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A NeoGAF iPhone Web App

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Love this app ckohler as always, I've been doing a bit of iPhone web app stuff lately and learned something valuable you might want to consider adding to this app. (sorry if you already knew)

If you add

<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes"/> to the head of the site then when people run it from their home screens they'll see it without any of the safari navigation elements on iPhone and iPad. You'd get a lot more real estate to play with.
 
I normally surf gaf while not logged in, but today I needed to let the Internet know my displeasure with something. When I logged back out, however, things got really wonky with this web app. For example, at the main menu, it says there are 0 people viewing the Gaming Forum and that the OT is closed.



And if I try to view either of the forums, absolutely no threads show up



I don't know if these pictures will show up. I took a screencap with my phone, but I don't know if I need to manually upload them anywhere. (EDIT: Agh, guess I do. Oh well, just try to use your imagination, I guess)

This only happens when I'm not logged in, and it just started happened a few hours ago. Everything seems to be normal if I'm logged onto my account. If this a problem on my end?I've tried clearing the cookies and cache on my iPhone, but that hasn't worked.
 
I'm having some real issues with the webapp on a Palm Pre. Like here:

yZVDy.png


The page appears to not fully load. I'll scroll down to no avail. But if I rotate the phone to landscape and then back to portrait the page will be fine. Sometimes I load my subscriptions page (or even the offtopic page) and it's clearly outdated. I then have to manually refresh the page. Could you check it out somehow ckohler? :?
 
Charred Greyface said:
I'm having some real issues with the webapp on a Palm Pre. Like here:

yZVDy.png


The page appears to not fully load. I'll scroll down to no avail. But if I rotate the phone to landscape and then back to portrait the page will be fine. Sometimes I load my subscriptions page (or even the offtopic page) and it's clearly outdated. I then have to manually refresh the page. Could you check it out somehow ckohler? :?
Click to expand...
I saw that on my Pre when I was still using it. I saw it on other websites too so I always chocked it up to a glitch on the Pre web browser.
 
Is there any change of having the user display to the left of his/her post instead of top (like in the PC browser version), for the iPad version? Or it might be a bit too much of a hassle?
 
teiresias said:
I saw that on my Pre when I was still using it. I saw it on other websites too so I always chocked it up to a glitch on the Pre web browser.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks, I haven't encountered it elsewhere but then most of my browsing time is spent on Gaf.
 
Ghost said:
If you add <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes"/< to the head of the site then when people run it from their home screens they'll see it without any of the safari navigation elements on iPhone and iPad. You'd get a lot more real estate to play with.
Click to expand...
I'm aware of that but it's not that simple. That only works with single page webapps where every request is javascript based.

Jack Scofield said:
I normally surf gaf while not logged in, but today I needed to let the Internet know my displeasure with something. When I logged back out, however, things got really wonky with this web app. For example, at the main menu, it says there are 0 people viewing the Gaming Forum and that the OT is closed.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I've made a change that should fix this. It seems GAF is now delivering gzip'ed pages unless you are logged in.
 
Hey, im tryin to use the webapp on my Nokia 5800 with Opera Mini.

But i get this:

ecb94f71.jpg


Works on the default nokia browser , but i prefer Opera.

Dont know if its been answered before, its a pretty long thread
 
How is Opera on the Nokia? It's f*cking terrible on the iPhone4. It's choppy, ugly (not updated for higher resolution screen), and doesn't even support proper multi-touch zoom (it's either all the way out or way zoomed in). Mobile Safari is 100x better than Opera for iOS.
 
Andrex said:
UA sniffing is just bad.
Click to expand...

It isn't in this context. Ua sniffing is bad when you are attempting to segregate users by Functionalit because it isn't guaranteed that a given UA check will be logically equivalent to a given set of capabilities.

In this case, ckohler wants to explicitly check for "user is a phone", which is not a functionality test unti, mobile browsers implement a mobile flag. UA check is eminently appropriate here.
 
Stumpokapow said:
It isn't in this context. Ua sniffing is bad when you are attempting to segregate users by Functionalit because it isn't guaranteed that a given UA check will be logically equivalent to a given set of capabilities.

In this case, ckohler wants to explicitly check for "user is a phone", which is not a functionality test unti, mobile browsers implement a mobile flag. UA check is eminently appropriate here.
Click to expand...

But it's an inherently inaccurate solution for something that's not even a "problem." And if someone wants to browse the mobile site on the computer that should be their choice, and something that should be forbidden in the Terms of Service instead.
 
DoctorWho said:
Webapp keeps kicking me into regular GAF after I pick a forum.

FYI. On iPad. Not on iPhone.
Click to expand...
Came to post this. Changed user-agent to iPhone through iCab and it didn't redirect me to big NeoGAF. Seems like it would be an easy fix.

