Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group News

A new extension to the W3C mobileOK open source library is available that can be used to validate pages served via the file URI scheme. The W3C mobileOK open source Java library has been developed in such a way that it is very easy to extend. We strongly encourage people to extend this library so that a better infrastructure is provided to designers for creating mobile-friendly content.

The mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Checker library provides a reference implementation of the tests specified in the W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0. This scheme requires that pages are served via HTTP protocol, however there might be some cases where validating pages that are stored locally would be useful. Therefore, this new extension has been created and can be used to validate pages served via file URI scheme. The extension is designed and implemented in a way that does not affect the basic reference implementation. It is also important to note that validating pages only with this extension does not guarantee that the page is mobileOK as some tests require HTTP connection. This extension has to be used in-coordination with the W3C mobileOK Checker and does not replace the core mobileOK library.

If you want to use this extension with the main library then you need to download and install it.

A technical documentation explains in detail how this extension can be installed and used.

This extension has been developed as part of the UK EPSRC funded RIAM (Reciprocal Interoperability of Accessible and Mobile Webs) project with the help of the Mobile Web Best Practices Checker Task Force.

In the past few months, the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has been pursuing its work on best practices to ease the development of Mobile Web Applications. A third working draft of the Mobile Web Application Best Practices document was published a few days ago.

The set of best practices is not meant to be definitive. That said, the working group believes the document to be fairly stable and does not anticipate major changes based on internal discussions. That is precisely why the working group is eagerly looking for your feedback on the document. Are you a Web Application author with some background in mobile technologies? Are you aware of techniques that should be mentioned in the document? Do you think that one of the best practices look harmful in some case? The group would be glad to hear your comments and update the document consequently!

To provide feedback, simply send an email to the public public-bpwg-comments@w3.org mailing-list (archives) or get in touch with me.

The best practices statements are organized around six axes:

• Application data on using and managing a Web application's data
• Security and Privacy on using and protecting all personally identifiable information
• User Awareness and Control on communicating the hidden behavior of a Web application to end users and allowing them to control it
• Conservative Use of Resources on making sure that the impact of a Web application is as low as possible in a world of constraints
• User Experience on keeping differentiation in mind while developing for mobile devices
• Handling Device Capability Variation on detecting devices capability to provide as good a user experience as possible on a broad range of devices

A bit before the end of 2008, the Mobile Web Best Practices working group published an updated draft of the Mobile Web Application Best Practices document. The best practices are still incomplete, some may disappear in the future, others may be added, the appropriate level of expertise still needs to be adjusted, but the document already provides an overview of the different areas that are being considered by the working group.

The working group is seeking feedback on the best practices, and in particular on:

• techniques for securing personal data on mobile devices, and the relative impacts of using HTTPS and other techniques, see Use HTTPS when Exchanging User Credentials.
• an example "Safe EVAL" algorithm that can be included in the document, or a publicly available library that can be referenced, see Use a Safe EVAL for JSON Datafeeds
• best/most-commonly used tools to minimize the size of a Web application, see Minimize application size.
• the relative impacts of Web application activities on battery life, see Use Power-Efficient Methods.
• the use of techniques aimed at separating out Javascript and CSS that are rarely used, and in particular the use of iframe on devices, see Separate Rarely Used Functionality
• specific SVG best practices, see SVG.

The working group hopes it can move forward relatively quickly on this document so that it becomes stable by mid-2009.

Looking forward for your feedback on the public-bpwg-comments@w3.org public mailing-list! (with public archive).