Customer Reviews

Mobile Web Development: Building mobile websites, SMS and MMS messaging, mobile payments, and automated voice call systems with XHTML MP, WCSS, and mobile AJAX

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This is a quick and effective introduction to developing websites specifically targeted at mobile device users. I say "users" for a reason -- one of the strongest advantages to the book is a strong focus on considering your user and their needs as a key element of mobile web development.

My overall reaction to this book was positive. It covers a wide variety of key issues for mobile web programming in an easily understood manner. The book is targeted primarily at developers who already have some experience at web development and design, so it doesn't delve into any serious detail when it comes to server-side programming or HTML coding, but instead makes a point of emphasizing places where the mobile web is different from internet interaction on a desktop device.

Mehta goes out of his way on many occasions to emphasize the serious importance of considering who (and what!) will be using your mobile web application.

"Any website accessed from a mobile device is mobile web -- whether it's been tailored to work on a mobile or not!" (Mobile Web Development, Nirav Mehta, page 10)

The book covers a wide range of issues -- from developing for mobile devices using a "lowest common denominator" plan to implementing highly dynamic mobile applications which adapt automatically to the device currently in use. The text is easy to understand and follows a logical progression, starting with the mobile web development practices which are most similar to the development of standard web applications before moving into the areas which are very specifically targeted towards mobile devices.

Mehta instructs about coding for cellphones, covering topics ranging from GUI development to accessing a database server.

If you already have experience writing GUIs for desktop or web applications, then the GUI part of the text should be dead simple. Of necessity, there is a severely constrained graphic environment on the cellphone. It is good, in the sense that you don't have much to learn, and almost certainly, the complexity of your GUI should be low. Of course, the tradeoff is this very constraint. You are very limited in the images and widgets you can display. Back to basics, one might say.

Hopefully, you'd have dealt with database schema and designs in other contexts. The text's coverage of this is somewhat abbreviated. Enough is given for the book's main example to be nontrivial. But this is not a database book; just keep it in mind.

Payment is a no-doubt germane issue for some developers. The text describes how eBay's Paypal can be used for billing purposes.

The other interesting topic in the book is a brief explanation of Interactive Voice Response systems. Since after all, the user can talk into her cellphone. Just as for databases, IVRs have their own complexity, hinted at here.

I am doing mostly Java, PHP, RoR development. Has never done any mobile web development before. To cater my curiocity of furture mobile we, I ordered this book using 2 day shipping. I was woundering why this book didn't have a cent of discount. Now I know why, it is a great book which worths all the money.

I read it from beginning to end in 6 hours. I simply could not stop. It covers most important aspect of mobile web development. Now I am very anxious to try build a mobile version of my website.

Examples in the book are deep enough and very easy to understand.

I highly recommend this book