When we built WordPress Mobile Admin, we knew that there would be bloggers from all over the world wanting to use it. And because WordPress is multi-lingual, our plugin had to be as well. It made little sense to hard code all the labels and values in English, when someone might want to edit their blog in French, Italian, or Japanese!

These are flags of a few languages that we’ve already seen WordPress Mobile Admin operational in and more are popping up every day. It’s not just available in a couple of languages either, it’s available in every language WordPress is available in. There are 67 official ones so far, but the full list can be found here.

To get WordPress Mobile Admin (and WordPress in general) working with different languages, check out http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress_in_Your_Language, it’ll really help you along.

And of course, if you are using WordPress Mobile Admin in something other than English, get in touch and let us know!

Trouble is – the old version of WordPress Mobile Admin didn’t have any of the human readable text wrapped in those functions so it was only available in English, despite the fact that probably 95% of the text it used had already been translated. By going through and wrapping those text segments has meant that the entire Mobile dashboard has been mobilized.

Internationalization was where we spent most of our time on for this release, but it wasn’t the only focus. In addition, we’ve looked at textarea boxes and in particular, anywhere you can enter text in the mobile dashboard – editing posts and pages for example.

We found that some phones have troubled scrolling with lots of text in text input boxes (iPhone’s for example), so we’ve added some JavaScript in to help things run a bit smoother. And because we’re using Wapple Architect, phones that don’t support JavaScript don’t get it.

We hope you enjoy the update to the plugin and would love to hear from you if you use WordPress Mobile Admin in a language other than English and if you use an iPhone and scrolling is a bit nicer!

First up, there was an update to the way that videos are handled on mobile pages. It turns out that in one of the WordPress updates (somewhere between the 2.8 and 2.9.2 versions), the way that videos were output to the browser changed slightly. This meant that the video parser in our mobile plugin didn’t pick up the correct source and didn’t show the video.

All fixed now though.

Bug Fixes

Next up there were a couple of bug fixes:

• A quick one to fix a couple of foreign char issues – there was a string that wasn’t being escaped – it is now.
• Even quicker one to parse links before lists – that means that if you have a link inside a list, it’ll now work ok and not throw an error.

Mobile Themes

And last, but certainly not least, were a couple of awesome new mobile themes – designed by Ryan DC. He did the last set (Wooden/Scrap Book/Obsidian), but he’s outdone himself with the latest 2 – iPhone Light and iPhone Dark – here they are in action:

Thanks for the designs Ryan, very much looking forward to the next set!

So there you have it – a couple of theme improvements, a minor bug fix here and a tweak there. Have you used any of the new themes yet, or maybe you’re using one of the older mobile themes but have tweaked them yourselves? I’d love to see a comment if you have!

You can listen to the whole thing on Brian’s website at http://mobilebeyond.net/mobilizing-and-making-money-with-a-wordpress-blog-or-mobile-website/ or have a search on iTunes for MobileBeyond.

Lastly, I must say a big thank you to Brian for first of all giving me the opportunity to do the podcast, and secondly for doing such an awesome job of editing it together!

Let us know what you thought of the podcast – and if you’d like to hear more, tell us what subjects you’d like us to cover!

I’ve written a much more in-depth article over there about how we did it, but here’s a bite-sized version that you can cut out and put in your wallet:

1. Install the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin
2. Grab a free dev key from http://wapple.net/register/plugins-signup.htm
3. Activate the plugin and enter your dev key in the Basic settings area
4. Upload a mobile logo
5. Tailor settings so that the mobile version matches the web
6. Style the mobile version so that you retain your brand identity

If you want to read the full article, you can check it out here.

And finally, here is a screenshot of the mobile and web site that shows you how good your mobile blog can look!

We’ve listened to all of your feedback, ideas and suggestions – and as we’ve now got a fancy issue tracking system, we’ve been able to prioritise all of them and create a development roadmap. However, saying that, it became pretty obvious what the focus of this release was going to be – mobile themes.

Mobile themes

We’d had reports of users not being able to style up their site to make it look snazzy, so rather than leave you with boring themes that won’t inspire anyone, we’ve created some mobile themes for you.  What this means is that to make your mobile blog look cool, all you have to do is choose from one of our new themes in a drop down – how easy is that! Our team of graphic designers have had their crayons out and have hopefully created a theme that you’d like to implement on your blog. Our favourite at the moment is the “Wooden” theme, but there should be something to suit you – check out the screenshots below to see what they all look like.

