Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Design and Content : How do you design websites for handheld compatibility?

[iowaguy1]

I would like to make a website compatible with cell phones and pda's.

How is designing sites for hand-held products different than for PCs?

[01globalnet]

A few months I made a version of a site for mobile devices.

Here are some good rules I followed :

http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/

[iowaguy1]

Did you use a 'sniffer' to redirect mobile users to your mobile-compatible site?

[Steve_Arm]

PDA's are very limited regarding javascript. You can check the browser string and redirect accordingly.

[the_pm]

Good use of containers and floats/margins for positioning should degrade nicely for handheld devices, if you don't want to create mobile versions of every site you create. The phone/PDA will often degrade the page down to a linear progression of elements. There's nothing wrong with that, if you'd put a little thought into just what you want that linear progressionto look like

[iowaguy1]

Originally Posted by Steve_Arm

PDA's are very limited regarding javascript. You can check the browser string and redirect accordingly.

Can someone explain what Steve_Arm is saying? Is that the same as a browser sniffer?

[fastnoc]

Originally Posted by iowaguy1

Did you use a 'sniffer' to redirect mobile users to your mobile-compatible site?

ON one of my blogs I did this. But I didn't bother with all the millions of different handheld browsers there is now.

If you want to do all the different ones you're much better off using the htaccess file. I did mine with javascript for windows CE users only. If you browse the site and are using that it automatically re-directs you to a handheld template that has limited content. I did this:

PHP Code:

<script type="text/javascript">
var isCE = navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Windows CE")>0;
if (isCE)
{
window.location.href="/?/sg_distro/pda";
}
</script> 


It comes out looking like this:

[hekwu]

Originally Posted by iowaguy1

I would like to make a website compatible with cell phones and pda's.

How is designing sites for hand-held products different than for PCs?

Might be easier or better to use: http://www.mobisitegalore.com/

More mobi info: http://pc.dev.mobi/

These sites are for .mobi, but you can use the tool to build a mobile site for any tld.

Disclaimer: I've never used this tool, but I've read reports of it working fairly well. I would at least give it a shot...

[hekwu]

Originally Posted by iowaguy1

Did you use a 'sniffer' to redirect mobile users to your mobile-compatible site?

I would not do this. I simply HATE sites that automatically redirect me to another page!

Every now and again, I'll visit sites on my treo and a couple of sites (like palm's own site -- last time I was there anyway), kicks you into a "mobile" version since the website owner "thinks" it is better for you.

I like full sites on my treo, even if they look like crap since I can still navigate and find the info I need. I put the treo on "single browser (or is it column?)" and it looks ok, I can find the info I need. On most sites with only mobile, the info is not as full as the full version of the site. And sometimes the mobile version is days -- sometimes months -- behind the regular version.

That is my argument against redirect... of course, there are many more positive reasons for using a redirect.