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[SOLVED (With a bodge)] Mobile version of pages | Forum

James Geddes
James Geddes Apr 28 '15
I've made a few static pages, but when I go to them on a mobile device oxwall reports that "This page cannot be opened in mobile version, please visit desktop version of this site"


How do I make the site open these static pages in the mobile version?


Thanks!


James

The Forum post is edited by James Geddes May 4 '15
ross Team
ross Apr 28 '15
How did you add your static pages?I believe it is via Pages and Menus section. If so, then you need to do the same for the mobile version here: www.yoursite.com//admin/mobile/navigation by adding new page in the menu and adding the same HTML content. 
James Geddes
James Geddes Apr 29 '15
I now have the "About" menu item in the mobile version but when I go to mysite.com/about on mobile I still get the error message "This page cannot be opened in mobile version, please visit desktop version of this site". It's not really a true mobile version if pages are not also available on mobile.


This is rather important as we are about to order leaflets with QR codes that need to point to mysite.com/about


Thanks!

ross Team
ross Apr 29 '15
Is this a plain html page text? Can you please provide its content?
James Geddes
James Geddes Apr 29 '15
Yes it's plain HTML (attached in .txt format). One should be able to go to example.com/pagename on either mobile or desktop and get the same page. This is what other CMSs like MediaWiki & Wordpress do. How can one do so with oxwall?
The Forum post is edited by James Geddes Apr 29 '15
Attachments:
  about.txt (21Kb)
ross Team
ross Apr 29 '15
James, can you please PM me your admin details, I'll take a look at the issue. As we cannot reproduce the issue on our side. See attachment



Attachments:
  Screenshot from 2015-04-29 16:30:55.png (184Kb)
James Geddes
James Geddes Apr 30 '15

I created that page as you instructed, however if you notice the URL is not geek.zone/about it is geek.zone/cp-57 - it's an entirely different page. I need all users, registered or unregistered, to be able to navigate to geek.zone/about and get given the about page, irrespective of the device they are using. At the moment, if you go to geek.zone/about on a mobile device, you get the error message

Quote from James Geddes This page cannot be opened in mobile version, please visit desktop version of this site

I would ask you to register on the site so that I can make you an admin, but am still having difficulties with the emails as per the "from email" discussion


Surely this is a fairly basic thing to be able to do? Literally every other content management system can do that.

James Geddes
James Geddes May 3 '15
Bump


Is this not something that oxwall can do? Is there a work-around? For us, it is critical that this works.

James Geddes
James Geddes May 3 '15
By the way, Ross, if you signup on geek.zone I will make you an admin. Just let me know your username as the rest of the site is working now
ross Team
ross May 3 '15
James, this is how our software works, the custom pages in the desktop version and mobile version are different entities

What you want to achieve is considered as a custom code modification. You will need to do that on your own or hire a programmer who could do that for you. You can do that here: http://www.oxwall.org/market/specialists

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
Seriously?!?! That is extremely poor Ross; it is very basic that a site be able to show the same content irrespective of the device that is used to access it. Literally EVERY other content management system can do this, why has oxwall left this out? This should be an obvious, fundamental part of oxwall.


What you are effectively saying is that one currently must maintain two sites within the same site, and that mobile users cannot use Semantic URLs! In 2015, that's just not good enough.


With Google now prioritising sites that have a proper mobile version of all their content, it is critical that oxwall serves all content in desktop and mobile. Pages must be available on the same address and must not be different entities. This is not something that should be left to individual users to request custom code modifications, it must urgently be implemented as part of the oxwall core. Is there an official procedure I can use to request that to happen quickly? 

The Forum post is edited by James Geddes May 4 '15
ross Team
ross May 4 '15
You can make a suggestion on uservoice: http://oxwall.uservoice.com/forums/13756-ideas-for-oxwall

if it gets enough voices from other community members our team will consider implementing it. 


In the meantime you may consider obtaining one of the responsive themes available in the store, you may disable mobile version and use responsive theme for mobile users as well, this way you can keep the same pages for every users. 

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
Might I add that I have spent an entire month sorting out oxwall installation problems and was just looking forward to launching the site today. Now that you have told me this, we might have to move away from oxwall to a system that can handle mobile properly - unless you can give me a better solution.


Just so that you know where I'm coming from, we want to produce leaflets and beer mats that say "Come to Pint Night - see Geek.Zone/PintNight for more info". Obviously most people will be in pubs etc and so will be on their phones. We therefore need that address to work on the mobile version. I am certainly not alone in this requirement.


If you cannot suggest a solution, or give a time-frame on when this will be implemented within the oxwall core, we will need to remove oxwall and look for something else.

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
Why should this wait for uservoice? This is a fundamental part of any website, oxwall should recognise that, in today's mobile era, having a mobile site that actually works is imperative. As such, oxwall should just implement it.
James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
I have posted the requirement on uservoice but maintain that, with over half of web traffic now originating from mobile devices and google prioritising mobile sites, this must be something that the oxwall team views as top priority without the need for external encouragement. 
ross Team
ross May 4 '15
James, the thing is why it is not there in Oxwall mobile, because you see it from another angle, you see mobile version as a part of the desktop version, however, mobile version is the separate software, it is a platform for 3rd party developer and native Oxwall developers to implement different features, it is not a synched extension of the desktop version. 


For example, if you go to some user profile on desktop and mobile version you can see that that the URL is the same, because this feature (user profile) has been implemented in the mobile version as well. 


James I can suggest you two options, either you obtain the responsive theme or, you create such a page (about, for example) only in mobile version and change it url from cp_57 to about, manually in the database, if you're interested, let me know I'll give you the instructions. 

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
It would appear that Oxwall's approach to mobile is five years out of date. Users want to be able to access all content, no matter what device they are on. You are seeing it from the wrong angle. The mobile site must be an extension of the desktop site, they cannot be two separate entities.


If user profiles can be uniform across different devices, why can't pages?

Mobile content is the driver of the internet today. It would appear, however, that oxwall attitudes toward it are stuck in the past. If oxwall is to survive, this must change now.

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
To further explain, our mediawiki at Geek.Zone/Wiki can handle requests from desktop and mobile devices with the same content and semantic URLs. Oxwall must be able to do likewise.
The Forum post is edited by James Geddes May 4 '15
James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
Ross, what responsive theme would you suggest?


Having a separate mobile version is not compatible with the new mobile rules that google has put in place so is not appropriate any more.

James Geddes
James Geddes May 4 '15
In order to work around this, I had to disable oxwall's mobile version and spend $30 on a responsive theme which does the job that oxwall should be doing on its own - serving all content to all devices.


It is really disappointing that the lack of such a basic basic feature lets down the rest of what is otherwise great software. In any case, it's working now and we launched the site, so I'm happy!

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