Edit, also you don't get get enough credit for all the work you've done on the web app. It's absolutely perfect. Only way I browse GAF on either if my iDevices.
 
Odious Tea said:
Came to post this. Changed user-agent to iPhone through iCab and it didn't redirect me to big NeoGAF. Seems like it would be an easy fix.

Edit, also you don't get get enough credit for all the work you've done on the web app. It's absolutely perfect. Only way I browse GAF on either if my iDevices.
Click to expand...

iCab?
 
Andrex said:
But it's an inherently inaccurate solution for something that's not even a "problem." And if someone wants to browse the mobile site on the computer that should be their choice, and something that should be forbidden in the Terms of Service instead.
Click to expand...

Except that

1) ckohler isn't offering a mirror of GAF for everyone to browse, he's offering a cleaner web interface for people using mobile browsers, so it makes sense to filter by mobile user agent.

2) I doubt he wants the extra bandwidth or CPU usage on his web host, since he's previously had some issues with his host complaining about CPU usage.

I also can't speak for Evilore and I'm not speaking as a red user here, but as a regular user NOTANOFFICIALPOSITION, but an alternate web interface sans-ads is probably not a good thing for GAF. I suspect EL probably asked ckohler to filter by mobile browsers or at least I suspect he'd prefer it, because while it's pretty easy to justify why people on mobile browsers don't need to see the ads, it's pretty hard to justify why people on desktops ought to be able to skip out.

Moreover, the impact of not allowing a given user agent not to use the mobile app is zero. They can still use the full version of GAF. They're not being denied access to content, they're being denied access to one particular presentation of that content, which is consistent with the aims of a flexible, mashupable web.
 
I just know of lots of instances where UA sniffing made sense initially but as it requires constant tweaking, updating, and feedback, if the dev falls asleep on the job for even a little bit, the users suffer. It makes maintaining the app much harder than it has to be.

If Mobile GAF ever stops being developed I truly hope ckohler disables UA sniffing, or else it'd be disastrous.

I'm also surprised the mobile site doesn't have ads and a revenue-sharing agreement with Evilore. Perhaps one of the reasons the mobile site is popular is because it's unencumbered by ads.
 
All that is fine and dandy if the regular site was as useful as the app is on the iPad. The app:

-Allows for easy access to spoilers (outside of quoting someone I'm not sure if there is a simple way of doing this.
-Allows one to easily refresh the currently open thread with the newest posts.

There's probably a couple more things I could think of but I'm currently stuck in class, bouncing between Pages and this post for the last 10 minutes.
 
Andrex said:
If Mobile GAF ever stops being developed I truly hope ckohler disables UA sniffing, or else it'd be disastrous.

I'm also surprised the mobile site doesn't have ads and a revenue-sharing agreement with Evilore. Perhaps one of the reasons the mobile site is popular is because it's unencumbered by ads.
Click to expand...

The mobile site is popular because it is better on mobile devices. It's better because it has a touch interface where instead of touching a tiny font to read a topic you only have to touch an 'area'. It's better. Not because it doesn't have ads, but because it's specifically developed for touch, whereas the vBulletin interface is developed specifically for a mouse.

And lets not be silly here, we are not talking about 'Mobile GAF', it's a very lovely piece of code made by a user, and has no official endorsement. If ckohler decides to take his site down, tough shit for us.
 
Burger said:
The mobile site is popular because it is better on mobile devices. It's better because it has a touch interface where instead of touching a tiny font to read a topic you only have to touch an 'area'. It's better. Not because it doesn't have ads, but because it's specifically developed for touch, whereas the vBulletin interface is developed specifically for a mouse.

And lets not be silly here, we are not talking about 'Mobile GAF', it's a very lovely piece of code made by a user, and has no official endorsement. If ckohler decides to take his site down, tough shit for us.
Click to expand...

I know all that. I just think the relationship between the two should perhaps be more official. If you're going to do UA sniffing, make Neogaf.com redirect to the mobile app, and stuff like that.

And this is kind of a knock against GAF's normal design, but having "areas" for touch is just better UX in general, even for mice. The forum's individual cells should be clickable, not just the links, but I digress...
 
ckohler said:
I switched iPad support back on (turned off by accident) however I've long thought iPad support is questionable.
Click to expand...
Believe it or not I actually use the full GAF site more often with the iPhone 4 than I do with the iPad. :lol

I can't fathom why Evilore isn't making a mobile site. Heck, even a mobile app. Seems like he's leaving money on the table *shrug*
 
ckohler said:
I switched iPad support back on (turned off by accident) however I've long thought iPad support is questionable.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I find the integrated YouTube support, spoiler support and general ease of use with a touch interface to be the reason I use the web app on my iPad.

Also, would there be no way to integrate gaf ads into the webapp? Everybody wins.
 
Love this app, and this may seem like a weird idea/request but...

