12. Mobile Mahara

You can user Mahara to a certain degree from a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet that has internet browser capabilities. Depending on the device, not all functions may be available to you.

When you have an Android device or an iPhone, you can use an application to upload files directly from your device to Mahara.

12.1. Mobile browsing

Mahara comes with a responsive design. The purpose is to provide the best viewing experience on any device, but in particular mobile devices. Furthermore, certain functionality is not available on a mobile device if it does not allow for it, e.g. the use of the visual editor.

Currently, the responsive design is only implemented for the default theme of Mahara. However, the device detection works across all themes.

That’s what the default theme looks like on an Android smartphone 2.3 (screen size 320 x 480) with device detection turned on.

3 different screens of Mahara with the default theme on an Android phone with device detection turned on

3 different screens of Mahara with the default theme on an Android phone with device detection turned on

  1. There is only one column. Everything is pushed to it, but as soon as the screen is big enough, the content moves back to its original columns.
  2. A mobile friendly menu that can be unfolded to reach all navigation items.
  3. Since blocks cannot be dragged over the screen, radio buttons below them allow them to be selected.
  4. Once a block icon has been selected via its radio button, place it into the page by clicking the Add new block here button.
  5. Text boxes are shown without the visual editor as that does not work on an Android smartphone (2.3).

The following table captures features of Mahara and how they are represented on various mobile devices when device detection (dd) is turned on or off. Users can decide in which mode they want to browse if the site administrator allowed it in the user settings.

Feature Android smartphone dd on Android smartphone dd off Android 10” tablet dd on Android 10” tablet dd off iPhone / iPad dd on iPhone / iPad dd off
Place page edit blocks via radio buttons instead of drag & drop check   check   check check
Regular drag & drop interface in page editor   check - but cannot be used   check - but cannot be used    
Visual editor (WYSIWYG editor)   check - but cannot be used   check - difficult check  
Plain text editor check   check   check  
Print link     check check check check
Report objectionable content link     check check check check
Add to watchlist link     check check check check

12.2. MaharaDroid

The open source software MaharaDroid enables Android devices to share / upload content to a Mahara instance. This can basically be any content that you can share on your Android mobile phone or tablet.

You do not have to install any additional software for Mahara in order to use this functionality. Follow the instructions on the MaharaDroid site for more information on how to set up the application and link it to your Mahara.

12.3. PortfolioUp

PortfolioUp is an image uploader for Mahara that can be used on the iPhone. You need to install an additional plugin on your Mahara instance in order to use this app.