How-To - Using Joomla to build mobile Web Apps.

This rough How-To will go through using Joomla to build a simple mobile Web App.

You will need a few things first:

• Joomla 2.5 or 3.0+ - http://www.joomla.org/
• Add2home plugin for Joomla - http://download.waltercedric.com/downloads/joomla/917-apple.html
• A good responsive template. I used the YooTheme Warp Framework with the Yoo_master template for this one - http://www.yootheme.com/themes/warp-framework
• The MobileJoomla framework or one like it, this one is free at least and only used in this case to load a different template on Mobile devices. - http://www.mobilejoomla.com/

Start off by reading the setup instructs for the YooTheme Warp framework, and set up your pages accordingly. I will sometimes make it so the content of the page doesn't go down too far on the first screen, this will give the users an overall good first impression on a mobile device. Once that is complete, we will set it as the default template. With this design, it automatically detects screen size, but if your client wants a different design for Desktop users, then you can use the MobileJoomla plugin and component to assign a different template to mobile devices. 

Next we will have to download the Add2Home plugin, but don't install it right away. Once you download it, navigate to your download directory and extract the file into a folder. then navigate into the plugin folder, and change the photos there (Unless you absolutely love the ones the developer uses)

Once we are done editing and replacing the graphics, we will then re-archive the files back into a .zip and then we will add the Add2Home plugin to your Joomla extensions. Once it is installed, Just make sure you enable it.

Then it's time to start testing it out and making sure all the content is in the right places. Have fun with it and make it yours :)

Till next time!!