Fluidic Sliding Panels – Auto adjust to any device screen without browser refresh

Let’s talk about creating a sliding panel system that adjusts automatically to any screen size or rather any device resolution. The sliding is implemented using CSS3 Transitions and I have targeted only webkit based browsers. So the app will run on any iOS, Android devices including computer browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari. If you have seen a Sencha Touch app which uses a nested list or the sliding animated panels then you must have noticed that the same app adjusts itself to any screen size as well as the portrait and landscape mode. So our demo will do the same. I have a very simple implementation of auto adjusting sliding panels.

In one of my previous tutorials I talked on the same Sliding Panel concept but the problem was that it did not auto adjust. If you check the demo on Google Chrome you will notice that only first time the app adjusts itself to the window width and height. Now resize Chrome on your computer and check– the app goes haywire isn’t it. Same thing will happen if you check the app in a mobile webkit browser and go from portrait to landscape mode or vice versa. The content you are looking is cut off. You have to refresh Chrome again to adjust the app. Now look at the new demo below,

New Demo link – http://rialab.jbk404.site50.net/fluidicslidingpanels/ (the demo is specifically meant for webkit based browsers)

Open it in the same Google Chrome browser and resize it. You will notice all the contents auto adjusts and even the sliding is now bounded to the new window size. So, by now you must have got an idea of what I am trying to communicate.

360 degree car rotation – common code for mobiles and computer browsers

I had been updating my examples and tutorials off  lately and trying to create a more general approach to application development – Write a single app that runs in mobile browsers as well as computer browsers. Following the same approach, this time I am updating one of my previous tutorials – 360 Degree Car/Product rotation for iPhones. So, I worked on a 36o degree car rotation code that runs in both mobile and desktop browsers.

This tutorial is an update to my previous one, I also present a new demo. I will not go into the details, which I have talked about in my previous tutorial. Have a look at the demo, open it in either an iOS browser or a computer web-kit browser.

Link: http://jbk404.site50.net/360DegreeView/mobile/common.html

360 degree car rotation in mobile safari

What are the changes?

All the changes are in the javascript code. I have introduced a device detection mechanism and then automatically assign either touch events (for mobiles) or mouse events (for computer browsers). These are the same changes that I have recently talked of in my last post – Replicating the iPhone Swipe Gesture — common code for mobiles and computer browsers. That should help you out.

Other than that just try the example link in a computer web-kit browser – Chrome/Safari or an iOS device browser which is also a web-kit browser. Android devices need some changes and the same code might not work. I have talked on this in my previous post.

For the code, right click to view the source.

How to detect the orientation of device at page load – iPhone

This is one situation which baffles me sometimes and I face this one regularly while developing mobile web apps – I want to know whether the device is held in portrait or landscape mode when the page first loads and then based on the result I change the look n feel. Remember landscape mode of the device is more wider and the screen width increases, so does the viewport width so you have to adjust your page layout accordingly.

360 degree Car/Product view for mobile web – iPhone

I thought of writing this post due to increasing number of search queries that I found out on my site stats. A 360 degree product view for mobile web is important now as lot of manufacturers are starting to move towards mobile web apps for displaying their products.
In two of my earlier posts I have already talked about a 360 degree product view for desktop browsers with examples – post 1, post2. For the 360 degree to run on a mobile browser I had to make some adjustments – make the sprite much smaller in size, add touch gestures. The rest of the concept is same. So, in this post I will talk on how to make the 360 degree for iOS devices (iPhone,iPod and iPads).
I have already discussed about the core concept of changing the position of the background image (sprite image) with the movement of the mouse in my earlier posts. And how it detects the distance moved and the direction of movement and based on that the car is rotated. So I will not go into it once again. You can refer my earlier tutorial. I will just talk a little on the touch gestures and how to convert the already developed example (from my earlier post) so that now it listens to finger gestures on the mobile device.
Before moving further you deserve a demo, open the following link in your iOS device browser and drag your finger over the car.

Demo link: http://jbk404.site50.net/360DegreeView/mobile/

360 degree car rotation in mobile safari