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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

1. Anyone else remember PQAs? [back]

This post is part of the project: WP Mobile Edition. View the project timeline for more context on this post.