Spwire.com

2008-11-01 19:40:21iPhone WebApp Store

My newest project, still in the works is the iPhone WebApp Store. Basically a web based iPhone optimized directory of other Web Apps. There still seem to be a few bugs that will be worked out eventually as well as a few features that need to be added, but overall a very cool application. Unfortunately apple.com and appsafari.com seem to disagree. I have submitted the application to both websites and it seems neither would put it up. Now maybe I am jumping the gun, and they just have not gotten around to it yet, but I have a feeling that they both feel it's a threat to their own sites or site sections and don't want to directly enable any competition, or maybe its just a shitty application. Either way, I know I have at least 3 people that read my blog (me included) so hopefully they will get a little use out of the app since I put quite a bit of work into it.

Anyways, I was not making a Webapp Store with the intention of competing with any site, my only reasoning behind it was it needed to exist, whether I created this or apple made one.

So here is a list of whats coming.

• Further optimize the site for quicker loading
• Ability to post reviews
• Tell a Friend button
• Bug Fixes (mainly the window position bug where the window moves for no reason)
• Making the scrolling resemble native apps (if I can figure it out)

Update: Fixed the window position bug, cleaned up css, added a scrollbar, and added better buttons for the active state of the lower nav buttons. I also cleaned up the scrolling code, so you are less likely to hit a link while scrolling.

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2008-10-28 07:57:58Track Your Dominos Pizza Order From Your Iphone

Finished "Pizza Tracker" version 1.0 over the weekend. Random Iphone Web App for knowing exactly what is going on with your pizza. After you place an order with Dominos, launch "Pizza Tracker" and enter in your phone number. You will then receive a short description of your order as well as the progress of your pizza. When they started making your pizza, when they started cooking your pizza, how long the pizza sat on the rack, when your pizza left the store, and the name of the guy/girl delivering your pizza.

Coming In Version 2:

• Store Locator
• Ability To Save Location / Phone Number

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2008-10-11 20:55:52V.2 of ODOT Traffic Is Out.

So I said a month, ended up being a week. I figure since version 1 was such a hit, as you can tell by the feedback (1 comment from a friend, 0 dollars donated). I should hurry up and write a version 2. Actually, I just hacked out version one, and really wanted to get something cleaner up as soon as possible. Plus I was stoked to see version one as the featured "Travel App" on apples website and thought maybe this version would become the featured overall app since it was so packed with features that no other web apps out there had really taken advantage of. Ends up, it wasn't even cool enough to make "Staff Pick". I guess I don't know what people are really looking for. You can check it out at odot.spwire.com and decide for yourself.

Anyway, I knocked out version one in around 4 or 5 hours. But when it came out I was totally stoked to be the first one to take advantage of the full screen chromeless mode using the "apple-mobile-web-app-capable" tag. I even posted something about it on my last entry to let the world know how to implement it. Before, I posted that entry, searching for "apple-mobile-web-app-capable" on google led you to two dead ends. After posting it, within days, many people started writing tutorials about how to implemnt this feature, but did anyone give me credit. Nope. Lame, I say.

This version, uses even more little known features to web application developers including:

• A client side database for storing all the locations.
• Css Transforms via "-webkit-transform", this is cool because its hardware accelerated so its much smoother than just using "-webkit-transition".
• It also uses "-webkit-border-image" to create stretching top nav buttons. There is a tutorial about this on apple's website.
• To speed up page load time and decrease http requests, I also base64 encoded all the images and embedded them directly into the html & css.
• I also mimified the js, and the css.
• I also took advantage of the new javascript touch events. (notice how the window stay's in the same position when you slide your finger up or down, or how the header stays at the top and the footer stays at the bottom when you scroll the menu's.) More details on apple's website

I think thats about it, but still, the whole application is in my opinion, a breakthrough in iphone web apps.

With that, I wanted to kind of do a break through on how apple has progressed the web app development. Sorry if I get version numbers wrong but I don't feel like researching it.

• Version 1.0
• Apple says no native apps, just make web apps. Web apps kinda suck though because there is so much missing.
• Version 1.1.1
• Apple adds orientationchange javascript event
• Apple ads device-width and device-height options
• Version 1.1.3
• Apple adds the "apple-touch-icon" option.
• Version 2.0
• Apple adds the following events (touchstart, touchmove, touchend, touchcancel, gesturestart, gesturechange).
• Apple adds "apple-touch-icon-precomposed" so the effects don't get added to the home screen icon.
• Javascript Database functionality.
• Version 2.1
  • "apple-mobile-web-app-capable" to allow for a chromeless application, and "apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" to allow for status bar configurations. ("default", "black-translucent", "black")

Somewhere else along the way, they added css-transitions and somewhere later they added css transforms. I think this covers the major features new features.

What is still missing for perfect web apps.

• CACHING, the caching on the iphone is crap. If an app is ran from the home screen, it will never be cached. If it is ran via safari, chances of the app being cached are highly unlikely. There are strict restrictions. All files must be under 25k, no more than 9 files will be cached. (im not sure if 9 is correct) and still it seems to suck.
• More access to iphone features (GPS, Camera, Accelerometer).

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