WordPress iPhone app was released almost a year ago, but I have only downloaded and used it recently. WordPress for iPhone is available for all self-hosted wordpress.com blogs provided they are using WordPress 2.7 or higher. The app allows you to access the Administrator Panel of the WordPress blog using your iPhone, enabling you to add new posts/pages, edit existing posts/pages, upload photos, moderate comments, etc. It works with all models of iPhone and iPod touch, but in this post, we are using iPhone 3G.

After downloading and installing WordPress for iPhone App from iTunes app store, the WordPress icon will be added to your home screen.

Tap on the WordPress icon to launch WordPress for iPhone app. The latest version of WordPress app is 2.3.1, with geotagging feature, and you can read more about it at the Official blog.

When you run WordPress for iPhone app for the first time, it will immediately ask you to add a blog. You will be asked to enter your blog details such as blog URL, username, password and how many posts you wish to display per screen. Note that when entering blog URL, you need to enter the URL of your public-facing blog, not the URL of the Administrator (wp-admin) Panel. Username and passwords, however, are those of an Administrator user.

After entering the details, tap on "Done" and the app will try to validate your blog using the information you provided. This could take a few seconds, depending on how fast the internet connection is on your iPhone.

After logging in successfully, the first screen that you will see is Comments Moderation Screen. Unlike in normal WordPress Administration Panel, there is no dashboard in WordPress for iPhone app. You can easily access other screens (Posts and Pages) by tapping on the options available at the bottom dock menu.

You can scroll up and down the screen by swiping up and down on the screen. For comments, the top menu allows you to view comments by type (ie: All vs Pending) and edit them in much the same way as you edit Messages (SMS) on your iPhone.

You may approve, unapprove or mark comments as spam.

You may also bulk delete comments by tapping on each comment that you wish to delete, and then tapping on "Bin" icon.

Posts screen shows a list of posts currently on your blog. The total number of posts displayed will be 10 posts in this case, because we set 10 recent posts to show on the first screen when we entered blog details. Tapping on individual post little will lead you to edit/view screen for that post. Tapping on "Write" icon on the top right menu will let you add a new post to the system.

Pages screen works in much the same way as Posts screen, allowing you to view pages, edit pages and create new pages.

Write a new post screen comes with all the basic features that you will need.

You can add a new post to existing categories.

Or add photo, preview the post, and change settings (Publish date, Password, Photo Resizing) by tapping on options on the bottom dock menu.

As soon as you tapped on "Save" from "Write a new post" screen, it will save the post onto your iPhone local storage and take you back to the Posts screen, showing the post you have just created under "Local Drafts" section.

You can view/edit any post by tapping on the post title. View a Post screen is very similar to Write a new Post screen, but it has an extra option on bottom dock menu called "Comments" which lets you view comments for that particular post. You can then read, edit, delete or reply to comments easily from "Comment" screen.

If you tap on "Cancel" link on top left menu while the screen is on an edit mode (eg: edit a comment, reply a comment, edit a post), the app will ask you whether you would like to discard your changes or cancel the cancel action. This is very handy because it's very likely to tap on links by accident on a small touch screen like an iPhone.

Say you quit the WordPress iPhone app by pressing the Home button on your iPhone and then come back to it again the next time by tapping on the WordPress icon on your home screen, rather than asking you to enter your blog details, the app will display a list of blogs you have already added to the app. You can still add new blogs by tapping on the plus icon from the top right or remove or edit the settings for existing blogs by tapping on the Edit link from the top left.

Notice how you still have the draft post that you have written earlier. One thing you need to be aware of is that, if a post is listed under "Local Drafts", it's only available locally on that particular device, be it an iPhone or an iPod touch. Therefore, to make sure that the draft post will be available anywhere, you need to save it to your WordPress database on the server. In order to do so, you will need to change the status of the post to Draft from Local Draft.

Tapping on the post title will take you to the view/edit post screen. Tap on the Status to change the status of the post.

If you are ready to publish the post, choose Publish. Otherwise, choose Draft or Pending Review. I have never used Private status but according to WordPress, private posts are visible only to you (and to other editors or admins within your site).

After tapping on "Save", you will be taken back to Posts screen, and you can see that your draft post is no longer under "Local Drafts" section but it's listed together with the rest of the posts on your blog. You can now be sure that it's saved in your WordPress database on the server rather than just in your iPhone data storage.

Since our blog is optimised for iPhone, it makes previewing posts and pages using WordPress for iPhone app a lot easier. We have written a tutorial on How to make a website iPhone-friendly using CSS. We also recommend you to read two great books on iPhone Web Development; Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and Beginning Smartphone Web Development.

If you are interested in working with us for an iPhone web development, please contact us to find out how we may be able to help you.