Mobile websites have gained a very big importance lately thanks to the popularity of Android and iOS based phones. What was sometime ago a very niche market has now become a mainstream requirement.
A little while back, the mobile versions of sites were essentially lightweight text versions of the main site. Not many of the mobile browsers supported javascript, CSS versions supported were very basic and AJAX support was almost non-existent. This was a time where WAP was gaining popularity as a mobile access protocol. Things have changed now. Mobile browsers are now functionally rich and provide almost every functionality that desktop browsers provide. The only difference between mobile sites and standard sites now is the layout.
For sites built with a CMS like Joomla, this essentially means a change of template. In Joomla, every layout turns up due to a template position. Depending on which module is assigned to which position, the display of the website can be changed. The problem that mobile websites pose to Joomla is the requirement to decide the position of the modules dynamically. If the website is viewed via a regular browser, then the modules should appear in the normal positions. If the website is viewed from a mobile browser, then the modules should be assigned to different positions. This is not possible in Joomla.
Mobile support for Joomla is achieved by dynamically changing the template. A mobile template is created with the template positions as required for the mobile site. When the site is viewed by a regular browser the regular template is loaded. When the site is viewed via a mobile browser, the mobile template is loaded. The trick here is that the modules are always loaded to the positions that they are assigned to. But by changing the template, we change where they are displayed.
Some new Joomla templates have the built in capability for handling the templates dynamically. However what about the templates that do not have the capability built in? Or what if you want a totally different template from what comes with the standard adaptive template? Well what you need is a mechanism that allows to dynamically load a template such as the Dynamic Template Switcher.
When you use an extension such as the Dynamic Template Switcher (DTS), you are free to build your own mobile template independently. All you need to do is to install the mobile template, install the DTS plugin and point to the mobile template from the plugin. The plugin is built using the WURFL database and is quite accurate.
The advantage of the Dynamic Template Switcher is that it allows you to independently develop and administer your regular and mobile sites. It does not require any technical knowledge to administer the extension and easily allows to easily take an existing website mobile as only the mobile template needs to be newly developed.
If you are also looking forward to taking your website mobile, have a look at Dynamic Template Switcher, it might be able to make the conversion go much quicker and smooth.
Read more about Dynamic Template Switcher, a dynamic template switcher for Joomla with mobile detection at its product page.
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