RWD and beyond

follow along at:
g-liu.com/live

Hi, I'm Geoffrey

UW Comp. Sci, c/o 2016
1st time TA for 154
Previously: ASUW Webmaster
I love front-end web dev!

Overview

Responsive web design
Website performance
Cross-browser compatibility
Add'l topics if time permits

Do it live!

Open up http://codepen.io

Responsive web design

responsive (adj.)

reacting quickly and positively
answering

Examples

http://mediaqueri.es/

RWD techniques

Media queries
"Responsive" properties
Reset/normalization
JavaScript? yes, but cumbersome

The meta viewport tag

So that everything scales correctly

Put this on your web page!

In-depth explanation on MDN

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />

Media queries

Important media types

Type	Description
`all`	All devices (default)
`handheld`	Handheld devices (typically small screen, monochrome, limited bandwidth).
`print`	Paged, opaque material and for documents viewed on screen in print preview mode.
`projection`	Projected presentations, for example projectors or print to transparencies.
`screen`	Color computer screens
`tv`	Television devices (low resolution, color, limited-scrollability screens, sound available).

CSS3 properties

Property	What it does
`min-height`	Sets the element's minimum displayed height
`min-width`	Sets the element's minimum displayed width
`max-height`	Sets the element's maximum displayed height
`max-width`	Sets the element's maximum displayed width

Constrain image to browser window

CSS3 units

Unit	Description
`vh`	% of viewport's height
`vw`	% of viewport's width
`vmin`	% of min(height, width)
`vmax`	% of max(height width)

Simple demo

https://css-tricks.com/viewport-sized-typography/

Try these queries

@media        and (          :???) { }

screen

projection

handheld

braille

min-width

max-width

min-height

max-height

min-device-pixel-ratio

min-resolution

orientation

Resources

Website performance

Connecting to a server takes time!

How can we reduce this time?

Why do we care?

Survey of techniques

Asset compression
Image optimization
HTTP request reduction
Caching
Serving from a CDN

Asset compression

Purge unnecessary characters

#main p {
    font-size: 16pt;
    margin-bottom: 0px;
}

#main p{font-size:16pt;margin-bottom:0;}

cssminifier.com

Works with JavaScript too

var mySuperCoolVariable = 3;
mySuperCoolVariable *= Math.random() * 10;

/* Set the value of the input form */
var userDisplayForm = document.getElementById("display");
userDisplayForm.value = mySuperCoolVariable;

var m=3;
m*=Math.random()*10;
var u=document.getElementById("display");
u.value=m;

http://marijnhaverbeke.nl//uglifyjs

HTML?

Yes! (but less common. Why?)

<article id="post-3801">
    <h1>First post</h1>
    
    <p>Just setting up my blog</p>
</article>

<article id="post-3801"><h1>First post</h1><p>Just setting up my blog</p></article>

PHP?

Don't need to. (Why?)

Optimize images

700 kB

250 kB

Can you tell the difference?

Reducing image weight

Ensure right size (no bigger than displayed)
Compress the image

Potentially HUGE performance improvements!

compressor.io

In the real world

Done automatically
- Ruby on Rails
- WordPress thumbnails
Preprocessors
Development vs. production modes

Caveat: can be affected by server, client connection, traffic, etc.

HTTP request reduction

header.css

main.css

footer.css

mobile.css

print.css

bigkahuna.css

Merge CSS assets

0.8kB

4.9kB

1.1kB

1.8kB

0.4kB

9.0kB

setup.js

keyboard.js

ie6-support.js

Merge JS assets

bigkahuna.js

2.1kB

5.6kB

82kB

89.7kB

Put images in one file

...and use CSS/JS to "split up"
Also known as sprite sheets
Good for UI controls, groups of related images
Not as common in 2015

In the real world (again)

Done automatically
Development vs. production
NB: Browsers can request assets async

