Basics of making mobile
websites with Drupal
Tom Deryckere
Software Architect / Siruna
@twom

Technology Trends
25 years ago :The first GSM:11 kg
Today: iPhoney’s, HSDPA, MID’s

Technology that works
From WAP to iMode to xHTML

Network side TECHNOLOGY
From slow connections to fast connections

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Making content mobile
is the basis
Making mobile content
useful and usable
is the need
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Mobile Web Applications
that :
Work on a phone
Fit on a phone
Make SENSE on a phone
Call to ACTION
and have REVENUE models
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Examples (Drupal)
DrupalCon Paris:
http://drupalcon.siruna.com
Slate:
http://twom.slate.mobixx.eu
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Examples (Drupal)
Garland mobile:
http://twom.garland.mobixx.eu
Marina:
http://twom.marina.mobixx.eu
Zen:
http://twom.zen.mobixx.eu
XIO:
http://xio.siruna.com
http://portal.siruna.com
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WHERE IS THE COMPLEXITY
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Complexity
Device fragmentation:
− Millions of devices
− Different Operating systems
− Different capabilities
• Ex: screen sizes, javascript support, CSS / xHTML support, video support
− ...
Usability: make a fun and easy experience
− Content has to be easy to find
− Reduce scrolling (no horizontal scrolling)
− Make links clickable (not too small)
− Easy navigation structure that is easy to find
− ...
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On fragmentation
Convergence is coming
Javascript becomes more and more the standard
Desktop html works on mobile devices
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More interesting data
United States Handset Data - April 2009 India Handset Data - April 2009
Requests: 3,538,714,000 Requests: 447,079,855
480x320 px
176x220 px
240x320 px
320 x 240 px
480x320 px
Palm pre: 480 x 320
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Source: AdMob

Complexity
Optmization of download size
− Network connections are not always optimal (between 50kb/s –
1,8Mbit/s
− Don’t let the user wait, don’t let him download content that he will
not use
Bring relevant content to the mobile user
− Understand what he will look for (think and plan well!!)
− Is not easy (especially for the customer)
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Complexity
Simple (double) navigation
No video
Easy access to stories 15

SOME MORE EXAMPLES
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General Login or Register
Form a multi-column based site going towards a 1
column site
We are talking about generic designs
Second navigation
New forum posts
17 New Comments
Sponsors etc ...

Design
Rules of thumb
− No fixed margins
− No floats
− No big fixed fonts
− Reduce the usage of tables (or reduce the number of columns)
− Make a block with links to views like
• Most recent comments
• Most recent forum topics
− Remove node content from frontpage
− Replace the user login block by a link
− Navigation in a dropdown list works well
− No who is online, who is new kind of blogs (not relevant)
− You can make things sexy for iphone, android, ...
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Examples
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Examples
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Examples
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Examples
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Examples
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THE TOOLS
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Mobile modules for Drupal
Many attempts in the comunity
Focus on
− Providing mobile themes (e.g. iUI, mobile theme)
− Theme switching
− Mobile payments
Not a lot of demos
General no proven long term strategy
An overview on
http://mobiledrupal.com/content/overview-mobile-modules-drupal
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Some Drupal modules
Under my maintenance – Co-maintainers welcome!
http://drupal.org/project/mobile_tools
(release 6.x-1.7)
http://drupal.org/project/siruna
(release 6.x-1.0-beta)
http://drupal.org/project/wurfl
(release 6.x-dev)
Planned:
− Image resizing module
− Video transcoding solution (based on Media Mover)
− Providing some more mobile themes
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First define the flow (4 steps)
Device Detection
(Mobile device, desktop, PSP, ...)
Switching
(Make sure the user gets access to the best site)
Functionality + content
(What functionality and content is relevant for the device)
Theming
(Layout, image resizing, navigation, table linearization)
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User notification / redirection
Device detection
− Notify mobile users for the existence of a mobile site
− Automatically redirect mobile users to the mobile site
− Provide custom configurable message: e.g.: “View mobile |
classic”
− Support for Browscap, Wurfl and other third party device detection
modules
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Mobile permissions
Mobile context in the permission system
− Roles of the mobile visitor gets replaced by a mobile variant of his
normal roles
− Administrator can use role permissions to toggle functionality
• Node Acces, Menu per role, etc ... Can help
− = Mobile context for permissions
− Very powerfull tool to toggle functionality on your mobile site!
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Theme switching
Theme switching (based on device group if needed)
Based on domain name or device detection
Switching per device group (Android, iPhone, etc ...)
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Demo 1
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Creating the mobile look
Two main solutions
Create you own themes (see rules of thumb)
− No fixed margins Currently high risk and
− No floats complexity, but allows more
− No big fixed fonts
− Reduce the usage of tables (or reduce the number of columns) creativity!
− Make a block with links to views like
• Most recent comments
• Most recent forum topics
− Remove node content from frontpage
− Replace the user login block by a link
− Navigation in a dropdown list works well
− No who is online, who is new kind of blogs (not relevant)
− You can make things sexy for iphone, android, ...
Use an adaptation service (like Siruna ;))
− Does most of the work for you (image transcoding, device
detection, adaptation for difference devices)
− Build in functionality to help creating different versions
− Fast prototyping
− High Quality

