Disabling “Mobile Site”?

  • pinecones

    (@pinecones)


    3 years ago

    I’m using the storefront theme and I asked a related question on the storefront theme forum but the forum seems pretty dead. No help unfortunately.
    I have an alternative question that would also help solve my issue; can I disable the mobile version of my WP site and just force the web/PC version?

    My problem is that my content and menu backgrounds are becoming transparent on mobile, so text becomes impossible to read on my site background image. I kind of hate the mobile version anyway. So in lieu of not knowing how to force a background for my content on mobile, I’d like to disable it altogether.

    I’ve browsed plug-ins and haven’t seen anything useful yet. Help? Thanks!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • RossMitchell

    (@rossmitchell)

    3 years ago

    Curious since storefront is responsive, its mobile view works well.
    What customisations have you made ?
    Are you using a child theme ?

    If you are determined to disable the mobile view you could:
    – create a child theme.
    – copy the style.css file from the storefront parent theme and hack it by removing all the media queries that change the css for narrower screens.
    Not saying I think it is a good idea, but it is what you ask.

    Thread Starter pinecones

    (@pinecones)

    3 years ago

    The only thing I’ve edited that I can see being a problem, is that I forced transparent backgrounds on table content. So, each page has a content background defined in the style.css file, I wanted that a 90% opaque color, as I have a nice but not-too-busy nature background image.
    So in the page coding for each page, I had to add a command of background:transparent to ever table cell. That was the only way I could find to get rid of the solid backgrounds that the page customizer defines.

    However, even my blog and shop pages are turning transparent, and I have no access to their page coding (so I haven’t altered the page code to force transparent table backgrounds), which means something in the style sheet must be removing their content backgrounds.

    I have changed my style.css coding, yes. Primarily I’m adjusting content size, margins, and backgrounds to customize the appearance of my site (I find the default storefront theme very ugly with far too much wasted space). I haven’t entered entirely new coding not have I deleted any. I’m just changing values.
    I keep my edits very organized and color coded so I know what I did and why. I don’t touch the coding if I don’t know what it does. I haven’t touched anything menu related. I have assigned no transparent backgrounds, only rgba opaque background colors into existing color commands.

    I can’t figure out how to make a child theme, as has been recommended to me, so for now I keep my edited code in one document and the unaltered original in another just in case. I’ve only been using WP for like 2 months now, I’m learning lots every day.

    Maybe I could find a way to command the background image be disabled on mobile… This way there will be no background image, just a solid color. I would prefer trying that over trying to hack out mobile adaptation commands.

    • This reply was modified 3 years ago by pinecones.
    • This reply was modified 3 years ago by pinecones.
    Thread Starter pinecones

    (@pinecones)

    3 years ago

    So I added a blip of blackground color command into the @media code and it forced a background on the mobile version. This at least makes the mobile version of my site functional for the moment. It forces a background on all menus as well as all page content.

    Downsides: It forces a background over the header, which currently relies on a background image as a centered site logo, so I have an opaque green bar covering my site logo at the top e_e Also, it overrides the footer backgorund colors. Which isn’t terrible, but I might have to tweak some text coloring.

    Other downside: The mobile version is still ugly and terrible and I would still love to get rid of it completely.

    I did dabble in deleting the @media tags, as well as the handheld and transform coding, and found a tip on getting rid of a mobile command in the header.php coding. Obviously this makes the website a bit of a wreck. I would just need to go in and change my width and placement commands and see if I can get a better mobile adaptation of my desktop site.

    Before I switched to WP I never had a mobile version. I just cross-checked all my coding to make sure the site looked good and was functional on a phone. Personally, when I’m on a phone, I’m desperate to find the “view desktop version” on any site I visit. And I know I’m not alone in that. Mobile versions suck when you actually have heavy content and a shop you’re trying to run!

    RossMitchell

    (@rossmitchell)

    3 years ago

    Here is how to make a child theme:
    https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/
    However there are situations where this is not viable, for example there are commercial child themes, and since there are no grandchild themes something else is required:
    https://github.com/woothemes/theme-customisations

    You can test mobile view on a browser by making the browser smaller. On firefox you can also use a testing mode activated by Ctrl+Shift+M

    You also need to make friends with your browser inspector, each browser has one to assist developers. It shows how yout html and css are working.

    Thread Starter pinecones

    (@pinecones)

    3 years ago

    Thank you. Where is the themes directory folder?

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    3 years ago

    You mean where to put child theme files? Relative to your WP installation location, create a new folder for your child theme at wp-content/themes/

    Not that it matters, but mobile sites suck not because they’re for mobiles, but because they were designed as an after thought based on an existing desktop design. It’s possible to have a non-sucky mobile site if it were designed from the start to work well for mobiles. With a good mobile design, expanding that into a desktop design is much more viable than going in the other direction.

    Is it a common approach to site design? Sadly, no. That’s why mobile sites suck. In theory mobile sites could be awesome, but most of the time they are not.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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