Caching

Save expensive calculations

<li>
<?php
  $db = new PDO(...);
  $db->query("SELECT * FROM games
              WHERE ...");
  $rows = $db->fetchAll();

  foreach ($rows as $row) :
  ?>
  
  <li><?= $row['name']; ?></li>

<?php endforeach; ?>
</li>

<ul>
    <li>Angry Birds</li>
    <li>Minecraft</li>
    <li>Halo 4</li>
    <li>...</li>
</ul>

First visit

Second visit

Third visit

Fourth visit

...

getGames.php

getGames-cached-201505110838.html

Many implementations

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Client

Server

Linking from a CDN

<script src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/backbone.js/1.2.0/backbone-min.js"></script>

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.4/css/bootstrap.min.css"
    type="text/css"
    rel="stylesheet" />

Cross-browser compatibility

Perfect world

Well-written specs for:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript
- SVG
- ...
All browsers follow spec
Developers are happy
People are happy

Real world

W3C makes standards
Browsers:
- don't follow standard
- add/substitute
- have bugs in impl.
Developers are unhappy
People are unhappy

Case study: CSS3 filters

http://codepen.io/g-liu/pen/QbKKgo?editors=110

Support: http://caniuse.com/#feat=css-filters

Spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/filter-effects/

img {
  /* Remove one of these lines and
   * try on different browsers */
  -webkit-filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
  filter: hue-rotate(90deg);
}

CSS Gradients

/* Even worse! */
.foo {
  background-color: red; /* fallback */
  background-image: url(fallback-gradient.svg); /* IE9 */
  background-image:
    -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, from(red), to(#f06d06)); /* old webkit */
  background-image:
    -webkit-linear-gradient(left, red, #f06d06); /* newer webkit */
  background-image:
    -moz-linear-gradient(left, red, #f06d06); /* old FF */
  background-image:
    -o-linear-gradient(left, red, #f06d06); /* old Opera */
  background-image:
    linear-gradient(to right, red, #f06d06); /* modern */

  /* Silly IE... */
  -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient (GradientType=0, startColorstr=#1471da, endColorstr=#1C85FB)";
  filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0, startColorstr=#1471da, endColorstr=#1C85FB);
}

Read and try

http://codepen.io/g-liu/pen/mJrrWp

https://css-tricks.com/css3-gradients/

http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor/

Specs

CSS
JavaScript/ECMAScript
HTML5
SVG
Canvas
Defaults

Environments

Operating system
OS Version
Architecture
Browser
Browser version

Which browsers to support?

Entirely up to you
Analytics for insight

Solutions

JavaScript Polyfills
CSS reset/normalization
Autoprefixer
jQuery
HTML5 shim for old IE

Resources

caniuse.com
Google Analytics

Additional topics

Localization and internationalization
Accessibility

Questions?

Responsive web design and beyond

By Geoffrey Liu

Responsive web design and beyond

These days, people use all sorts of gizmos to access the Internet, from smartphones to smart TV's. How can we design websites that perform well across all browsers and devices? Topics covered will include responsive web design, website performance, and cross-browser compatibility.

1,826

RWD and beyond

Hi, I'm Geoffrey

Overview

Do it live!

Responsive web design

responsive (adj.)

Examples

RWD techniques

The meta viewport tag

Media queries

Important media types

CSS3 properties

CSS3 units

Try these queries

Resources

Website performance

Connecting to a server takes time!

Survey of techniques

Asset compression

Purge unnecessary characters

Works with JavaScript too

HTML?

PHP?

Optimize images

Reducing image weight

In the real world

HTTP request reduction

Merge CSS assets

Merge JS assets

Put images in one file

In the real world (again)

Caching

Save expensive calculations

Many implementations

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Linking from a CDN

Cross-browser compatibility

Perfect world

Real world

Case study: CSS3 filters

CSS Gradients

Read and try

Specs

Environments

Which browsers to support?

Solutions

Resources

Additional topics

Questions?

Responsive web design and beyond

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