WordPress has got plethora of useful plugins. From WordPress plugins library one can browse and download plugins for each and every purpose. One such useful plugin is WPtouch. This plugin makes your WordPress site mobile friendly. That means whenever someone visits the site from any phone, this plugin will render your site, so that it looks good and work perfectly in that phone.
Here’s a preview of how this this site looks like on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic using Opera.
Basically this plugin detects the user agents of mobile devices and serves up its custom theme to those visitors only. The PC user will be able to see your normal WordPress theme, but anyone browsing from mobile devices will be able see this mobile theme.
This is taken from plugins page
WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch mobile devices.
The admin panel of this plugin also has many options to control the look and feel of your mobile theme. Here’s a preview of some backend options of this plugin.
On browsing the site from phone, users also get an option to switch to regular site theme or WPtouch theme. By default, this plugin will emulate a native iPhone application theme on mobile devices.
Mostly people ignore small things like this, but nowadays people have started to surf websites from their mobile phones. Therefore its better to think about those users also. You certainly won’t want your visitor to leave your site because its not rendering properly on mobile devices. Therefore its better to use this plugin, and give your visitors a more friendly way to browse the site.
Compatibility of WPtouch with caching plugins like Hyper Cache, WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache
If you are using any caching plugins then there might be a chance of conflict and mobile theme will not render correctly. On using Hyper Cache plugin, the mobile theme was not rendering, and it was just showing a web version theme. To solve this problem, open Hyper Cache plugin settings.
Scroll down and you will see this – “Detect mobile devices” under this heading – “Configuration for mobile devices”. Check mark this box, and in mobile agent list, copy and paste this:
- Android
- CUPCAKE
- Googlebot-Mobile
- bada
- blackberry 9800
- blackberry9500
- blackberry9520
- blackberry9530
- blackberry9550
- dream
- iPhone
- iPod
- incognito
- s8000
- webOS
- webmate
(Please enter only one mobile agent per line)
And if you are using WP Super Cache plugin then enter above list in – Rejected Users agent. There is also a similar setting in W3 Total Cache plugin. So don’t forget to configure this setting after installing the plugin.
There’s also WPtouch Pro version available which has more features, more customization options, more themes, etc. This Pro version is a paid version and costs $39 for single site license. But don’t worry, try the free version first and see if that benefits you and your visitors.
Download WPtouch from WordPress plugins library. Alternatively, you can also login to WordPress Dashboard, and click on “Add New” from “Plugins” section. Search for this plugins name and then click on “Install Now”. After installing, you will see a new option in settings named as “WPtouch”. Configure the options from there. And that’s done. Your mobile site is ready which is fast loading, lightweight and feature rich.
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