User theme switching; better as a plugin or in the core?

Question

Okay, I made a theme switching plugin.

The rationale for it was not that I wanted to let my users pick between different style, but that a) I wanted to offer a "lite" version of my site, without the wordpress/buddypress shell around it, and b) maybe one day I or someone else can make a mobile theme, and so this plugin has an option to send users on mobile to an alternative theme instead.

Features:

- theme selection in user profile
- toggle on/off via admin/plugins
- default theme selection in admin/plugins
- optional mobile theme selection in admin/plugins

As with other plugins, this is quite a hack; I've already submitted five ideas for 1.5, but I'm betting this would be something likely to get included in the core at some stage. Any thoughts? Or feedback at least - bug reports would be great :)

Plugin is here:

https://github.com/NoahY/q2a-theme-switcher

Answer 1

HELP ME!!! Your plugin is GREAT, thanks. But if it`s installed, "Popular tags", Activity Counter, Ask Box and my links on the tabs do not work. What the bug? Thanks for advance.

Comments

I don't know... maybe some problem with your theme?  Check the output source code.  I don't have this problem with either Default or Candy themes, nor with my custom themes.

Answer 2

Regarding mobile, Q2A's HTML isn't particularly heavyweight (it loads fast enough on my iPhone) so I think all you'd need is a mobile CSS file, using media queries or the like.

I plan to do this at some point but as usual other work gets in the way ;)

Comments

Well, Buddypress has a neat mobile theme that makes it look like you're using an iPhone app.  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-mobile/

Something like that would be nice.  This plugin has a function to check whether you're using a mobile device and switch to an admin specified theme if you are.