Tap Into Smartphone Demand: Mobile-izing Enterprise Websites by Using Flexible, Open Source Platforms

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1 Tap Into Smartphone Demand: Mobile-izing Enterprie Webite by Uing Flexible, Open Source Platform acquia.com Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01803

2 Tap Into Smartphone Demand: Mobile-izing Enterprie Webite by Uing Flexible, Open Source Platform Overcome the hurdle of building a mobile-optimized ite uing an integrated content management platform like Drupal Table of Content Introduction PAGE 3 Drupal Mobile Toolbox PAGE 4 Building a mobile ite PAGE 5 1. Architecting a mobile ite PAGE 5 2. Implementing a mobile ite PAGE 7 3. Teting a mobile webite PAGE 8 Concluion PAGE 10 About Acquia PAGE

3 Introduction Today conumer are adopting the ue of mobile device at a rapid rate: A recent Pew Internet Project report found that 35 percent of American adult own martphone, and a quarter of them ue their mobile device a their primary mean of browing the Internet.1 According to In-Stat reearch, martphone will account for 45 percent of all phone hipment by It becoming ever more eential for enterprie organization to develop high-quality mobile browing experience for their cutomer. Many buinee, though, are truggling to build mobileoptimized ite becaue of the difficultie and expene involved in integrating their exiting ite with mobile platform. The open ource content management ytem Drupal provide an integrated platform that can power all type of content, from corporate ite to product microite to mobile ite. Thi E-Book will explore how enterprie organization can implify the proce of adapting their ite to mobile brower from architecture to implementation to teting uing Drupal tool. It becoming ever more eential for enterprie organization to develop high-quality mobile browing experience for their cutomer. Many buinee, though, are truggling to build mobile-optimized ite becaue of the difficultie and expene involved in integrating their exiting ite with mobile platform

4 Drupal Mobile Toolbox Drupal open ource platform provide a flexible content model and template engine, which can be ued to target multiple operating ytem including Window, Apple OS 10, iphone, Android, and other. Becaue Drupal i an open ource platform, developer are able to gain immediate acce to more than 40 exiting mobile-focued module. Mobile adoption within the Drupal community i riing at a teady rate, and the number of mobile development tool available for Drupal continue to grow. Currently, tool available for mobile development on Drupal include: Mobile Tool - a Drupal module that provide developer with tool to help build a mobile verion of a ite Wirele Univeral Reource File (WURFL) - a group of proprietary API and an XML configuration that help developer identify mobile device Fuion Mobile - a Fuion Core Drupal ubtheme that allow developer to create cutom theme for mobile device Context 3.x a Context module that allow developer to chooe condition to trigger a certain context Other ervice - turnkey ervice uch a NorthPoint and Acquia that can provide highlevel upport for Drupal mobile ite developer Drupal open ource platform provide a flexible content model and template engine, which can be ued to target multiple operating ytem including Window, Apple OS 10, iphone, Android, and other. 1http://pewreearch.org/pub/2054/martphone-ownerhip-demographic-iphone-blackberry-android 2http://

5 Building a mobile ite While the initial tage of planning a webite trategy, product development, and information architecture/deign have few ignificant difference when developing for a mobile brower intead of a dektop brower, there are pecial concern when developing a mobile ite in the architecting, implementation, and teting tage. Drupal platform and aociated tool and ervice can be ued to implify thee complex procee. 1) Architecting a mobile ite With it flexible platform, Drupal permit developer to build both mobile app and reponive webite that can automatically optimize for a viitor mobile brower. Building mobile app When building mobile application, developer can make ue of a combination of Drupal core and contributing module, a well a related ervice, to produce powerful application that can eaily be modified for different mobile platform, including the iphone and Android. If an enterprie developer are not familiar with the mobile app-building proce, they may conider hiring an outide application development agency for aitance with app programming. While the initial tage of planning a webite trategy, product development, and information architecture/ deign have few ignificant difference when developing for a mobile brower intead of a dektop brower, there are pecial concern when developing a mobile ite in the architecting, implementation, and teting tage

6 Building mobile-optimized ite Web developer at a company can make ue of everal option for creating a mobile verion of a dektop template, depending on their need and prioritie: a. Create a reponive theme - Developer can make ue of media querie, fluid CSS, and Drupal Build Mode and Context Module to create a mobile template that i activated baed on the identification of the uer brower type. Thi approach i imple to et up, permit reue of mot exiting web infratructure, and involve multicontent ditribution. But the dektop-focued default theming behavior may need ignificant adaptation to fit the mobile context. Web developer at a company can make ue of everal option for creating a mobile verion of a dektop template, depending on their need and prioritie. b. Create a eparate mobile and dektop theme - Developer alo have acce to core and contributor module to build eparate theme optimized for dektop and mobile platform. While thi ytem i imple to et up, it doe not allow uer to take advantage of the full mobile web experience. c. Ue eparate configuration for dektop and mobile webite - Developer can create pecific native mobile app and dektop theme that maintain eparate configuration. While thi approach i more difficult to implement and maintain, it permit companie to create highly optimized mobile experience for their conumer

