Removing JQuery Mobile from App Designer

[Intel_C_16]

Hi,

I was wondering why Intel is planning to retire the usage of jQuery Mobile in the App Designer. I don't understand that move. Despite upcoming frameworks such as Angular or Ionic the fact remains that jQuery is by far the most widely used Javascript framework. Also please note that jQuery Mobile version 1.5 will soon come out as Beta as well as the recent release of Jquery 3 Beta. I hope you will reconsider and keep it in App Designer.

Thanks

[Nick_F_2]

Out of curiosity where did you find this information.

[Chris_P_Intel · Accepted solution]

The Design tool supports several different frameworks.  jQueryMobile will continue to be supported for projects that have already been built with it, but will be dropped for new project creation sometime in the future.  We decided to drop several frameworks (JQM, Ratchet and TopCoat) because the frameworks were not being updated or supported.  JQM hasn't been updated in a year and a half.

They made a blog post recently saying that jQueryMobile has not been abandoned: http://blog.jquerymobile.com/  .  If, in fact, JQM is not being abandoned, then we can revisit this. If users really want JQM support, we don't have to drop it. 

JQM may be a popular framework, but it is very Javascript intense and hard to work with.  Though, in fairness, a similar criticism can be made of Ionic which is tightly tied to Angular - it is more an of Angular framework than an HTML one.  Personally, I think users are best served by using Twitter Bootstrap or Framework 7. 

[Thepjday_A_]

Absolutely, we want JQuery Mobile. It has by far the most complete set of widgets that are cross-browser compatible and degrade gracefully. The others are nice but they fall short in one aspect or another.

Yes, JQM uses a lot of resources. But for those of us that are crafting for the high end devices, this is the ideal environment.

JQM just happens to have a long beta cycle when they bring out a new version in order to make sure that they have not missed anything.

If you look at their release cycle, it has been like this before with 1.3.x series before they jumped to 1.4.x.

Also, to help you guys out, I crafted a patch for the select-menu in the App Designer that makes an incorrect tag (class+"wide-control" instead of class="wide-control" - which the XDK parser renders as class="" "wide-control'="").

Unfortunately, that patch was rejected due to JQM being deprecated.

I have stuck to XDK BECAUSE it provides me with a CHOICE to use Bootstrap and Twitter when it makes sense to do so, and JQM when it makes sense to do so and so on.

Please keep JQM. Happy to help add/update widgets to AppDesigner if you have the docs on how to do so.

Thanks.

P.S. The Absolute Positioning feature is KILLER. Oh - and Formual7 - in Android - footers fail miserably unless you use iOS mode.

[Chris_P_Intel]

>> Unfortunately, that patch was rejected due to JQM being deprecated.

That would not be the case.  I have recently included fixes for Ratchet, which is also deprecated.  More likely a ticket was opened and simply not worked yet.  I'll check and if there isn't one, I'll open it.

I am not convinced that JQM development hasn't stalled completely. However, their forums do seem to have participation, so that suggests its not entirely dead yet.  I'll consult with with my peers.

[Thepjday_A_]

It is June 25. My patch has not appeared in v3400. I submitted the patch back on March 27. The new versions of the file have a different error in the same file with the same result. I will rework my patch against v3400 and submit it.

[Thepjday_A_]

I have submitted the same patch for v3400. Please find it at this URL: https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-xdk/topic/622179#comment-1876400

[Thepjday_A_]

https://forum.jquery.com/jquery-mobile/ is active even as for a few hours ago.

They also have IRC as listed here -  http://jquerymobile.com/about/

[Thepjday_A_]

Here is another patch for the sidebar.js file.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-xdk/topic/646352

[Thepjday_A_]

Any updates on this topic or the patches referenced herein?

I am seeing the yellow triangle in the XDK tool stating JQM is not being supported or developed. This is an invalid statement - I am looking for confirmation that you have also been able to ascertain the same.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Thepjday -- our deprecation notice means that the XDK is no longer developing for or supporting the use of jQuery Mobile as an App Designer framework. It does not mean that jQuery Mobile is no longer in development. We simply have found that jQuery Mobile is not an optimum solution for use with App Designer and will no longer support its use as an App Designer UI framework. You can always build your own app and layout using jQuery Mobile by hand, you just cannot use it within App Designer.

