Web Developers - Awesome Firefox Extension
Hi
I've been working on developing some sites to accommodate ther new generation of Netbooks and iPhones - their small screen real estate makes this a challenge sometimes.
In some cases I'm using JavaScript's windows.screen property to detect small screens - Netbooks usually only display a height of 570 px despite having a screen 600 px tall.
Another method I'm using is to detect the browsers USER_AGENT property to determine what platform the user is using. In researching this I have found an excellent Firefox extension that I thought other developers may find useful:
User Agent Switcher
This little wonder changes the value of the USER_AGENT reported to the website, so you can test code that is designed specifically for iPhones, Internet Explorer (6,7 and 8) or others. This has been great for me as I don't actually own an iPhone yet (donations would gladly be accepted!).
Note that it doesn't actually make your browser act like IE or an iPhone - in other words it's not an emulator. It just lets you test your code to see if it detects the browser type correctly and displays the browser-specific page you've built.
BTW, this extension has another use that has nothing to do with web development. If you are a Netbook user (I'm typing this on an Asus netbook) you'll find that a lot of websites don't accommodate the small display very well. You can use this extension to "fake out" an iPhone so these sites display their iPhone-specific content (if they indeed have iPhone-specific content). The sites will display better on the small screen and load a lot faster.
Hope someone can make use of this - I'd also love to hear any tricks or tips other Warriors have for designing sites for netbooks and/or iPhones.
Happy Holidays!
Bill
I've been working on developing some sites to accommodate ther new generation of Netbooks and iPhones - their small screen real estate makes this a challenge sometimes.
In some cases I'm using JavaScript's windows.screen property to detect small screens - Netbooks usually only display a height of 570 px despite having a screen 600 px tall.
Another method I'm using is to detect the browsers USER_AGENT property to determine what platform the user is using. In researching this I have found an excellent Firefox extension that I thought other developers may find useful:
User Agent Switcher
This little wonder changes the value of the USER_AGENT reported to the website, so you can test code that is designed specifically for iPhones, Internet Explorer (6,7 and 8) or others. This has been great for me as I don't actually own an iPhone yet (donations would gladly be accepted!).
Note that it doesn't actually make your browser act like IE or an iPhone - in other words it's not an emulator. It just lets you test your code to see if it detects the browser type correctly and displays the browser-specific page you've built.
BTW, this extension has another use that has nothing to do with web development. If you are a Netbook user (I'm typing this on an Asus netbook) you'll find that a lot of websites don't accommodate the small display very well. You can use this extension to "fake out" an iPhone so these sites display their iPhone-specific content (if they indeed have iPhone-specific content). The sites will display better on the small screen and load a lot faster.
Hope someone can make use of this - I'd also love to hear any tricks or tips other Warriors have for designing sites for netbooks and/or iPhones.
Happy Holidays!
Bill
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customertools -
Thanks - 1 reply
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mywebwork -
Thanks
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