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Blueprint popularity and downsides?

Hi,

We are considering using blueprint. it looks good and we tested a very quick page. we face big issues with device presentation issue for our site and need a solid framework. OK, so blueprint is not a framework - its a platform with many advantages and upside potiential. BUT due to the lack of information and no real solid review OR a large number of sites using it i have a few direct questions:

1) why is blueprint not popular compared to something like phonegap?? (ok not directly comparable but an example to illustrate point!)
2) what are the limitations?
3) do i loose any control? If yes of what??
4) are there still issues with Vodafone compatibility (see in 1 year old post)
5) could i if i wanted to add google analytic s (yes i know yahoo has great analytic s too!) but could i if i wanted too?
6) could yahoo turn my site off (not widget or app - a site) - if yes under what circumstances?
7) could i add admob advertising (yes i know yahoo has ad network)
8) Where is the list of phones that are actually supported?
9) does it support ipad? and iphone app development (seen rumor of sdk integration with apple) is that rumor of possibility??
10) I note some issues on documentation , any ideas when more will be released

Many thanks in advance for taking time to answer questions.

Kind regards

Ian

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7 Replies
  • Breaking it up into multiple posts:

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Hi,

    We are considering using blueprint. it looks good and we tested a very quick page. we face big issues with device presentation issue for our site and need a solid framework. OK, so blueprint is not a framework - its a platform with many advantages and upside potiential. BUT due to the lack of information and no real solid review OR a large number of sites using it i have a few direct questions:


    I can answer some of these.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    1) why is blueprint not popular compared to something like phonegap?? (ok not directly comparable but an example to illustrate point!)


    It's really a business decision as to what phones you want to support. Phonegap and other libraries are just libraries to enable cross platform development on more modern devices (iPhone, Android, WebOS). While I can't say much right now, you'll see a competitor from us in that space in the future. Even when that does happen, Blueprint will continue to exist because it serves as a complete platform for almost all devices. Blueprint will generate markup that works on a outdated Motorola V3 all the way up to iPhone OS 4. So really it's just a question of "What phones do I want to support?". If you want to focus on just the most modern, cutting edge devices then a library will definitely give you more flexibility. If you need to support Blackberrys, Nokias, etc., then you will probably want to use Blueprint.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    2) what are the limitations?


    Because of the number of devices we support and their limitations, we have to enforce limitations in the language. You must use our elements and you will have limited options on styling and interaction. Keep in mind, though, we have already done the work on getting the display halfway decent on low end devices which I can tell you personally is not an easy task.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    3) do i loose any control? If yes of what??


    See last point. I would suggest trying out one of the example applications.
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  • QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    4) are there still issues with Vodafone compatibility (see in 1 year old post)


    Couldn't find the post. Compatibility is device dependent so I will need the model of device you were referring to.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    5) could i if i wanted to add google analytic s (yes i know yahoo has great analytic s too!) but could i if i wanted too?


    Well. Maybe. You can't include JS directly but the ga.js script that you embed creates a img src. You could potentially create a library which just generates the <image resource="/path/that/ga/uses"/> . It looks like there is some reference here. It would be a cool experiment that you should share with us.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    6) could yahoo turn my site off (not widget or app - a site) - if yes under what circumstances?


    Our terms of service are here http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/mobil...dvlpr-2070.html

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    7) could i add admob advertising (yes i know yahoo has ad network)


    Depends on what they're requirements are. We offer the <display-ad> element which you can use. I recommend you have direct="true" in there or else our resource server will resize your image which is probably against their requirements.
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  • QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    8) Where is the list of phones that are actually supported?


    We don't have a public one right now. It's a lot. Thousands.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    9) does it support ipad? and iphone app development (seen rumor of sdk integration with apple) is that rumor of possibility??


