Plan for non-iOS Mobile Devices with FileMaker Webdirect

THE FOUTH AND LAST of Anvilworks blog posts on WebDirect has a bit of a twist–it’s about using WebDirect on non iOS devices, Androids in particular.  Nine tips are offered up to help speed development.  I like Tip 2 in particular:

TIP 2 – Emulate Target Devices

One of THE COOLEST features of Google Chrome’s Developer’s Toolkit is the ability to mimic a page on numerous devices straight inside the browser window. Not just the screen size, but the actual rendering characteristics of the device! This is super cool, as it allows you to test how your WebDirect solutions will look and behave on mobile devices without owning any of the devices yourself!

To run the emulation:
1) Open up your WebDirect solution to the layout you want to check in Google Chrome.
2) Open Developers tools under View > Developer > Developers Tools.
3) Under Developers tools, look for the “emulation” bar along the footer area.
4) Select your emulation settings. “screen” emulates the screen size of the target device. “user agent” emulates the browser engine of the default browser. “sensors” can emulate GPS coordinates, touch screen and accelerometer actions.
There’s a whole world of testing available, read up on the google Mobile emulation instructions here: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/mobile-emulation.

I didn’t know about the Chrome developer tool–what a great find!  I assume that eventually WebDirect will work with non IOS devices, and their work to prepare the way is helpful.  Be sure to read it all.

More…Anvil – Blog.