I have a Windows 7 tablet (an ASUS EP121), and I am using a web browser to display a Google Maps-based web application that I have created. Basically, I want the pinch gesture to zoom the Google Map (similar to using the scroll wheel to zoom a Google Map when using a mouse), rather than zooming the entire web page.
In Opera, Firefox, and Chrome, the pinch gesture simply zooms in the entire page. This behavior makes perfect sense for most use cases, but I’m wondering if there is any setting, in any of these browsers (e.g., Opera, FF, Chrome) that can cause the pinch gesture to behave like a mousewheel instead of zooming in the entire page?
Interestingly enough, in Arora, the pinch gesture can be used to zoom in/out a Google Map; however, other issues are preventing me from using Arora effectively that I think will be more difficult to address than the issues I am raising in this question.
Another option would be to disable pinch gestures (I know this is possible in Firefox, I’m sure the other browsers have some means to do the same), and then try to let the application take care of it. Are there any thoughts on going this route? Would something like jQuery mobile be able to accomplish this?
As a last resort, I could use Qt’s webkit and implement my own event handling (basically creating a stripped down Arora), but I’m really hoping there’s an easier way that utilizes currently available browsers.
Thanks.
If anyone ever runs into the same problem that I had here, I have created a very simple WebKit-based web browser using Qt that implements a pinch gesture and uses it to fire off a scroll wheel event.
It works quite well (especially for Google Maps) and the source is available on github here. I’ve tested the code on Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux 12.04; it works without any problems.