getting people to mobile content

[wasdaleweb]

Ok so I'm at my wits end here. I have a web site and and have made a small portion of it xhtml to get some webcams and a smal amount of info available on a mobile phone.

Thing is, how do I get the people to it? I could put a link on the site but people would have to browse through the old html site to find it if they could.

What I want is for people using a pc to see my main site and for mobile users to get the xhtml, but can I find a good way of doing it? I've tried using javascript to forward users with low resloution but either I've fluffed it or its not working as on my phone it doesnt work.

any ideas?

[monaghan]

Could you make the main site PHP and look at the http headers to determine browser functionality then return the required content ?

[wasdaleweb]

I really dont want to make the site into a php, it works great as it is and has fantastic number one google status so i need the main site in html

thanks for the idea though

[monaghan]

If you're not going to present the correct content type, then you'll have to rely on having a scripting language on the client's browser to select the desired content, this will not always be the case and you'll be likely to get the wrong content if the browser doesn't support scripting.

The nearest you'll get is different style sheets for different media types, however the browser may well still try to download all content and just apply the differing CSS per media type making it very slow over a GRPS link.

If it's essential to not use a dynamically generated page to force the correct content, then you'll have to accept that browsers will do what they want rather than what you expect

[wasdaleweb]

what about some nifty javascript?

[monaghan]

What about a browser with no JavaScript support or it's disabled ?

How will a search engine see the page ?

If you're going to go to these lengths, then you might just as well go server side dynamic content, at least the user can't disable the script processing

[wasdaleweb]

yep but for such a small side of the site I dont want to jepodise search engine rankings that have taken 3 years to build by going dynamic maybe I just put a mobile link at the top of the page

[talby101]

are you using any scripting at the moment? If so you can check the headers for the client browser and direct accordingly...i know this technique has been mentioned but it seems like the most reasonable option.

You do not need to do anything to your site that would affect google, just add an include file before to check browser and do any redirecting before you start outputting your stuff....

BTW what webserver is it running on ?

[Paul Wainwright]

Have you tried searching mobile web forums, heres one www.esato.com its a big forum you might get the required help there or in the several others out there, 3gforums ect.

Could be worth a shot.
Also there is now a mobile ph browser from Opera called Opera mini
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile...mini/campaign/

It really is a good product, and having used the internet on my ph for the last two years free . this is the best there is so far.

some screen shots
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/smallscreen/
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/operamini/faq/