Creating 2 versions of the same forum: 1 for PC's and 1 lighter version for Mobiles

[Andres Kello]

Hello,

I want to create a forum on a .mobi domain name. I can use WURFL to detect whether the user is on a PC or on a mobile, that's the easy part. If they're on a PC, I want to forward them to the subdomain pc.mydomain.mobi and display the PC version (e.g. standard) version of my vBulletin. If they're on a mobile, I want them to stay on the main domain, mydomain.mobi, and see a stripped-down mobile version.

Here are my questions:

1. Is it possible to have 2 accessible versions of the same forum (e.g. one PC and the other Mobile) under the same domain? If so, how would I go about it?
2. How do I create a "lite", stripped-down mobile version of vBulletin?
3. If this is not possible, is there a work-around to accomplish something similar?

(By the way, I think this is a need that will arise more and more now that the .mobi domain has been launched and mobile internet use is growing.)

Thank you very much for your time, it's greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Andres

[Floris]

Hello,

Thank you for contacting vBulletin Support.

It's even more simpler then you thought. vBulletin supports a PDA supported archive live version of the forum (browse, no participate). And vBulletin also supports multiple styles (browse, and participate). The latter could be what you're looking for. One style for your default setup, and an alternative style for your mobile users. This will be the same forum, no need for additional licenses, installations, and weird stuff.

Resources:
Example PDA Archive : http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/archive/index.php/?pda=1
You can replace the url with your own forum.

vBulletin Manual : http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/styles_and_templates

You could create a mobile friendly style, or see if someone has created one already. vBulletin.org and this forum here on vBcom has forums with styles free for download. Perhaps one of them is what you're looking for.

Hopefully this is what you're looking for, and makes it a bit easier to manage. Good luck with your community. And feel free to ask for more assistance if you require this.


All the best,

[Andres Kello]

Hi Floris,

Thanks for your prompt and thorough reply.

The only problem is that none of these solutions score well on the mobile-compliant scale: ready.mobi

Does vBulletin have any short-term plans to launch future versions with a mobile auto-detect that automatically redirects mobile users to a fully-mobile-compliant stripped-down mobile style like SMF does?

I hope so because the mobile web is really starting to grow now that the .mobi domains have been launched and this feature is becoming more and more necessary.

Let me know.

Thanks,
Andres

[Jose Amaral Rego]

.mobi? I will wait to see if Opera Mini can successfully have a browser that renders all websites properly.

http://www.operamini.com/

You can try making one

http://www.developershome.com/wap/wcss/

[Andres Kello]

.mobi? I will wait to see if Opera Mini can successfully have a browser that renders all websites properly.

http://www.operamini.com/

You can try making one
http://www.developershome.com/wap/wcss/

Is this your opinion or vBulletin's official position?

As a developer, I do not want a 3rd party software (e.g. Opera Mini) determining how my website will display on a mobile phone. I want to be in full control of that, which is why I use .mobi to specifically identify my mobile sites, which I specifically design for mobile phones.

Let me know on the above.

Thanks,
Andres

[Wayne Luke]

Jose is not staff so it would be his personal opinion.

[Andres Kello]

Jose is not staff so it would be his personal opinion.

Thanks, Wayne. Would you happen to know if vBulletin has plans for such a feature in the short-term? (If they don't, I'll make a suggestion in the suggestions forum.)

Thanks,
Andres

[Wayne Luke]

In the short term? No. Implementing such a feature would require a lot of work and would only be implemented in a major version such as 4.0.

[Andres Kello]

In the short term? No. Implementing such a feature would require a lot of work and would only be implemented in a major version such as 4.0.

Thanks for the prompt reply, Wayne.

I've formalized my suggestion here.

Cheers,
Andres

[Floris]

Thank you for the suggestion, our developers will review it for future releases.