This section provides information specific to each version of the Nokia Web Browser for Symbian. The following Symbian browser versions are described:
Nokia Browser 7.4 is functionally the same as Nokia Browser 7.3, plus a few UI improvements and bug fixes. Therefore, the documentation topic set at What's new in Browser 7.3 also applies to Browser 7.4.
Browser 7.4 is supported on Symbian Belle devices.
A notable bug fix in Symbian Web Runtime (WRT) 7.4 that ships with Browser 7.4 allows the use of viewport meta tag scaling in home screen enabled WRT widgets. For more information on the bug in Symbian Web Runtime 7.3 and its fix in 7.4, see What's new in Symbian Web Runtime 7.3. For more information on the viewport meta tag, see Viewport meta tag support.
This section gives brief information on Nokia Browser 7.3 for Symbian and provides a link to a topic set with more details.
Browser 7.3 is supported on Symbian Anna devices.
Browser 7.3 supports all of the features of previous Nokia Browser 7.x releases, as well as the additional features described in the topic set at What's new in Browser 7.3.
This section describes the new features introduced in version 7.2 of Nokia Browser for Symbian.
The Nokia Browser 7.2 is supported on:
S60 3rd Edition devices
S60 5th Edition devices
Symbian^3 platform devices
This version of the web browser supports all of the features of previous Nokia Browser 7 releases, as well as the following additional features:
Two finger touch support (pinch open and pinch close) - on capacitive touch devices only
Flash Lite 4.0 - On Symbian^3 devices only
Flash Lite 3.1 - On Symbian^3, S60 5th Edition, and S60 3rd Edition (Feature Pack 2) devices
Search Client Integration
Support for Optical Finger Navigation
Support for Capacitive touch display
Along with full web capabilities, the browser supports WML/WMLScript (compiled) content for backward compatibility with WAP 2.0 content.
This section describes the new features introduced in version 7.1 of the Nokia Browser for Symbian.
Nokia Browser 7.1 is supported on:
S60 3rd Edition devices
S60 5th Edition devices
This version of the web browser supports all of the features of previous Nokia Browser 7 releases, as well as the following additional features:
User-configurable shortcut keys and visual keymap
Assigning shortcuts to device hardware keys has been available since S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 (OSS Browser 3.1 features).
A visual keymap and the ability for mobile device user to edit the keymapping.
Web pages do not need to be redesigned to accommodate this feature. The Nokia Browser 7 for Symbian provides these mappings automatically.
Full-screen view
The browser displays status information such as page-load progress, open windows, connection, signal strength, battery strength, and web page title in a fixed status pane in both portrait and landscape view.
Full screen mode allows more web content and less status information to be displayed. The mobile device user can remove the status pane and softkey labels to use the whole screen for displaying the web page.
Web pages do not need to be redesigned to accommodate this feature. The Nokia Browser 7 for Symbian simply displays more of your web page when in this view.
This section describes the new features introduced in version 7.0 of the Nokia Browser for Symbian.
Nokia Browser 7.0 is supported on:
S60 5th Edition devices
This version of the web browser supports all of the features of prior Nokia Browser 7 releases, as well as the following additional features:
Support for touch devices
The Nokia Browser 7 for Symbian added support for touch devices in version 7.0.
On touch devices, a virtual on-screen keyboard is used for input to text boxes and webpage form fields. 4-way and 8-way navigation is supported by rocker key inputs.
Touch screen interfaces require special design considerations. For more information, see the “Design and User Experience Library”.
On-screen zoom control
Zoom has been available since S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1.
As of version 7.0, users can control the zoom level on a touch device by means of a graphical zoom “slider” that sets the zoom level through direct touch manipulation.
The Nokia Browser 7.x family for Symbian supports the following features that were supported by Nokia browsers prior to 7.x:
Intelligent page layout
Text layout is optimized so that text blocks wrap within the screen width, eliminating the need to scroll horizontal when reading text.
You do not design your web page for this feature. The browser has an algorithm that performs intelligent layout automatically.
Shortcut keys
Device hardware keys are assigned as shortcuts to the most frequently accessed browser features. The mappings are subject to change depending on the configuration of the mobile device.
You do not need to design your web page for this feature. The browser provides these mappings automatically.
Toolbar
A pop-up toolbar allows mobile device users to access features without entering the options list.
You do not need to design your web page for this feature.
Text search
Also known as “find in page”, allows mobile device users to search for text on the loaded web page. As text is entered, the best match is highlighted and shifted into optimal position on the display.
You do not need to design your web page for this feature.
Zoom
Zooming allows the user to focus in on an area of interest on the web page or zoom out to see more of the content. Zoom control is through either short-cut keys or hardware zoom keys.
You do not need to design your page for zoom, the browser sets a minimum zoom level based on the web page size and does not allow the mobile device user to zoom out further than “fit-to-page” of either the height or width.
Intelligent page-layout does not adjust for zooming. Font sizes adjust according to zoom, regardless of how they are defined. For more information about fonts, see the font style recommendations information in this library.
Page overview
Provides a zoomed-out view of the entire page with indication of the current position. From this interface the mobile device user can quickly focus in on any area of the loaded web page.
You do not need to do anything to design your web pages for this feature. This feature can be quite useful when "full" web pages are viewed on the browser. For information on the different options for displaying web pages in the browser, see Getting started.
Screen orientation
Change screen orientation from portrait to landscape.
You should design your web pages so that they "stretch" to fill the display when viewed in landscape.
Backstepping and visual history
The browser provides two ways to go back to a previously visited page in the current session.
The default is visual history. When mobile device users select the “Back” softkey, a graphical interface presents thumbnail views of previously visited pages to which they can return.
There is also a preference to use more traditional back stepping functionality, where choosing "Back" automatically loads the previously visited web page.
You do not need to design your web pages to take advantage of visual backstepping or the traditional back stepping. Although visual history makes navigating easier for visitors to your site, you should follow the navigation and linking recommendations in Best Practices.
Multiple windows
Windows can be opened by user interaction or scripting. Pop-up blocking is a user-defined setting. Support for multiple windows facilitates web-based services that require separate windows for logging in and maintaining a session. (This is a requirement of many Wireless LAN / Wi-Fi service providers.)
Web feeds
Mobile device users can subscribe to syndicated feeds. Once subscribed, the feeds can be viewed and updated through an interface similar to browser bookmarks. Web feeds can be configured to be automatically updated at set intervals.
The browser supports a variety of RSS and Atom formats for providing web feed subscription.
Form data retention
The mobile device user can choose to store data entered in a form. Stored data that matches the characters entered by the user will be selectable for auto-completing the form. Stored passwords are associated with username fields. The mobile device user can disable this feature or clear all stored data at any time.
You do not need to design your web pages for this features, however you should be aware of the challenges faced by mobile device users when entering data on a mobile device.
Privacy menu
The privacy menu groups a number of data-clearing options together along with a “Clear All” feature that clears cache data, cookies, history, auto-bookmarks, and stored form data (including any stored passwords entered into web page forms).
Browser plug-ins
The browser supports a browser plug-in interface, based closely on the industry-standard Netscape plug-in API (NSAPI) used in popular Internet browsers. The API is included in the Symbian SDK so content developers can write their own plug-ins for the browser. For more information, see Media content.
Pointer or tabbed navigation
A virtual pointer is the default way of navigating, but the browser can also use tabbed navigation if the page content is easier to navigate by tabbing.
The virtual pointer is the default navigational tool but you can define <meta name="navigation" content="tabbed"> to use tabbed navigation.
