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zakazn
New Member
58 Posts |
 Posted - 10 January 2011 : 11:49:05
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| I have had members ask me recently if I can create an iphone app for my forum - would be great if it was in the pipeline. |
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kyodai
New Member
Azerbaijan
74 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 07:38:19
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| Somehow missed this post, but i just saw the design mock-up by balexandre and imho it looks gorgeous. I wonder how much work it would be to put some live SQL into the mockup pages, it hink from the design and idea this already is perfect. Did noone ever approach something like this? |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5765 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 14:00:15
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I'm not sure how much that's really needed with the current generation of smart phones... I can't speak for iOS devices, but on my N1 and on my old Windows Mobile 6 phone the pages worked fine. I would think that if WM6 worked fine that WP7 would be fine too... but that may be assuming too much. 
I think Opera Mobile had some funky issues with Java Script, but that's not exactly something we can fix on this end.
Really the biggest thing is that the size of the page (MB, not formatting) isn't exactly "mobile friendly", nor is the layout as easy to manipulate as one would like (but it is workable - I've posted more than a few replies from my N1 and old WM6 phone. The latter was much better due to the physical keyboard, but that's another topic for another day.)
I won't speak for anyone else, or the dev team here, but from my perspective time would be better spent working on a page layout that worked for mobile instead of trying to build an actual app for each phone OS. With a few minor layout tweaks, removing some extraneous whitespace and vbNewLine's from the code, it could be made very mobile friendly in short order. Maybe add a sub-domain of m.whatever.com and have that point to the mobile-friendly code - using the same database - and it would be very serviceable.
Depending on how extensive the renovations wanted, it could take someone with the right amount of free time a few weeks to a couple of months to get it done and tested. I've had the idea for a while, but as I mentioned in another thread, I've been more than a little busy at work here lately. "Do more with less" and all. |
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bobby131313
Senior Member
USA
1163 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 14:17:35
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| My worry is, how do I prevent people from using the stripped down version on a subdomain when they're not on a phone? |
Switch the order of your title tags |
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kyodai
New Member
Azerbaijan
74 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 16:55:38
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quote:
Originally posted by bobby131313
My worry is, how do I prevent people from using the stripped down version on a subdomain when they're not on a phone?
I guess you can't prevent that 100% if someones forcing it. I'd prolly make a spider exception so google and co won't index these. Make the subdomain something unique like "mobile.mypage.com" while the normal one is "www.mypage.com". You could also add a browser check, but i guess you just can't check for all obscure browsers existing, but redirect opera, chrome, IE, firefox and safari to the main page. Totally oldschool.
I must admit i don't even have an iphone, but as my site is a commercial one i tend to rather not ignore mainstream trends and iPhone definitely is still like the trend #1. From a commercial point of view iPhone users are extremely welcome as someone dumping a grand into such a toy obviously also has the 4.95 for our premium subscription. Yea of course it would be cool to also offer something that works for (sigh: "nearly") all other pda phones as well, but from a business view iPhone is simply priority #1. Don't get my wrong - as i said i dont have one and i don't even really want one (I'm the last person alive who does NOT use a cell phone asides from work) but it's from a business point of view. And i guess the iphone version would work as well for all cell phones with a similar screen res.
Anyways, unfortunately i am no good at this. I know quite some stuff already about SQL queries and such, backend stuff - but I'm no good when it comes to stuff like page design. Any small step in that direction would however be very welcomed.  |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5765 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 20:03:04
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quote:
Originally posted by bobby131313
My worry is, how do I prevent people from using the stripped down version on a subdomain when they're not on a phone?
You could try to do some browser sniffing to redirect them to the appropriate site, but as easy as it is to counter most browser sniffing techniques I'm not sure its worth the effort.
Many of the commercial sites I visit have no problems with me using the mobile site on a desktop browser, which makes me wonder if it is a concern worth being concerned about. Without more details I couldn't say in this particular case.
I do have to say that I like using the mobile version of sites when I'm on my netbook (like I am now) since the smaller screen makes it a bugger to work with some pages. |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5765 Posts |
Posted - 03 March 2011 : 20:08:57
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kyodai, I can see your point about the iPhone's current prominence. However, Android is rapidly catching up and Windows Phone 7 is shaping up to get Microsoft back in the game they once dominated.
One option is to develop an app using 4 different tools/APIs and deploying it on the 4 major platforms (iOS, Android, WP7, BlackBerry). For a certain class of content that makes sense.
But for a site that is predominantly web-based, unless it also has a local component I have a hard time justifying the cost/time of app development with the cost/time of developing an awesome mobile web experience.
Again, the particulars of the case do factor in to the decision. I would hazard a guess though that a Snitz-based product would provide a better cost/benefit ratio with the mobile website option. |
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kyodai
New Member
Azerbaijan
74 Posts |
Posted - 04 March 2011 : 19:04:14
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Hmmm, an app? Didn't think about that...Dunno, what should that app be doing? Just adjusting the fonts in the default browser and cutting out unnecessary banners?
Anyways i still like the idea of a "mobile" snitz. What balexandre posted was just a mock-up but if it was actual asp i would instantly upload it to my site and bet the users would love it. |
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s80ts0465
Junior Member
Italy
290 Posts |
Posted - 26 August 2012 : 06:59:21
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I'm interested in it. Is it possible to have the source code for developing?
Bye |
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iPhone version of Snitz
