opt in for window.resizeTo? - javascript

I'm building an in-browser application for my company's internal use. It would be helpful if my users could quickly switch between 6 different browser dimensions. I've tried using window.resizeTo, but it seems most modern browsers are disabling any sort of coded resizing. Safari seems to be my only exception for Mac users, but I'm concerned that they too will follow suit with Chrome and FF.
Is anybody aware of any work-arounds or user opt-ins? I've found a Chrome extension that can get the job done, but ideally there wouldn't have to be any sort of configuration or 3rd party extensions as some of my users have very strict permissions on their machines.

No, that's not possible. Otherwise all kind of ads would ask the user to allow them to resize themselves in the hope some people allow it (and thus most likely allow it for the whole adserver used by tons of websites).

You could wrap your application's content in a <div> with overflow: scroll, and resize that actual div. If your application's styles do not allow that, you can wrap it in an <iframe> with the viewport size you want to enforce.

Related

WebRTC getDisplayMedia - How to avoid screen area selector

I would like to create a client-side screen capture of the actual webpage without a browser extension. Some bug reporting sites solved this problem so it seems to be possible. Browser compatibility is not an issue. It is ok if it works only on modern browsers.
I have tried html2canvas, but want a more accurate representation. So try to use WebRTC getDisplayMedia. I have tried the WebRTC example.
It works, but the screen selector dialog has too much information. Screens, apps, tabs. Besides this, it doesn't reflect the actual site design.
In my case, I want always the actual browser screen where the user clicked the capture button.
Is there a way to preselect the current tab and eliminate the screen selector dialog?
Or maybe some other solution/technology?

chrome.app.window Alternative

so currently I have a packaged Chrome app, which uses chrome.app.window.create() to create frameless Notifications. Since Chrome Apps will be discontinued in the near future I am currently looking for alternatives.
I am trying now to emulate the same behavior in a Chrome Extension, but I have only found chrome.windows.create() where I can open popups, but they can't be made frameless apparently.
I have also tried chrome.notifications but they are not customizable enough for my needs.
Do any of you guys know a way to do this?
No, that's about it. You can't emulate this behavior with extensions.
Add to that list a possibility to inject DOM in the currently opened page, which you can style, but it's complicated, requires very heavy permissions to do at will at any page, will be confined to the browser viewport and still won't work in some edge cases.

Debugging UC Mini browser

I am doing a web application. While trying to open the webiste on UC mini browser in data saving mode from my mobile device the css styles are not getting compiled.Is there any way to debug?
Thanks in advance.
There are no very good ways to debug it. UCMini (or UCWeb in light speed mode) is a remote proxy browser. As far I know, there is no debug console for it. The only thing you can do is throw JavaScript alert()s to try and debug various JS breakage issues.
But if you are concerned about a very weird layout. Keep in mind that you will never see a normal CSS in those modes. UCMini is not a normal browser. It's a Firefox 10 proxy engine that will shrink your content into a single column, in a similar way Opera Mini does in single column view mode.
A couple good other helpful things to know about that browser's context:
The target screen size is 800x600. So in portrait, it shrinks it all to approximately 600px (in one column), and 800px in landscape. And due to the Firefox 3-10(ish) engine, CSS support is limited.
I could say about our experience (FareCompare.com). Nodejs consoles + Frontend (Dojo) alerts. That's all we could find for our few bugs.
P.S. Pay attention that UC is working in one page mode. As far as I know, it is impossible to open new tab there. window.open() works the same as location.replace( url ).

