Jquery Mobile 1.4 swipe demo in Chrome with mobile device

Question

My question concerns the swipe event on a mobile device (I'm using a Nexus 7) with Chrome. I am working off the Jquery Mobile 1.4.2 demo which can be found here:

http://demos.jquerymobile.com/1.4.2/swipe-page/

I'll ask my question and copy the sample javascript below. I can get everything to work, both on my laptop (using Chrome) and on my tablet (using Firefox), but the swipe works maybe one out of ten times in Chrome with my tablet. Any advice? Thanks!

// Pagecreate will fire for each of the pages in this demo
// but we only need to bind once so we use "one()"
$( document ).one( "pagecreate", ".demo-page", function() {
    // Initialize the external persistent header and footer
    $( "#header" ).toolbar({ theme: "b" });
    $( "#footer" ).toolbar({ theme: "b" });
    // Handler for navigating to the next page
    function navnext( next ) {
        $( ":mobile-pagecontainer" ).pagecontainer( "change", next + ".html", {
            transition: "slide"
        });
    }
    // Handler for navigating to the previous page
    function navprev( prev ) {
        $( ":mobile-pagecontainer" ).pagecontainer( "change", prev + ".html", {
            transition: "slide",
            reverse: true
        });
    }
    // Navigate to the next page on swipeleft
    $( document ).on( "swipeleft", ".ui-page", function( event ) {
        // Get the filename of the next page. We stored that in the data-next
        // attribute in the original markup.
        var next = $( this ).jqmData( "next" );
        // Check if there is a next page and
        // swipes may also happen when the user highlights text, so ignore those.
        // We're only interested in swipes on the page.
        if ( next && ( event.target === $( this )[ 0 ] ) ) {
            navnext( next );
        }
    });
    // Navigate to the next page when the "next" button in the footer is clicked
    $( document ).on( "click", ".next", function() {
        var next = $( ".ui-page-active" ).jqmData( "next" );
        // Check if there is a next page
        if ( next ) {
            navnext( next );
        }
    });
    // The same for the navigating to the previous page
    $( document ).on( "swiperight", ".ui-page", function( event ) {
        var prev = $( this ).jqmData( "prev" );
        if ( prev && ( event.target === $( this )[ 0 ] ) ) {
            navprev( prev );
        }
    });
    $( document ).on( "click", ".prev", function() {
        var prev = $( ".ui-page-active" ).jqmData( "prev" );
        if ( prev ) {
            navprev( prev );
        }
    });
});
$( document ).on( "pageshow", ".demo-page", function() {
    var thePage = $( this ),
        title = thePage.jqmData( "title" ),
        next = thePage.jqmData( "next" ),
        prev = thePage.jqmData( "prev" );
    // Point the "Trivia" button to the popup for the current page.
    $( "#trivia-button" ).attr( "href", "#" + thePage.find( ".trivia" ).attr( "id" ) );
    // We use the same header on each page
    // so we have to update the title
    $( "#header h1" ).text( title );
    // Prefetch the next page
    // We added data-dom-cache="true" to the page so it won't be deleted
    // so there is no need to prefetch it
    if ( next ) {
        $( ":mobile-pagecontainer" ).pagecontainer( "load", next + ".html" );
    }
    // We disable the next or previous buttons in the footer
    // if there is no next or previous page
    // We use the same footer on each page
    // so first we remove the disabled class if it is there
    $( ".next.ui-state-disabled, .prev.ui-state-disabled" ).removeClass( "ui-state-disabled" );
    if ( ! next ) {
        $( ".next" ).addClass( "ui-state-disabled" );
    }
    if ( ! prev ) {
        $( ".prev" ).addClass( "ui-state-disabled" );
    }
});

Answer 1

In the end, I decided to use the jQuery touchSwipe plugin and write my own code, works fine in different browsers and across devices. Some of this may not make sense without the HTML, but essentially I determine the direction of the swipe based on the variable that is passed into the method. Then, by getting various attributes and class names, I am turning on and off the display of the various divs that have previously loaded the JSON into them from another method. The way I do that is through substrings, where the last digit of the id is a number. If anyone has any comments about how this code could be more efficient, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts. Cheers.

function swipeLiterary() {
    $("#read").swipe({
      swipe:function(event, direction, distance, duration, fingerCount) {
          switch (direction) {
            case 'left':
                var thisPage = $('.display').attr('id');
                var nextPageNum = parseInt(thisPage.substring(8)) + 1;
                var nextPage = thisPage.substring(0,8) + nextPageNum;
                if (nextPageNum > 9) {
                    break
                }
                $('#' + thisPage).removeClass('display').addClass('nodisplay');
                $('#' + nextPage).removeClass('nodisplay').addClass('display');
                console.log(nextPage);
                break;
            case 'right':
                var thisPage = $('.display').attr('id');
                var prevPageNum = parseInt(thisPage.substring(8)) - 1;
                var prevPage = thisPage.substring(0,8) + prevPageNum;
                if (prevPageNum < 0){
                    break;  
                }
                $('#' + thisPage).removeClass('display').addClass('nodisplay');
                $('#' + prevPage).removeClass('nodisplay').addClass('display');
                console.log(prevPage);
                break;  
            case 'up':
                console.log('up');
                break;
          }
        //$(this).text("You swiped " + direction );
        //console.log(this);
      }
    }); 
}

Answer 2

I've done the same experiment and I've observed similar results with my tablet (Nexus 7 - Google Chrome). You should not use heavy frameworks like jQueryMobile if you are going to create a web app or a mobile website because even if these tools make your life easier at the end the result, especially on Android devices, will be slow and sluggish. In other words you should create your own .css and .js. If you need to manipulate the DOM very often you should also look for alternatives to jQuery. I suggest that you use Zepto.js.