CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iphoneipadios4
Alex Terente
Alex Terente

Reputation: 12036

How do iPad "Magazines" work?

How are the magazines apps built?

For example Popular Science, Auto Trends and PARIS MATCH

I want to build an app like this. But how do these app render the content? How does the app know where a video goes, a photo, a scroll view and so on?

Is there any library to use? Is there an easy way to do this or do I need my own engine that renders the content?

Is just an UIWebView that loads HTML5, CSS and JavaScript or is much more than that?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 850

Answers (2)

donkim
donkim

Reputation: 13137

Just as a thought exercise, I'd like to jot down some ideas and approaches to this. Note that I haven't actually tried using any of these magazine apps extensively, these are just some random thoughts.

To create a truly successful iPad magazine, you're going to need to do a few key things. One, you're going to have to create an interface and interaction model that works well with magazines. Knowing when to show big images, knowing how to create background images, knowing when to scroll, using gestures in a thoughtful way... Two, you're going to need to create tools that make it easy for content creators to create pages. There should be an easy way to mock something up, throw it onto an iPad, and see how it looks and feels. Three, you're going to... I don't know, think of the little things, like subscriptions and security, etc.

Going with the second thought, making it easy to create content... You would want some format that designers can easily grasp and that can be translated for your app. Say, for example, you use HTML. It's easy for designers to understand and start working with right away. You could define a limited set of HTML elements and attributes, and some CSS classes for the designers to use. You would then write a parser that parses these designs and translates them to a native format for the iPad. For example, let's say contents within an iframe are to be scrollable. You'd take the text within the iframe and create a UIScrollView out of it with text and images within it. You could create a mockup app that pulls HTML from a website -- designers can create the pages, put them on the website, and test what it'd look like on the iPad.

Sounds like this could be a fun project to work on. :)

Upvotes: 2

surajz
surajz

Reputation: 3611

I think easiest way is to serve a different html or html5 page for iPad device. Use safari extension to change the browser look. Package the browser somehow.

You can also use UIWebview to display the html content in a custom shell

Upvotes: 1

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