When you suggested that we add mobile optimization for our themes, we listened and today we get the first opportunity to announce some new stuff in this regard. (This announcement will be only our first announcement of a couple in this space.)
We’ve teamed up with our friends over at Obox to bring you mobile optimization for your WooThemes-powered website via the awesome, new Obox Mobile plugin. In the last couple of weeks, the Obox crew have been busy creating this nifty, new WordPress plugin that optimizes the rendering of your WooThemes-powered site on iOS (i.e. iPhone) & Android handheld devices.
Obox Mobile is being classified as a framework, purely because the idea is that you can build on top of it and easily add custom designs, which will also be optimized for those devices. The out-of-box version of Obox Mobile includes 3 child themes – one which was designed by WooThemes – and you’re only required to plug it into your website, activate it and sit back whilst you enjoy your site on a handheld device.
Pretty & Mobile
We’d seriously suggest giving Obox Mobile a try if you’re keen on optimizing for mobile devices. Also read Obox’ blog post announcing the plugin, which contains a few more details on the plugin.
54 Responses to “WooThemes, Obox & Mobile Optimization”
This looks super cool. Will be adding asap to a number of blogs!
Will you release it any time soon as part of the Club membership?
Nope, the plugin was developed and will be maintained by Obox, so won’t be included in the club subscriptions.
wow! brilliant! this looks so quality! I’m up for buying it.
I have just one pre buy Q, I looked at the demo on my mobile but couldn’t see and video examples… my site is all video (i.e at the top of each post is an externally hosted video with some text below it} how is that taken care of with this mobile plugin? when they watch a video does it go full screen or not, and what happens with the rendering of it?
Thanks for bringing this up, we’ll have to implement this into the plugin, can I ask if you’re using a custom field for your video? Or oEmbed?
Once we’ve implemented external video support we’ll let you know.
I’m just putting all the videos in the embed video part of a wootheme with an additional border added for design so yeh a custom field.
But I think you would need to cover both sides (i.e just popping in a video into a post)
My videos are coming from a chinese site (youku.com) so make sure you add external support for all external video sites not just youtube!
a lot of applications often only support youtube and a handful of other sites (so limiting especially as all of these sites are blocked in china)
Remember the Chinese are the fastest growing area in terms of internet…. engulfing anyone else by far! just look at the site stats for youku.com to get an idea! a huge market not to be missed out on!
If you get this sorted I’ll buy it.
Having tested Youku on my phone I don’t see an issue with it working once we have implemented video support in the framework.
We will post an update soon with regards to proper video support for both Obox and WooThemes.
sweet!
same goes for audio BTW
We have our theme set up as a website. Will this display pages or just posts?
check out the demo
demo.obox-design.com/oboxmobile
it has a drop down list to choose categories/pages or tags!
Hi Dan, it will display categories, posts, pages and tags
Hey guys,
Just want to know if this works with the Real Estate theme ?
While it’s really great that you are working with obox it could get slightly confusing/annoying regarding who does what and what comes with what and what will work where etc. etc.
If you are going to work together then merge 100% or simply promote them from a distance – one way or the other otherwise it is all a bit unclear and unhelpful really.
Other than that – great tool
Sorry, I have to agree. Lots of confusion here. I bought the plugin right away (I trust Woothemes when you recommend something). The purchase, pricing, download process was confusing and messy (this download now link actually isn’t a link at all, oh, must be this other download link? Wait, here’s the pricing page with different pricing, ooops here’s a thing that says it’s only $50). I was totally confused by Obox in general. I’m clicking from Woothemes thinking this is a mobile theme sorta plugin thing and I’m hit with a bunch of traditional themes? Not sure still.
Truth is, I’m sure If I had some time, I could figure it all out, but it was made to seem like it would be a click of a button and I’d be done. I ended up using some installation instructions and it made my site go blank.
Messy guys. That’s just my feedback. I still love Woothemes like a big brother.
Sorry to hear that your experience wasn’t great when purchasing the plugin Levi.
Basically Obox does sell traditional Premium Themes and Obox Mobile is our latest product. I am not sure which link you clicked on from Woo? The price of the plugin is stated on the page where you purchase it from.
In terms of the download process we will look into that and try and improve it.
More importantly is that you got a blank screen when installing Obox Mobile. Did you install it in the theme section or as a plugin?
