikai could stream any game to the iPad and other Apple devices, not just ones sanctioned by the Mac maker. Gaikai’s Dave Perry says Apple basically can’t block the service.
The reason being, Gaikai is HTML5-based technology. That means that its browser-based player will work fine on mobile Safari out of the box, unless Apple goes out of its way to shut down access to Gaikai specifically, which would fly in the face of certain recent correspondence by Steve Jobs himself regarding the closed nature of Flash versus the open nature of HTML5.
Gaikai shows the way to sidestepping iCensorship altogether, at least in terms of streamable web content. At this stage in the game, Apple has basically painted itself into a corner wherein it has to condone anything done using the HTML5 standard, versus rich media that uses browser-based plugins like Flash and Silverlight. It won’t work for all apps (like the one that allows you to sync wirelessly, for instance), but it should allow content providers to publish whatever kind of iPad and iPhone-targeted material they want without blocking fears.
We’ll see the Gaikai North American beta launch in the comings weeks, and then we’ll find out just how much openness Apple can tolerate. Hopefully it’s just enough to see me playing Civilization 5 on my iPad this fall.