How can we learn from the official announcement, Joomla 3 will bring CMS up-to-speed with the mobile revolution that is taking over the web. It’s predicted that, as soon next years, more people will be online via their smartphone than a desktop. The mobile version of web site may soon be more important than the desktop version.
Joomla 3 Mobile View
Always Look on the Mobile Side of Life
Few weeks ago I wrote a piece on some of the responsive templates available for Joomla. The post explained how responsive design techniques can be used to make a site display in a way that is optimized for a variety of devices, including mobile. But does responsive design really result in a “mobile site”? Unfortunately, not always.
The whole purpose of creating a mobile version of a website is to enhance the user experience for visitors accessing a site from a mobile device. Mobile development skills became an important value since mobile devices are used more often for web surfing and other online services. Delivering a mobile-compatible Joomla site can be accomplished in two different ways:
- The first Method involves using Joomla as more of a backend datastore for a native app, with no need for site theming.
- The second method involves CMS Joomla as more of a traditional web application with a lightweight mobile template.
By now, You can use extension like Jtouch or Mobile Joomla! (JED mobile-display) for Joomla 2.5 which detects when a mobile device hits your website, and automatically switches to a mobile URL that you specify, and/or a mobile template. It even lets you use different templates for different devices, which is perfect if you need to have an iPad or Samsung Note optimized theme.
If you want to make sure that the largest number of visitors to your site can at least get the most important information on your site, create a simplified version of your web site (included simplifield menu) designed to work on even low-end mobile devices.
To make your site work, even on the most oldest smart phones, you need to strip down your Joomla to only the most important elements. Remember to limit the number of used modules and components. Also large image files and javascripts that require fast processors won’t display well on most mobile devices. Eliminating graphic elements from your Joomla template and modules is usually an effective & easy way to optimize its display on a mobile device.
In summary, your mobile Joomla, in most cases, should be simpler version your standard site. You should test on physical devices when possible, but there are Web-based tools available for testing mobile sites such as the W3C moblieOK Checker, which gives your site a score from 0 to 100 of mobile-friendliness. If you are interested in this issue you can also read a book Professional Mobile Web Development with WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal or Joomla Mobile Development Beginners Guide.
By the way, if you can export your website to plain .html pages – PhoneGap can compile it into native mobile apps. PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies and get access to APIs and app stores.