Wooden

Sky

Coal and Fire

Obsidian

Brushed Metal

Scrap Book

Plugin Compatibility

Another area we’ve had plenty of requests to look at was with compatibility with other WordPress plugins.

Whilst looking at how to create a solution for the PowerPress podcast plugin, I stumbled across a function that turned any shortcode functionality into actual markup, and seeing as the Wapple Architect mobile plugin already turned HTML markup into WAPL, it meant that any plugin using shortcodes is instantly mobilized! Some very popular plugins that have had millions of downloads can now be used on your mobile site – Contact Form 7 is just one example but there are hundreds, if not thousands of other ones that will now work on your mobile phone.

A full list of everything we’ve included in version 2.0 is below – keep reading for the full story.

Major Improvements

• Added pre-designed themes
• Added compatibility for any other plugin that uses shortcodes
• Added full WPMU compatibility – prior to this release, all CSS and images were stored in one location so I’ve now moved this location if you’re using WordPress MU so that multiple blogs will work.

Minor Improvments

• Added switch layout option – if you prefer your site to be displayed with DIVs instead of tables, use this option.
• Added more classes for styling – more customization options for styling
• Compatible with WordPress 2.9

Although this plugin addresses the big issue of mobile themes and we have a feature list as long as your arm, we’re always on the lookout for new ideas and suggestions so please keep them coming!

Finally – have you tried out any of our mobile themes yet? And if so, which one is your favourite? Please let us know!

Last month we published a new mobile plugin to the wordpress.org plugin repository called WordPress Mobile Admin. It won’t surprise you to hear that it does exactly what it says on the tin and mobilizes your WordPress control panel.

Prior to creating the plugin, we canvased a number of power mobile bloggers and asked their opinions on what features would be useful in a mobile plugin. We didn’t want to completely re-create the WP dashboard on mobile, but rather create a dashboard with features that would only be appropriate whilst you’re using your handset.

Top Features

It became pretty obvious that creating posts, being able to upload photos and moderate comments were the most popular requests, so they were installed as the top priorities and implemented pretty much straight away. Another top priority was to make the mobile dashboard look and feel like the web dashboard as much as possible as we wanted to keep the user experience as consistent as possible. The theory being that if you’ve used the WordPress control panel on web, you should know where everything is on mobile without having to look around too much.

And with those tasks done, the plugin was released. Job done – well, almost..

Upgrades and downgrades

As with any software, there are plenty of bug reports, feature requests and performance upgrades that all require implementing – so after collating them all, they were entered into Trac, were prioritised and worked on.

One of the most interesting feature requests that came in was for the mobile plugin to work on PHP4. We’ve always made it a requirement in our plugins (not just wordpress) that you had to have SimpleXML and as this came as standard with PHP5 – you needed this too. But we found an awesome class on phpclasses.org called SimpleXML for PHP4 by Taha Paksu, that with a little tweaking, did the same job as the native SimpleXML functions.

By wrapping the class creation in a function called “simplexml_load_string” (and wrapping that inside a if !function_exists(‘simplexml_load_string’)), we’d got SimpleXML functionality with PHP4 – result!

In addition to this, we’ve added features so you can manage your tags and categories on mobile as well as create tags inside posts – all in the same way you’d do on web. We’ve also replicated the admin colour scheme switcher so if you prefer the Blue theme to Gray, you can display that on your phone!

Cutting to the chase – here is the list of features and new functionality that have been bundled into version 2.0.

New Feature list

• Removed dependancy on simpleXML – now works with PHP4
• Footer now present on Login page – frames page nicely
• Added edit post tags page
• Added delete/add post tags
• Added edit categories page
• Added delete/add categories
• Added customized colour schemes
• Added ability to edit tags when adding/editing a post
• Bug fix: Show correct number of posts on edit posts page
• Bug fix: Fixed pingbacks on comments page

No more dependancies

What this means is that we’ve been able to completely remove the “Things you must have..” section in the readme file for WordPress Mobile Admin. All dependancies have been removed and another barrier to mobile has been removed! We’re going to be rolling out the same PHP4 upgrades across all of our other plugins – keep an eye out for those if you’ve been waiting for that feature!

