Web Development with the iPad
After a year and a half of using the iPad, I am still surprised by its usefulness and versatility; it is a great productivity tool. I had wanted to write this for a few months, but I put it off because I needed to cover some other news and events. Today, at last, I can tell you how the iPad helps me in my web development work.
About a year ago, I began integrating the iPad into my workflow for developing websites, and I was surprised to discover that a large part of the work could be done from the device and that some tools were more practical and useful than those available on the Mac. I will talk specifically about seven applications, plus Safari, which comes with the operating system. Some of these applications are specifically for web development and some are not, but what they have in common is that they are great.
iMockups
In any web development project, once the content strategy has been defined, you have to plan the site’s structure, and when planning that structure you create a graphical representation of how the site will look and work. You determine, for example, whether there will be a slider at the top, a top menu or perhaps one at the side, how the text will be arranged, things of that sort. iMockups is an incredible tool that lets you develop that graphical representation for internal use or to show it to a client. The application includes a collection of elements that can be added to the design, such as buttons, text boxes, headers, navigation bars, and so on.
This tool is very useful because, before getting into the fine details of the design, it lets you define a general structure and operation with the client. Not only is there a varied collection of elements and the possibility of adding your own, but the designs can also be interactive, so links can be created between different screens to show a simulation of how the site will work and which page each button or link will lead to.
Textastic
This is a text editor with an FTP client that allows you to create and organize projects by downloading files directly from the server, working on them, and then uploading them again. As a text editor, it is very simple and practical. It has what is, in my view, the most important function: search and replace within the document. It has line numbering, marks tabs perfectly, and also has a kind of “table of contents” that lets you see the different sections of the document and go directly to them. For example, in a CSS file it will show all the classes, and you can go directly to the one you want to modify. Beyond its basic functionality, the application includes syntax themes and, in fact, it has my favourite theme, Monokai, which is the one I use in my other applications on the Mac, Sublime Text 2 and CodeBox. As an FTP client, it is very fast; this application is highly functional and quite pleasant to use.
CP Control Panel
This application is an interface for cPanel. Those who use cPanel on their servers will get a great deal out of it, since most things can be controlled perfectly well. It is very useful for quick and simple things, such as setting up email accounts, which is one of the things my clients most often ask me to do when I am away from my Mac. For other interfaces, such as PHPMyAdmin, the application will open a web view.
CSS3Machine
This application is a small code laboratory that lets you experiment with CSS3 properties to create styles and animations. Although, because many browsers are still lagging behind, it is not yet possible to go wild with the use of CSS3 in some projects, there are some very fun things that can be done, and this application is a good tool for creating styles. Besides, lately I have focused on supporting IE 9 and later, so some things can work well.
iro
This application is simply a colour-palette generator that provides hexadecimal, HSV, RGB, and CMYK values. Its interface gives you freedom to generate colours and includes a colour picker that literally lets you touch the colours to find exactly the one you are looking for. Colours can also be generated from an image. The application is very useful for working on the iPad or as a complement when working on the Mac.
iCabMobile
This is without a doubt the best web browser for iPad. In addition to its wide variety of functions and options, it has “modules” that let you do many things with websites, for example, view the source code, which is especially useful when working with PHP to see how the HTML is being generated. It includes, for instance, a Lite version of Firebug and other useful modules. It also lets you change the User Agent, which is very useful when a particular CSS file must be used for a certain User Agent; this functionality lets you carry out that kind of testing.
Bento
This database application lets me keep all my server information close at hand. I have a database containing all the information: IPs, domains, access passwords, services related to an account, and so on. With this information, I can open an FTP connection from Textastic and get to work from anywhere. I also use it together with the Mac version, so the information is synchronized between my computer and my two iOS devices.
This is not an improvised list of applications; it is THE LIST of applications for web development on the iPad. They are the applications I use every day to work when I am away from my Mac, which is several hours a day.