Comparing Mobile Tools vs Osmobi for Your Drupal Mobile Website
When it comes to creating a mobile version of your Drupal website, two options tend to stand out from the crowd: Mobile Tools and Osmobi. However, choosing which one is best for you, it is important to understand what each solution is really about.
Both Mobile Tools and Osmobi were created by Siruna. Both are available through the Drupal.org website. They are both also designed for different uses and in some cases need to be combined in order to achieve the results that you want.
Mobile Tools
The Mobile Tools module is not officially supported by Siruna and is actually the result of a custom project that Siruna was involved with. Mobile Tools was initially created to allow Drupal developers to the Siruna transcoding engine and was later modified to include several other tools to help make creating a Drupal mobile website easier.
There are 5 main functionalities of Mobile Tools:
- Device Detection – The Mobile Tools module can detect whether or not a mobile device is accessing your website. This allows the webmaster to switch to a different theme, redirect the user, or take another action.
- User Redirection – Mobile Tools can redirect mobile users to the mobile version of your website.
- Theme Switching – This allows for a different theme to be displayed for mobile users.
- Mobile User Roles – This feature allows every user to be assigned a specific role. This allows for users to have different permissions than a desktop user.
- Frontpage Nodes – Mobile Tools allows you to configure the number of nodes that is displayed on the frontpage when being viewed from a mobile device.
Osmobi
Osmobi is a much more recent module, that is accompanied by a template that has been created by Siruna. It comes in two different parts: the Osmobiclient module and the Osmobi mobile theme. Both of these modules are actually extensions of the Osmobi mobilization service that has been made available to webmasters. The goal of this service is to create a user friendly mobile website form your existing website.
Osmobi has 6 Main Functionalities:
- Device Detection – Just like Mobile Tools, Osmobi can detect whether or not the user is accessing your website from a mobile device.
- Redirection – When a mobile device accesses your website, the user can be redirected to a mobile friendly website that has been created with Osmobi.
- Theme Switching – Once a website has been mobilized using Osmobi, the active template will be switched to the Osmobi template. This makes it easy for webmasters to create a great looking mobile website without altering their desktop website.
- Editing – Once the mobile site has been created using Osmobi, webmasters can completely refactor the website so that it looks exactly the way that you want it. Everything can be modified from the content to the overall style.
- Advertisements – Osmobi makes it easy to monetize your mobile website.
- Analytics – Osmobi allows for you to gather independent analytics of your mobile website.
Mobile Tools vs. Osmobi
When it comes to choosing either Mobile Tools or Osmobi, the decision is largely based upon what you need to do. Osmobi seems to be the more popular choice because it offers a solution that is fully integratable as well as actively supported. Mobile Tools is often used by Drupal Hackers who wants to create their own mobile experience. Unless you are an advanced Drupal user, Osmobi is probably the best place to start. If you need additional flexibility, then Mobile Tools might be a better fit.
It is also possible to combine both modules. This is normally only done to assign mobile roles (via Mobile Tools) to an Osmobi generated website.
When it comes to Mobile Tools vs. Osmobi, the comparison is not entirely based upon features, but rather how experienced you are with Drupal. Osmobi offers many more built-in features and is the easiest to use “out of the box”, however Mobile Tools offers a little more flexibility in the long run.
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