'Firebug' for iPad

I have a site that uses javascript to launch a css overlay of a google map (see [link deleted because I can only have one at a time] and click the 'Enlarge' button under the map).
This doesn't work on the ipad. I believe it has something to do with this not being a link, but using the jquery live('click',.. approach. I need to fix this but I'm new to using the ipad and I don't even know how to step through the javascript to see what the problem is.
What kind of development tools are available for testing on the ipad?
Edit: My mistake. The link above works fine in the iPad - no problem bringing up the larger map. However the sister site http://lowes-realty.com/Stateline-Plaza_Enfield_CT-11.aspx is not working. What I need is a development system that will let me look at them both on the ipad (I really want to avoid emulating or spoofing).
Have you tried firebug lite?
http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite#Install
Have you tested this in google chrome? As google chrome is a webkit browser, you may be able to do the majority of your debugging in chrome, and iron out smaller issues on the iPad itself.
Edit:
Removed unnecessary comment about iPad.
The problem ended up being that I had a javascript error that aborted the script before I ever got to the jQuery code. Once I fixed that, I was able to use jQuery without making any special modifications for the ipad - awesome! I did not have to do anything with the swipe or tap events (sweet!).
However I was not able to get any kind of javascript debugger; I had to work this one out for myself. As of Nov '09 firebug lite crashed the ipad for me and there don't seem to be any developer tools build for testing the ipad. I tried several sites that claimed to perform the same way the ipad does in your browser and not one of them held water.
I have no reason to believe that there is a good option for debugging a site on an ipad (yet).
Edit A Year Later... I'm still looking for a good way to develop on an iPad. I just got Adobe Shadow up and running - it's not actually a useful tool, but there is potential (http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-technology-sneaks-2012/adobe-shadow). Right now (3-29-12) the code inspector is essentially non-functional (cannot view inherited styles, can't view elements without expanding the DOM from the body element, no javascript debugging, and much more).
I know that sounds hopeless, but it has one thing going for it that nothing else I'm aware of does: Shadow works with all existing mobile devices and its code inspector is independent of device and browser. So although the inspector sucks spectacularly right now, once they build some functionality into it Shadow could be a good solution. From their site:
Shadow will be updated regularly to stay ahead of web standards, web
browser updates and support for new mobile devices entering the
market, while incorporating user feedback to provide the best
functionality and experience possible.
~ http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/shadow/
I think the problem is that on the iPhone / iPad there are no clicks events generated but instead touch events (swipe, tap).
You can use something like jQTouch (you can start reading here Getting started and then proceed to callback events hint: tap==click).
If you have more to adapt you can also look at (and wait for a stable release) of jQuery Mobile
weinre lets you remotely attach a WebKit inspector (the built-in Dev Tools you use on desktop browsers) to a page running on your mobile device (iPad/iPhone/iPod/Android/BlackBerry 6/webOS) over WiFi.
http://phonegap.github.com/weinre/images/weinre-demo.jpg
JavaScript debugging is limited to console.logs, but it's better than nothing.
If you have an ICS device, Chrome Mobile lets you remotely attach a full-featured Inspector (with full JS debugging/breakpoints) over USB. I've been thoroughly thrilled using this tool with my Galaxy Nexus.
(source: google.com)

What are the quickest and easiest ways to ensure existing web pages display well on mobile platforms?

The pages in question contain a lot of javascript and CSS. How well are these supported by mobile platforms generally?
Is there a browser emulator (or equivalent tool) to assist testing?
Opera has an option to view pages as through a mobile device. I've found it useful in the past.
I can tell you that Apple's Mobile Safari on the iPhone renders Stack Overflow perfectly, which I find rather amazing.
This is a site for programmers, not average users, so we accepted a lot of JavaScript dependencies.
I do wish more mobile devices had browsers as powerful as Mobile Safari. I hear good things about Opera Mini as well.
One example:
The standard BlackBerry browser on my BlackBerry 8130 (Pearl) seems to ignore both CSS and JavaScript when loading my home page.
I also installed Opera Mobile on this device, which renders the CSS but not my jQuery hover effects. It does understand some jQuery - for example, I have a form validation that does a show() of error messages if validation fails. That works in Opera, although without the animation effect.
The safest thing to do for mobile browsers is to design pages that degrade gracefully without JS or CSS. It's up to you whether that's worth the effort or not.
In a few years, hopefully the only rendering differences will be the screen size limits of the phones.
You can install Opera Mini on an emulator like the Java WTK and test mobile rendering on a PC. One drawback is that Opera Mini still works through a proxy, so debugging local files/sites won't work - you have to upload your site to a world-accessible server.
Just google it.
It depends entirely on the phone. If you want to support every single device out there, don't even bother with CSS or JavaScript since neither will work (or will do something completely non-standard) on 99% of devices. If you are only targeting high-end devices, like the iPhone or the latest Series 60 Nokias, you should be able to get away with limited JS and CSS.
Some browser emulators that I know of:
Openwave.
Nokia tools
There are many more manufacturers that simply do not have any tools at all (I dare you to try and find a developer site for LG) so you need to get access to the physical handsets if you want to be sure the site appears as it should.
DeviceAnywhere is a superb tool if you have the cash. It was extremely laggy the last time I used it about a year and a half ago. Plus it is pure Java so is a dog on any machine. But it is arguably the single best mobile development tool available and, believe you me, I've tried a lot.
BlackBerry devices with OS 4.5 or older will not handle Javascript or CSS very well, if at all. Devices with OS 4.6 and higher (Bold, Pearl Flip, Storm, etc..) come with a new rendering engine which has much better support for Javascript, DOM, and CSS. It's not perfect but it should render most pages quite well. You can download the BlackBerry simulator for these devices from their developer website and try it out. Since it runs the same code as on the actual device it's an excellent representation of what you can expect to see on-device.

Categories