Home > Articles > Mobile Application Development & Programming

This chapter is from the book

Mobile Themes

XPages comes with mobile theme support for iOS and Android devices. As explained earlier, you can configure a mobile theme for use with your mobile XPages by identifying those pages using a special prefix (typically m_). The default mobile theme is called Mobile default. When this option is selected, the appropriate theme is automatically selected for you, that is, the theme named iPhone (because of historical reasons) for iOS device or the theme named Android for Android devices. Each theme can cause mobile styles to be applied to selected controls, which give them a native look and feel when they are rendered on a mobile device. You can select an alternative theme for mobile pages—for example, selecting the OneUI IDX v1.3 mobile theme provides a consistent look and feel between all mobile devices accessing your application. You can also define your own mobile theme; if, for example, you wanted to have you own look and feel irrespective of the mobile device. You can also specify separate themes for iOS and Android devices; again, this flexibility works if your application has its own branding. If you want to switch the style based on the device, you need to add logic within the theme. This is how the One UI theme works, and this will be further explored later in this section. For more detailed information on themes and how to create your own, refer to Chapter 16, “XPages Theming.”

Mobile styling is provided for all the mobile XPages controls and the following Extension Library controls:

  • Data View (xe:dataView)
  • Outline (xe:outline)
  • Form Table (xe:formTable)

The XPage name m_mobileTheme in the sample database that accompanies this chapter includes pages with all these controls.

Data View

The Data View control is the alternative to using a regular View Panel control for mobile XPages. The Data View control optimizes the display of the rows of data it displays. Figure 14.12 shows a Data View configured to display the contents of a Domino view. Notice that it efficiently uses the available space. Also, rather than using a traditional pager, it retrieves extra rows on demand and allows the user to scroll through all the retrieved rows.

Figure 14.12

Figure 14.12 Data View versus View Panel

The Data View control can also navigate to another page within the singe page application to display the document associated with a row in the view. As shown in Listing 14.18, this is achieved by setting the pageName property to the hash tag value of the application page to open.

Listing 14.18 Data View Application Page

<xe:appPage id="dataViewPage" pageName="dataViewPage">
  <xe:djxmHeading back="Home" moveTo="controlsPage">
    <xe:this.label>Data View</xe:this.label>
  </xe:djxmHeading>
  <xe:dataView id="dataView1" rows="10"
    pageName="#formTablePage">
    <xe:this.data>
      <xp:dominoView var="view1" viewName="CarMakes">
      </xp:dominoView>
    </xe:this.data>
    <xp:this.facets>
      <xp:link text="Show More" escape="true"
        xp:key="pagerBottom" id="link1">
        <xp:eventHandler event="onclick"
          submit="false">
          <xp:this.script>
            <xe:addRows for="dataView1"
              rowCount="10">
            </xe:addRows>
          </xp:this.script>
        </xp:eventHandler>
      </xp:link>
    </xp:this.facets>
    <xe:this.summaryColumn>
      <xe:viewSummaryColumn columnName="CarMake">
      </xe:viewSummaryColumn>
    </xe:this.summaryColumn>
  </xe:dataView>
</xe:appPage>

Outline

The Outline control was introduced earlier in the chapter as a way to provide navigation within your Mobile application. Figure 14.13 shows the difference between the mobile and web styling. When used in a mobile XPage, the Outline control supports expanding and collapsing of nodes, which makes it suitable providing an application menu.

Figure 14.13

Figure 14.13 Outline with mobile and web styling

Form Table

The Form Table control is a useful container when you design data entry or display forms. The Form Table has a title and description displayed above the rows of data. Each row in the table has a label and one or more controls to display the row data. Figure 14.14 shows the difference in how the Form Table is styled for a mobile device or desktop web browser. If you inspect the DOM for the two pages, you’ll notice that for a desktop web browser a table is used, but for a mobile browser, the Form Table Rows are created as div elements with appropriate styling. HTML tables are not a good choice for laying out content when you have limited screen real estate and should be avoided. The common problem when using HTML tables on mobile devices is that they result in excess whitespace, which wastes the valuable device real estate.

Figure 14.14

Figure 14.14 Form Table with mobile and web styling

So now you’ve seen what you get for free for the default mobile themes, but what about the rest of the controls? The next section looks at the options for styling XPages controls.

