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CCE on a mobile device

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Started 6 years ago by crowriver
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crowriver
Member

I usually view CCE on a Mac computer, using Safari browser. Works fine.

Have tried using it on a smartphone (Android) using the built-in browser but, well, it sucks. Endless scrolling, zooming, to find a thread, tricky to log in, etc. CCE doesn't seem to be available via common forum app Tapatalk, unlike some other cycling forums (which shall remain nameless).

So I've pretty much given up on reading, let alone participating in discussions, via a mobile device.

However I notice many folk on here (including the site admin) post screenshots taken on a mobile phone, post links to mobile versions of twitter, etc. So presumably are using smartphones to view and post on CCE.

What gives? What am I missing here? Is there a CCE app I've not discovered? Is CCE actually available via Tapatalk or similar app and I'm just not clued in? Are you just using some newsfeed browsing app? If so which one and how do you login? Or are you really all scrolling and zooming away on your mobile browsers?

Posted 6 years ago #
jdanielp
Member

I use Chrome on my Android device. Scroll/zoom-tastic.

Posted 6 years ago #
DaveC
Member

I use Chrome also, on my Andriod Dev and simply scroll.

Posted 6 years ago #
Ed1
Member

I use internet on my phone, I have a galaxy with a large screen easy to use but does not always spell so well. On my old Iphone I found it a bit small but everything is too small on an iphone

Posted 6 years ago #
Klaxon
Member

The write post box is impossible to size properly on iOS chrome. Very poor experience.

Posted 6 years ago #
wingpig
Member

Fine on non-top-of-the-range Android/Chrome and previously on an N95. There's scrolling but that's also required on a normal computer.

Posted 6 years ago #
neddie
Member

Sounds like we need some boffins to write an app. I'd be happy to help, although I'm no app expert.

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

"Sounds like we need some boffins to write an app. "

Or just enable the site to be compatible with Tapatalk? Wheel, re-inventing, no need, etc. Apparently bbPress is supported, so not sure why CCE not available via the app?

EDIT - maybe the version of bbPress used for CCE is too old? Tapatalk for WordPress (bbPress) plugin seems to be fairly recent.

Posted 6 years ago #
DaveC
Member

You volunteering to do the 'donkey' work then crowriver?

Posted 6 years ago #
chrisfl
Member

I've just had a look around - I can find an entry for the plugin on the BB Press 1 plugin site: https://bbpress.org/plugins/legacy/

But there is no actual plugin.

When I switched over the hosting of the forum, I trialed an import of the data into Discourse which worked really nicely. (This is the software that Glasgow is using).

At the time I also had a quick play with BB Press 2 - but it felt more like a blog with a forum added on the side, although that's probably portable. (I couldn't get an import to work very well either).

Personally I find the forum unusable on mobile. But I tend to read via an rss feed and a feed reader, so only every actually use the site directly for posting.

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

I've had an iPhone (various models - none the fashionable oversize ones) since before CCE, on Safari 99% of the time.

All fine (except for needing to use reading glasses).

There is currently an iOS/Safari bug which reloads the page occasionally when you highlight something (while writing) which is REALLY annoying.

If CFl can find a variation that works better, then great.

Since he has been in charge of hosting general reliability has improved, but I'm not aware of any usability changes.

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

"You volunteering to do the 'donkey' work then crowriver?"

Nope. My days of tinkering with web servers, CMS etc. were over and done with many years ago!

Don't even run a server (hosted or otherwise) anymore. FTP, SSH, etc. just all such a PITA. If I need a public facing site it's usually WordPress for me these days, otherwise soshul meedja suffices for the rest.

Anyway only raised the issue because I noticed the anomaly cited at the top of the thread and wondered if I'd missed some "obvious" way to make CCE play nicely on mobile devices. Seems not, and it is mostly scrolling and zooming on browsers then!

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

@chrisfi, hmm, there is a Wordpress Tapatalk plugin, but the reviews are......mixed, to say the least! Also, downloaded the thing, and at the foot of the readme.txt:

"Developed and Tested on WordPress version 3.3 or higher. However it should work with older versions also."

Not *terribly* reassuring.....no mention of standalone bbPress.

So I'm assuming it's either:

a) not doable
b) doable but will break the forum - see a) above.

Posted 6 years ago #
chrisfl
Member

Yes, I don't think that there is any support for bbpress 1 in tapatalk.

I still need to chat to chdot, but I do need to see if I can get the forum working on php7. My thinking is to put the code for the site up on github, and would welcome changes if anyone wanted to make the theme more mobile friendly....

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

@chrisfi, I'm not trying to make work for anyone here BTW.

Originally wondered if I'd missed something that everyone else was using. Then wondered if there was a "quick fix". It seems not...

Posted 6 years ago #
cc
Member

fwiw I've never had a problem with CCE on iOS/Safari. When I'm on the phone I turn it sideways and zoom to read any text that would otherwise be too small.

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"I turn it sideways and zoom"

Yes, I've always found it be enough.

I was aware that in the 'early days' many mobile/smart phones had poor(ish) resolution and/or small screens.

This isn't a problem for most people these days.

I was alway glad that BBPress looked 'proper' and didn't default to a more basic mobile version.

It's disappointing that WordPress gave up developing BBP.

I considered it the best option (for easy of use and appearance) at the time and haven't seen anything with significant advantages since (not that I look very often).

I hope something will come along.

However, the key thing is content and I'm still (happily) surprised at the number of people willing to add some really great and useful words on all sorts of subjects and degrees of seriousness.

Long may it continue.

