Web and WebWorks Development

[shammer64]

I am developing a web app for the BlackBerry Verizon 9530 (Storm) on version 4.7 software.  After usability tests, our users have two major complaints.

1. They are unhappy with the automatic zoom experience.

2. The feel the Storm is too sensitive to tilting from portrait to landscape...sometimes from a near horizontal position.

With respect to #1, I've seen a number of posts regarding disabling the zoom feature.  Frankly, I can get none of the solutions to work at the page level.  The # solution does seem to work for image links.  Currently, I have the following meta tags on my page (also tried with exact pixel height/width):

<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True" />

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width;height=device-height;" />

Switching between Page and Column views distorts the placement of of elements on the page, and yields the same issue with zoom.  I've seen additional fields for the viewport meta tag implemented on the iPhone (user-scalable, initial-scale, maximum-scale, for example).  Are any of these implemented on the BlackBerry browser?  Or are we limited to width and height?

With respect to #2, is there a means of disabling the switch between Portrait and Landscape on a device tilt?

Thanks,

Scott

[Xandrex]

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shammer64 wrote:

With respect to #2, is there a means of disabling the switch between Portrait and Landscape on a device tilt?

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Yes you can do that in a java application but not in a web application.

[shammer64]

Thanks for confirming, Xandrex.  I anticipated that would be the answer in this case.  Personally, I feel the Tilt is working as designed and we should not have to compensate for it.  The app looks fine in Landscape, except portions are obscured below the fold.

The Zoom issue will be difficult to explain away.  This may drive us toward a JME or RAD version of the app in order to gain tighter control of the look/feel and underlying APIs.

[toddm]

What do you mean by "at the page level"?  You probably read my posts about using href="#" and "return false" so I'm curious where this isn't working for you besides being a pain.  We've found this to work for img and text links though it hasn't been tested extensively yet.

Todd

[jcr]

I'm having the same issue as shammer64. I need to get rid of the zooming and the tilt. I've wrote an ASPx page which works perfectly on the iPhone and Android. I have image buttons on my page and everytime I use the Storm to click on it, it will zoom in, then the second click will actually activate it.

Is there a quick and easy way to remove it by writing a embedded browser app for the Storm? If so, is there any quick reference on how to do it?

[shammer64]

Todd, when I say page-level, I am referring to when a user clicks on a portion of the page that is not a link.  This act also zooms in on the page. 

Say for instance a user with big thumbs attempts to click a link or form button or put focus on a form field.  They miss the target and accidently click on some empty space next to the target.  Zoom.  Sometimes the target actually moves out of the viewport, then they have to scroll back to the target or zoom back in to see it.

Apparently, I have a lot of thick-thumbed users, as they are complaining loudly about it.

I guess I'm hoping BlackBerry has implemented or can implement something akin to the initial-scale, max/min-scale and user-scalable parameters that the webkit folks implemented on the viewport meta tag for iPhone/Safari. 

I can see the utility of the zoom feature when reading sites designed for non-mobile browsers.  However, it becomes less util for sites designed specifically for mobile browsers.

Thanks,

Scott

[Xandrex]

on the blackberry browser on the Storm, there is another mode than the thick thumb one. It's using a cursor.
the thumb is on the screen, and the cursor is a about 2 inches next to the thumb so it's easy for the user to move the cursor and see where they are clicking.

[toddm]

I see what you mean now Scott.  I haven't figured out a way to stop zooming when clicking empty space.  Maybe the 5.0 browser will give more options.