Ill be soon starting a project for web app that will be accessed through blackberries… would you recommend sticking with Codeigniter?... I dont know much about mobile web browsers… are there any rules I should follow? any help is appreciated.

Codeigniter is fine, for a web based app. The only difference between making a website for a mobile and for a desktop browser is the screen size (and possible html rendering differences).

Yeah, I figured it really wouldnt make a difference which server is procesing the data as long as it produces mobile friendly html… would you happen to have a good link for tutorials on xhtml that runs well on a blackberry browser?.

NachoF - 22 June 2009 06:57 PM

Yeah, I figured it really wouldnt make a difference which server is procesing the data as long as it produces mobile friendly html… would you happen to have a good link for tutorials on xhtml that runs well on a blackberry browser?.

Server defiantly doesn’t matter, neither does programming language (php) or framework (CodeIgniter). The only thing that really matters is how you format the page.

Generally you’d just have php or JS detect the useragent, and go from there.

Normally I would just use a different CSS file, but when using CodeIgniter just use another view (or folder of views)

Hi Grad Student,

If you wanted to make a HandsetDetection plugin for CodeIgniter then I would be happy to help out - Let me know.

Note : Your UserAgent detection will have to be server side as JS will be problematic (or non-existent)
on handsets.

Cheers
Richard

Yes, Im planning on doing UserAgent detection server side… I wont really need to know about which handheld it is cause my responsibility is to make it work just for Blackberries on default browser (no Opera mini).... Im not planning on doing different views for each handheld… thatd be crazy…. what I would like is some pointers as to how to design the html and css… there has got to be some limitations, right?

Hi,

Yeah there is limitations which, inconveniently, vary by device. If you use www.handsetdetection.com then you can do a device query and check out the Markup >> xhtml_support_level. (Here’s a list of all the blackberry devices we have at Handset Detection - http://www.handsetdetection.com/devices/properties/RIM ).

Different views for each device is crazy talk.

If you’re hitting devices with a xhtml_support_level of 3 and greater then CSS is fine (but keep the CSS simple). If you want to get the older devices then you’ll have to dumb it down with no CSS, or you could just detect older devices and give them an ‘unsupported handset’ message.

Once you’ve got the mobile website together check out www.deviceanywhere.com for testing and to check compatibility.

Cheers
Richard

I would love a Codeigniter plugin for user agent detection… but i havent any experience on creating plugins…to be honest….

NachoF - 23 June 2009 03:04 AM

I would love a Codeigniter plugin for user agent detection… but i havent any experience on creating plugins…to be honest….

CodeIgniter has a built-in User Agent class with a function that will tell you whether user is using a mobile device. You could use this to condition your view.
http://codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/user_agent.html