7 2) Implementing a mobile ite A number of tep are involved in implementing a mobile ite with Drupal, but developer have numerou option available to cutomize the experience. Drupal Mobile Tool module provide much of the neceary aitance to create a mobile-optimized ite. Mobile template et-up When etting up a mobile template on Drupal, a developer can chooe to create a unique mobile theme or cutomize exiting free or premium mobile theme from companie, including Fuion Mobile, Nokia Mobile, and jquery Mobile. Drupal Mobile Tool can be ued to cutomize the theming configuration and add additional mobile header. Device detection Mobile Tool or other module, uch a WURFL and WURFL Group Webkit, can detect whether the viiting device i a mobile device, and perform advanced feature uch a identifying the device creen ize and feature. Redirection Mobile Tool allow developer to configure redirection from a dektop to a mobile URL, and to add override direction for exception. A number of tep are involved in implementing a mobile ite with Drupal, but developer have numerou option available to cutomize the experience. Drupal Mobile Tool module provide much of the neceary aitance to create a mobile-optimized ite. Select layout Drupal Block configuration page permit developer to cutomize the layout of the text and graphic appearing in the mobile verion of a ite. The Context module can be ued to determine which type of device the context applie to, a well a any condition needed to activate the context. Content adaptation Many type of content modification may be neceary for a mobile-optimized ite, uch a image reizing, video adaptation, text abridgement, and functional adaption, uch a reducing the number of form field that appear. Drupal ImageCache module allow developer to cutomize image configuration for mobile device, while other module and cutom olution provider can help configure other type of content for mobile device

8 3) Teting a mobile webite A with dektop-focued webite, developer mut tet mobile webite for uability and performance prior to deployment; however, the proce i omewhat more complex. The tep involved are: Uability teting Developer need to tet a new mobile ite with real-world uer to determine whether the deign i intuitive enough, and to evaluate whether the deired tak are completed without difficulty. Baed on the feedback received in the teting eion, they may need to make modification to the deign to increae the ite eae of ue. Teting targeted device Currently, there are a number of popular mobile platform available, including the iphone, the Android, and the Blackberry and developer need to evaluate how a mobile ite operate acro all of thee platform. Mobile phone emulator can imulate the webite appearance on divere platform, which allow developer to find and fix bug aociated with different brower or platform. A with dektop-focued webite, developer mut tet mobile webite for uability and performance prior to deployment; however, the proce i omewhat more complex. The tep involved are: uability teting; teting targeted device; and performance teting. Performance teting Becaue data i often lower to load on mobile device than on dektop device, it eential for developer to enure that their webite load quickly at a range of peed (from 20 Kbit per econd up to 100 Mbit per econd). If the ite performance i lacking, developer may need to tweak the deign by reducing or removing media element to optimize the loading time

9 Concluion Developing a powerful and effective enterprie webite for mobile device can be an intenive and complex proce for developer who are new to mobile development. In order to reduce taff training time and treamline reource, ome enterprie organization hould conider working with a web development ervice provider to devie their mobile trategie. NorthPoint i able to provide enterprie with comprehenive mobile content trategy plan for Drupal development, with conulting ervice baed around information architecture, optimization, ocial media integration, deign, and a variety of other ervice. For companie that wih to adapt their dektop ite to mobile brower rather than develop eparate mobile-only webite, the Acquia Network provide acce to the mobile web development tool Mobify, a well a ervice including the A/B teting tool Viual Webite Optimizer and the Drupal training video library Drupalize.Me for a minimal ubcription fee. No matter what trategy a company chooe to engage when developing a mobile ite or optimizing an exiting ite deign for mobile brower, the work i likely to pay off: Google recently announced that it will prioritize mobile-optimized webite in AdWord earch reult, which will drive more traffic to martphone-friendly ite. Companie taking the initiative to create modern, intuitive mobile verion of their dektop ite will likely increae their influence and ale a mobile device gain ever more traction in the marketing world. Developing a powerful and effective enterprie webite for mobile device can be an intenive and complex proce for developer who are new to mobile development. In order to reduce taff training time and treamline reource, ome enterprie organization hould conider working with a web development ervice provider to devie their mobile trategie

10 About Acquia Acquia empower enterprie with the open ource ocial publihing ytem Drupal. Co-founded by Drupal creator in 2007, Acquia help cutomer manage their growth and cale their online propertie with confidence. Acquia product, cloud infratructure, and upport enable companie to realize the full power of Drupal while minimizing rik, a it done for nearly 2,000 enterprie cutomer including Twitter, Al Jazeera, Turner, World Economic Forum, Stanford Univerity, New York Senate and NPR. See who uing Drupal at For more information, pleae viit com or call ACQUIA. l 9 10 SKU MAR2012