[Thepjday_A_]

Is it possible to extend and maitain a module/add-on/plug-in that will allow me to continue to use the app designer with jqm myself ? This is the only tool that allows me to do jqm layouts properly for the larger elements. I have also been reading about the improvements in the jqm markup that are speeding things up. Also, there is much activity in their git hub. I can use an older version of xdk if needed except that you have started preventing logins of earlier versions even if I am not using the xdk build process. E.g. I can no longer login to use the app designer in 1912 even if I do not use the builder. 1912 was the last version that allowed live layout editing of Cordova apps. Thanks https://github.com/jquery/jquery-mobile/commits/master

[Thepjday_A_]

I would also direct your attention to the April 11 post by the Intel team stating the reason was lack of updates and support. Jqm is doing updates and support. Jqm v1.4.5 supports jquery up to v2.1.1. Jqm v1.5 has regular commits. Can you please comment on what is driving your decisioning? Especially since before it was about support and updates. Now that I have pointed out both are in progress, what is the new rationale?

[Thepjday_A_]

I would like to broker a meeting between the Intel XDK team and the JQuery Mobile team.

I think it would provide a lot more clarity on market share, direction and future functionality for JQuery Mobile and for Intel XDK to provide more information on where they are hoping things will go.

I spoke to the JQuery Mobile lead today and he informed me that the main reason for the long delay in JQuery Mobile 1.5 was the upstream dependency on JQuery UI 1.12 which is still in RC status. He has also informed of the future material design changes coming and I'm sure there are lots of other items.

I also mentioned the sub-page concept that the Intel XDK allows for and asked him if it would be worth exploring real JQM transitions for pages like that and on perhaps incorporating the sub-page concept in the JQM Mainline.

Alexander is happy to meet with you guys. I would very much like this meeting to happen.

We should invite anyone else that has an interest. I would hate for the JQM to be taken out of the App Designer just because the right information wasn't provided to the XDK team and it really shouldn't happen in a vacuum. It would be helpful for the XDK team to hear from the community perhaps in the form of a blog or a forum topic.

Please let me know how you wish to proceed.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Thepjday -- we have limited engineering resources to dedicate to the support of the various UI frameworks in App Designer. Thus, we've had to make some tough decisions regarding which UI frameworks App Designer will support going forward. --Paul

[Thepjday_A_]

Is it possible for me to maintain the JQM portion of App Designer on my own and use it with the XDK? Sort-of like a plugin of sorts?

I understand you may have no use for it or desire to use it. But if I were do something like that and put it up on GitHub, others might find it useful.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

It won't be possible to maintain the JQM part of App Designer, but you can certainly take the CSS and HTML that App Designer has written and turn it into a manually built UI that you then continue to work with in a non-AD app. The JQM design element will remain in the product, for a while, even after the ability to start an app with JQM disappears, but I'm not sure how long it will remain. So it might be best to try and convert your layout to something you can maintain manually, without AD. Everything your layout needs is in your project, it's just the use of the AD layout tool for editing a design based on JQM that will disappear.

[Jamal_A_]

I use JQM without AD and it works fine.

The AD was messing up the code.

BTW, this is the JQM readmap is here: https://jquerymobile.com/roadmap/

[Yahya_H__Alameer]

JQM must be back to intel XDK tool.

[Kaick_A_]

Por favor voltem com o JQuery M. para o intel XDK, pois para nós que estamos aprendendo é mais estimulante ter mais ferramentas para o desenvolvimento, confesso que fiquei desanimado com o XDK por conta disso, pois a comunidade não está sendo ouvida e é desmotivante saber que a qualquer momento pode sair outro recurso, aí o desenvolvedor se prepara, estuda, aprende novas linguagens e no fim não pode aplicar seus conhecimentos livremente por causa da remoção de conteúdo e recursos.