texxasrulez/force_elastic

Roundcube webmail plugin that forces the Elastic skin on phones and tablets at runtime (no user preference changes).

1.0 2025-08-23 07:45 UTC

Requires

• php: >=7.3
• roundcube/plugin-installer: ^0.3.0

GPL-3.0

• Gene Hawkins

• plugin
• mobile
• responsive
• elastic
• roundcube
• skin

README

Forces the Elastic skin for requests coming from mobile devices — without changing the user's saved skin preference or your system default. This keeps small screens functional even when users have selected legacy/non-responsive skins.

• Repo: https://github.com/texxasrulez/force_elastic
• Type: roundcube-plugin
• Requires: Roundcube 1.4+ (Elastic introduced in 1.4), PHP 7.3+

What it does

• Detects mobile clients early in request flow (startup and authenticate hooks).
• Sets the runtime skin to elastic and, when present, updates the Output object's skin.
• Uses Roundcube's browser detector if available; otherwise falls back to a tight UA regex.
• Never persists preferences. Desktop users keep their chosen skin.

Install via Composer (recommended)

This path installs straight from Packagist/Git and lets Roundcube's plugin-installer wire it up.

1. From your Roundcube root directory:

composer require texxasrulez/force_elastic

1. Enable the plugin in config/config.inc.php:

// Append to your existing list, do not duplicate other plugins
$config['plugins'] = array_merge($config['plugins'] ?? [], ['force_elastic']);
// or set explicitly:
// $config['plugins'] = ['force_elastic', /* other plugins... */];

1. Clear Roundcube caches (good hygiene after plugin changes):

bin/cleandb.sh || true
bin/update.sh --skip-deps || true

Installing directly from Git (optional)

If you prefer to track the GitHub repo without Packagist:

cd /path/to/roundcube
composer config repositories.force_elastic git https://github.com/texxasrulez/force_elastic.git
composer require texxasrulez/force_elastic:dev-main

Manual install (no Composer)

1. Copy the force_elastic plugin folder into Roundcube:

/path/to/roundcube/plugins/force_elastic

1. Enable it in config/config.inc.php as shown above.

Configuration

An optional config file is provided. Copy plugins/force_elastic/config.inc.php.dist to plugins/force_elastic/config.inc.php and adjust as needed.

// Skin to force on mobile devices (keep 'elastic' unless you know what you're doing)
$config['force_elastic.skin'] = 'elastic';

// Optionally disable the fallback UA sniff; rely solely on Roundcube's browser detector
$config['force_elastic.use_ua_sniff'] = true;

No configuration is required for default behavior.

How detection works

1. Prefer Roundcube's built-in browser detector (if available on your version/path).
2. Fall back to a conservative User-Agent regex for common phones/tablets.
3. Apply skin change at runtime only; no DB writes and no preference mutations.

Uninstall

• Remove 'force_elastic' from $config['plugins'] in config/config.inc.php.
• If installed via Composer: composer remove texxasrulez/force_elastic.
• Delete plugins/force_elastic/ if manually installed.

Troubleshooting

• Elastic isn’t applied on mobile: Check proxies/CDNs that might rewrite User-Agent. If so, rely on Roundcube's detector by disabling UA sniff in the plugin config.
• Conflicts with other skin/branding plugins: Ensure force_elastic is loaded after any plugin that explicitly sets a skin for all requests.
• Caching: Clear browser cache and Roundcube caches after first install.