How to build web application which will work fine for touch screen?

Question

What all possible support is there from open source world for building web based application for mobile/ipad touch screen?

I was going through http://jquerymobile.com/.. is it good plugin to develop web based application for mobile/ipad touch screens? Has any one used that..is it easy to customize?

what are the major challenges faced in using this?

Any other good tool/plugin for my development work?

Answer 1

We have used jQueryMobile as well as Sencha touch for developing web applications for touch screens.

Sencha Touch is the leading MVC-based JavaScript framework for building cross-platform mobile web applications. Sencha Touch leverages hardware acceleration techniques to provide high-performance UI components for mobile devices. New developers will appreciate the availability of Sencha Architect, a GUI tool that helps create interfaces as easy as drag and drop. 

Answer 2

PhoneGap is a framework to wrap your HTML5 app in a WebView, so you are able to deploy it like a native app. PhoneGap supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Bada, Symbian, Blackberry and WebOS.

Getting started with PhoneGap

jQuery Mobile is a Javascript framework for UI design of apps for mobile touch devices.

Getting started with jQuery Mobile

It is nice and easy to use for simple apps. jQuery Mobile is also themable and you can customize it with your own CSS.

If you want to deploy your web app as a native app in app stores, PhoneGap is the way to go, but you can also deploy your web app with jQuery Mobile UI on a web server, if you want it to be accessible online.

jQuery Mobile Docs:

PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows developers to author native applications with web technologies and get access to APIs and app stores. Applications are built as normal HTML pages and packaged up to run as a native application within a UIWebView or WebView (a chromeless browser, referred to hereafter as a webview).

PhoneGap Wiki:

jQuery Mobile: Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets

A unified user interface system across all popular mobile device platforms, built on the rock-solid jQuery and jQuery UI foundation. Its lightweight code is built with progressive enhancement, and has a flexible, easily themeable design.

Seriously cross-platform & cross-device

jQuery mobile framework takes the "write less, do more" mantra to the next level: Instead of writing unique apps for each mobile device or OS, the jQuery mobile framework will allow you to design a single highly branded and customized web application that will work on all popular smartphone and tablet platforms. Device support grid

Touch-optimized layouts & UI widgets

Our aim is to provide tools to build dynamic touch interfaces that will adapt gracefully to a range of device form factors. The system will include both layouts (lists, detail panes, overlays) and a rich set of form controls and UI widgets (toggles, sliders, tabs).

Answer 3

Phonegap is another option. Which works for several platforms