Visualforce Mobile Tab Considerations

Visualforce Mobile Tab Considerations

Consider the following when defining a mobile  Visualforce tab:

• Visualforce Mobile is only available for BlackBerry and iPhone. If you mobilize a Visualforce tab, keep in mind that Windows Mobile users cannot view the tab in the mobile application.
• Salesforce Mobile can run on BlackBerry operating system versions 4.3 through 7.0. For optimum performance, however,Salesforce recommends running Visualforce Mobile on BlackBerry smartphones installed with at least version 4.6.
• Because the display size is limited on mobile browsers, we recommend redesigning the Visualforce page to optimize it for mobile users:
  • Set the sidebar and showHeader attributes on the <apex:page> tag to false. Phones have small screens and limited processing power, so it is essential that the page suppresses the tab header and sidebar.
  • Set the standardStylesheets attribute on the <apex:page> tag to false. The standard Salesforce stylesheet causes pages to load slowly on the device. Additionally, most BlackBerry browsers cannot properly interpret CSS . The best approach to adding a stylesheet to your page is to include a <style> section just below the <apex:page>component.
  • Set the columns attribute on the <apex:pageBlockSection> component to 1. There is not enough room on a mobile device’s screen to display two columns, so specifying a one-column layout prevents fields from wrapping awkwardly on the page.
• Splash pages do not display in the mobile application.
• In the mobile application, the Visualforce page is embedded in a tab, so you should avoid using tabs for navigation in mobileVisualforce pages.
• Even if you know that the mobile browser supports the JavaScript in your Visualforce page, keep your use of JavaScript to a minimum. Mobile devices generally have slow network connections, and too many scripts running on a page creates a poor user experience. To minimize the amount of JavaScript on your mobile Visualforce pages, try to build them using mostly WML and HTML.
• All Visualforce pages contain JavaScript, even if you do not create pages that use JavaScript code. In order for BlackBerry users to view Visualforce pages, JavaScript must be enabled on the smartphones. The BlackBerry administrator can globally enable JavaScript from the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Users can also enable JavaScript on a BlackBerry smartphone by opening the BlackBerry browser, selecting Options | Browser Configuration, and then selecting the Support JavaScript checkbox.
• The embedded browser in the BlackBerry client application does not have built-in navigation. If your Visualforce page is a wizard, you should provide navigation links that allow users to return to the previous page and advance to the next page.
• BlackBerry administrators should be aware that the download size setting on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server affects how much data can be pushed to the device. Check that the download size setting is appropriate, and be sure to test yourVisualforce pages before deploying them to your mobile users.
• User agent inspection can be executed in a custom controller to support multiple devices. You can do this by inspecting the appropriate result of the getHeaders() method on the current page reference.