    Admittedly, our iPad support is pretty poor. We choose not to support large screen devices as it seemed everyone was going to view desktop sites on it. If you go to yahoo.com on an iPad right now, you will see the desktop site. As far as iPhone/iPad app development, I have nothing to report at this time.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 20 2010, 02:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    10) I note some issues on documentation , any ideas when more will be released


    Great question. We are planning on releasing a 1.2 spec but I don't have a date for you yet.
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  • Hi Jason,

    many thanks, its comforting to get a fast response! follow on questions:

    1) the vodafone post was an old post on this site (pls can you confirm this issue is now solved?) - http://stii.co.za/mobile-web/yahoo-bluepri...odaphone-sucks/
    2) Are their any issue with different mobile browsers like Opera mini ? (opera is a nightmare for video support!!) i.e do you support all mobile browser?
    3) We stream video directly to mobile phone and have dynamic bit rate adaption - i,.e user click RTSP/HTTP or WMV (depending on phone) link - goes to our servers - we start stream, if network condition change we adapt the bit rate (i.e we have a constant connection and dynamic adaption) - Will this still work ok with blueprint? (i.e we can't go through your system for delivery for video stream (i know you have some video support, but we support over 1000 devices for live TV and video).
    4) can you gibe us a rough timescale for new release and upgrades in term of other runtimes?
    5) is yahoo planning to increase its investment ion Blueprint??

    Many thanks in advance.

    ian
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  • QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 21 2010, 01:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Hi Jason,

    many thanks, its comforting to get a fast response! follow on questions:

    1) the vodafone post was an old post on this site (pls can you confirm this issue is now solved?) - http://stii.co.za/mobile-web/yahoo-bluepri...odaphone-sucks/


    It sounds like what you were seeing was the Yahoo! Frontpage device unsupported page. Yahoo! Frontpage has sinced launched editions for lower-grade devices so it may work depending on what device you are using. Note: this does not mean BP did not support these devices - just our Frontpage didn't have editions for these low grade devices. When I mean editions, they actually reduce the amount of content as some old phones have memory limits as low as 9kb! To tell you for sure if we support a device, you need to provide the make and model.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 21 2010, 01:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    2) Are their any issue with different mobile browsers like Opera mini ? (opera is a nightmare for video support!!) i.e do you support all mobile browser?


    We support more devices than devices that support video. I don't think you will have a problem there.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 21 2010, 01:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    3) We stream video directly to mobile phone and have dynamic bit rate adaption - i,.e user click RTSP/HTTP or WMV (depending on phone) link - goes to our servers - we start stream, if network condition change we adapt the bit rate (i.e we have a constant connection and dynamic adaption) - Will this still work ok with blueprint?
    (i.e we can't go through your system for delivery for video stream (i know you have some video support, but we support over 1000 devices for live TV and video).


    Blueprint only really allows you to link to your video. How the phone handles the video and whether your video server works are up to you. We do offer the ability to host videos on Yahoo video but it sounds like you will be using your own server. In that case, just link to the videos like you would on your own pages.

    QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Apr 21 2010, 01:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    4) can you gibe us a rough timescale for new release and upgrades in term of other runtimes?
    5) is yahoo planning to increase its investment ion Blueprint??


    Sorry, I can't comment on these right now. You can watch the announcements forum for more information.
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  • Hi,

    Yes, it looks like we'll go for it.

    Please can you answer one more question:

    the different file structure and page extensions such as pagename.bp or the others! - does this effect Search engine optimization and google spiders / crawlers from indexing every page. Are their any issues / limitation in this area.

    Thanks
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  • QUOTE (livemobiletv @ Jun 3 2010, 03:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
    Hi,

    Yes, it looks like we'll go for it.

    Please can you answer one more question:

    the different file structure and page extensions such as pagename.bp or the others! - does this effect Search engine optimization and google spiders / crawlers from indexing every page. Are their any issues / limitation in this area.

    Thanks



    You don't actually need to name your pages *.bp. You don't even need to give them an extension at all; just have your script return the application/x-blueprint+xml content type.

    As for search engines, make sure to send them to your bpapps site or if you are going to use a CNAME, send them there. They will parse anything with a content-type of text/html or any of the xhtml content types. If you are wondering, we serve bots the A-grade/class 6 experience.
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