Download
Introduction
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This is where you come in. You are probably a web developer or administrator with some experience using common technologies like HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, and who probably uses an existing content management system like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla!. You ’ re intrigued by the possibilities of adapting or building a website for a mobile audience, and want to figure out how you might get started.
This book assumes you are relatively technically literate, although you don ’ t need to be an experienced developer to benefit from the advice or, hopefully, to understand the examples. In fact, one of the huge benefits of having used a content management system in the first place is that you may be quite happily running and maintaining a website without ever having had to write software yourself! If that ’ s you, then this book should still be appropriate. We talk extensively about how to use off - the - shelf plug - ins and modules to mobilize your websites, and these days, you can get a very long way without having to write a single line of code.
All I ask is that you aren’t daunted by the prospect of the mobile web. Mobile devices (and simultaneously, HTML5 and its related technologies) are changing the way we think about the Web as whole, and some might feel threatened that their existing tools, infrastructure and skill sets are at risk of becoming obsolete. Not at all! You might be pleasantly surprised at how familiar most of the technology we discuss is— I almost want you to be underwhelmed with how easy it is to establish an online mobile presence! And much of what I want to do in this book is to provoke a change in mindset, rather than learn an entirely new set of tools. The mobile web is different enough from today ’ s desktop web to require us to revisit a lot of our assumptions about how we build sites, and at the very least I hope you are receptive to the idea of thinking carefully about what your mobile users might really want from these new sites and experiences you will be building.
HOW THIS BOOK IS STRUCTURED
We have identified three main content management system platforms to use as a way of demonstrating how you can use existing tools and infrastructure to address a mobile audience. These are WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal. However, rather than repeating the entire book three times, we have isolated the practical details of the specific platforms and placed them in the second half of the book. Up until that point, everything we discuss should be suitable and relevant for any platform (indeed, even if it is not one of these three). We start off by reviewing mobile web technologies in general, the techniques and tools that we can use to mobilize content, both new and existing. We look at common user interface patterns, templates and frameworks that can be used to accelerate development or inspire work of your own.
Then, for each of the three platforms, we have a pair of chapters: the first will present an inventory of the mobile plug - ins, modules, themes, and templates available for that CMS, and what they do, how they can be configured, and how you can use them for quick mobilization of your site. In the second chapter of each pair, we then dust off our coding skills and write versions of our own— simply so you can see how they work, but also to act as a clean slate for those times when you want to do something more radical in terms of a mobile experience.
In the final part of the book, we draw the strands back together, and look at a number of additional topics: How state - of - the - art JavaScript frameworks are heralding new ways to build native - like mobile applications, together with steps and advice that you ’ ll need when testing, deploying, and launching your site. Throughout the book, we provide links and pointers to external resources— and since the mobile web is such a fast - moving area, you are well advised to stay appraised of what is going on from other sources!
