WIT service for front-end Web developers automatically detects mobile devices and resizes images for optimal web site performance
Today, ScientiaMobile, the company behind the popular WURFL Device Description Repository, has launched WURFL Image Tailor (WIT), Community Edition. This service is designed for front-end Web developers who want an easy, fast, and reliable way to resize images based on the type of device accessing their web sites. This highly available cloud-based service is offered to the community of web developers without charge.
Large pictures on websites frequently cause slow loading on mobile devices with limited bandwidth from mobile operators. Slow performance degrades the user experience and can cause users to abandon the site – a big problem for e-commerce and content-heavy sites. Solving this problem requires accurate detection of mobile devices, their screen dimensions, and image display capabilities.
Using a simple prefix of wit.wurlf.io, developers can instantly resize images accessible through a public URL. The following example optimally resizes the URL http://wurfl.io/assets/sunsetbeach.jpg based on the screen size of the mobile device accessing them.
<img src=”//wit.wurfl.io/http://wurfl.io/assets/sunsetbeach.jpg”>
On the back end, WIT ties into WURFL, the industry’s most accurate and trusted source for device detection. Additional controls over the scaling and formatting of the images are also available to better serve high-resolution Retina display devices and to obtain more granular control of the user experience. By addressing image size, web developers can drastically reduce the size of their website payloads, particularly those sites that already adopt techniques meant to optimize the mobile UX, such as Responsive Web Design (RWD) and Progressive Enhancement.
“We’ve made it easy to pipe images through WIT and instantly optimize the size of the image sent to mobile devices,” said Jon Arne Saeteraas, VP of Innovation at ScientiaMobile. “We understand that many front-end developers are not comfortable tinkering with server-side technologies needed to accurately identify devices and their screen sizes. WIT effectively addresses that point by making the solution sit one URL away.”
WIT is an extension of the WURFL.io product line that offers useful services for front-end developers based on WURFL’s device detection services. Previously, ScientiaMobile launched WURFL.js to provide device make, model, and form factor available through a simple JavaScript snippet.
“We see large demand for services based on WURFL device detection, even from Responsive Web Design developers,” said Krishna Guda, CEO of ScientiaMobile. “With tools as easy as WIT and WURFL.js, we see many front-end developers integrating these tools to improve the mobile web experience.”
Luca Passani, CTO of ScientiaMobile, said, “WIT is not the first image-resizing tool in the Cloud, but existing solutions tend to come with a catch either in the form of price, low-reliability, or lack of server-side device detection. WIT addresses all of these issues.”
“Blog4Mob has always striven to support all form factors. Resizing images for mobile devices has always been a big deal. WIT nicely and effectively addresses the issue of serving smaller pictures to mobile devices, ranging from smartphones, all the way down to older BlackBerry’s,” said Dorian Kirkwood, Chief Content Editor of the Blog4Mob micro-blogging platform.
WURFL Image Tailor (WIT) documentation and demo are available at http://wurfl.io/#wit.
ScientiaMobile provides the industry’s most accurate and flexible device detection solution, helping customers deliver great web experiences and manage the increasingly fragmented mobile device ecosystem. ScientiaMobile sells WURFL, a constantly-updated repository that catalogues thousands of devices and their capabilities and provides access to them via range of API languages. The WURFL framework enables many organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, to effectively design and analyze web experiences for an ever-growing range of smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and game consoles.
