Just some additional thoughts.
blog.brockha.us wrote:I have a different kind of view on this topic. While yellowled's view is client orientated, I am sure, it has to be a mixture of both: client and server orientated.
Actually, I don't really care whether it's client- or server-side.
I can't do server-side stuff, it's just not my cup of tea. I can do client-side stuff and it's working perfectly fine for me. However, I really
do see the advantages possible by adding server-side techniques to it, especially if you give visitors the choice to switch between desktop and optimized layout.
To me, this is the bottom line: visitors should have a choice.
blog.brockha.us wrote:You have to use special CSS/JS stuff to optimize the blog design for mobile and "normal" devices.
You know, that "special" stuff is gonna be pretty normal in a few months.
blog.brockha.us wrote:But I also think that the content should change, when viewed from a mobile device. I don't mean different articles, when saying this. When looking on my blog from a standard device like a desktop pc, I want to show some extra information (like sidebar plugins). For mobile devices I want to show articles only, in order to save bandwidth and to give easy mobile access to my blog.
This is what I mean by giving the visitors a choice. Yes, in many cases a mobile device user will in fact be mobile, i.e. on a small bandwidth. A lot of those user also have teeny, tiny displays.
But.
A lot of people also use their mobile devices at home, usually conntecting to a broadband landline connection via wifi in that case. Also, the screen resolutions (hello, buzzword!
) keep getting bigger on those devices. Just think iPhone4 retina display or Samsung Amoled displays here.
blog.brockha.us wrote:The IMHO better way is not to deliver the content, that is not meant for mobile devices, but that can't be done using CSS/JS only, as these are client side techniques.
I agree. If you have the possibility to use client-side scripting, great. If you don't, because there is no plugin for that and you don't know PHP yourself, a CSS/JS solution is better than nothing. Just try using some of the sites not using a mobile-friendly layout on my Nokia -- it's not exactly comfortable.
blog.brockha.us wrote:Yellowled is right by saying, that the disadvantage of this technique is, that the template switcher has to know about mobile devices, while his technique only has to know about screen resolutions of the device.
It is not only a question of work and code you'd have to put into the plugin, it's also much more future-proof because the screen resolution is completely unrelated to the platform or client. Also, don't forget mobile device which are not a cell phone -- just think about the iPad.
As far as I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong!), a client-side solution based on sniffing the user agent would detect an iPad as an iPhone since they both use mobileSafari on iOS -- however, an iPad has a resolution of 768x1024 px, while an iPhone3 comes with 320x480 px. I don't think it's adequate to give the iPad users the same mobile layout. Also, think netbooks. Think people with small screen resolutions on old laptops.
(I actually got feedback just the other day from someone using a non-maximized Safari on a 1280x800 macbook display. Back then, he got a mobile layout at one site because the site "thought" his 700px wide Safari was an iPad. So there's disadvantages to "my" technique -- not actually mine -- as well if you don't use it carefully.)
blog.brockha.us wrote:My updates to the mobile output plugin of Pelle Boese are ready and working nicely on my blog, but at the moment I can't release them, because I have no clever idea how to handle some downward compatibility issues.
What are these? I still think that combining client- and server-side here might be the best solution, so if I can help you with this, just say the word.
YL