For those of you who missed the December 22, 2011 Drupal 8 Mobile Initiative IRC Meeting #1, here's a highly-edited transcript. Unlike most transcripts, this is actually a pretty interesting read. Really.
Really.
Action items from the meeting are at the bottom.
My writing app says the Reading Time will be: 6 minutes, 21 seconds Go!
- The agenda for this meeting is here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/197748
- No one had explicit questions about the scope of the Mobile Initiative.
- JohnAlbin: First off, after Dries' D8 fireside chat, I'd like to re-state that Drupal core's normal workflow for getting things into Drupal is basically the same. People work on what they want to work on. The D8 initiative just add focus to a few key areas of Drupal development. The initiative leaders help direct the development (by participating in the issue queues), but they don't control the development of D8.
Which means ALL OF YOU control how Drupal 8 gets built.
- JohnAlbin: For me personally, there is one goal I want for Drupal with regards to mobile…
to make Drupal the best mobile CMS platform.
(What does "mobile CMS platform" mean?) If you want to build Angry Birds for mobile devices, there's no real reason you need a CMS for that. Any mobile problem that requires managing content, I want Drupal to be at the top of the list as possible ways to solve it.
- JohnAlbin: The actual code and documentation that we put into D8 is only part of that goal. One great way to figure out the best solutions for Drupal 8 would be for all of us to document how we are solving those problems using Drupal 7. That would have the bonus effect of making it way more obvious that Drupal already is a great mobile solution.
- banghouse: we (the Omega doc team) have been documenting our solution for months
- JohnAlbin: I've started a documentation issue to create a Mobile Handbook that collects all the great resources into one spot. http://drupal.org/node/1341310
- jarek: Drupal can't be "Best Mobile CMS platform" without dropping support for legacy browsers
- JohnAlbin: I'm in favor of dropping support for IE 7 in Drupal 8, btw.
- With the mention of "IE7", the meeting veers into a huge tangent about browser support, progressive enhancement, jQuery mobile vs. Sencha touch for an admin backend interface.
- JohnAlbin: If the worst thing that happens to IE7 users is that they get the mobile device layouts, I SEE NO PROBLEM. IE7 haters go here: http://drupal.org/node/1217788 Let's move on.
- JohnAlbin: Mobile JavaScript frameworks are sweet, but we need to discuss them in the context of solutions. Speaking of which…
One of the things that the D8 Mobile Initiative will be tackling is ensuring that Drupal's admin interface is mobile-friendly. When I say a "mobile friendly" admin interface, I mean usable. Has anyone tried administering their D7 site with a phone? The forms are ALL WRONG.
- jerryit: i am working on a [D7] theme to correct some of those issues.
- Guest61427: @JonAlbin, I highly agree, but this includes simplifying administration (or let's say content management/editing content), we might need to think about a drupal workbench for mobile, instead of a full drupal admin for mobile
- cellar-door: @JohnAlbin - are you talking 2 admin interfaces then? one for mobile and one for non?
- JohnAlbin: 2 admin interfaces? I'm not sure. But I would like to tackle the content administration parts of the Drupal back-end first.
- yoroy: content admin first++
- Crell: Seven should be responsive, but that doesn't help when you try to squeeze the Field UI into 3".
- JohnAlbin: I would like to try to make all the forms be responsive . I suspect that would solve the majority of the back-end forms issues. But not all.
- yoroy: we've been working on a redesigned content creation screen, would be good to review that from mobile perspective soon. we're working on the write-up
- Guest61427: btw. just one point to think about as well - we not only will use drupal on mobile devices with small screens, we might use drupal on even lager screens than today
- JohnAlbin: Yep! which is why Responsive forms would need to look in both directions. Thanks for mentioning that.
- JohnAlbin: I've really been impressed with the work that yoroy, lewisnyman , bojhan and others have already been doing with D8 admin stuff.
