Creating a mobile website

[Fetch]

Hello Everyone

Its been a while since I last posted anything. I am looking at creating a mobile version of the my website. However I just can't seem to find the right guide to help me with it. All I keep finding it links to other sites that "do it for you" but I want to have full control of the code hence why I want to try to do it for myself.

Any help with this would be most appriciated.

Kind regards

Gavin Mawston
Fetch It Now

[garyk]

you need to search for detecting browser types. I know there is some javascript code you can use to determine if someone is using say safari on an iphone or whatever the browser is on nokia phones.

[MASSEY]

I doubt many will know the answer to this, .mobi is a weird one,

[Fetch]

Thanks Massey

Yes Mobi is the one I keep finding a lot but its annoying to an extent that I want to learn the back ground side of it so as not to have to rely on others.

Hopefully all will come to light soon.

[FireFleur]

Well creating a mobile website is the same as creating any other website it is no different in the base mechanics.

All you have is a device where the screen tends to be a lot smaller and their is often not a pointing device (or at least you cannot assume there is one).

So, the interface design is different, often that will mean more than just a CSS rejig, it will mean you will present information in a different way.

The .mobi is just a domain, you can deliver content and interface more suited for mobile devices from any domain.

The real trick is realising the mobile devices are different and then working out how best someone could use the site with a limited mobile device. And, you may consider a cut off point, but remember there is no rule that a fully fledged desktop should have a mouse or roller ball attached either, it is just a case that most do.

[cmcp]

I'd add onto that about files sizes... Mobile is where you'll see advantages of coding clean, compliant sites. Consider compressing your ascii files, use a good image optimiser like Fireworks and check your work on a resolution emulator like browser cam.

[Andy Walpole]

Pardon the self-promotion here but I wrote quite a comprehensive blog post about this last year:

http://www.suburban-glory.com/blog?page=23

Mobile is still really niche web design / development though

[cmcp]

Why would you advise internal styles over a stylesheet? I assume that would be included on every page?

[FireFleur]

Placing CSS in the head of a document, results in faster rendering of layout, and one less file to call so faster download.

This works on the first download, but perhaps also subsequent for the layout render. Style that is say colour based or further down the page and outside of layout could be placed in an outside file and then you would see slight increase in speed of download (as long as caching occurs) in subsequent calls.

Files can also be compressed for download, and CSS has a lot of repeating text that can be reduced to token characters, and so the hit isn't as large as you might think in many instances.

That is my take on it, it is simpler to use an outside file though, but if you are using a template system anyhow it doesn't make too much difference on the modularity.

[Andy Walpole]

Why would you advise internal styles over a stylesheet? I assume that would be included on every page?

No external file should be fine.

The thing about designing for mobile phones is in regards to smartphones - iPhones, Blackberry and some others - then their technology is very similar to a PC browser, so a well-built site that conforms to quality web standards should look fine in those devices

However, for the rest of the market it's a very different design game and it really depends on where you set the lowest common denominator.

[cmcp]

I've not done a great deal of mobile dev, but I would've thought with the size of an external sheet (if >25k) it would be cached by the smartphone, so you'd be saving on all that markup per page?

[FireFleur]

A separate file will get cached, so is a speed up on subsequent hits.

But for render and first page call, inline in header is better. So it is debatable to a degree. I have sites with both, and to be honest one file is probably more likely for me to select , as I don't have to balance two sheets for global layout, but there are advantages, render mainly, in doing so.