In 2013 there will be more mobile devices capable of accessing the web than there will be computers. How do you present your Joomla! website to your users accessing it from their mobile devices? A Mobile website is a website which has been optimized to work in a mobile browser. Using a mobile phone web browser one can directly access these websites. Mobile devices have unpredictable screen sizes and the speed of the internet connection can be low. The loading of images can take longer. This article will describe different approaches to mobilizing your Joomla! website.
Separate Mobile Website
The mobile version is a totally independent website with another URL, mostly using the subdomain "m.". Using some Joomla extensions it is possible to use your existing content to create a separate mobile version.
The top internet brands like Google, Facebook and Yahoo use separate mobile solutions - quite simply, for the speed. It has been found out in studies that the average mobile user is only willing to wait a maximum of four seconds for content to load on their devices.
Most of those sites would perform 100-400% faster on mobile by using a separate mobile solution.
Mobile Joomla
Switching a website from desktop mode to mobile mode is not hard with Joomla, thanks to the tiny but useful component Mobile Joomla. One of the most popular components in the Joomla Extensios Directory (JED), Mobile Joomla features many customization options you can tweak to ensure that your mobile visitors will have an enjoyable browsing experience on your website.
The most important feature of Mobile Joomla is probably its stability and simplicity. Mobile Joomla is easy to implement, and really does what it claims.
Mobile Joomla significant features include:
- User agent detection system through multiple methods, including WURFL;
- Flexible layout settings;
- Support for custom themes and modules;
- iPhone, iMode, Wap, and XHTML device categorization.
Jtouch
Jtouch Mobile is not just a template, it is a solution to mobilize your Joomla 1.5 & 2.5 website. designed to help mobilizing Joomla! websites is easy as 1-2-3! Its aim is to bring a better view and interaction for your website on most modern smartphones like iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry...
Jtouch is free and Open Source. No encoded script, no back-track - it's all open!
Responsive Web Design
Jtouch specializes in targeting mobile screens, and helps your website look more beautiful and attractive on mobile.
Supports Most Major Platforms
Jtouch works really well on iPhone, Android, Window Phone and many other OS's like BlackBerry, Meego, Tizen and FirefoxOS...
Easy to Customize
Jtouch adapts Themeroller for jQueryMobile. You can drag and drop colors and then download a custom theme. It only takes about 5 minutes to make your theme like no others.
Auto Detects
Clients are browsing your page on various types of smartphones. Don't ask them tap on a link to display your mobile site! Jtouch can detect and It is smart enough to switch your website from desktop to mobile template, automatically!
Responsive Webdesign
Responsive Web Design tries to adapt the layout to the viewing environment, and probably also uses flexible images.
Responsive design usually reacts to four kinds of screens: the widescreen desktop monitor; the smaller desktop (or laptop); the tablet; and the mobile phone.
Responsive design works by using @media queries to identify the size of the device screen and presents a layout based on that size.
Joomla Responsive Design
According to Google Trends, “Joomla Responsive” is catching up very quickly From October 2011.
Joomla Responsive vs. Joomla Mobile
Responsive Joomla Templates
Test your website
Take a look at different websites and see how they are dealing with different device sizes.
Mobile App
Apps are actual applications that are downloaded and installed on your mobile device, rather than being rendered within a browser. The app may pull content and data from the Internet, in similar fashion to a website, or it may download the content so that it can be accessed without an Internet connection.
When Does an App Make Sense?
Despite the many inherent benefits of the mobile web, apps are still very popular, and there are a number of specific use scenarios where an app will be your best choice. Generally speaking, if you need one of the following, an app makes sense:
- Interactivity/Gaming – for interactive games (think Angry Birds) an app is almost always going to be your best choice, at least for the foreseeable future.
- Regular Usage/Personalization – If your target users are going to be using your app in a personalized fashion on a regular basis (think EverNote) then an app provides a great way to do that.
- Complex Calculations or Reporting – If you need something that will take data and allow you to manipulate it with complex calculations, charts or reports (think banking or investment) an app will help you do that very effectively.
- Native Functionality or Processing Required - mobile web browsers are getting increasingly good at accessing certain mobile-specific functions such as click-to-call, SMS and GPS. However, if you need to access a user's camera or processing power an app will still do that much more effectivley.
- No connection required – If you need to provide offline access to content or perform functions without a network/wireless connection then an app makes sense.
Chimoora
Chimoora is a Joomla! client app which brings the features of a Joomla! powered website to mobile devices.
Different operating systems will be supported. The first one will be Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). BlackBerry 10, Windows 8 and iOS are on the radar as well. Chimoora 1.0 will support Blogs (Joomla! featured articles) and Forums (powered by Discussions). The next version will bring Private Messages (Discussions) and Classified Ads (Marketplace).
On the serverside, Chimoora needs a Joomla! API extension which is developed as part of the Chimoora project in parallel. The API extension is a "normal" Joomla! component and is simply installed via the extension manager.
Requirements:
- Chimoora is an Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) native app and therefore it requires Android 4.x on the mobile device
- The Joomla! API extension needs Joomla! 2.5 or above to work.
Joooid
Joooid (with three "o") is a free app/extension for Android devices.
Joooid allows you to:
- create or edit articles, change title, alias, category, status, access level, frontpage and scheduled publishing.
- create content with the WYSIWYG with html markup and links, in full screen!
- add images and galleries using pictures from your device.
- add youtube videos or share images and videos with Joooid directly from Image Gallery or YouTube App.
- geotag articles, embed maps with your current position using GPS/Network or set the map coordinates with the handy map picker. You can also share a location to Joooid directly from the Google Maps application.
JomMobile
jomMobile allows you to manage your Joomla 1.7 site on the go with your android.
jomMobile allows you to edit many core features of your Joomla site for free!
Feature list:
- Manage multiple sites
- Article manager: View/Add/Edit/Delete
- Category manager: View/Add/Edit/Delete
- Menu manager: View
- Menu items: View/Edit/Delete
- User manager: View/Add/Edit/Delete
- Manage 3rd party plugins (ie. K2)
You have to install the app and a Joomla component.