Smart Phone Access

[Cyclops]

I have been searching for a good robust way to get to the forum here from my iPhone...  While the WAP mode works and doesn't work poorly by any means!  It is, however, less than robust.  In playing around in my iPhone I came across something for a variety of different board types called Tapatalk.

Here is a URL for forum owners...
http://www.tapatalk.com/en/plugin

I'd LOVE to be able to access the board here from my phone like that, I can't imagine I'm the only one.  According to the site it would allow robust access from Android and Nokia Smart Phones.  Oh, and it is free to forum owners, people may have to purchase it, it cost me $2.99.  If it gave me access to E...  One time payment of $2.99.

[Aleph]

Given that I have an iPhone and YMMV, I don't have a problem with the site but for one thing. For some reason, the CSS doesn't work quite so well. Thus the orange-backed,-white-texted Home you see above turns out as white text on white background. Same goes for the reply button at the bottom of threads.

That said, it doesn't stop me. I know it's there, the link works just as well whether you can see it or not.

[Cyclops]

Please don't think I am complaining, I don't mean to sound that way.  I just found a great app that allows excellent forum access that is free for owners to use and  works with the board that is used here.

[Vekseid]

Primary issue is that I have every intention of ditching SMF here. So people end up buying the app that's eventually useless is not something I look forward to : /

[Karma]

I've been able to get around the site fairly easily, but the Shoutbox has been too impractical to use, as the AJAX chat can't seem to downsize itself enough to be reasonable. reading actual posts hasn't been too bad, though.

[Cyclops]

Primary issue is that I have every intention of ditching SMF here. So people end up buying the app that's eventually useless is not something I look forward to : /

Well, my thing was that the plugin is supported by the primary big players in boards.

SMF, phpBB (my personal favorite), vBulliten, and IPB

Any board worth me going to has been one of those four software packages.  Now, whatever you choose isn't going to make me stop coming around.  However, I think that the fact that the plugin can work with the major options makes it easier to really use on whatever you go to.

Of course, I totally understand your point.  I find the site usable but really, not usable for how often I'm in a position to be posted mobile.  The WAP interface works for basic abilities and of course to view the forum in its full state kinda gets screwy for size of sections and the text boxes don't zoom well.

I don't know, I guess I thought it might be a good idea.  I'm in no way saying I won't post or something because you don't use Tapatalk, it would just be awesome for me, personally.

[Dakota]

the wap2 version is more than fine for reading and posting to E I use it more often than using my pc.

Incidently, Veks do you plan on having mobile capability on the new version of E?

[Cyclops]

I tend to agree in that posting and reading are easy enough to do from a phone.  However it is slow, provides no screws to view peoples profiles, no avatars, no image posting, and more critical to me personally no access to forum bookmarks nor search features.

The app is a native app and operates very smoothly and quickly allowing viewing of bookmarked or subscribed topics as well as posting images and viewing profiles.

[Dakota]

do you work for them by any chance, 0.o

[Vekseid]

Well, my thing was that the plugin is supported by the primary big players in boards.

SMF, phpBB (my personal favorite), vBulliten, and IPB

Any board worth me going to has been one of those four software packages.  Now, whatever you choose isn't going to make me stop coming around.  However, I think that the fact that the plugin can work with the major options makes it easier to really use on whatever you go to.

I'm making my own software. Not going to anything - I'm fed up with the standard forum architecture, going to do my own thing. : )

And in that event, I'm not sure what figuring out Tapatalk's API would do that would be superior to me just creating a better wap2 interface in the first place. The current one sucks, yes, I know. It's not the be-all-end-all limit of what can be done.

[Cyclops]

do you work for them by any chance, 0.o

No, I don't and I understand why you might ask that.  It is just that for a long time now I have fought with various forums to get all the features of the full version on my mobile.  Back when I had a flip phone the WAP2 version was just so much better than I expected that I was floored!  It was awesome.  However, on the iPhone I have been spoiled by some other forums.  I like the clean and fast interface, the fact that I can do 3 or 4 forums in the same app because they all use that app.  Thus I have it all in one single place.

