Managing Mobile and Non-mobile Versions of a Site Using Tera-WURFL and Zend Framework

Steps Involved

i) Organise the 'Web' and 'Mobile' sites as separate Modules in Zend Framework

This way, any users accessing URLs beginning /mobile (or whichever path we nominate) will automatically be routed to the controllers in the Mobile module and users accessing URLs beginning /web will be routed into the Web module.

ii) Add a 'Default' Module

Users will be routed to this if they access any other path, such as / or /ringtones

The configuration for this in the bootstrap looks a little like this:

<?php

$frontController->setControllerDirectory(array(
    'default' => '../application/modules/default/controllers',
    'web'     => '../application/modules/web/controllers',
    'mobile'  => '../application/modules/mobile/controllers',
));

That tells the FrontController where to look for the right controllers.

iii) Query Tera-WURFL to identify the device

I chose to do this as a ControllerPlugin, as this will be run regardless of the user's entry URL.

<?php

require_once '/path/to/tera_wurfl/tera_wurfl.php';

class TwurflPlugin extends Zend_Controller_Plugin_Abstract
{

    /**
     * Only ever called once at the start of dispatch
     * @access public
     */
    public function dispatchLoopStartup($request)
    {
        $tw = new Tera_Wurfl();
        $tw->getDeviceCapabilitiesFromAgent(
                        $request->getHeader('User-Agent'));
        Zend_Registry::set('twurfl', $tw);
    }
}

...and register that with the FrontController like so:

<?php

$frontController->registerPlugin(new TwurflPlugin());

A nice side effect is that the Tera_Wurfl object is pulled from the database once and once only, and is thereafter available via the Zend_Registry for the lifetime of the request.

iv) Use the IndexController of the Default module to route requests into the appropriate module

<?php

class IndexController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{

    /**
     * Called automatically by ZF before a *Action()
     * method is called
     *
     * @access public
     */
    public function init()
    {
        $this->_helper->viewRenderer->setNoRender(TRUE);
    }
    
    /**
     * Called by magic
     *
     * @access public
     */
    public function __call($methodname, $args)
    {
        $tw = Zend_Registry::get('twurfl');
    
        if ( $tw->browser_is_wap ) {
    
            $this->_forward(
                        $this->_request->getActionName(),
                        $this->_request->getControllerName(),
                        'mobile');
            //$this->_redirect('/mobile');
    
        } else {
    
            $this->_forward(
                        $this->_request->getActionName(),
                        $this->_request->getControllerName(),
                        'web');
        }
    }
}

Note the use of the PHP5 __call() magic method, which effectively gives us wildcarding of URLs, so we don't need to create an action method for every possible path.

Outcome

• Users can, should they wish, access each site from any device, by explicitly browsing to the relevant URL
• Users not specifying /mobile or /web will be detected and routed to the correct site
• This does not require any browser redirects - it's transparent to the end user
• URLs such as /ringtones or /sendtoafriend will work transparently allowing the appropriate controllers to handle them as they see fit
• For such time as the mobile site is not Zend Framework based, we can replace the forward() with a redirect() as per the line commented out in the previous example