Adaptation engine =
proxy to the mobile user
Mobile URL Desktop URL
DNS
Adaptation
engine
Website / XML stream

The Siruna platform
Website XML Feed
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How does it work?
Automatic
Content
Device Content Adaptation
Detection Adaptation
Engine
Select
Content Menu
Fetcher
Select mobile
content
Adapt Style
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Content adaptation engine
Siruna Composer
Previewing XML based rules
(http://open.siruna.org/documentation/sitemap-api)
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XML scripting language:
syntax
<map:transform />
means you want to define a transformation on the content.
<map:transform type=“sirunaElementTransformer” />
means you want to use an “Element Transformer”
(http://open.siruna.org/documentation/sitemap-api for more
transformers.
<map:transform type=“sirunaElementTransformer>
<map:parameter name="task0"
value="remove(//p:form[@id='comment-form']//p:fieldset)" />
</map:transform>
=> Means you want to remove the fieldset of the form

Adaptations (some examples)
Remove content (example remove content of nodes on
frontpage)
< <map:transform type="sirunaElementTransformer">
<map:parameter name="task0" value="remove(//p:div[@class='views-field-teaser'])" />
</map:transform>
Make drupal forms mobile friendly:
<map:transform type="sirunaElementTransformer">
<map:parameter name="task0" value="remove(//p:form[@id='comment-form']//p:fieldset)" />
<map:parameter name="task1" value="removeAttribute(//p:textarea, cols)" />
<map:parameter name="task2" value="removeAttribute(//p:input, size)" />
<map:parameter name="task3" value="setAttribute(//p:textarea, rows, 3)" />
<map:parameter name="task4" value="setAttribute(//p:textarea, style, width:90%)" />
<map:parameter name="task5" value="setAttribute(//p:form[@id='comment-form']//p:input, style, width:90%)"
/>
</map:transform>
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Adaptations (examples)
Extract several menu structures and collect as dropdown
<map:transform type="sirunaMenuExtractor">
<map:parameter name="task0" value="extract(//p:ul[@class='links primary-links'], false, false, true)" />
<map:parameter name="task1" value="extract(//p:ul[@class='links secondary-links'], false, false, true)" />
</map:transform>
<map:transform type="sirunaMenuInserter">
<map:parameter name="select_current_url" value="true" />
</map:transform>
Change / remove CSS attributes
<map:transform type="sirunaCSSTransformer">
<map:parameter name="task0" value="addCSSItemAttribute(.front #block-block-13, background-position, center)" />
<map:parameter name="task1" value="removeCSSItemAttribute(#block-block-13, height)" />
<map:parameter name="task2" value="removeCSSItemAttribute(#block-block-13, margin-bottom)" />
<map:parameter name="task3" value="removeCSSItemAttribute(#block-block-13, margin-top)" />
<map:parameter name="task4" value="removeCSSItemAttribute(#block-block-13, padding-top)" />
<map:parameter name="task5" value="addCSSItemAttribute(#block-block-13, background-position, center)" />
</map:transform>
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Adaptations (examples)
Different adaptations for different devices:
<map:select type="sirunaExpressionSelector">
<map:when test="width &lt; 160 || !imageSupported">
<map:transform type="sirunaElementTransformer">
<map:parameter name="task0" value="remove(//p:div[@id='contentsurround']//p:img)" />
</map:transform>
</map:when>
</map:select>
Analtyics inserter
<map:transform type="sirunaGoogleAnalyticsInserter">
<map:parameter name="identifier" value="UA-2883003-5"/>
</map:transform>
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Siruna module
Tight integration between Siruna and Drupal
Flexible definition of filters for content types, menu
pages, views and individual pages
Duplication of theme enabling a “mobile configuration”
for the mobile users
Possibility to apply predefined adaptations
Previewing of the mobile site from within Drupal
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Predefined adaptations
Module allows creating adaptation for your own
themes
Creation of a repository of mobile adaptations
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Define your filters
Filter is a adaptation pipeline for group of pages
− E.g. Specific pages or nodetypes can have a different filter!
Powerfull concept to make complex sites mobile!
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Demo 2
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Contact
Mail : Tom.Deryckere@siruna.com
Blog: http://www.mobiledrupal.com
Twitter: @twom, @siruna
Siruna: http://www.siruna.com, http://open.siruna.com
Looking for partnerships with Drupal agencies
and developers!
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