4 Easy Steps to iPhone-Enabling a Domino Web Application

Alan Forbes


March, 2009

With a few simple development techniques, you can quickly modify an existing IBM Lotus Domino Web application to look good and perform well on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Learn to set the application to display properly in the native Mobile Safari browser, use a framework that makes your application look like an iPhone or iPod Touch application, redirect your application based on the browser client, and adjust your field labels to save space on the screen. All techniques work with Domino 6.5 and higher.

As Apple computers become increasingly popular in the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino community, Domino developers naturally wonder how well Domino plays in the Apple world. In my experience, it plays very well. My previous article, “Publish Podcasts from Domino Step by Step” (THE VIEW, May/June 2008), showed how Domino can be used as a platform for publishing podcasts on Apple iTunes and other podcast clients. Now I’ll show how you can use Domino as a platform for applications that run on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices.
Modifying your Domino applications for iPhone or iPod Touch is easier than you might think. Much of what you know about developing Domino Web applications applies to iPhone as well. I’ll start by introducing you to the native browser on iPhone and iPod Touch, Mobile Safari, which is both well behaved and standards compliant. Then, I’ll show you how to modify your Domino 6.5 and higher applications to work well when viewed on iPhone or iPod Touch.
Note!
The Safari browsers on iPhone and iPod Touch are identical. The only difference between the two devices is that iPod Touch requires Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet, and iPhone can connect through either Wi-Fi or a data service provided by the phone vendor. (In the US, this vendor is AT&T.) From this point forward, I simply refer to iPhone, but everything applies equally to iPod Touch.

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