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View Full Version : Creating a Mobile Web Site with PHP (PostNuke CMS)


Don Sorcinelli
01-27-2003, 08:08 PM
The suggestion of several was that we carry my discussion regarding the creation of the BostonPocketPC.com Mobile Edition (http://www.bostonpocketpc.com/pocketpc) web site to an Off-Topic forum. After thinking about it, I realized that it was probably better served here, in the Developer Forum.

I'll start out this discussion by laying down some of our site specs. We are currently using Linux and Apache at the OS/Web Server layers. We use PHP as our development language, and a PHP-based content management system called PostNuke (http://www.postnuke.com).

The version of PostNuke is .723 (and this did play a factor in our development). The PostNuke application has evolved by this version to the point where a great deal of the "inner workings" are accessible through the "PostNuke API" (or "pnAPI" for short). This did make some of the effort easier by providing a separation of processes (similar to UI/Business Logic separation).

PostNuke also allows for the extending of the "core" of the application by creating custom modules. In creating the Mobile Edition, I adopted this approach. It allows for the best separation and managability of the Mobile Edition.

All this being said, the work involved was rather extensive. While much of the data access and application flow could be reused, the bulk of the work was at the UI level, and this is no trivial matter to undertake. A lot of effort into the layout and usability of a Pocket PC sibling to a full-blown web site is a key to success. In the end, however, it was worth it.

OK. So much for the overview. Any questions? :wink:

DonS

rlobrecht
01-28-2003, 02:33 PM
Are you going to post your code? (either here or at modules.postnuke.com)

Don Sorcinelli
01-28-2003, 02:47 PM
At this point, I will not post at PostNuke, simply because it is not a standard module (at least by PostNuke definition) - it has code written specifically for our site and (more importantly) for our configuration, which has optional modules. Until I can genericize it more, it wouldn't be right.

The same things apply for posting the code "in total" here. There are things that are site-specific to BostonPocketPC.com that I would not want included in the code.

I would be happy to post "snippets" with relation to specific functionalities or techniques in order to help answer questions.

DonS