Mobile Safari honestly loads things as complex and feature rich as E (and a few others like Gateworld) very slowly.  Rendering takes forever and thus it becomes a hassle to post.  Perhaps I am being picky, really, I get that.

I'm making my own software. Not going to anything - I'm fed up with the standard forum architecture, going to do my own thing. : )

And in that event, I'm not sure what figuring out Tapatalk's API would do that would be superior to me just creating a better wap2 interface in the first place. The current one sucks, yes, I know. It's not the be-all-end-all limit of what can be done.

I totally respect that.  It is hard to build your own forums and the idea of adding in just one more API that can be changed, etc...  I can understand that might be asking a bit much.  Perhaps if that seems too time consuming to deal with the API, may I suggest a nice HTML5 compliant site?  There are a lot of templates out there for doing such things that interface well with Android / iPhone devices.

Just ideas, like I said...  If it is too much, I get that.

[Dakota]

I'm not used to the iphine but I am used to smartphones as a have three of them, can you not install opera mobile on the iphone? I use it on all but my blackberry and it's fairly descent for loading times

[Trieste]

Opera mini seemed to mess with my blackberry, so I stopped using it.

[Cyclops]

I'm not used to the iphine but I am used to smartphones as a have three of them, can you not install opera mobile on the iphone? I use it on all but my blackberry and it's fairly descent for loading times

I really would rather this not turn into a tit-for-tat argument on if what exists is 'good enough' or not.  Yes, you can install Opera mobile on an iPhone.  However, it is far less sophisticated than Safari is and has a very poorly written user interface by comparison.  I also don't like that Opera Mobile does things with SSL certificates and things of that nature.  Myself, I don't like Opera on any OS.

What Smart Phones do you have?  I am curious.

Opera mini seemed to mess with my blackberry, so I stopped using it.

I know a lot of people who have the same issue, where Opera Mini really messes with their phone.  In particular it would really screw up the Palm Centro that I used to have and wouldn't even start on the Blackjack II.

My point is not that the ways to access E are not 'good enough' but that Tapatalk or HTML5 interfaces would be better and easier to use.  If not enough people want it or would use it, cool.  I was just suggesting it, I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers.

[Trieste]

Just to note, I don't feel ruffled; I was just commenting on Opera mini. >.> Thus far I've been using the wap version on the BBerry native browser, and that has been okay. I would love to have a way to access the forums in full version, though, without the problems of Opera.

[Dakota]

No no no not opera mini, opera mobile, two different browsers and i have a blackberry bold, a samsung toco and a htc touch pro

[Mr Self Destruct]

Just to note, I don't feel ruffled; I was just commenting on Opera mini. >.> Thus far I've been using the wap version on the BBerry native browser, and that has been okay. I would love to have a way to access the forums in full version, though, without the problems of Opera.

Are you able to post replies using your BBerry and the wap version of the forums?  This is a problem I still have yet to figure a solution to. lol

[Trieste]

Yes. The reply button is down at the bottom of the screen. :)

[Mr Self Destruct]

Haha, smart ass. lol

I'm stuck in some kind of perpetual loop when accessing the wap on my phone.  I can input text, and when I hit the Post button, all it does is bring me right back to the screen where I had previously typed the text.   :-(

[Trieste]

Weird. Did you try clearing the cookies?

[Mr Self Destruct]

I haven't tried that, but I'll give it a shot and see what happens.  Hopefully it works!

[Mr Self Destruct]

Well, I cleared the cookies in my phone, and was able to reply to a PM...which I wasn't able to do previously.  As for replying to any posts, however, I'm still out of luck.

[Trieste]

On my phone, there are two other things I need to clear out in addition to cookies for mine to work properly... I would check up on that if I were you. Hooray for PMs, however.

[Cyclops]

I'll have to check out Opera Mobile rather than Opera Mini.