theThought's thoughts

"one for all" is definitely possible - the Test Centre

In my previous post (read it here) I classified browsers into three types:

• Basic
• Simple
• Rich

This was done so that I could organise the way that I build templates for IBM SPSS Data Collection.  This is part of my project to build a single template that works for all browsers both desktop and mobile.

I defined these three classifications by building some simple web pages and testing a number of different browsers on them.  The web pages has a range of capabilities from basic HTML with CSS styling to complex HTML 5/CSS 3 and JavaScript.

The Environment
A first I tried building a test, test environment on my new Dell 1645, a 64bit laptop running Windows 7 64bit.   Installation of the main desktop browsers was not an issue, however almost all the emulators failed to work properly.  Consequently I stopped and reverted to a Windows XP operating system running in a vmWare image.  I built this using vmWare Workstation and started by taking a blank Windows XP SP 2 install and then performing a series of upgrades to ensure that I had all the latest patches applied and .net 3.5.

The Emulators
Once that was done I started installing desktop browsers:

Then I moved on to emulators for mobile phones.  There were a number of emulators that I wanted to try including the OpenWave emulator that I simply could not download.  It seems that the OpenWave browser and many of the older emulators are no longer available.

I installed a Sony Ericsson emulator which was written in Flash.  This was, consequently a simple installation from Sony Ericsson’s Developer Site (PhoneGap Simulator).  This was by far the easiest of the installers to get working.

The other two emulators that I wanted to install were the Blackberry, because I believe that this is a fairly limited browser that being built by RIM cannot be described as standard and the Android emulator.  I would have liked an iPhone emulator but alas my machine is a PC not a mac so I have to make do with testing on my iPod Touch.

Both of these emulators require the Java Runtime emulator (JRE) so that was the first element to install (JRE is available here).  Additionally the RIM emulator requires the Java Development Kit (download JDK here).

Next it was off to the Blackberry site to download an emulator.  I chose one for the Blackberry Storm (9500), however it is my understanding that you can download a number of them (get a blackberry emulator here).  Downloading the emulator, however is not enough if you want to browse the Internet.  It is also necessary to install MDS which is a Mobile Delivery Service created by BlackBerry.  Not only does this need to be installed but it also needs to be run at the same time as the emulator.  Testing with the RIM was concerning.  There are two modes the first is Page View this is a smartphone mode that I had expected to be as good as Sony Ericsson, Android and iPhone.  What I found was that although it supported HTML 5 and a fair amount of CSS it did not really support JavaScript (even though JavaScript support is switched on).  The other mode is called Column view and is a more basic view that is similar to that provided by very basic mobile browsers.  As can be seen by the following example neither gives a very good experience.  It is really troubling that these phones are the phones of choice for Businesses.

The last emulator was the Android emulator (get the android emulator here).  Like RIM there is an opportunity to download a number of different emulators, unlike RIM downloading them all is much easier and therefore I did just that.  Also like RIM the Android needs more than just JRE and the emulator.  There is also a need for eclipse (get eclipse here).  Careful with this download.  It is a zip which needs to be extracted in the location where you want to run it.  The setup is not an installation routine just a way of quickly setting up the environment and getting to the emulators once they have been installed.  Once these items are installed you are presented with an array of different device types.  Each takes quite a while to load but there is no doubt that the wait is worth it.

So that just left aDesigner.  This too needs Eclipse but as that was already installed this final installation was easy.  I may extend my list of browsers and emulators over time (a proper Nokia S60 is very likely).  I would really like a proper iPhone emulator rather than just Safari as Safari does not give an indication of how screen real-estate is working nor does it allow me to tilt the device.

If you have any emulators that you think I have missed feel free to drop me a line.

"one for all" is definitely possible - the Browsers

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article questioning whether it would be possible to create a single template that handles the vast majority of browsers and allows Data Collection to deliver the best experience each browser can deliver (read Is “one for all” even possible).

I am pleased to announce, after a number of weeks of hard work that the answer is “YES”.

So what has happened over the last few weeks that allowed me to come to this answer?

The steps so far
I have not yet reached the end of my journey, however, I thought it might be a good idea to allow you to catch up.  I have started/completed a number of tasks including:

• A review of different browsers on the market (or previously on the market) identifying the capabilities they provide
• Locate and install a number of browsers and emulators into a Test environment
• Build a small Data collection survey to allow testing
• Start building a solution

Browsers

I started with the currently installable browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome)  Then I tried older versions of IE.  Lastly I obtained some emulators (Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Nokia), finally I installed a copy of aDesigner for testing JAWS screen reader compatibility.

aDesigner an aSide
If you have not encountered aDesigner before and you are seriously interested in web accessibility you need to look at it now (aDesigner is available here).  aDesigner was built by IBM but it has been donated to the Accessibility Tools Framework (ACTF).  Not only does aDesigner provide clear information about the general level of accessibility of a website (based on its markup) it will also render the website from the perspective of “low vision“ showing how those with poor eyesight will see the site.  Furthermore, if that was not enough, in addition to testing websites it can also test ODF (Open Document Format) files, Flash content and general GUI accessibility of any application.

3 Classifications of Browsers
Having reviewed a multitude of browser capabilities I ended up with three simple classficiations.  These are based on the capabilities of the browser and will affect the way in which the template will be designed.  The basis of the categorisation is the fact that there are, currently, primarily, two platforms that have to be handled:

• Desktop Browsers (PC, Mac and others)
• Mobile Browsers (smartphone, basic phone, portable devices)

Against these two basic platforms there are a number of capabilities that may or may not be used:

• HTML
• CSS
• HTML 5
• CSS 3
• JavaScript

All of the browsers support HTML although some only have limited support of CSS.  Only a few have support for HTML 5 and CSS 3 (as I wrote this Microsoft announced that this list will expand to include IE 9 – review by the Register.com).  Lastly there is JavaScript.  This is more complex as browsers that naturally support JavaScript can be “crippled” by corporations that disable its use.  The following graphic shows how these different elements interplay with each other.