- yoroy: I would love to see some experimental work that re-jiggers the admin information architecture for mobile. I bet it would inform a better desktop admin as well. JohnAlbin: maybe a repeat question, but what do you think ae the main challenges?
- JohnAlbin: yoroy: The biggest challenge is definitely going to be the making the admin side mobile friendly. With the next biggest challenge being how to do proper responsive images since that hasn't been definitely solved by anyone yet.
- JohnAlbin: With regards to responsive image solutions, I suspect we'll end up picking the best outside solution that works with the strengths and weaknesses of Drupal. We don't try to solve it ourselves. We work with everyone to figure out stuff and bring the best solution for Drupal back into Drupal. (Aside: the best solution for Drupal will definitely involve Drupal's image styles.) We, the #drupal-mobile crew, shouldn't focus on building a D8 responsive image solution (yet). But we can document the existing D7 solutions that we know about (Mobile Handbook link again: http://drupal.org/node/1341310)
- Tangent about SVG ( which has no Android 2.x support http://caniuse.com/#search=svg )
- Tangent about WURFl data no longer being open source http://drupal.org/node/1321338
- Tangent about <picture> as an <img> replacement for HTML5
- Tangent about webchick showing up an hour late. rupl sums meeting up for webchick: "everything in mobile is so clear-cut that there will never be bikeshedding"
- JohnAlbin: There are lots of front-end performance techniques that I think we can throw into D8. They will help significantly with optimizing for mobile (while also improving perf for desktop.) I've outlined a bunch of them on the Mobile Handbook outline: http://drupal.org/node/1380356
- mfer: if your page is slow on the first load many people will walk away. we have to make the first load fast. even on mobile. we need to be careful where we test the speed. JS on the fastest mobile devices executes 10x slower than what we see on the desktop.
- Crell: [reiterating the main points so far:]
1) Admin needs to be mobile friendly. That could be an alternate admin or a reworked CSS for the current, or redesign it all. TBD.
2) responsive images. Let someone else figure it out, then we adopt it.
3) SVG: Good? Maybe? Hm. [Editor's note: Given Android 2.x support and the current small images in D8 admin, this seems like a "no".]
4) Server side detection: False. [Editor's note: Keeping jQuery up-to-date in core is nearly impossible. Keeping a mobile-detection library up-to-date in core even more impossible.]
- JohnAlbin: 5) Best way to start a bikeshed: mention "IE7"
- cellar-door: I completely disagree JohnAlbin
- Long tangent about keeping jQuery up-to-date in core
- JohnAlbin: OKAY. Who here would like to make back-up plans for the holidays? So that when you are sick and tired of your family, you can lock yourself in a room with a computer and start Drupal coding? …or drupal documenting?
- JohnAlbin: I'd like to do sprints the same way that HTML5 does code sprints.
Currently, D8 has these issues tagged with "mobile": http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?version=8.x&issue_tags=mo...
Ok. I'll let people figure out what they'd like to add to the sprint on their own. (You can add new items too!)
If you want to work on something just add a "sprint" tag to an existing "mobile" issue. See http://drupal.org/project/issues/search?status%5B%5D=Open&issue_tags_op=...
Ok. Thanks again everyone for coming! The meeting is officially over.
I'll write up a summary for those who couldn't attend.
If anyone at the meeting thinks I missed something important, please add a comment below. Thanks!
Action items
- Everyone: if you are unsure what to work on, why not try working on an issue in the D8 Mobile Initiative's current sprint.
- Everyone to review issues in the mobile issue queue. Add issues if you see the need.
- Work on a D7-based Mobile Handbook at http://drupal.org/node/1341310. JohnAlbin and cellar-door said they'd work on it. Much more help needed.
- Create write-up of UX changes needed for D8 content creation page. Get mobile-perspective reviews from this group once its posted. Need URL from yoroy.
- Discover/breed/invent and deliver ponycorns for anyone who read this far. JohnAlbin to write letter to Ponycorn Fairy.