AARoads Forum

Meta => Suggestions and Questions => Topic started by: bugo on September 22, 2013, 11:48:26 AM

Title: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: bugo on September 22, 2013, 11:48:26 AM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendlyFirst,
Post by: KEK Inc. on September 22, 2013, 12:56:02 PM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendlyFirst,
Post by: Alex on September 22, 2013, 03:54:13 PM
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...
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendlyFirst,
Post by: sammi on September 22, 2013, 05:27:44 PM
With regard to mobile support, does this forum already support Tapatalk (http://www.tapatalk.com/)? 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.)
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendlyFirst,
Post by: WillWeaverRVA on September 22, 2013, 10:41:09 PM
I second the Tapatalk suggestion. It is nigh-impossible to navigate the forum on a phone or a smaller tablet.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendlyFirst,
Post by: Dr Frankenstein on September 23, 2013, 11:05:13 AM
Yes, Tapatalk supports SMF. http://www.tapatalk.com/activate_tapatalk.php?plugin=smf
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: sammi on September 23, 2013, 02:28:05 PM
Quote from: Dr Frankenstein on September 23, 2013, 11:05:13 AM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Dr Frankenstein on September 29, 2013, 10:42:22 PM
No; well, not when I searched for AARoads on it, but it was a while ago.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Alex on October 03, 2013, 01:30:48 PM
I am working on this now.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: 1995hoo on October 03, 2013, 05:24:22 PM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 09:05:47 AM
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?
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: 1995hoo on October 09, 2013, 09:36:37 AM
Quote from: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 09:05:47 AM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Alex on October 09, 2013, 09:39:40 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on October 09, 2013, 09:36:37 AM
Quote from: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 09:05:47 AM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 11:34:31 AM
Cool, thanks for the help guys!
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: 1995hoo on October 09, 2013, 11:56:42 AM
Quote from: Alex on October 09, 2013, 09:39:40 AM
Quote from: 1995hoo on October 09, 2013, 09:36:37 AM
Quote from: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 09:05:47 AM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Alex on October 09, 2013, 12:09:32 PM
OK it is set up, give it a try and let me know if we got everything correct!

Thanks!
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: FLRoads on October 09, 2013, 12:31:57 PM
Quote from: Alex on October 09, 2013, 12:09:32 PM
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...
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 12:32:31 PM
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.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: 1995hoo on October 09, 2013, 12:35:40 PM
I just tried it on my iPad. It found AARoads when I searched for that name, but it returned the following error mesage:

QuoteIt 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.




Quote from: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 12:32:31 PM
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):

(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi31.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc378%2F1995hoo%2Fba8b8b1c32cf70676871af4a28dfcb65_zps23f8633a.jpg&hash=cd6d844f5eb0a6c14d8f771a2e869e14a12c5bf6)


iPhone screenshot (Unread view):

(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi31.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc378%2F1995hoo%2FAF9E9A3D-5AA8-454B-8AB7-E5922642FEAF-688-0000011BBA2ED5F3_zps4c70b26d.jpg&hash=a3c532a8b7831da59a0d845f4615cdaee5260e14)
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: cu2010 on October 09, 2013, 01:40:11 PM
And on Android:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQiDjgkU.jpg&hash=aa5f4c6124805e0b11e6613a9cc093da77c3ff6d)


Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: formulanone on October 09, 2013, 06:53:31 PM
Had to uninstall/re-install TapaTalk. My phone is funny that way.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: KEK Inc. on October 29, 2013, 09:54:14 PM
Seems to work well.  Remember to disable the signature that just plugs this app.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: bugo on October 30, 2013, 12:14:44 PM
Tapatalk is not perfect, but it is good enough.  When the chatroom is brought back, we must ensure that it is phone-friendly.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: dlainhart on October 30, 2013, 12:18:00 PM
Quote from: bugo on October 30, 2013, 12:14:44 PM
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.

Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: rickmastfan67 on November 01, 2013, 12:42:58 AM
Quote from: bugo on October 30, 2013, 12:14:44 PM
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. :(
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: US71 on November 18, 2013, 11:07:01 PM
Quote from: KEK Inc. on October 29, 2013, 09:54:14 PM
Seems to work well.  Remember to disable the signature that just plugs this app.

I tried it this weekend. Not bad. Web based is better, though ;)
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: signalman on November 26, 2013, 03:35:32 AM
I finally got the tapatalk app to work on my phone after several attempts.  I appreciate the administration setting this forum up with tapatalk.  Now that I got the app to work, it is readable on my phone.  Trying to read the forum from the web browser on my phone was nearly impossible, and frustrating at best.

It was nice to be able to read the forum while I had some down time waiting for a train.  It will work for when I'm traveling too, since I don't have a laptop or tablet.  I agree with US71 though; web based on my own computer is better.
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Pete from Boston on March 15, 2014, 11:53:15 AM
Lately I've been having a tapatalk (iphone) glitch.  If anyone has figured it out, great, if not then it's not a big enough deal for me right now to pursue in a tapatalk forum or something.

If I go back to edit a post in tapatalk, it sometimes goes and creates a second, edited post instead, leaving the first one there.  Stranger still, when this last happened and I deleted to original post, tapatalk instead showed only the newer, edited one as being deleted.  However, on the web version everything shows as it should.

Killing and restarting tapatalk has no impact on this.

Not a big deal, just making me periodically post sloppily.  If anyone has figured out this issue it'd be nice to know how to prevent it. 

Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: Zeffy on March 15, 2014, 12:01:53 PM
Am I the only one who uses Safari on my iPhone for browsing / posting on the forum and has virtually no issues with it?
Title: Re: How to make this forum more phone friendly
Post by: sammi on March 15, 2014, 05:05:51 PM
Quote from: Zeffy on March 15, 2014, 12:01:53 PM
Am I the only one who uses Safari on my iPhone for browsing / posting on the forum and has virtually no issues with it?
Same. Except I have a Windows Phone. :P I was the one who recommended Tapatalk, but I still use the browser most of the time.