An update for the website

By Rob Raesemann | January 20, 2011

It seems like the end of the year triggers an itch to try something new with my website. Last year was no exception. I decided that I wanted to look into ways of supporting a mobile view of my website.

A couple of years ago I converted my site to a CSS based design and so my first thought was that I might look for some ways to do it with CSS and maybe a little javascript. I found a much easier way of doing it using WordPress and a plugin. Another benefit of this approach is that I have ended up using WordPress as a general content management system or CMS for my entire site.

I have been using WordPress as my blogging software for years and love it. The pace of development and innovation in this open source project is nothing short of amazing. One of the really nice things about WordPress is that you can easily install plugins that extend it’s functionality. I’ve used many of these plugins in the past to do things like tie into Google Analytics, cache the blog posts for better performance, and automatically backup my blog database weekly.

I found a plugin called WP Touch Pro which will automatically format your WordPress site for viewing on mobile device. So for $39 I install the plugin, do a little configuration and I have a mobile optimized view of my website. I have tested it with my iPod Touch and my Android based EVO and it looks fantastic. It even formats your site specifically for an iPad. You can see a couple of screenshots below.

So I found a simple off-the-shelf solution to my original problem and avoided having to spend a bunch of time writing my own javascript and CSS. I also decided to take advantage of another WordPress feature which is the ability to use a Theme. I purchased the Platform Pro from PageLines and gave my site a new look. Again, this involved a minimum of effort.


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