Is your ColdFusion Application truly mobile device aware?

Tags: General, ColdFusion 8, Coldfusion, ColdFusion 9

One of the things that really annoys me the most when browsing a site that detects that you are on a mobile device, is the fact that most ColdFusion sites I have visited that do this, are using cflocation to redirect you to the mobile version.

The problem here is that when you browse the site in your mobile device, the first url is loaded and then redirected to a second URL. When you then try to use the back button you will end up in an endless loop here, and don't get me wrong here if you are quick enough on your mobile device to continuously hit the back button you might be luck enough to break out of the redirection loop.

If your application is using a cflocation to redirect the user, then you can be almost certain that the user will get annoyed with the site. My suggestion if you want to make your users happy to browse your mobile version, to avoid using cflocation for mobile devices.


TweetBacks

Is your ColdFusion Application truly mobile device aware? - http://goo.gl/bbFgU Apr 17, 2011

Comments (Moderated) | Add Comment

  • AJ Mercer's Gravatar What do you suggest to do instead?
    # Posted By AJ Mercer | 4/18/11 3:38 AM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar Very good question.

    personally I am using an MVC framework, so it is not an issue for me. And I think that the best option is in how the site is designed, but that is not always possible I guess. So the only real solution is to maybe switch cflocation with cfinclude.

    I know that is not always possible, and is why MVC would not have this problem because you could load the correct pages. Or worst case you use an SES enabled site and write rules to do this at that level, I haven't tried this method but I am almost positive that it would work as the URL doesn't change.

    So I guess it would depend on the application, and the author.
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 4/18/11 3:43 AM
  • JD's Gravatar The back button works fine on iphone and android for our mobile website redirect (which uses CFLOCATION). We've been using basically the same redirect for 4 years and we've never had a complaint about it.
    # Posted By JD | 4/18/11 7:35 AM
  • Andrew Scott's Gravatar Thats good to know, I can't comment about iPhone's but I can comment about those that I know who have Samsung Galaxy S phones.

    I am guessing it boils down to a timing issue in the phone and the browser, most of the Android phones I know people with have said the same thing as I have stated. I guess you might not know if people are frustrated unless you ask them.
    # Posted By Andrew Scott | 4/18/11 7:40 AM

Comments (Moderated) | Add Comment