From this I defined three classifications of Browser as follows:

Basic Browsers           OpenWare browser, Basic (old) Mobile browsers, very early versions of IE and Netscape (Full HTML coverage, limited CSS coverage, little or no JavaScript coverage)

Simple Browsers         IE, Netscape, RIM, Nokia browser (Full HTML/CSS coverage, no HTML 5/CSS 3 coverage, some JavaScript Coverage)

Rich Browsers            Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Sony Ericsson (Full HTML/CSS and HTML 5/CSS 3 coverage, Full JavaScript Coverage)

Week 2 (Part 1) - Experimentation, new releases and trips

So week two of being a Creative Director draws to a close.  Its been a busy week, not necessarily for me but definitely for the social networking scene.  I thought I would take a few moments to tell you about some of the things that have been happening and explain a little about the tasks I have been doing.

This comes in two parts:

As part of my new role I have agreed to myself that I will spend at least five hours a week evaluating new technologies exploring new ideas with a view to identifying which of them can benefit Synovate and the IBM SPSS Data Collection community at large.  So Monday was the first day that I got chance to do this.  It all started with the delivery of four new books.

Transitioning from Waterfall to Agile
SPSS is almost as pure Waterfall in its development model as you can get.  18 month development cycles based on a 12 month release cycle with Roadmaps, Mini-Business Requirement Documents, Full Business Requirements Documents, Functional Design Documents, Technical Design Documents.  Commitments on what is being released 12 months before release and a three month Beta phase.  This will not be suitable for my new team which will be far too small to bear the burden of a similar model.

I am, consequently, moving to an Agile model, probably based around the principles of Extreme Programming (XP).  I have never really worked in a pure Agile environment although I have been involved in many discussions about it and track the thoughts and thinkings of a number of firms that use it today (Balsamiq and 37Signals).

The first step was to order some books from Amazon and start reading.  I have already returned the Agile Coaching book (I did not really want to buy it but forgot to take it off my selected list).  The other three seem to give me different perspectives on the same concepts and blend quite well together.

Within days of starting to read them I was involved in a number of discussions between a small software company and an Information Systems (IS) department of a large one.  The IS representative kept asking for detailed plans while the small team (running SCRUM) said we are agile we do not have those types of documents.  I sat on the fence between the two balancing up the needs of one side with the capabilities of the other.  Neither was right, the small team were not really agile, they were haphazard.  Their design/development methodology was not testing based and their estimating was wild and inaccurate.  It is going to be an interesting journey and I hope to follow the recent trend of transparent development to tell you all how I am doing.

The second area of development for me is HTML 5 and CSS 3.  Though not yet mature these technologies are definitely gaining traction and I am now taking off my shoes and jumping into to the excitement to see where it takes me.

HTML 5
There has been a significant amount of noise about HTML 5, especially in relation to its value vs Flash.  Apple's launch of iPad (with its lack of Flash support) closely following Google's launch of the Nexus One (with its lack of Flash support) has gotten people to thinking that the end is nigh for Flash.  for example Robert Scoble described Google as Adobe's last chance at salvation in Can Flash be Saved?.  Robert's attitude is not unique, many outside of the Flash developer community poor scorn on Adobe's long term future.  From my perspective I think that the future is far from clear and Adobe is far from doomed (or should I say Flash).  Many of these nay-sayers seem only interested in the web through a PC or their mobile phone (or slate) but they forget their TV completely and yet the Internet is definitely leaking onto this ubiquitous (I really hate that word) device as shown by Adobe's set to box agreement and Seemic's launch of Look (its new Twitter interface for non-Twitter users).

Alongside the need to learn HTML 5 I am going to need to improve my technique for handling different browsers. IE definitely does not support HTML 5 (unless you install the Chrome IE plug-in.  So it will be necessary to develop a multi-browser capacity that exceeds my current techniques for handling Firefox vs IE in CSS issues and JavaScript issues.  Consequently I am also building up my knowledge of two concepts: Graceful Degradation and Progressive Enhancement (A brief explanation).  I will probably start with my own website which I now need to update following my move to Synovate.

Once I have an idea of how I am going to do this work I will start to blog about it so that you too can learn these new principles.

So, there has been a lot of reading and listening this week, a modicum of talking and relatively little action.  This has been partly caused by dear Dell who have failed to deliver my new Laptop (ordered 35 days ago) and are threatening to not deliver until the 22nd.  We are now debating whether to change to another machine so I am going to have to rely on my own technology for a little while longer.

Its late on Friday and so I thought I would leave you with a small chuckle that I stumbled upon via twitter (nice link to my next post) enjoy

First Post from Google Wave

First Post from Google Wave

As Promised this is to be my first post from Google Wave. I have to say that my experience has not been perfect already. Firstly I could not get the Posterous Robot to work properly in Chrome. When I tried to login it would not put the password in the password box, instead it wrote it in full view in just above. So I switched to Firefox and that had no problem.

Secondly when I start a new wave there is a comment from the Posterous Robot. It says Edit the root wavelets Title and body. Well the body was obvious because it was immediately above. But where is the title box. It took a moment to be brave and enter the title into the first line of the body, but, hey presto it worked.

Nice points include a really easy way to add tags (no longer do I have to remember how to put the tag on the subject line.

Anyway my flight to Vegas is boarding so I have to go. More to come.