[tadpole88]

Does anyone here have experience with a good platform for building mobile sites in html5?

I currently build sites with both WP and HTML and looking to start building 90% of my sites in html5 because of the feedback I have received from others on how much lighter and faster to load than WP and some htmls.

[Jay Moreno]

Please note its not Wordpress that slows down your mobile site - its the developer not designing the Wordpress plugins/theme correctly that does!

We are currently running tests on our Mobile framework for Wordpress and its lightening fast we are getting upwards of 90/100 for optimal speed test performance according to Google Mobile Speed Test

Test your mobile sites speed performance here https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/

Enter your mobile sites url - the first results will be for the desktop version, then you will have the option to run it for mobile.

Hope that helps,

Jay

[LiorN]

Originally Posted by Jay Moreno

Test your mobile sites speed performance here https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/

Enter your mobile sites url - the first results will be for the desktop version, then you will have the option to run it for mobile.

Hope that helps,

Jay

Great tool Jay, I've learned that my site got a very low score dispite the fact that they got a high score over at the W3C validator

what's your take on this?

[WillR]

Originally Posted by Jay Moreno

Test your mobile sites speed performance here https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/

Enter your mobile sites url - the first results will be for the desktop version, then you will have the option to run it for mobile.

This is pretty solid proof that Google will be using speed as a big factor in determining whether or not a site is optimized well for mobile websites. For that reason be very careful when choosing Wordpress mobile solutions. I know Jay has worked very hard on his and knows exactly what he is doing, unfortunately most people out there do not.

No point 'optimizing' a site to look good on mobile phones if it takes just as long to load as the regular website.

[WillR]

Originally Posted by bhoduarts

that's an amazing tool Jay Moreno thanks for sharing..

After a few simple tests for a member of mine I am not overly confident in this tool. I tested 3 mobile websites. The stats when run through the W3C validator show:

1. This site scores 95% on the W3C mobile validator. Total size of the page (including images) is 25KB

2. This site scores 97% on the W3C mobile validator. Total size of the page (including images) is 27KB

3. This site scores 95% on the W3C mobile validator. Total size of the page (including images) is 20KB

Each of those sites when run through the Google speed test scored around the 70 out of 100 mark.

Are you kidding me? How much smaller can a page get whilst still being of any use to viewers. I would be taking those scores with a grain of salt. I would instead concentrate on getting the size of your page down as low as you can.

[Legacy3]

You may also want to checkout Irene's mobile site builder WSO. She just announced that her WP site generator plugin will soon have the ability to export sites as standalone HTML files. I suppose this gives you the best of both worlds - ease of use and lightweight framework.

Additionally, I've found that mobile sites produced with this plugin and used on a clean WP install can be quite nimble, especially when paired with a good caching plugin like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, or Quick Cache.

Her update is expected to be released by the end of the week (as per posts 1037 and 1044 on her thread).

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ptinforms.html

[Jay Moreno]

Originally Posted by Legacy3

You may also want to checkout Irene's mobile site builder WSO. She just announced that her WP site generator plugin will soon have the ability to export sites as standalone HTML files. I suppose this gives you the best of both worlds - ease of use and lightweight framework.

Additionally, I've found that mobile sites produced with this plugin and used on a clean WP install can be quite nimble, especially when paired with a good caching plugin like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, or Quick Cache.

Her update is expected to be released by the end of the week (as per posts 1037 and 1044 on her thread).

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ptinforms.html

@legacy3 - i dont see the big deal about exporting it to HTML?

I only see it being handy if you want to put the exported files on another site without installing wordpress - however any changes you would have to continually keep exporting the content and ftping it... you may as well save yourself the time in the long run and install WP... if a server cant run wordpress they seriously need to change their hosting!

If its for speed that's simply redundant - speed and performance should already be addressed in the wp theme/plugin - that's a developer issue not a WP issue.

With a static plain HTML site even though those pages are small when delivered properly using PHP they will be compressed and cached for better performance.

A lot of people say HTML mobile sites give you better performance - i 100% disagree they are many things you can do using php to increase the performance of your sites that you simply cant do with a plain basic html site.

@Willr - i expect the reason your scores are coming back low is not because of the file size but as to how they are not caching or being compressed. Things which are not typical of a plain HTML site.

Whilst a 25kb page will function just fine you are limited to certain aesthetics... when using compression and caching you dont have to to be concerned about keeping your sites to around 20kb. Obviously you still take care to optimize your core code and content but the bottom line is you can put a php based mobile page together thats +100kb and still get comparative performance to or even better performance than a mobile page thats been done in plain html because of the way it is rendered and delivered to the supporting browser.

I honesty don't think Google set this speed test up and got it wrong...

End of the day a site designed in PHP still delivers HTML code and content... its more of a matter of how the browser renders and handles the content - PHP just helps the browser streamline the delivery...

I take it most people developing mobile sites are using Firefox for the abundance of plugins that can help you test your mobile sites. If not shame on you - stop reading this and go install firefox and these firefox addons firebug along with pages speed firebug addon as well as the user agent switcher and the equally handy bar code generator.

Once installed run your page speed addon - it will analyze the performance of your page what is really good about it is that it gives you a total break down of whats happening and gives you pointeres what to fix. I have been seeing perhaps a 1% or 2% difference from what google speed test displays.

I have read comments about wordpress that put it into a negative light for mobile - to stress it depends on what tools you are using and ultimately comes down to the developer of the theme/plugin you are using to mobilize your wordpress site.

THERE IS ZERO REASON THAT WORDPRESS CANNOT BE USED FOR MOBILE SITES - HOWEVER NOTE ALL MOBILE THEMES AND PLUGINS ARE NOT DEVELOPED THE SAME.

IF you are not able to address the reasons why your mobile wordpress sites are not validating or scoring low speed tests ask the developer to address them they should be able to.

[Legacy3]

Jay Moreno,

I actually agree with your points that a WP mobile site can have comparable load times to HTML, which is why I mentioned the caching plugins. I personally wouldn't use the export function because turning over the site limits income potential but I do realize WP has received a bad rap in the Mobile community and I only presented the HTML export option as an alternative to allay concerns.

[Jay Moreno]

Originally Posted by Legacy3

Jay Moreno,

I actually agree with your points that a WP mobile site can have comparable load times to HTML, which is why I mentioned the caching plugins. I personally wouldn't use the export function because turning over the site limits income potential but I do realize WP has received a bad rap in the Mobile community and I only presented the HTML export option as an alternative to allay concerns.

Am glad you mentioned it as i feel many people are misguided - i understand a lot of people will never delve directly in to the kinds of development we do but i just want to make sure that people are also not misinformated about HTML vs PHP and perhaps prevent someone from exploring a more dynamic approach to mobile web development

[jackjohns]

HTML5 provide a very cost effective way to develop 'cross platform', but it also dramatically reduces the cost of maintaining apps in the future. Because HTML5 is a standard that every mobile device will eventually have to support, it could be considered a MEAP.