Adobe has released a second public preview of its mobile website development tool Shadow. The program allows various iOS and Android devices to “pair” with it so that developers can see real-time previews of web content using any text editor or IDE. The new version now has localhost URL support, preview integration with Adobe’s HTML5/CSS animation tool Edge (works with Chrome only), and Retina Display tablet support.
The new release now allows browsing to sites that require HTTP authentication and lets users see the login/password form on Shadow-paired devices. It improves workflow for sticky caches by allowing a “refresh” gesture on paired devices, where users tap on a page, hold and pull down to see a refresh message. Shadow also now works correctly with localhost files, files that use a 127.0.0.1 URL, and machine.local.
Pages and apps that navigate to new states using the HTML-based “#” anchor parameter will now work correctly, and for maximum advantage in using Shadow, the Adobe Labs team recommends that users also update to Shadow for iOS (version 1.0.184), which will be available shortly on the App Store. The team are also promising a version of Shadow for the Kindle Fire at some point in the near future.
One much-requested feature that was not yet implemented in Release 2 was support for a virtual host file workflow. The developers say they will implement it but that the feature may take some time to get right.