Is it possible to have an option so forum posts are inverted with black backgrounds and white text (but the grey with usernames and avatars stays the same)? I've got an Incredible and OLED screens are much more efficient when black is being displayed so I figured with all the time spent using the app on OLED phones, it would save some battery life in the end. Granted, I don't know how much battery life this would save in effect, but if it isn't that hard to implement I think it would be a good option for those of us with an N1/Incredible/Desire/Galaxy S.
 
Andrex said:
I know all that. I just think the relationship between the two should perhaps be more official. If you're going to do UA sniffing, make Neogaf.com redirect to the mobile app, and stuff like that.

And this is kind of a knock against GAF's normal design, but having "areas" for touch is just better UX in general, even for mice. The forum's individual cells should be clickable, not just the links, but I digress...
Click to expand...

I agree. But unfortunately this isn't a democracy :)

In terms of design and technology, neogaf.com is pretty stagnant. Ckohlers app for example has previews of YouTube videos whenever a url is detected (although this may be a feature of mobil safari, and not the app itself). Scraping data to provide a better experience is a fantastic idea, and ckohler has done an amazing job.

Neogaf.com could be pretty awesome with HTML5, Ajax etc integration, and employ some pretty awesome features. But website development ain't free. We might be stuck in 1999 for a while yet.
 
Burger said:
I agree. But unfortunately this isn't a democracy :)

In terms of design and technology, neogaf.com is pretty stagnant. Ckohlers app for example has previews of YouTube videos whenever a url is detected (although this may be a feature of mobil safari, and not the app itself). Scraping data to provide a better experience is a fantastic idea, and ckohler has done an amazing job.

Neogaf.com could be pretty awesome with HTML5, Ajax etc integration, and employ some pretty awesome features. But website development ain't free. We might be stuck in 1999 for a while yet.
Click to expand...

I don't think things should go that far, necessarily. Although, AJAX loading would cut down on server load (as would quick reply, drastically so, but EvilLore doesn't like it so...) But AJAX is usually messy unless it's done right. I just think sites in general should look at their most-used features and build the design around those.

I'm half a step away from pulling a shidoshi and pointing at my own sites, but thankfully I know better. All that said, I do think the most recent redesign is a much, much more functional and aeshetically-pleasing upgrade over the older design.
 
XMonkey said:
Love this app, and this may seem like a weird idea/request but...

Is it possible to have an option so forum posts are inverted with black backgrounds and white text (but the grey with usernames and avatars stays the same)? I've got an Incredible and OLED screens are much more efficient when black is being displayed so I figured with all the time spent using the app on OLED phones, it would save some battery life in the end. Granted, I don't know how much battery life this would save in effect, but if it isn't that hard to implement I think it would be a good option for those of us with an N1/Incredible/Desire/Galaxy S.
Click to expand...
Interesting... I think it'd look odd, very unlike regular GAF, but maybe the power savings would be worth it. Do none of the browsers built for Android support a Greasemonkey type utility? You could make the style sheet and apply it

9AUNml.jpg


fuck that antenna
 
On the issue of ads, just to be clear, there are several reasons why the ads aren't in the webapp. For one, the main site's AdSense format doesn't really fit mobile browsers (it sometimes uses Flash, the size is large, hogs bandwidth, etc.) Secondly, even if I did just embed them, they wouldn't work because the webapp is on a different domain. That's why I have the browser check; to keep desktop users supporting GAF by sending them their where the ads are displayed.

Evilore has never contacted me about this in the two years since I made it public, so I I'm assuming he doesn't mind. It's not like he doesn't know how to reach me. :) If it did bother him, I would want to know. The only reason I built the webapp in the first place is because I like this forum enough to do so and I knew there was a need. If I wanted to exploit NeoGAF somehow I could have embedded my own ads or sought compensation, but I haven't. That should say something about my integrity.
 
ckohler said:
On the issue of ads, just to be clear, there are several reasons why the ads aren't in the webapp. For one, the main site's AdSense format doesn't really fit mobile browsers (it sometimes uses Flash, the size is large, hogs bandwidth, etc.) Secondly, even if I did just embed them, they wouldn't work because the webapp is on a different domain. That's why I have the browser check; to keep desktop users supporting GAF by sending them their where the ads are displayed.

Evilore has never contacted me about this in the two years since I made it public, so I I'm assuming he doesn't mind. It's not like he doesn't know how to reach me. :) If it did bother him, I would want to know. The only reason I built the webapp in the first place is because I like this forum enough to do so and I knew there was a need. If I wanted to exploit NeoGAF somehow I could have embedded my own ads or sought compensation, but I haven't. That should say something about my integrity.
Click to expand...
Again. You've done a fantastic job.
 
ckohler said:
On the issue of ads, just to be clear, there are several reasons why the ads aren't in the webapp. For one, the main site's AdSense format doesn't really fit mobile browsers (it sometimes uses Flash, the size is large, hogs bandwidth, etc.) Secondly, even if I did just embed them, they wouldn't work because the webapp is on a different domain. That's why I have the browser check; to keep desktop users supporting GAF by sending them their where the ads are displayed.

