I’m quite happy that WordPress Mobile Edition, a WordPress plugin I first created back in 2002 to show a mobile-friendly version of my (b2 powered) blog, has reached version 3.0.
This plugin creates a mobile-friendly version of your WordPress powered site, without any additional changes required.
Over the last 7 years, mobile browsing has gone from tech novelty to psuedo-mainstream. Mobile browsers have advanced impressively and it’s been fun to watch it happen. I think I was using a Palm i7051 when I built the first version of this plugin. Contrasting that to the mobile browser in the iPhone, Android and even the latest BlackBerry is pretty startling.
Working with my team at Crowd Favorite, we set out to update the mobile plugin with a variety of enhancements.
- Admin page with settings to allow people to choose what browsers to show the mobile theme to. I get a few reports a week from people with iPhones that report it as a bug that the old version of the plugin didn’t detect their browser. I always thought that the point of the iPhone was getting the
real web 
, but now people can choose for themselves. - Progressive enhancement so that users get an experience that is well suited for their mobile device. JS and CSS are used judiciously and carefully to provide a more elegant experience for phones that support it, and a simple interface for devices where that is more appropriate. For example, we make the “clickable” areas finger-sized for touch browsers (iPhone, Android, etc.) while non-touch browsers have content more visually compressed vertically so you can see more at once on the small screen. We tested on a bunch of different mobile devices and I’m pleased with the results we’ve seen.
- A more robust theme, built on our Carrington theme framework. You can preview the mobile theme or download it as a stand-alone theme from the Carrington web site.
I believe we hit the mark pretty well with this release – I hope you find it useful.
The download and more information are available on my WordPress Plugins page.
If you have any trouble with this, please open a thread in the WP Support Forums and e-mail me a link to the thread.
- Anyone else remember PQAs? [back]
Popularity: 14% [?]
Carrington Mobile 1.0 - Carrington adds this Pingback:
[...] order to update my WordPress Mobile Edition plugin, we built a new Carrington-based mobile theme that is both backward compatible with feature limited [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Nuova versione di WordPress Mobile Edition | Bloggare adds this Pingback:
[...] è stata resa disponibile una nuova versione del plugin che permette di stabilire per quali browser visualizzare la versione mobile e presenta altre [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Armand adds this Comment:
I thought Wordpress is already mobile device friendly. However, we still have to use such plug-in to browse wordpress on mobile devices effectively. I respect for you great job.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Zacharias adds this Comment:
since opera mini/mobile support touch and non touch phones/devices/toasters, how does one (i.e. the theme) make the decision to provide the touch-friendly version or not?
March 25th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Alex adds this Comment:
There are settings in the Admin page for what to show which browser.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:10 am
amit adds this Comment:
Will this work with WP-SuperCache? I tried another plugin with a mobile theme but it didn’t work with WP-SuperCache & the cached version was shown on mobile!
March 25th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Yep, check the README:
http://alexking.org/[...]bile-edition
March 25th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
amit adds this Comment:
Oh sorry, just checked back on v3.0b1 post – forgot that I’d asked this there (& really – somehow missed the wp-supercache compatibility feature in the post). Damn, I shouldn’t be posting comments at 3am half awake!
March 25th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
DaveZatz adds this Comment:
Looks real nice – thanks, Alex! And when I’m not on public hotel WiFi I probably owe you a few bucks via PayPal for all your plugin work I’ve used over the years.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
links for 2009-03-26 | This Inspires Me adds this Pingback:
[...] WordPress Mobile Edition 3.0 (tags: wordpress mobile) [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Ken adds this Comment:
Will Mobile Edition 3.0 conflict with this other plugin?
http://iwphone.contentrobot.com/
March 26th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Alex adds this Comment:
Depends on your settings – they can’t both work at once for the same browser.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:29 am
WordPress Mobile Edition 3.0.1 | alexking.org adds this Pingback:
[...] pushed out some bug fix updates for WordPress Mobile Edition 3.0 and Carrington [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Baron adds this Comment:
Is there a way to jump back into the mobile theme after a user chooses “Exit the Mobile Edition”? Would be good if I could put a hard link in case someone hit exit by mistake or decided they rather see the mobile version.
March 28th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
How to optimize wordpress for a mobile phone. | Trev 2.0 adds this Pingback:
[...] I discovered Wordpress Mobile Edition which is a pretty sweet little plugin and what I decided to go with for awhile. One nice thing [...]
March 28th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Baron– it does add a link to return to the mobile edition.
March 29th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Baron adds this Comment:
This seemed to work for me. I re-directed my subdomain http://m.hawaii247.org to go to http://www.hawaii247[...]=show_mobile
Then I put this as a direct link in the footer.php of my website. That way it’s easy for folks to remember or type in. I also redirected mobile.hawaii247.org to go to the re-directed URL just in case someone types that.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
» Donor Thank You - Mobile Upgrade Government Accountability is a Citizen’s Responsibility: Because Democracy is Not Free — we all have to work at it adds this Pingback:
[...] blog. And, I used some of your donation to contribute a small voluntary donation to its author, Alex King. (Mr. King asks just $1.35 for his helpful WordPress [...]
March 30th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Poll adds this Comment:
Will this plugin allow users to interact with polls on their mobile phones?
April 6th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
leggo-my-eggo adds this Comment:
Alex, just fantastic work, thank you.
Any chance you’d think about adding an admin option for choosing the mobile theme? I’m using this in wpmu for a couple different blogs, and I’d like to choose a differently modified version of the mobile theme for each.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:28 am
CHTV now mobile | Cheesehead TV adds this Pingback:
[...] Android recently) but as of 3:00pm yesterday we added functionality to LOTS of devices. (thank you: WP Mobile plugin) The pic to the left is from a mobile emulator on the net. If you have a portable network device- [...]
April 13th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Crunch Victims now mobile friendly. adds this Pingback:
[...] your mobile in a friendly, easy to read page. We have installed an awesome Wordpress plugin called WordPress Mobile Edition v3.0.3 from the guys over at [...]
April 26th, 2009 at 4:03 am
The Site Has A New Look … On Your Android! | ClingMarks adds this Pingback:
[...] friends who enjoy surfing the Internet with mobile phones. As to the plugin we use, it’s from here. As you can tell, it’s such a great plugin for [...]
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 am
philipp adds this Comment:
Hi,
first, thank you for the great tool!!!
is this tool (mobile pack for wordpress) also working with WURFL, because Device-Atlas is not for free??
Thank you!
philipp
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 am
WordPress Mobile Edition 3.0 | Strange Attitude Blog adds this Pingback:
[...] For those of you who try to access your website from your Blackberry etc. I give you the WordPress Mobile Edition 3.0 | alexking.org. [...]
May 25th, 2009 at 5:38 pm