Styling XPages Controls for Mobile Applications

Standard XPages controls don’t automatically change their styling when displayed as part of a mobile page using the standard mobile themes. So how do you style a standard XPages control so that it appears well on a mobile device? There are a number of approaches you can use. Take a button as an example use case and explore these options. Listing 14.19 shows an application page with five buttons, and Figure 14.15 shows how they display on a mobile device. The first button (lines 5 through 6) has no styling applied, and if you look at how this is displayed, you’ll see it’s not a good fit for what you would expect on a mobile device. That is, it’s too small and the styling looks out of place. The second button (lines 7 through 8) has the styleClass set to mblButton, and this causes it to display well on a mobile device. This is a style class that is provided by the mobile theme. Ideally, this is all you would have to do, but unfortunately this is not the case because the style class is different between iOS and Android devices. The third button (lines 9 through 10) shows how to use the Android version of the mobile button style class. So what if you target multiple devices? One option, which is shown in the fourth button (lines 1 through 15) is to compute the appropriate style class to use based on the information from the device bean. This works but is awkward to use. What happens if you use Dojo and your buttons have a dojoType attribute set? This use case is shown in the fifth button (lines 16 through 17) and again no styling is applied so you have work to do, or do you?

Figure 14.15

Figure 14.15 Buttons with mobile styling

Listing 14.19 Button Mobile Styling

1.  <xe:appPage id="buttonPage" pageName="buttonPage">
2.    <xe:djxmHeading back="Home" moveTo="controlsPage">
3.      <xe:this.label>Button</xe:this.label>
4.    </xe:djxmHeading>
5.    <xp:button value="Standard" id="button1">
6.    </xp:button>
7.    <xp:button value="Mobile" id="button2" styleClass="mblButton">
8.    </xp:button>
9.    <xp:button value="Android" id="button3" styleClass="mblButton_
android">
10.   </xp:button>
11.   <xp:button value="Dynamic" id="button4">
12.     <xp:this.styleClass>
13. <![CATA[#{javascript:deviceBean.isAndroid() ? "mblButton_android" :
"mblButton" }]]>
14.     </xp:this.styleClass>
15.   </xp:button>
16.   <xp:button value="Dojo" id="button5" dojoType="dijit.form.
Button">
17.   </xp:button>
18.   <br />
19.   deviceBean.isIphone=
20.   <xp:text value="#{javascript:deviceBean.isIphone()}" />
21.   <br />
22.   deviceBean.isAndroid=
23.   <xp:text value="#{javascript:deviceBean.isAndroid()}" />
24.   <br />
25. </xe:appPage>

If instead of using the default mobile theme, you switch to using One UI the situation changes. Figure 14.16 shows how the same five buttons display when the One UI theme is selected as the mobile them in the XPages Properties. So now things look much better; the standard and Dojo buttons both display well without having had to make any changes. This is the ideal situation; you can just add standard XPages controls and have them display well on mobile devices automatically.

Figure 14.16

Figure 14.16 Buttons with mobile styling using One UI

So how does this work? If you inspect the DOM of the mobile page, you can notice that the standard and Dojo buttons are rendered in the page with the style class set to mblButton mblPrimaryButton. So these style classes are added automatically to all buttons that are rendered when the One UI theme is used. Listing 14.20 shows an extract from the One UI theme file (oneui_idx_v1.3.theme). You can see the One UI theme specifies the lotusBtn style class is specified for buttons.

Listing 14.20 One UI Button Theme

<!-- Basic Button -->
<control>
  <name>Button</name>
  <property>
    <name>styleClass</name>
    <value>lotusBtn</value>
  </property>
</control>

However, this isn’t the full story. There is another theme file used by One UI that is associated with the mobile renderers; this file is called oneui_idx_v1.3_mobile_renderers_fragment.theme. If you look at the contents of this file, you will see additional styling configuration, and it is here you see the mobile style classes applied, as demonstrated in Listing 14.21.

Listing 14.21 One UI Button Mobile Theme

<!-- Command Button -->
<control>
  <name>Button.Command</name>
  <property>
    <name>styleClass</name>
    <value> mblButton mblPrimaryButton</value>
  </property>
</control>

Using One UI is a good option if you want to have your applications display with a consistent look and feel and to automatically display well on mobile devices. It is recommended that you consider using OneUI by default when developing mobile applications, or indeed create your own theme in preference to adding lots of conditional styling logic within your XPages. Next, look at what to do when things go wrong when you develop a Mobile XPages application.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020