Which is the best way to create a mobile version of a website. I mean something like- wap2.Nairaland.Com, m.Facebook.Com. E.T.C.

E be like say nobody sabi am.

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I see at least 2 ways:

1) Code your website semantically. This will ensure that your website will pretty much be consistent on all platforms. You can check google for what I mean by "semantic web development" if you don't know what it is already

2) Have a separate mobile site: Sniff the device the person is visiting your site with and if its from a mobile device, redirect the person to a mobile specific website. The disadvantage here, at least to me, is that you now have 2 sites to maintain.

Something to chew on:
I read some time last year that in 5 years or less, over 50% of people will be surfing the web using a mobile device. I can attest to this as personally, I do more and more via my smartphone.

Check this website i made. http://www.lasumsa.org the shortcut to mobile version is
http://www.lasumsa.org/wap and shortcut to full version is
http://www.lasumsa.org/full
i cant remember clearly, but i do know you can switch from within the site.

It automatically switches to mobile version if you are using mobile phone, but it allows
you to switch to full or mobile based on your choice as well.

i developed the website using drupal, just tweaked it a bit to have mobile support.

E be like say nobody sabi am

Yes ohh. I no sabi am. Na woman i sabi!

Donpuzo:

E be like say nobody sabi am

Yes ohh. I no sabi am. Na woman i sabi!

smart or dull women?

Shey na question be that?

muy bien. Well, part of the tools i used for creating the aforementioned website was opera mobile.
this is the mobile opera browser on your phone now available for use on pc. You can work with it
completely offline. As in it can access localhost and all that, and it is available in windows and linux
and mac. . .
http://www.opera.com/developer/tools/

The thing is, for mobile websites, you might use wap 1.0 standard, wap 2.0 or just use html and
simplify your codes - something yawa was trying to explain.
Then also, you require some kinda script that can help you detect if you are on mobile or desktop
pc. Them plenty for internet, i cannot remember any url at this time - search google

- happy sunday to all
- until we see again

Thanks everyone, but i think seun should contribute cos he created mobile version of NL.

mobile version of nairaland is smf;s job

View my site at www.greenspek.com. It automatically directs your to the PC (www.greenspek.com) page or MOBILE (www.m.greenspek.com/MOBILE.html) page depending on your device. It also redirects for Opera Mini browser. NL and most sites don't do that.

Like  yawa-ti-de said, thats what you need. 2 domains or 2 folders in your index domain. A script (php, asp, jsp or any other server side script) that detects the devices and redirects them to the respective pages. The script is about 20 lines of code and should be the index page. Also don't forget to to the DTD (Document Type Declaration), to tell the MOBILE device that it can read the page. I advice you use WAP 1.0. It isn't rocket science.

That is one method of doing it. Another method is the one i used above - purely html.
You can use dreamweaver to generate mobile skeleton as well. . .your choice.

Though it is recommended and easier to have 2 domains or folders - it is not compulsory at all.

The site i demonstrated was done using a standard drupal installation. I just had to theme the
template to switch between mobile.

I optimized the website to work best on blackberry curve 2 - which is the default browser for
the website.

I can also make mobile versions specially for palasa and below - but in this case, it was not
necessary - call it poor programming - but i was like - use a new generation phone or "venga para aca!"

Number One, i like that your method too jare. It will work even on wap 0.5 phones (great support!)

Thanks y'all for the information. Learnt a lot.

de nada senor charles. .mucho gusto

It's easier with html5 and css3. instead of showing you methods, I will only tell you to read about these in reference to mobile web design:

1. Media Query in css3

2. Viewport

3. Semantic markup (HTML) and style (CSS)

4. Liquid layout or Fixed Layout

Reading about all these and few online tutorials would give you a solid background in design a mobile compatible website that displays effectively on mobile devices, Ipad and other tablets. Reading about these would also prepare you for the future of web design which is almost here!

How about graceful degradation? Surely, you dont expect a beginner to use all that. Whatever happened to css 2.1 and co?

I completely agree with Viewport, Sematic Markup and Liquid layout. Fixed layout can cause some problems even on
regular desktop browsers.

But yes, generally you have made a good point sha. But for beginners, i will say all that is too advanced!

*dhtml:

How about graceful degradation? Surely, you dont expect a beginner to use all that. Whatever happened to css 2.1 and co?

I completely agree with Viewport, Sematic Markup and Liquid layout. Fixed layout can cause some problems even on
regular desktop browsers.

But yes, generally you have made a good point sha. But for beginners, i will say all that is too advanced!

yeah! I quite agree but the point really is that the web design industry is moving so fast much that what you learnt in school lastweek might not be relevant anymore. . . for instance, it is really difficult for someone to start larning web design with table layout and all that. it's irrelevant and useless. So the best to do is to grasp the fundamental which to me is the "syntax and join the latest gist. cos there's a huge gap between html5 and previous versions of HTML.

dhtml:
Since he is talking mobile dev, css3 and html5 are perfectly okay here. If he was talking regular web dev, I would have said something long time ago. Most phones are webkit browser-based and so they support pretty much most of the specs.

Consequently, if a beginner wanted to jump str8 into web dev (after all, in the next 5 years, a study i read said over half the people will be browsing the web via a phone), this is probably the perfect time for it.

I agree with him. I am just saying that for this particular poster - this will be a bit advanced. The guy just wants to do something simple
and i doubt if he is ready to go fully into all those stuffs.