Our first mobile application built with jQuery mobile went "live" today at the annual CASE/NAIS conference in Chicago, IL and by early accounts it's a success!

The purpose of the app is to make relevant conference information available to attendees at all CASE events year-round. Conference attendees will particularly enjoy the ability to submit their session evaluations from their mobile devices right away without having to handle the traditional paper forms. Session information is available as is a venue map. Conference organizers can also send out "alerts" that pop up within the app itself, notifying attendees of upcoming sessions, room changes or other important information. The "app" works on all Apple iOS, Android and Blackberry (OS6 preferred) devices and semi-gracefully degrades for use on older devices -- all with no additional development effort thanks to jQuery mobile.

Built on a tried-and-true combination of Adobe ColdFusion, Mach-ii framework, ColdSpring framework and SQL Server for backend data storage, the app is expected to serve tens of thousands of unique users every year. Taking on jQuery Mobile as our front-end framework was not without some risk; it's still in alpha (we used Alpha 2) but the rapid development and cross-device capabilities of the framework far outweighed the immediate concerns. We'll be keeping a close eye on this and upgrade as new releases are made. Testing was done on a Motorola Droid 2, Blackberry Torch, an iPad and an (ancient!) iPhone 3G without issue.

Want to talk about how we might be able to help you implement a cross-platform mobile application? Email Steve at srittler@countermarch.com.