Dawson, Michael wrote: > I'm starting to play around with some new development on an intranet web > site. Since we are a university and since most students have cell > phones, I want to add a mobile option to our site. > > What are your comments on supporting mobile?
Just do it :-) >* Code only for desktop browsers and let the mobile proxies worry about >cleaning up the html? This would not be the most-efficient for the >proxies. That doesn't work with devices that dynamically switch between WiFi and UMTS. > * Code using style sheets and specifying media types and let the browser > choose what to display? This would still require downloading all of the > page even if not visible to the mobile browser, unless the proxy strips > it out. Pages are not the problem. It is the add-in stuff like images and flash that gives the problem. I would go this way and try to move as much as possible of your layout, logo's etc. to CSS. > * Sniff the browser and dynamically change the content. This is better > for bandwidth to proxies and handhelds, but requires coding specific for > desktop or handheld. Not if you can avoid it. It looks like you have the luxury of starting from scratch. It is a bonus service as at this point people have no expectations whatsoever. You can use that to your advantage and together with the moral high ground of supporting XHTML and CSS the way it is supposed to work (the user-agent choosing the right stylesheet based on the media type) you might get considerable freedom in your choices. I know of a certain WAP website that was quite different from the rest, but since nobody in Marketing had a WAP enabled device they didn't care what the IT people did :) Jochem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:154000 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
