JQuery Mobile is a user interface framework, which is built on jQuery Core and used for developing responsive websites or applications that are accessible on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. It uses the features of both jQuery and jQuery UI to provide API features for mobile web applications.

It was developed by the jQuery project team in the year 2010 and written in JavaScript.

Why Use jQuery Mobile?

• It creates web applications that it will work the same way on the mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.

• It is compatible with other frameworks such as PhoneGap, Whitelight, etc.

• It provides a set of touch-friendly form inputs and UI widgets.

• The progressive enhancement brings a unique functionality to all mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms and adds efficient page loads and wider device support.

Features of jQuery Mobile

• It is built on jQuery Core and “write less, do more” UI framework.

• It is an open source framework, and cross-platform as well as cross-browser compatible.

• It is written in JavaScript and uses features of both jQuery and jQuery UI for building mobile-friendly sites.

• It integrates HTML5, CCS3, jQuery and jQuery UI into one framework for creating pages with minimal scripting.

• It includes Ajax navigation system that uses animated page transitions.

Advantages of jQuery Mobile

• It is easy to learn and develop applications if you have knowledge of HTML5, CSS3 features.

• It is cross-platform and cross-browser compatible so you don”t have to worry about writing different code for each device resolution.

• You can create the custom theme using ThemeRoller without writing the line of code. It supports all HTML5 browsers.

• It uses HTML5 along with JavaScript for easy development of web applications.

• It is built in a way that allows the same code to automatically scale from the mobile screen to desktop screen.

Disadvantages of jQuery Mobile

• There are limited options for CSS themes, so sites can look similar which are built by these themes.

• Applications which are developed using jQuery Mobile are slower on mobiles.

• It becomes more time consuming when you combine jQuery mobile with other mobile frameworks.

• Difficult to provide complete customized visual design.

• All the features in a device cannot be accessed by JavaScript in a browser.