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A NeoGAF iPhone Web App

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Update:

Version 1.71 is now live. Thanks for the feedback guys. I've made some changes fit with your input.

NEW FEATURE
  • Show last post date and user setting. Toggling this new setting will show or hide information about the last post made in a thread on the "View Forum" screen. It's off by default.

CHANGES
  • Reverted back to only showing number "Pages and Repiles" by default. Users can use the new setting to show more.
  • Greatly reduced the frequencly of the time separators. Now they go by "Today, Yesterday, Two day ago, etc."
 
ckohler said:
The sliders are fake. You don't actually slide them. You just tap them like an icon to change them. Try it and let me know. If they don't work, then it's probably some issue with Javascript not working for you for some reason.
Unfortunately I don't have a touch screen phone.. I know the app is designed with those in mind, but if you can come up with an alternate option for non-touch users that would be amazing. It's still very usable, but I'd love to turn off avatars, etc.
 
Marty Chinn said:
Ya, but that's always been sort of a clunky way of doing it. Sure it's functional, but it would be nicer if it was all within the same interface and stuff, so I can see the want for it to be an actual app.
I could ask for your login credentials right now and have in web app posting but I'm making a choice not to. Why? Because it raises a huge red flag if my site starts recording your user credentials. Hell, I could be totally honest and only ever store your username/password in a cookie but at the end of the day there isn't any way the mods could be certain I'm not really harvesting theirs and everyone else's password. Thus, I don't even want to go down that road. As it is, there is absolutely no security issues so there's no risk to anyone.

Secondly, there really isn't much a true iPhone App could do that the web app can't do aside from a few minor improvement to the UI.

Thirdly, I don't know squat about programming in Objective C.

And finally, Fourthly, the idea of having this on the iTunes app store scares the shit out of me. As it is, there are probably only around a few hundred people using this (I don't really know). If it went up on the App store, that number could skyrocket into the tens of thousands easily. A far cry from what I'm supporting now.
 
ckohler said:
Update:

Version 1.71 is now live. Thanks for the feedback guys. I've made some changes fit with your input.

NEW FEATURE
  • Show last post date and user setting. Toggling this new setting will show or hide information about the last post made in a thread on the "View Forum" screen. It's off by default.

CHANGES
  • Reverted back to only showing number "Pages and Repiles" by default. Users can use the new setting to show more.
  • Greatly reduced the frequencly of the time separators. Now they go by "Today, Yesterday, Two day ago, etc."

Awesome! Thanks so much for listening. This works perfect for me.

If you're worried about spacing on the last post line, you could simply remove the last post text probably. I think most people would realize what it is but I love the change.
 
Meier said:
Unfortunately I don't have a touch screen phone.. I know the app is designed with those in mind, but if you can come up with an alternate option for non-touch users that would be amazing. It's still very usable, but I'd love to turn off avatars, etc.
They're just clickable icons like any other web site has. No different than clicking on the buttons at the top of every screen. Just use whatever navigation method you use now to highlight the sliders and select them like you would a link. If your mobile browser can't click a simple image, I can't really help you.
 
ckohler said:
I could ask for your login credentials right now and have in web app posting but I'm making a choice not to. Why? Because it raises a huge red flag if my site starts recording your user credentials. Hell, I could be totally honest and only ever store your username/password in a cookie but at the end of the day there isn't any way the mods could be certain I'm not really harvesting theirs and everyone else's password. Thus, I don't even want to go down that road. As it is, there is absolutely no security issues so there's no risk to anyone.

Oh don't get me wrong, I totally understand why you don't do it. I was just merely pointing out why someone might want an app so that it could be allowed. I'm perfectly fine with the given solution.

Secondly, there really isn't much a true App could do that the web app can do aside from a minor minor improvement to the UI.

Oh wait am I mistaken? I assumed you could do the replying through a true app because instead of going to a website which handles everything, the code woul be within the true app which would then parse the real Neo GAF, thus making replying a possibility.

