HTML5 FAQ
From Showit Manual
Contents |
Getting Started
The Showit HTML5 Mobile publish enables touch devices to experience the same look and feel of your Flash site on the desktop. We will continue to add more and more features that will work on both mobile and the desktop Flash version of your site but here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Some things on your site will NOT function the same, refer to the tables below for our progress on the HTML5 features.
- Galleries will not automatically change images, click the gallery image to view a scrolling list of the images and captions.
- If you don't see the HTML5 version on a mobile device, it is most likely because you need to Export and Upload HTML.
HTML 5 Questions & Answers
How does it work?
- Open Showit, hit publish and it will generate the appropriate screens and HTML and instantly go live.
What if I already have a Mobile Redirect setup?
- Showit will automatically default back to using this HTML 5 site even if there is a mobile redirect URL setup, you can choose to change back to the mobile redirect in the FULL publish options or Site Settings menu.
What browsers will see the HTML 5 Mobile site?
- All iOS and Android devices and then desktop browsers that don’t have Flash installed or enabled but Javascript enabled will get the HTML 5 view . Currently there are no changes to options to allow fine grained control on which devices to redirect, we might later give more options for browsers/devices.
What if you host your own HTML and Export & Upload HTML?
- You will need to export and upload HTML at least once. The HTML5 site uses a combo of the HTML and Javascript files but the Javascript files are published to Showit servers and get loaded from there so they won’t get exported with the HTML export process. This also means that self hosted sites won’t need to export and upload HTML on every publish.
If you are not subscribed will it publish HTML5?
- Yes, the HTML5 Mobile automatically happens and is included in the HTML of the site for the 5 pages that get published but they still won’t get the full SEO pages though.
Remove Layers
If you encounter content on your site that doesn't work in the HTML site, you can hide it by clicking on the layer, then the Advanced tab and then at the bottom check the box under HTML Settings that says Remove from HTML5.
If a huge portion of the page does not work, you can consider using an HTML5 Alternate Page.
Steps to Publish
- If you are on the computer you used to build your site that has all your site content, you should be able to click Publish and then QUICK and you will see Showit generate screen shots for each of the pages.
- Please be patient with snapshots, the first time you publish could take a LONG time to get snapshots of all your pages, after that it will be quick to publish but don't skip snapshots the first time around.
- If you don't have your site content already loaded on the computer you are working on, it is best to click through each page and as you switch pages it will take a screen capture of your page so make sure all images are loaded before switching away from a page. Showit will always take new screen captures when anything on a page changes and does that seamlessly in the background.
Feature Support
The following is a list of the features inside Showit and what is supported with the HTML5 version:
| Feature | HTML5 Support |
|---|---|
| Links and page navigation | Yes |
| Drag and Drop Site Design and Layout | Yes |
| Email Button Link | Yes |
| Contact Forms | Yes |
| Scrollable Text | Yes, pops up as an overlay |
| Video | For video in a format supported by the device |
| Overlay Link | Open in new window |
| Rotated Layers | Yes |
| Page and Layer Transitions | No |
| Button Actions for widgets | No |
| Mouse Over Effect | No |
| Preload Layers | No |
| Captions in Galleries | No |
| Dynamic Full Size Layout | No, everything is a fixed size that can be pinched and zoomed in on a device |
| Password Protection | No, pages not included in the HTML |
Widget Support
The following list is of the widgets and their status. Currently in the HTML Mobile interactive widgets would show up on top of other layers. The ones marked Auto Hidden are automatically turned off and removed from site screen shots.
| Widget | HTML5 Support | Auto Hidden |
|---|---|---|
| Vimeo | Yes | |
| YouTube | Yes | |
| SmugMug Video | Yes | |
| Photo Gallery | Clicking a gallery pops up a vertical scrolling photo gallery right now, working on matching gallery functionality. SmugMug galleries do not currently work but images directly included from SmugMug do. | |
| Drop Down Menu | Yes, uses the native browser selection | |
| Simple Gallery | Coming as an in place gallery... | |
| PASS Gallery | Coming... | |
| PayPal | Coming... | X |
| Facebook Comment | Comming... | X |
| Blog Reader | Coming... | X |
| Facebook Ticker | Coming... | X |
| Facebook Ticker | Coming... | X |
| Facebook Page | Coming... | X |
| Coming... | X | |
| Facebook Share | Coming... | X |
| Timer | Coming... | X |
| Music | Not recommended for mobile and touch sites | X |
| Go To | Maybe | X |
| Count Down | Maybe | X |
| Full Screen | Maybe | X |
| SnowIt | Nope | X |
At this point the background area outside the screenshot is a tiled grey texture that looks like the iOS default and there are no options to change it. Maybe in the future we would allow people to change it but it might just look better to stick to this default.
Testing Your Site
To view the HTML5 version of your site, you can use an iOS device such as an iPad or iPhone or on your desktop we recommend using Chrome and then enter the URL chrome://plugins and click the Disable link under Flash to turn off Flash in the browser for the purposes of testing. Keep in mind the gutters on the right and left won't be showing on a mobile device.