If you want to check out the new version of WordPress Mobile Admin for yourself, head over to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-admin/ and download it. Alternatively, if you search for “wordpress mobile admin wapple” in the Add New Plugin section on your own WordPress control panel, you can install it automatically.

If there are any other features you’d like to see in the next version, leave a comment and let us know!

WordPress Mobile Admin is a fully featured WordPress control panel for your mobile. It works on every device – no matter what it’s capabilities, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have an iPhone or BlackBerry, you can still manage and update your blog whilst you’re on the go.

It uses Wapple’s advanced web services to produce perfect markup whilst at the same time maintaining the familiar look and feel of WordPress. You can write and edit posts, moderate and reply to comments as well as updating and managing tags, categories and pages.

WordPress Mobile Admin

Requires at least:2.6
Tested up to: 2.9.2
Stable tag: 2.5

Features

• Add new posts from mobile
• Post pictures from your mobile phone and dictate where they appear on the post
• Post, Page, Tag and Category Management
• Comment Moderation – including replying to comments
• User Profile page – including colour schemes
• Support for gravatars

This plugin uses the same technology as the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin and if you like this plugin, you’ll love that one. Check out the home page here: Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress

Installation

1. To install through WordPress Control Panel:
   • Click “Plugins”, then “Add New”
   • Enter “WordPress mobile admin” as search term and click “Search Plugins”
   • Click the “Install” link on the right hand side against “WordPress Mobile Admin”
   • Click the red “Install Now” button
   • Click the “Activate Plugin” link
   • Enter your Wapple Architect dev key into the settings page. You can get one from here Wapple Dev Key Registration
2. To download and install manually:
   • Download latest version from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-admin/
   • Upload the entire `wordpress-mobile-admin` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
   • Activate the plugin through the `Plugins` menu in WordPress.
   • Enter your Wapple Architect dev key into the settings page. You can get one from here Wapple Dev Key Registration

Download Plugin .zip

The control panel of WordPress Mobile Admin is in `Settings` > `Mobile Admin`.

If you want to use the WordPress Mobile Plugin with WordPress MU as a site-wide plugin, install the “wordpress-mobile-plugin” folder in the plugins directory and activate on a site-by-site basis.

Frequenty Asked Questions

How do I get a dev key?

Head over to Wapple and fill out the simple form, you should be able to get your dev key within a couple of minutes!

Why doesn’t the plugin work? I see the web version on my mobile!

Have you entered your dev key into the Wapple Architect settings?
If not, head over to Settings > Wapple Architect (or Options > Wapple Architect if you’re on version 2.3.3 and under) and enter it into the “Dev Key” input box.

Do I need SOAP and SimpleXML running for this plugin to work?

In older versions of the plugin, you needed SOAP and SimpleXML, but not any more! From version 2.0, the dependancy on SimpleXML has been totally removed! You also do not need SOAP and can communicate with Wapple’s web services via REST.

File Uploads seem to be breaking my site

On some handsets on certain networks, file uploading doesn’t work. Even though the mobile phone supports it, it doesn’t like it. If you find you’re having problems with posting, head to “Dashboard”, then “Profile” and turn it off for your user.