Posted 6 years ago #
cb
Member

Android used to support text reflow when browsing, which basically meant that even if you zoomed in you wouldn't have to scroll left/right to read all the text as all the paragraphs would be reflowed to fit the screen size.

This was removed in Android 4.4 but some browser versions offer their own implementations.

E.g. quick Google -
https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/3sii8q/browsers_with_proper_text_reflowwrap/

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

Even with text reflow I think the way the CCE site formats the text into columns with padding either side (html frames? Cells?) would stop the text reflow from being so useful.

My main issue is if I arrive on the main page, then want to click on the right hand column to read the latest post: after I've zoomed in on Android browser (whether my quite large screened smartphone is turned sideways or not) I have to pan sideways to click on the 'latest post' link for a given topic. Bit of a PITA, and just makes the whole thing cumbersome and slow on a mobile browser.

Maybe I need to try the newsreader app approach on CCE for mobile instead. Any recommendations for a good app for Android that works as an RSS feed reader for CCE?

Posted 6 years ago #
chrisfl
Member

crowriver - I use newsblur https://newsblur.com/

Posted 6 years ago #
acsimpson
Member

Since the demise of CCE Feed I've been using feedly (https://feedly.com/)

The free account only updates once every couple of hours but it's good enough.

Posted 6 years ago #
Baldcyclist
Member

I'd have a look at the code if it were on GitHub.

Most of my theme'ing (not a designer, don't make things pretty) is on Moodle, but a wee bit of Wordpress too.

It's a fairly simple 3 column layout, so I'd imagine (maybe aiming a shot at my foot...) it would be fairly simple give it a more mobile friendly (2 column) responsive theme where the content lands on top in a single column when on mobile.

Might be possible to even install bootstrap.

Edit: googling suggests a clean bootstrap theme already exists....

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

@Bc that sounds helpful/interesting.

Fortunately I don't understand most of it.

I bet CFl does...

Posted 6 years ago #
hunnymonster
Member

As a forum owner elsewhere, I can tell you that I (and many other forum owners) are actively moving away from using Tapatalk to provide mobile access - main reasons (there are many others):

1. The plugin often creates security vulnerabilities allowing easier hacking of the site. The fix is always to upgrade the Tapatalk plugin. Also as the clients are updated, some features break if the plugin isn't updated - always detected by the whiniest users (and conversely if the plugin is updated, there is always a background level of users who never upgrade the app and again they always seem to be the whining ones)

2. Almost every time you upgrade the plugin, it seems that Tapatalk have decided to give themselves more control over the forum's content (for example forcing adverts in, hijacking content posted to be used elsewhere) or to introduce a payment schedule for the most useful features (either to users or to the forum owner)

3. For those that paid for the app in the dim & distant past (and some of us paid multiple times - Tapatalk, Tapatalk 2, Tapatalk Tablet) adverts aren't supposed to appear as a gesture to previous support. Note "supposed".

4. Those mobile users that don't want to use Tapatalk are constantly presented with an intrusive banner "this site is available on Tapatalk" banner only dismissable by allowing Tapatalk to set a cookie on your machine... Which of course are never going to be allowed by exactly the sort of people that don't want Tapatalk interposing themselves in the first place.

The alternative: It's typically far simpler for everyone to use a responsive design to the forum so the content renders according to the screen size.

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"It's typically far simpler for everyone to use a responsive design to the forum so the content renders according to the screen size."

Are you suggesting a 2 coll version might work better on some mobiles?

Posted 6 years ago #
hunnymonster
Member

2 column? Don't think so - if there are clients struggling with one column, 2 is going to require a scanning electron microscope :)

Responsive design : dynamic reformatting depending on the size of the window in the browser (apologies if I'm in grandparent-teaching-egg-sucking mode here)

There may be something to help near here though https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/responsive-issue/

Edited to add: root cause is probably that the sidebars don't disappear in the current theme/configuration when the window width decreases.

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

I don't want to seem too iPhonist about this, but this surprised me -

"

Android used to support text reflow when browsing, which basically meant that even if you zoomed in you wouldn't have to scroll left/right to read all the text as all the paragraphs would be reflowed to fit the screen size.

This was removed in Android 4.4 but some browser versions offer their own implementations.

"

I have always believed that Apple/iOS is generally 'better' in many ways but (secretly) known that Android sometimes gets good features first.

Seems odd that it can't handle relatively simple web sites. Even more odd that it has removed some (apparently) basic functionality.

Is BBPress so 'legacy' that Android has given up on it?

Posted 6 years ago #
Baldcyclist
Member

Maybe worth explaining what 3 or 2 column responsive theme means, typically with a 3 column theme you would have the following layout depending on the device you were using...

3 column - desktop
2 column - tablet (sometimes collapses to 1)
1 column- mobile

Alternatively if you had a 2 column theme, it would be...

2 column - desktop and tablet.
1 column - mobile

The trend nowadays is to focus on content over menus, so 2 columns more prevalent.

Re how 'legacy' bbpress is, although it's perhaps not being actively developed now by Wordpress, it is open source and there seems to be an active community keeping it up to date. I don't know which version the site uses, but I would be tempted to upgrade it to the latest version (maybe the hosting already patches it automagically).

Posted 6 years ago #
cb
Member

In my experience the browsing experience (for this site) is pretty much exactly the same on Android/iOS (with Android handling the Send Post text box better).

iOS experience made a little better by using the Google keyboard of course! (Though still no quick access to the number keys...)

Posted 6 years ago #
crowriver
Member

"In my experience the browsing experience (for this site) is pretty much exactly the same on Android"

Yeah but the text is tiny so you need to zoom and pan to read it...

Posted 6 years ago #

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