Thirdly, I don't know squat about programming in Objective C.

I've been meddling with it, and have learned I could simply do most of it in C++ but I too had concern about your fourth point....

And finally, Fourthly, the idea of having this on the iTunes app store scares the shit out of me. As it is, there are probably only around a few hundred people of this (I don't really know). If it went up on the App store, that number could skyrocket into the tens of thousands easily. A far cry from what I'm supporting now.

And I wouldn't want this being broadcasted all over the iTunes app store either which is why I've not gone down the path of trying to create a real NeoGAF app at this point.

Great stuff. I think we've had a bit of miscommunication between us the last few posts but I think we pretty much are on the same level and see eye to eye about things.
 
Ah, you changed it back? Awesome, it looks a lot better this way. Thanks, dude.
 
ckohler said:
They're just clickable icons like any other web site has. No different than clicking on the buttons at the top of every screen. Just use whatever navigation method you use now to highlight the sliders and select them like you would a link. If your mobile browser can't click a simple image, I can't really help you.
Weird, for whatever reason they don't work with Windows Mobile's browser. Here is how it looks on my Moto Q... the only two selectable items on the Settings page are 'Done' and the Change Time Zone feature.

25q96yg.jpg


I always browse without images on to speed up browsing as is, so it's not a big deal like I said but having the settings would have been nice. For whatever reason, if I try and change time zones, it doesn't work either but that's even more minor.
 
yey!! its converted back, I wasn't digging the new dividers etc either tho I tried.


This is my most used thing on my iPhone :)

Any stats of how often the web app is used? for curiosity's sake
 
I think sprsk mentioned it a while back but DSi Browser support would be cool especially since the thing is so damn slow.

The user agent is:

Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/446; U; ja)

That's for a Japanese DSi, the english equivolent probably uses "en" instead of "ja."
 
Update:

Version 1.8 is now live and includes a long requested feature!

NEW FEATURES
  • Threads Now Marked As Read - This one was tricky but now whenever you view a thread's last page, that thread will be listed as having been read (in grey) until it is updated again with new replies. This data is stored as a cookie and only reflects your reading on your mobile device. Also, this will only track the 200 most recent threads you view but I'm betting that should be enough for regular use.
  • Nintendo DSi Support - The web app should now work in the Nintendo DSi web browser. However, I don't actually have a DSi to test this on so let me know if it doesn't.

BUG FIXES
  • Redesigned the settings screen to hopefully make it more compatible with non-touch browsers (Windows Mobile). I couldn't test this, either, though.
 
I don't know how you enabled searching since the app can't log you into ezboard. But it's freaking awesome! I found this now days old thread easily with search!

Keep up the awesome work.
 
ckohler said:
Threads Now Marked As Read - This one was tricky but now whenever you view a thread's last page, that thread will be listed as having been read (in grey) until it is updated again with new replies. This data is stored as a cookie and only reflects your reading on your mobile device. Also, this will only track the 200 most recent threads you view but I'm betting that should be enough for regular use.

Good stuff!

If anyone else is having trouble getting this to work, I couldn't get this feature working until deleting my Cookies/History/Cache in Safari preferences (Settings > Safari on the iPhone) - you probably don't have to do all that but it fixed it for me.
 
Hi GAF!

You might remember that I started out by creating a NeoGAF web app, but I ended up stopping development on it, because I frankly picked a poor architecture for it and MobileSafari itself presented the biggest annoyances I wanted to avoid in a GAF app.

So I set out to create a full-blown "real" iPhone app for accessing GAF (like Chris's, just viewing for now). Unfortunately, thanks to your objectionable content, Apple has rejected it for now.

