Limitations

While the JQM theme skinner can save you a lot of time in terms of visualizing and customizing jQuery Mobile themes, there are some limitations to the extension.

1. This is not a mock-up generator. If you want to create a high-fidelity prototype of the final mobile site or application, you will still have to build that in the conventional manner in Fireworks. In fact, I’d strongly recommend you at least create a home- and inner-page design using Fireworks, so you can get all your color schemes sorted out before opening the JQM theme template. A sample of the mockup can be found in the original files folder in the Chapter 3 assets folder.

2. In accordance with the jQuery Mobile Framework, Fireworks does not export patterns or images (other than the sprites). When thinking mobile design, you want to be thinking about bandwidth as well. Data plans aren’t free, after all. Everything Fireworks exports from the theme becomes CSS-generated code, except for the sprites, of course. This optimizes the size of the exported content. This doesn’t mean you can’t add additional bitmaps; you just can’t use the skinning extension to do it. Use Fireworks to create and optimize those graphics, so that you get the smallest possible file sizes. And you will have to manually add the markup that calls on those new graphics in your web-authoring tool.