Screenshots

Changelog

• Version 2.5
  • Added option to choose what size of mobile uploaded image you want to use in your posts
• Version 2.4.1
  • Fixed bug with foreign chars on comment titles
• Version 2.4
  • Fixed bug with guest users getting wrong message when trying to view categories
  • Fixed issue with adding posts in a different timezone to the where the server is
• Version 2.3
  • Fixed bug with some sites logging on, removed filter for login and authenticate
• Version 2.2
  • Added switch to mobile/desktop option in footer
• Version 2.1
  • Fixed warning message when no result back from web service call
  • Added compatibility for WordPress 2.9
• Version 2.0
  • Removed dependancy on simpleXML
  • Works with PHP4
  • Footer now present on Login page – frames page nicely
  • Added edit post tags page
  • Added delete/add post tags
  • Added edit categories page
  • Added delete/add categories
  • Added customized colour schemes
  • Added ability to edit tags when adding/editing a post
  • Bug fix: Show correct number of posts on edit posts page
  • Bug fix: Fixed pingbacks on comments page
• Version 1.2.1
  • Fixed bug when web theme has dynamic style sheet and loads up various functions
• Version 1.2
  • Added bulk actions to comment moderation
  • Added post date to add and edit posts
• Version 1.1.1
  • Fixed bug when there is an admin path that isn’t in the top level
• Version 1.1
  • Added filter posts by type on posts page
  • Fix for really long comments
  • Added option to enter a post excerpt
  • Fixed image post size issue
  • Added compatibility with older WordPress versions
  • Added compatibility with WordPress 2.8.6
• Version 1.0.4
  • Fixed foreign chars bug
• Version 1.0.3
  • Added compatibility with WordPress 2.8.5
• Version 1.0.2
  • Fixed compatibility issue when you don’t have PHP5
• Version 1.0.1
  • Fixed admin bug
• Version 1.0
  • Post images from mobile
  • Comment moderation
  • Post editing
  • Gravatar support

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been releasing updates to my wordpress plugin. A bug fix here, a new option there. You’ve got configurable menus, support for Cyrillic character sets and much, much more.

But the backlog of new features has been growing and it needed a big update to clear the decks! So yesterday signalled the release of the latest incarnation of my Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress – version 1.5!

I’ve fixed a load of bugs, added a stack of new options for configuration and written  a really cool new feature that gives you the option of building your mobile WordPress blog in a completely new way! You can read the scoop below or download it for yourself from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/

Major Improvements

• You can now build your home page by category. So say you’re a newspaper running WordPress and want to display the latest sport articles as well as the latest news articles.  Well now you can! And you also get to choose which category you want on your home page and how many items in that category to display! Linking to the articles works exactly the same way as normal, just a different home page!
• The last release of the 1.4 code was to add support for Cyrillic characters. So not wishing to leave our French and German friends  out, I’ve added support for those two languages! Don’t fear though if you need others (Italian or Polish anyone?), they’ll be coming shortly.
• On a language note, if you want to change the text for any part of the blog that you hadn’t been able to before (Submit text on a search button for example) you can change it whatever you want. If you want it in Ukrainian you can – but equally if you want to just change “submit” to “find”, that’s something that is now available.
• After an email conversation from someone who wanted to simply redirect the web version if a mobile visitor viewed their blog, I’ve added the ability to redirect your web blog to a mobile version. Most of the time it won’t be needed as the plugin handles everything mobile, but for those who really want to redirect, you can.

Minor Improvements

• Caption images in an excerpt are tricky, so I’ve given you the option of removing them. Oh, I’ve added better handling of excerpts too. And images. Much better all round.
• Don’t want to display the post date on the home page (and archive page too for that matter)? Turn it off then as I’ve added an option for it.
• Added the option for displaying a header logo AND the header text. Not everyone has their website text in their logo so you might need both. Or one. Or neither. The choice is yours.
• Show a post thumbnail. The first image from your post can now be displayed (and configured) so that you display a nice thumbnail on the home page.
• Bug fix: Sometimes pages were displayed as if the text was at the top and everything else was at the bottom. Should be fixed now but it’s down to another plugin outputting text too early.
• Bug fix: Some pages were displaying a “more” link on the home page without any text first. Fixed!
• There were a few other bugs that appeared when you entered some characters in either post titles, or page titles, or entered an apostrophe in the mobile blog title / description. They’ve all been fixed and tested!
• Lastly, I’ve improved some areas of documentation. A few fields were misleading and don’t really tell you what they do. I’ve made a few amendments and no doubt there will be more to come. (I like to code, not document!)

Version 1.6? Maybe 2.0?

The next major code release will include an administration panel, so you’ll be able to write and manage posts from your mobile. I’ve got a framework in place for it, it’s not just a case of identifying which admin pages to mobilize, getting on and doing it! Something that big might mean moving to version 2.0 and not just a 1.5->1.6.

If you’ve got any feedback for any of these features, or suggestions for new ones I’ll add all of them to the list in some shape or form. As usual, there are features that people have requested that didn’t make it into this release, but it’s all down on the roadmap and will be addressed at some point!