What I'm looking for now are willing beta testers to install the application to their iPod/iPhone and contribute to the project by reporting bugs and feature requests. I've set up a MobileGAF Google Group with a README about the current state of the app. If you're interested in testing:

1.) Join the MobileGAF Google Group
2.) Send me a PM with your device's UUID

Oh, and a thread to track the rejection (and someday approval?) of the app, is here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15810374#post15810374
 
Would there be some way for you to read the cookie the normal GAF website places? That way we'd log in in the normal GAF website, thus no security issue.
 
WAT
I thought you said you'd never do that?

That looks amazing!
 
Gratz. I'm wrapping up an update to mine as well. I won't be adding any fancy :lol buttons though, so you'll continue to be a few steps ahead :)
 
ckohler said:
Here's a sneak peek at version 2.0

I am doing some final testing before I make this available.

Nice. I haven't been to the real GAF on my ipod since I first discovered your site a good while bakc
 
Update:

Version 2.0 is now live. So, this is the one you've all be wanting. You can now log in with your account giving you access to more features. I know I said for a long time that I didn't want to offer this but there were two things that changed my mind.

First, I was able to write the web app so that that your password was protected from my eyes. It gets encrypted BEFORE it reaches my server (thanks for the help, Juice!). I further only ever store your credentials as a cookie (not on my server) AND I encrypt that cookie further. Thus, it's pretty damn safe and even *I* can't know your credentials, which is what I wanted.

Second, when I thought about it, this isn't much different than many other proxy services where you provide your credentials, like web based online IM apps for example. Lastly, logging in is completely optional so if you don't trust me, don't. I've provided a privacy policy also so I think I've covered all the bases. So, here's what's new:

New Features:
  • In App Thread Posting, Replying, and Quoting
  • Access to Online / Matchup Forum
  • Read PMs
  • Highlighting of your threads and posts

Bug Fixes:
  • Correctly displays post information when user has no tag
  • Corrected several invalid HTML parsing errors (bad GAF, bad!)
  • Adjusted font sizes and spacing to reduce scrolling slightly
  • Adjusted spacing of blockquotes and list items to improve reading
  • Switched to HTML transitional for better cross-browser support

I've actually been testing this for over a week, making threads and posting replies however, since it's only been me so far, expect there to be some glitches. If you come across any, please let me know.
 
Wow awesome! Never thought I'd see the day but this is great!

Just in time for E3 too! Now instead of playing unreleased games on the show floor, I can argue against people making claims about games from E3 that they haven't even touched!

:D
 
So awesome. Logged on with all of my account and it worked. :P

Edit: The only thing missing is edits. Unless I'm missing something.
 
ckohler said:
Update:

Version 2.0 is now live. So, this is the one you've all be wanting. You can now log in with your account giving you access to more features. I know I said for a long time that I didn't want to offer this but there were two things that changed my mind.

First, I was able to write the web app so that that your password was protected from my eyes. It gets encrypted BEFORE it reaches my server (thanks for the help, Juice!). I further only ever store your credentials as a cookie (not on my server) AND I encrypt that cookie further. Thus, it's pretty damn safe and even *I* can't know your credentials, which is what I wanted.

Second, when I thought about it, this isn't much different than many other proxy services where you provide your credentials, like web based online IM apps for example. Lastly, logging in is completely optional so if you don't trust me, don't. I've provided a privacy policy also so I think I've covered all the bases. So, here's what's new:

New Features:
  • In App Thread Posting, Replying, and Quoting
  • Access to Online / Matchup Forum
  • Read PMs
  • Highlighting of your threads and posts

Bug Fixes:
  • Correctly displays post information when user has no tag
  • Corrected several invalid HTML parsing errors (bad GAF, bad!)
  • Adjusted font sizes and spacing to reduce scrolling slightly
  • Adjusted spacing of blockquotes and list items to improve reading
  • Switched to HTML transitional for better cross-browser support

I've actually been testing this for over a week, making threads and posting replies however, since it's only been me so far, expect there to be some glitches. If you come across any, please let me know.
*wow* *bows*
 
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