MobileSiteOS™ Basic

The primary goal of this project is to advance the development of adjustable display size websites, sometimes called the "One Web". Since mobile and tablet devices come in many display configurations, we will explore the possibilities of providing more appropriately sized HTML5 output through the use of variable page size display, adapted for a user's particular device. This is sometimes referred to as 'mobile content adaptation'.

Perl Mobile Website Script

I call my process MobileSiteOS™ and as the project progresses I hope to apply learned techniques to providing appropriately sized pages for desktop browsing as well as mobile web surfing, from the same website. MobileSiteOS™ is mobile website software based on a Perl script filling in HTML5 template pages and adding size specific stylesheets for sized page output. JavaScript input is used to determine page device display size.

Why use one website with multiple display sizes?

The maintenance of multiple websites for displaying similar content in different formats may be difficult for small business and individuals to justify, yet not having content available for different device sizes will be a considerable problem in the future. As more smartphones and tablets are used for web access, the need for flexible web page display will increase. If a single website can do a reasonably good job, the cost savings in time and resources can be quite significant. Anyway, its a worthy goal! Judge for yourself. Have a look at our demo site and downloads. Opinions and suggestions are always welcome.

Background

Mobile E Commerce

MobileSiteOS™ Basic incorporates the basic m-commerce features provided by Google Checkout (JavaScript API). When JavaScript isn't available, MobileSiteOS™ Basic degrades to Google Checkout "BuyButton" functionality for thoses devices. Dynamically sized pages are served as mime type 'text/html' for desktop devices and 'application/xhtml+xml' for mobile devices. Google Checkout with MobileSiteOS™ Basic makes for a convenient way to create a small, integrated mobile online store.

Perl Image Manipulation

Simple image manipulation is done by a helper script which resizes images for appropriate display for each page size. These manipulations are based on parameters set in a configuration file and can be changed and re-run at any time. The script keeps track of like sized images thru symbolic links, and correctly outputs image uri's to just those for each unique size. Thumbnails are generated automatically. Image manipulation does however require the installation of the 'Imlib2' image library and the Perl 'Image::Imlib2' module on your web server.

WURFL Side Project

Our WURFL via Perl and MySQL scripts now provide easy access to WURFL XML Device Data. Based on code derived from the excellent 'Mobile::Wurfl' module by Ave Wrigley, our Perl scripts load and use your MySQL server for device capabilities retrieval. And our MySQL via Perl access methods are very fast. Plus the new perl_wurfl.cgi script includes auto-loading and update-checking against the latest released WURFL XML Data files, (when you have url download access from *ScientiaMobile Inc.).

*ScientiaMobile Inc. is the copyright and licensing owner of WURFL XML Device Data