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Mobile Access

Mobile Access to the site

I've had a quick look into methods of getting this page to show up well on people's phones.

Research

In a quick look via Google, I hit an overview of mobile modules for drupal. Very informative, but still not quite telling of the best method (especially for a newer user).

A quick scan of the Drupal Modules page gave a few potential answers, so I'll describe the one I used

Implementation

I've thrown the Drupal Mobile plugin onto the server, using the Mobile Garland theme they also provide.

Since this seems pretty good, I'm going to list the steps below, as a quick reference.

  1. Install your mobile theme - I chose Mobile_Garland, as it was recommended via the people who did the module (so I figured good compatibility).
    1. Snag the file for your release on the mobile_garland module page. Download it to a local PC.
    2. Ung-zip it. You could also un-tar it as well, but this makes for a messy upload
    3. Fire up CPanel, and head over to the File Manager
    4. Upload the .tar file to your server in a sensible spot
    5. Locate the uploaded file
    6. Right-Click and choose Extract. Extract the file to the location: /sites/all/themes. I also dumped mine into /themes/ just in case as well.
    7. Open your administrator panel in Drupal, and check under Administer->Site Building->Themes to see if the theme turns up.
  2. Install the Mobile Plugin for Drupal
    1. Grab the file for your release of Drupal, and download it to a local PC from the Drupal Mobile plugin module page
    2. Ung-zip the file
    3. Upload via file manager in your CPanel the .tar file
    4. Right-Click and choose Extract. Extract the file to the location: /sites/all/modules
    5. Enable the module in Administer->Site Building->Modules
    6. Enable the module in Administer->User Management->Access Control

My Phone

My phone is a Hiptop Slide (Australian), and seems to get a very simplified version of the site - but it works pretty well. It's basically a read-only version, with no user accounts. That said, this is what I generally expect from most mobile-content sites, and it's what I'd pretty much choose to provide anyway (for now). By default, the theme/module combination gives users a front page, and the top menu blocks, but an optional block will also allow the user the choice to switch to Normal mode (haven't checked it out yet).