Mobilize uses server-side PHP code to securely detect and reliably redirect web browsers. Because it operates server-side, there's no problems caused by 'flashing' content, wasted bandwidth or issues if Javascript is disabled etc. We firmly believe that Mobilize is still by-far the smoothest and most reliable redirect addons available for RapidWeaver.
Mobilize was originally created by Nimblehost as a page type plugin for RapidWeaver; in the early days when the iPhone and iPod Touch had first hit the market. This was long before the idea of responsive or adaptive web design came in existence. Because most people are now using the Stacks plugin for RapidWeaver, we've rebuilt Mobilize as a stack element. However there is still a 'Generate Mobilize Code' option in the stack, which will let you generate a code snippet for use on almost any other RapidWeaver page type.
Previewing Mobilize in RapidWeaver can become tricky, because RapidWeaver Preview identifies itself as Safari Desktop. Therefore if you try to click onto pages in RapidWeaver Preview that have an active Mobilize redirect in place, the page may not display. In such situations, it may be essential to change the User Agent setting in RapidWeaver 8 preview or temporarily remove your Mobilize stack to continue building and testing the page.
Tip: If you want to reuse the same Mobilize stack over all pages of your website (and you're using Stacks 3 for all pages of your website) you can setup Mobilize as a 'partial'.
Follow these instructions for setting up Mobilize on a non-Stacks page: Please note that the stacks plugin is still required for the initial setup. You can download a free demo version here.
When setting up your redirect links, take particular care to avoid users getting stuck in a redirect loop! For example, don't redirect mobile users from a desktop website to a mobile website, and then have a Mobilize stack on the mobile website that sends them straight back to the desktop website. In such situations, it is quite probable the web server will throw an 'error 500' message or the web browser will display an error about there being too many redirects happing.
In Mobilize, we use powerful algorithms to detect mobile, tablet and desktop browsers reliably, based on several factors. We do not simply classify a device on a single factor like user agent, OS, or screen size. Several factors are taken into account, before a browser is placed into the mobile, tablet or desktop category.
Of course there always will be instances where a browser cannot be detected for one or more reasons. A user might have jail-broken, un-rooted or hacked their device to change important settings. It might even be a totally new device that is unrecognised in all the current tests. In such instances, the user would just see the desktop version of the website, as a fail-safe.
Mobilize was originally created by Nimblehost as a page type plugin for RapidWeaver; in the early days when the iPhone and iPod Touch had first hit the market. This was long before the idea of responsive or adaptive web design came in existence. Because most people are now using the Stacks plugin for RapidWeaver, we've rebuilt Mobilize as a stack element. However there is still a 'Generate Mobilize Code' option in the stack, which will let you generate a code snippet for use on almost any other RapidWeaver page type.
Example
An example test website has been published here. It contains three webpages - mobile, tablet and desktop. Depending on what web browser or device you view the website from, you will only be able to access one or the three pages listed. More information is displayed on the demo site homepage. This same project file can also be downloaded using the button above.Setup
Please follow these instructions for setting up Mobilize on a single webpage, like your homepage:- Change the page extension to .php in the RapidWeaver Page Inspector.
- Drag and drop a copy of Mobilize from your Stacks library into the page.
- In the stack settings, choose whether to configure Mobilize for use on a mobile, tablet or desktop webpage.
- Use the mobile, tablet or desktop options to create your redirects to different webpages or websites.
- Provide the full, absolute URL (e.g. https://www.example.com) to the webpages you want to redirect users to. Or you can use relative paths instead.
- Export your project to MAMP or publish to a live website to ensure Mobilize is working as expected.
Previewing Mobilize in RapidWeaver can become tricky, because RapidWeaver Preview identifies itself as Safari Desktop. Therefore if you try to click onto pages in RapidWeaver Preview that have an active Mobilize redirect in place, the page may not display. In such situations, it may be essential to change the User Agent setting in RapidWeaver 8 preview or temporarily remove your Mobilize stack to continue building and testing the page.
Tip: If you want to reuse the same Mobilize stack over all pages of your website (and you're using Stacks 3 for all pages of your website) you can setup Mobilize as a 'partial'.
Follow these instructions for setting up Mobilize on a non-Stacks page: Please note that the stacks plugin is still required for the initial setup. You can download a free demo version here.
- Follow the above instructions (steps 1 - 5) for adding a Mobilize stack to a Stacks pages and configuring it accordingly.
- In the stack settings, click on the Generate Mobilize Code option.
- Preview your webpage in RapidWeaver. You will see a box containing some custom PHP code. Copy the code to your clipboard.
- Paste the code into the Settings > Code > Prefix box, in RapidWeaver.
- Go to http://mobiledetect.net/ and download the Mobile_Detect.php file. Uplaod this to a location on your web server.
- Update line #2 in the generated Mobilize code to point to the Mobile_Detect.php file you've just uploaded.
When setting up your redirect links, take particular care to avoid users getting stuck in a redirect loop! For example, don't redirect mobile users from a desktop website to a mobile website, and then have a Mobilize stack on the mobile website that sends them straight back to the desktop website. In such situations, it is quite probable the web server will throw an 'error 500' message or the web browser will display an error about there being too many redirects happing.
How do I setup separate mobile or tablet versions of my website?
Borrowing from other websites like Google and Facebook, these websites have created subdomains like https://m.facebook.com/. You'll notice the letter 'm' before the domain name, which denotes that this is the mobile version of the website. Popular news websites have done the same. So with this in mind, you need to login to your web hosting control panel (like CPanel) and setup a new subdomain for your website. Into this subdomain you can then publish the mobile and / or tablet versions or your website.Device detection
Why do we have very broad detection of devices and not lists of individual devices like iPhone, Kindle, Samsung? Simply because there are so many thousands of mobile and tablet devices on the market that all go by different names. Quite often the hardware and software these devices use is shared out over multiple screen sizes and types. A prime example of this problem is Android OS - which comes in multiple flavours and is often seen on smartphones, tablets, netbooks and even smart TVs. So to assume Android OS was only for smartphones would be wrong.In Mobilize, we use powerful algorithms to detect mobile, tablet and desktop browsers reliably, based on several factors. We do not simply classify a device on a single factor like user agent, OS, or screen size. Several factors are taken into account, before a browser is placed into the mobile, tablet or desktop category.
Of course there always will be instances where a browser cannot be detected for one or more reasons. A user might have jail-broken, un-rooted or hacked their device to change important settings. It might even be a totally new device that is unrecognised in all the current tests. In such instances, the user would just see the desktop version of the website, as a fail-safe.
Where can I get the Mobilize plugin?
Before becoming a stack element, Mobilize was sold as a page type plugin for RapidWeaver. The plugin variant has since been obsolete and unsupported since about 2016. No support, license registrations or updates are available for the Mobilize plugin. Plugin development for RapidWeaver has inherently become far more complicated and expensive. It was no longer economically viable to continue developing a plugin variant of Mobilize. By now, nearly all previous users actively using Mobilize have already upgraded to the stack version offered on this webpage. If you are still using the plugin version of Mobilize and have not done so yet, you should buy the stack version from this website and switchover to using this newer version instead.Privacy Settings
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