Evilore has never contacted me about this in the two years since I made it public, so I I'm assuming he doesn't mind. It's not like he doesn't know how to reach me. :) If it did bother him, I would want to know. The only reason I built the webapp in the first place is because I like this forum enough to do so and I knew there was a need. If I wanted to exploit NeoGAF somehow I could have embedded my own ads or sought compensation, but I haven't. That should say something about my integrity.
Click to expand...

Of course, not having your own ads is definitely the appropriate thing to do.

Then again, I'm of the mind dedicated mobile sites somewhat hurt the web. Websites should be designed in a way that makes mobile browsing easy from the start, and browsing-capable mobile devices should be equipped with browsers that can easily digest the "real web," as I believe Jobs himself put it.
 
If mobile gaf usage continues to increase in the future to the point where Evilore feels it is strongly impacting ad revenue, I would hope it would be possible to institute mobile friendly ads, either from Admob or a place like The Deck to keep the mobile interface around and not hurt Gaf's bottom line.

heck, the reason why we all use it is because we're so invested in this place that we want to browse it while we're away from our main computers.
 
Charred Greyface said:
Interesting... I think it'd look odd, very unlike regular GAF, but maybe the power savings would be worth it. Do none of the browsers built for Android support a Greasemonkey type utility? You could make the style sheet and apply it

http://i.imgur.com/9AUNml.jpg
Click to expand...
I don't know if the browsers are extendable like that, but I'd really only want it for the text in the posts, so the grey gradient can stay. I don't think it would look too bad that way (and it's less work to change I would think).
 
Odious Tea said:
Whatever the politics, thanks for reenabling iPad support. It's so much easier to use than desktop GAF.
Click to expand...
I can't echo this sentiment enough. Being a touchscreen interface with a relatively limited resolution, the iPad benefits greatly from the webapp; arguably even mores than the iPhone does. It really makes NeoGAF feel like an iPad-native experience. :-)
 
Crazymoogle said:
I can't echo this sentiment enough. Being a touchscreen interface with a relatively limited resolution, the iPad benefits greatly from the webapp; arguably even mores than the iPhone does. It really makes NeoGAF feel like an iPad-native experience. :-)
Click to expand...


I totally agree.
 
Not sure if this was intentional, but as of Monday (I think? Could have been over the weekend as well) the web app no longer works on my Nokia N900. Drops me back to the mother-GAF as if I'm browsing from the desktop.

Browser identifies itself as a version of Mozilla (because it is...), so that might have something to do with it.
 
ckohler said:
I switched iPad support back on (turned off by accident) however I've long thought iPad support is questionable.
Click to expand...
Thank God, I switched to this version on the iPad a while ago.

Page Refresh & Spoiler issues on the normal site made it unbearable.
 
Elfforkusu said:
Not sure if this was intentional, but as of Monday (I think? Could have been over the weekend as well) the web app no longer works on my Nokia N900. Drops me back to the mother-GAF as if I'm browsing from the desktop.

Browser identifies itself as a version of Mozilla (because it is...), so that might have something to do with it.
Click to expand...

Same here, after selecting a forum it spits me back to regular GAF. It's been doing it to me for about a couple of weeks on my Palm. Is the "app" no longer working for anyone? Or do I need to do something... special to make to it work?

I'd really hate to lose this, it's by far my most favorite thing on my cell phone and worth that extra $10 a month I spend on internet for me my phone.
 
Adam Prime said:
Same here, after selecting a forum it spits me back to regular GAF. It's been doing it to me for about a couple of weeks on my Palm. Is the "app" no longer working for anyone? Or do I need to do something... special to make to it work?

I'd really hate to lose this, it's by far my most favorite thing on my cell phone and worth that extra $10 a month I spend on internet for me my phone.
Click to expand...

It's working perfectly on my N1.
 
hmm... any reason why it could not be working on some phones? It worked for a little while, and then recently it spits me out to the normal page. I didn't mess with any settings.
 
Adam Prime said:
hmm... any reason why it could not be working on some phones? It worked for a little while, and then recently it spits me out to the normal page. I didn't mess with any settings.
Click to expand...
Did a bit of reverse engineering... when I change the user agent string on my phone's web browser to have "Mobile" in its name, the web app is happy with that and "lets me in", so to speak. Otherwise it kicks me back to neogaf.com.

FWIW, the normal user agent string for my N900 is of the form "Firefox 3.5 Maemo Browser blah blah N900". What I did to make it work was append "Mobile" to the end.

www.useragentstring.com on your phone if you want to see what yours is claiming, Adam Prime.
 
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