Introduction to JQuery Mobile

Introduction

jQuery Mobile is a user interface framework based on jQuery that works across all popular phones, tablet, e-reader, and desktop platforms. Built with accessibility and universal access in mind, we follow progressive enhancement and responsive web design (RWD) principles. HTML5 Markup-driven configuration makes it easy to learn, but a powerful API makes it easy to deeply customize the library.

Pages & Dialogs

A page in jQuery Mobile consists of an element with a data-role="page" attribute. Within the "page" container, any valid HTML markup can be used, but for typical pages in jQuery Mobile, the immediate children of a "page" are divs with data-roles of "header", "content", and "footer". The baseline requirement for a page is only the page wrapper to support the navigation system, the rest is optional.

A page can be styled as a dialog that makes the page look like it's a modal style overlay. To give a standard page the appearance of a modal dialog, add the data-rel="dialog" attribute to the link. Transitions can also be set on dialog links.

AJAX Navigation & Transitions

jQuery Mobile includes an AJAX navigation system to support a rich set of animated page transitions by automatically 'hijacking' standard links and form submissions and turning them into an AJAX request. The back button is fully supported and there are features to prefetch & cache, dynamically inject, and script pages for advanced use cases.

Whenever a link is clicked or a form is submitted, that event is automatically intercepted by the AJAX nav system and is used to issue an AJAX request based on the href or form action instead of reloading the page. While the framework waits for the AJAX response, a loader overlay is displayed.

When the requested page loads, jQuery Mobile parses the document for an element with the data-role="page"attribute and inserts that code into the DOM of the original page. Next, any widgets in the incoming page are enhanced to apply all the styles and behavior. The rest of the incoming page is discarded so any scripts, stylesheets or other information will not be included. The framework will also note the title of the incoming page to update the title when the new page is transitioned into view.

Now that the requested page is in the DOM and enhanced, it is animated into view with a transition. By default, the framework applies a fade transition. To set a custom transition effect, add the data-transition attribute to the link.