Thanks for the reply and the email David. I hinted above that I was in a hurry and admittedly didn’t take my time going through this process. I have no doubt that everything is legit, and I am excited to implement this on all of my sites when I get a chance to focus on it.
I guess I’m just saying that I’m probably not the only one who skims through quickly and haphazardly, and it was confusing clicking through from WooThemes without any idea of what Obox does.
Quite possibly just me! So no worries, I’m sure I’ll get a chance to take my time and get it all working.
No worries Levi, if you do have any questions you now know where to get me
Thanks for letting me know.
+1 on the “what the heck does this mean” o-meter..
When I see “teamed up” I’m looking through the article for a “whats in it for me as a club member… after reading it all I see is a plugin being advertised with an affiliate link, which is cool but don’t tease me by wording it like theres some big “were responsible for this, here you go you great woothemes subscribers” :p
just my .02
also, one more thing I forgot…. when you say “When you suggested that we add mobile optimization for our themes” we we asking you do something about it… not Google for a plugin made by someone else, sign up as an affiliate and push that out to us
For future reference, a post that was more like… hey, if you want some cool mobile optimization for your site check these guys out, neat plugin made by these guys.. we like it so much we signed up as affilaites (link here)
Jesse, I can’t speak for the Woo guys but I can say from our side that it definitely wasn’t a case of them googling a plugin.
We have been working with Woo since we started developing Obox Mobile, to make sure that their themes work with it.
We even went to the extent of getting Woo to create a theme for the framework so that users can still experience the WooTheme feel.
Hope that clears things up a bit.
Must agree with David here…
If you read the full post you’d see that Woo had worked closely with Obox on this deal. =)
Another reason, or better to say TWO reasons (Obox AND Express) to stick with WooThemes. Sorry to say that, but I’ve been thinking about using a theme from Elegant Themes for my businesses website. Couldn’t you guys from WooThemes do something slick and elegant?
Agree with Ben.
WooThemes pls …from previous blog post “soon we’ll be doing a theme for restaurants, a complete & customizable directory theme, and the cherry on the cake: e-commerce themes. Because WP has made all of this possible …”, please do these as per your Woo Theme new release (not third party plugins etc. cooperation). You rather increase price of a theme if it’s more involved but keep it under one hat! Because you have real good standard. Your themes’ functions are the best, but, third parties additions might fade the great name away easily.
Very nice!
From a licensing perspective, once the $50 mobile plug-in is purchased, how many sites can we install it on? If there’s only one, is there a developer option available for multiple installs?
Stephen the $50 package allows you to install it on as many sites as you want
Thanks, David.
Expect a $50 purchase headed your way very soon!
I bought this for my site and its looking cool
I also blogged about it
Mansoor here
Thanks for the review Mansoor, really glad you like the product!
No problem
I cant find my License Key anywhere though. Are there plans for more themes?
Hey Mansoor,
If you check your profile on Obox you’ll see your license key is now available, so you can get the most recent updates. We are planning more themes in the future, so keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you Marc… Will these new themes be extra?
@Mansoor – Yes, new theme designs that we develop will be extra but new features and auto updates are free once you have purchased the Framework.
Obox really came up with a beautiful iphone theme. Love the header….hope to integrate that on all my wootheme based sites asap
Thanks Ayedee
What a bunch of whiners in here.. no offend anyone! Why should Woothemes have to re-invent the wheel all the time if somebody else have made a solution to a common problem, in a good way too?
I don’t agree on all the criticism. Sure, things could have been more streamlined, but I rather have Woothemes add support for GOOD 3rd party solutions than spending all their time developing their own add-ons, when their core business focus is producing great themes!
And even if they had all time in the world to develop their own solutions for stuff, I STILL rather see them not doing it. Why do a company always need to be best in everything, or to make competing solutions for all kind of problems? Why not rather do one thing, and do that one thing waaay better than anyone else could ever do it? Acknowledge what others do well. Give them the credit they deserve for it, and cooperate with them instead of fighting them with your own solutions!
