Mobile Application Versus Mobile Website: What's in the Name

The terms "mobile application" and "mobile website" have become so widely used that some people get confused about the difference between the two. Interestingly the confusion is less when you say "mobile app" as opposed to "mobile application".

If you are not a techie person I can see how the two can can be confusing. Let me try and give an explanation without using too many words.

The main difference is that the mobile application is a piece of software you download from a store into your phone or other mobile device and then periodically download upgrades to it. But you "carry" it inside your phone. A mobile website is just a website that has been optimized to look good on mobile devices. You can access it from the regular or "desktop" browser as well as from a browser installed on your phone.

I wrote earlier that Google calls websites that have been optimized for mobile devices "responsive" websites. Google also does not recommend having a separate website setup specifically for mobile devices. For example, you can have a website that is "www.ottawawebdesign.com"  and there will be a mobile-friendly version of it "www.m.ottawawebdesign.com". Google does not recommend this. Instead, you are advised to use ONE website and implement CSS media queries to ensure that when someone access your site via a mobile device, they get a proper display. This has been our strategy all along so I can't complain about Google in this respect.

Also, mobile apps are usually designed to do something specific, like a calendar or weather updates whereas a website can be very general in nature.

Most recent website templates provided by reputable template design houses like Joomlart or Rockettheme are "responsive" by default. Some contain small bugs and need minor adjustments here and there but overall most recent templates are of very high quality and highly "responsive".

Hope this makes sense folks, but as usual, if you need help, contact me via my web design Ottawa website.

Commercial Joomla Components Worth Buying

In web design you can't grow your own potatoes all the time, so you need to use out-of-the-box components if you want to build large sites quickly. As it often happens with software, commercial components are not necessarily better than those you can get for free. Commercial components tend to have more bells and whistles but they also have more bugs and often have more conflicts with other software. But there are some excellent commercial Joomla components.

Here is a list of Joomla components we think are worth paying for:

1. JomSocial
2. Job Board by Joomlart
3. JoomSport
4. AcyMailing
5. Docman
6. Gtranslate Pro
7. Breezing Forms
8. Akeeba Backup
9. Akeeba Security
10. OSE Security
11. OSE Membership
12. Flexicontent

I can probably add 3-4 more Joomla components to this list, but the ones above cover 80% of all websites you would be building as a web designer on a daily basis, at least this has been my experience so far at our Ottawa web design firm Joomla Bliss.

As always, if you need any help, contact me via this Ottawa Joomla blog or via my Ottawa web design site.

Mobile Websites: What's the Best Way to Optimize a Website

We've had a lot of client inquiries recently about "mobile websites". Clients want to make sure that their websites look neat and sweet on all mobile devices, and we feel that it is a MUST for contemporary web design.

There are number of ways to ensure that a website looks nice and proper on mobile devices, but we prefer to listen to uncle Google. And here is what uncle Google recommends:

Details of recommendations

Google calls mobile websites "responsive websites" and supports smartphone-optimized sites in three configurations:

1. Sites that use responsive web design, i.e. sites that serve all devices on the same set of URLs, with each URL serving the same HTML to all devices and using just CSS to change how the page is rendered on the device. This is Google's recommended configuration.
2. Sites that dynamically serve all devices on the same set of URLs, but each URL serves different HTML (and CSS) depending on whether the user agent is a desktop or a mobile device.
3. Sites that have separate mobile and desktop URLs.

In other words, instead of setting up a separate subdomain with "m.mysite.com" - follow Google's guidelines on how to use CSS media queries to optimize your website's code for mobile devices. You will have only one website but it will look different on desktop browsers and mobile devices browsers.

In fact, Google's recommendation has been our preference right form the start, but some clients feel it is a fancier way to have a separate website which will be optimized specifically for mobile devices. Well, when you take into consideration that you would need to maintain this separate website separately, this option becomes less attractive. But once you put Google's weight behind your advice then clients usually accept it without hesitation.

And if you need my help, contact me via my Ottawa website design site.

Joomla Security: Simple Fix to Help You Sleep at Night

There has been a lot of hacking activities going on recently - for all types of websites, including Joomla websites.

There is a couple of steps one can take to protect a Joomla site and enhance its security:

1. Take regular backups and store them offline.
2. Purchase Akeeba security subscription for EUR85 and install it. Akeeba allows you to take backups in seconds and store them off-line with meaningful and descriptive file names. Joy to use.
3. Purchase OSE security component , note that to install it and use it you will need FTP access. What's sweet is this component is platform independent, you can use it on any site, not only on Joomla websites. It is $160 CDN.

Both Akeeba and OSE allow installation on unlimited domains. Both will enable double authentication: you will have two login screens one after another.

In addition, do not use "admin" for user names and "yourcompany1234" for passwords, and use a different set of logins for each authentication screen.

Overall, these two components overlap in some coverage, but OSE is more comprehensive, as it is installed at a server level. As a web designer, you would want to acquire both. 

Be familiar with your hosting environment. Check with your hosting company and ask them how long their logs are kept. You need an apache log for at least 7 days (the more the better!). Ask them about their backup policies. This is why I don't recommend re-seller hosting companies. They usually don't do any backups and don't keep logs for more than two days. Hostgator is not a reseller; we have been using them for over three years and we are happy with things. Hostpappa is a reseller through and though; I do not recommend them, their service is terrible.

That's it from me today, if you need help, contact me via my website design Ottawa site.