How to make this forum more phone friendly

[bugo]

Make the whole bar clickable on the main forum page instead of just the text.  Bigger links are your friends.  It would also be nice to be able to use the chat using an Android device.

[KEK Inc.]

Use iPB which has better mobile themes. 

http://www.ipbforumskins.com/premade/slate/

smf has some mobile skins which is a hell of a lot better than pinching your smartphone screen to click those tiny links.

[Alex]

Obviously cannot get chat to work on my tablet either. Only thing I can do is look for a new chat room s/w suite. However the last time we looked there was not much that was appealing...

[sammi]

With regard to mobile support, does this forum already support Tapatalk? They already have applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. (Windows 8 not so much. ) That would make mobile integration so much easier.

EDIT: Had a link fail there. (I'm an HTML developer.)

[WillWeaverRVA]

I second the Tapatalk suggestion. It is nigh-impossible to navigate the forum on a phone or a smaller tablet.

[Dr Frankenstein]

Yes, Tapatalk supports SMF. http://www.tapatalk.com/activate_tapatalk.php?plugin=smf

[sammi]

Yes, Tapatalk supports SMF. http://www.tapatalk.com/activate_tapatalk.php?plugin=smf

I mean this forum. The link you provided was for admins to upload to the server, and I don't know whether this was already done.

[Dr Frankenstein]

No; well, not when I searched for AARoads on it, but it was a while ago.

[Alex]

I am working on this now.

[1995hoo]

I noticed just now when I loaded the forum it asked me if I wanted to open Tapatalk (which I use for a hockey-related forum). Please let us know when it's working! I've found it to be much easier than using the Safari browser on an iPhone.

[formulanone]

I just opened this forum in Chrome for Android, and there was a pop-up for TapaTalk. I installed the app, but you then search for your forum...but I can't find AARoads anywhere on TapaTalk.

Is it not ready yet?

[1995hoo]

I just opened this forum in Chrome for Android, and there was a pop-up for TapaTalk. I installed the app, but you then search for your forum...but I can't find AARoads anywhere on TapaTalk.

Is it not ready yet?

The same currently happens on an iPhone and iPad.

[Alex]

I just opened this forum in Chrome for Android, and there was a pop-up for TapaTalk. I installed the app, but you then search for your forum...but I can't find AARoads anywhere on TapaTalk.

Is it not ready yet?

The same currently happens on an iPhone and iPad.

Thanks to some help from rickmastfan67, we will be rolling that out later today. I'll post an announcement when it is done.

[formulanone]

Cool, thanks for the help guys!

[1995hoo]

I just opened this forum in Chrome for Android, and there was a pop-up for TapaTalk. I installed the app, but you then search for your forum...but I can't find AARoads anywhere on TapaTalk.

Is it not ready yet?

The same currently happens on an iPhone and iPad.

Thanks to some help from rickmastfan67, we will be rolling that out later today. I'll post an announcement when it is done.

Great news! Thanks for the info.

BTW, at least for iOS there is a "Tapatalk HD" that takes advantage of the iPad's larger screen compared to the iPhone's. I assume, but do not know, that there is a similar version for Android tablets. If there is, I highly recommend it. It makes navigation very easy.

[Alex]

OK it is set up, give it a try and let me know if we got everything correct!

Thanks!

[FLRoads]

OK it is set up, give it a try and let me know if we got everything correct!

Thanks!

I couldn't get it to work on my tablet, but I can deal with that later...

[formulanone]

Registered for TapaTalk (not sure if its necessary or not). Confirmed e-mail.

Found AARoads on TapaTalk, but it's still perpetually loading the forum after you select it.


Edit: mention registering, approval, just in case.

[1995hoo]

I just tried it on my iPad. It found AARoads when I searched for that name, but it returned the following error mesage:

It appears the server has some issue with Tapatalk HD or your session is expired. If this problem persists, please re-enter this forum from Account tab.

I found this odd because I hadn't entered my username and password, so I cleared the message and tapped "Login" in the top right corner. Still didn't work, so I backed out to the home screen and tried re-entering from there. Still no luck.

On my iPhone, however, it worked just fine! So I'm going to try deleting the account on my iPad and starting over. I'll come back and update this post after I play with that. Clearly, I know it SHOULD work somehow since it works on the iPhone. I just have to figure out if the error is on my end.

The "Unread" view is a great way to keep up with only those threads that have new posts since you last viewed it.


Edited to update: It now works fine on the iPad! I cleared the Tapatalk cache and then shut down the app and relaunched it. That time it worked fine. Thanks again for setting this up. I've used Tapatalk for probably close on to two years now to read a hockey forum I frequent that uses similar software to this forum and it makes it a lot easier to read, especially on the phone.

Registered for TapaTalk (not sure if its necessary or not). Confirmed e-mail.

....

From what I recall (it's been two years since I first started using it), you don't need to register for Tapatalk, but it makes it easier to log into a forum across multiple devices because it stores your usernames and passwords for you.


BTW, you use the Tapatalk settings to tell it how you want it to behave (defaulting to Unread or Participated, how many posts to show per page, whether to allow it to append a signature advertising that you use Tapatalk, etc.). I believe the settings are not forum-specific. I've had to fiddle a bit with Tapatalk on my iPhone since the iOS 7 update a few weeks ago because the app's current version annoyingly changed a few settings (on that hockey forum it kept dumping me into "Participated" view rather than the "Unread" view I prefer). On the iPhone version of the app, you can change that sort of thing for a given forum by swiping left-to-right to bring up the specific forum's menu and then tapping the "Edit" button. I used this option to drag "Unread" to the top of the list, for example. When you're viewing the list of threads, pull down from the top to refresh the list.

It's going to take a little getting used to how to switch between different fora. I'm happy to have that problem.


iPad screenshot (Unread view):




iPhone screenshot (Unread view):

[cu2010]

And on Android:

[formulanone]

Had to uninstall/re-install TapaTalk. My phone is funny that way.

[KEK Inc.]

Seems to work well.  Remember to disable the signature that just plugs this app.

[bugo]

Tapatalk is not perfect, but it is good enough.  When the chatroom is brought back, we must ensure that it is phone-friendly.

[dlainhart]

Tapatalk is not perfect, but it is good enough.  When the chatroom is brought back, we must ensure that it is phone-friendly.

I second this motion.

Dylan T. Lainhart / Binghamton, N.Y.

[rickmastfan67]

When the chatroom is brought back, we must ensure that it is phone-friendly.

I haven't found any chatrooms that claim to be "phone-friendly" unfortunately.