jQuery Mobile combined with other frameworks
August 18th, 2013
A few interesting questions came up during my presentation at Northeast PHP yesterday. People wanted to know whether jQuery Mobile could be mixed with MVC frameworks such as Backbone or with responsive frameworks such as Bootstrap.
Before you go out trying to mix jQuery Mobile with everything else, try to remember why you chose this framework in the first place and what it is you are trying to accomplish. The purpose of the progressive enhancement approach is to support as many devices as possible. What happens when your site runs with javascript disabled? jQuery Mobile allows for the site to remain usable, although it won't be as pretty. Your MVC framework will not work at all, and if your site relies on it to be functional, then your user is out of luck.
You must also understand that jQuery Mobile is better suited for content sites rather than highly interactive applications. It is also meant for creating mobile-only sites, not for creating fluid and responsive layouts.
Also don't use jQuery Mobile solely because you like its appearance. If you only care about the CSS classes and not about the progressive enhancement, then you should simply keep the CSS. Use whatever other framework you prefer and apply the styles that you like.
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