It’s like with M$ (and Google, Apple+++): instead of focusing on Windows, making innovations there, they all of a sudden started to compete with other companies in a whole bunch of different categories like ex. search (and cloud storage, e-mail etc). Why not let Google handle that, as they do that well, and instead provide good, integrated support for their software? Then M$ can continue focusing on what they are good at, and let others focus on what they are good at. You don’t have to be good in everything! This applies to a whole range of companies nowadays. Everyone trying to beat everyone in everything instead of being good at what they already do.
When there is no good 3rd party alternatives/solutions to a problem, then I hope Woothemes develop something of their own, but I don’t see any point in doing that just because they can. The Obox plugin is really good from my experience! So integration is far better than doing it their own way then.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards
Kristoffer
Dell computers use only 3rd party components. They do not manufacture pc parts themselves as it’s done in Taiwan. They only put the box together under their thumb, and, not allowing to use parts customers can purchase in other stores. Most, if not all, don’t fit the main motherboard. Get it?
Apologies to have kicked something off, but I guess I was on to something.
I take your points Kristoffer, but, I’m in no way suggesting that woo themes should reinvent the wheel, but, if it is a true Obox and Woo cooperation then why make woo clients go through Obox to purchase it…why not offer it via Woo.
It just smells bad to be honest and I can’t see the benefit of having it all as a somewhat third party affair when it could be all dealt with or distributed in-house.
This theme is really nice to optimize with Iphones, Ipad, Ipod Touch and other smart phones. Good work. Thanks.
Do you know if this mobile theme picks up the custom post types in the tumblog themes, like in Retreat. For instance, in WP Touch, the title of a link post is not hyperlinked, as it is on a desktop browser. Is this also the case with the Obox Mobile Theme? Or, will the tumblog post types be recognized?
Hey Matt,
Custom post types are read as normal posts, so the title of a link post, for example, will link to the post, not the link.
Does that clear things up?
Thanks
Yes… so, no, it does not pick up the Tumblog custom post types built in to Retreat, Cinch, etc… got it. This is disappointing, but TOTALLY understandable.
We will definitely be looking at ways to integrate those post types in the future though.
I’m new at this stuff. But, I like the Woo themes APZ template and intend to use it.
Now, would this plugin pair well with that theme? If I am using
html based widgets (like an audio media player) on the main site should the Obox optimized site coexist well with that template?
Am I on track here, or am I possibly missing something?
Please advise
Ernst
Hi
The plugin will not replicate your site layout, but will use it’s own theme that shows your post content in a mobile friendly fashion.
Yep, what Magnus said
Hi guys,
All right. So when someone visits my website with a mobile, they see the Obox Mobile Theme. But what do they see when they visit my website with an iPad? The ‘desktop version’ or the ‘mobile version’ of my website?
Hi Luuk
When they visit with an iPad they will see the desktop version. We are busy working on an iPad version of Obox Mobile though, one which better suits the larger screen size.
Hey guys thanks for your earlier response
I’m still trying to grasp all the elements of your plugin in these respects: Does the plugin detect the type of mobile visitor? Is a m.domain.com not needed to be utilized along with this plugin? You mentioned above working on adding video elements but your demo has a viddler video player (but the video is cut off). I think it saids shockwave flash but I thought Iphones don’t play flash files or is there a HTML 5 aspect involved? And, is the key to this site to
only be initially optimized solely for Iphones and android phones because those are the only phones detected? I like the design….I’m just unclear about the overall use of this plugin where a regular WP Woo theme might contain un-minimalistic elements. Finally, does the plugin only work with WOO themes..any of them…a few of them? Thanks
Hi Ernst
There is no need for a specific mobile domain because the theme automatically detects that a user is visiting your site via their mobile. Once it detects that a phone is visiting the site it applies the mobile theme.
Because Youtube and Vimeo have HTML5 compatibility they will work on Obox Mobile. The issue which we are experiencing is ‘z-indexing’, in other words we are still trying to work out how to stop the videos from displaying over drop down menus. So even though videos will display (and work) in the plugin, it is not yet perfect (which is what we want it to be).
We have created the plugin to work on: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia smart phones and Windows Mobile.
Lastly, the plugin will work with ANY WordPress theme. It doesn’t have to be an Obox theme or Wootheme for it to work. The difference is that if you run an Obox theme or Wootheme you will experience the benefit of custom fields.
I hope that helps!
awesome response… thanks for filling in the blanks
I may be back with more questions as I pencil out my ideas.
Thanks a bunch
Ernst
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