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Mobile version of the forum

Started by bharat, November 23, 2017, 11:42:04 AM

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bharat

Many of our forum members access forum from the mobile phones, so they were asking if it is possible to have a mobile version as it is not easy to use it from the phone.

shawnb61

A question worth asking is born in experience & driven by necessity. - Fripp

drewactual

if you are proficient with CSS, it's not hard at all to write up a good responsive theme... i'm happy with mine, and it took only a few minutes to outline- a lot longer to fine tune- but it was/is responsive in a matter of minutes.

bharat

Unfortunately I am not proficient with CSS that's why I won't be able to do it myself. I would really appreciate any suggestions how to do it.

shawnb61

Then use the mod or one of the themes listed above!
A question worth asking is born in experience & driven by necessity. - Fripp

Steve

DO NOT pm me for support!

bharat

How does it work? Will mobile using members see some different theme?

bharat

Quote from: Steve on November 23, 2017, 02:13:29 PMThis one works well for my mobile-using members: https://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2801

When I tried to install this one, I got a message: Package upload failed due to the following error:
"Although the package was downloaded to the server it appears to be empty. Please check the Packages directory, and the "temp" sub-directory are both writable. If you continue to experience this problem you should try extracting the package on your PC and uploading the extracted files into a subdirectory in your Packages directory and try again. For example, if the package was called shout.tar.gz you should:
1) Download the package to your local PC and extract it into files.
2) Using an FTP client create a new directory in your "Packages" folder, in this example you may call it "shout".
3) Upload all the files from the extracted package to this directory.
4) Go back to the package manager browse page and the package will be automatically found by SMF."

br360


bharat

Quote from: shawnb61 on November 23, 2017, 12:50:01 PMI use the SMF "Responsive Curve" theme:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4040

I tried to install this one and it seems that it works for mobile users. I think these themes are similar or there are differences?

br360

The responsive curve mod does make your forum responsive. You won't notice any difference when viewing your site from a computer; but you will see the difference when viewing from a phone or tablet.


bharat

Is there a difference between https://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2801 mod and this theme: https://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=2801? Does everything look the same on the mobile or the theme is more comfortable to use?

br360

Those are the same themes. (they are themes though and not mods) Take a look at the two images on that link. The first image on top is how the theme will look when viewing from a computer. Scroll down to the other image and you can see what the theme will look like when viewing from a phone


bharat

Is it also possible that members who use mobile phone can switch to the same look as it is visible on the computer?

shawnb61

It depends what you mean by the "same look as visible on the computer".  The point of "responsive" themes is that the layout changes to match the size of the screen. 

I would suggest downloading a few and trying them out!
A question worth asking is born in experience & driven by necessity. - Fripp

br360

Quote from: bharat on November 23, 2017, 03:38:41 PM
Oh sorry, I mean this one: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4040

That one is the mod, yes. They are similar in that both the theme and this mod will make the site responsive when viewing from a phone or tablet. The mod makes the default curve responsive. That other theme is a completely different look (colors etc.) and it's like adding a brand new theme that will look like the images linked in that theme- but will make your forum responsive as well

QuoteIs it also possible that members who use mobile phone can switch to the same look as it is visible on the computer

The whole point of responsiveness is so that people viewing on their phones, have a decent experience where everything scales properly to fit- so text and images, etc. look good- as opposed to having to squint to see tiny text or to continually have to zoom in on pages- which is what viewers would see without a responsive theme or that mod.

If you want to be able to give your members a choice, my recommendation to you would be to have the default theme you are using. Install a responsive theme as well and let your members know that there is a new theme installed that members who use their phones can now use so they can have a better viewing experience.

Make sure members have the ability to choose the theme they want to use in their profiles so they can change it to their preference

drewactual

whether you use viewpoint, .js, or user input/selection to do it- with the volume of visitors who see your page on a phone or tablet, it's almost an absolute must... if you care about search rankings at all you're best interest is being mobile friendly. 

you can scoot over to google and check out their AMP driven stuff...

but here is the thing:  you DON'T want multiple versions of the same site IF you are trying to climb the ranking ladder... they'll discredit your site for that.  this would be something like facebook does with a subdomain m.facebook as opposed to facebook.. they can get by with that because, well, they're facebook.. 99.9% of us can't.  and... we don't have to... just add a few lines to your CSS(s) to manage it, and you're site won't be spread over separate domains, require script that some mobile browsers will be able to parse and other won't (hampering visitors experience), or any other weird stuff, and all on the same sight/domain (no sub domains)... SEO won't penalize you at all, and you'll get good 'mobile' ratings.

just use the @media screen and (max-width: XXXpx) and (min-width: XXXpx) { declaration in your main stylesheet to handle your 'responsiveness'...

and example is:


#container {width:1600px; height:auto;}
#main {width:1600px; height:auto;}

/*mobile theme*/
@media screen and (max-width: 699px) {
#container {width:99%; height:auto;}
}
@media screen and (max-width: 699px) {
#main {width:99%; height:auto;}
}



any screen smaller than 699px wide will use the second set of declarations. 

it works the same for every element you need... you can control images, containers, cells/columns/rows or whole tables, or anything else that is controlled by the CSS prior to the introduction of @media... Mine works very well, and to accentuate the larger items (such as a header with scrolling news articles/images aggregated from various sources which is way too large for mobile phone) there is liberal use of display:none..





Arantor

Except it's not quite as simple as a few lines of CSS, as the people doing the responsive work on 2.1 have found out...
Holder of controversial views, all of which my own.

drewactual

i keep hearing people say that, Arantor, but I've not had these issues at all... using pure CSS these things can be managed (even if using the overflow: declaration in some rare instances, such as large pics or extended links, and as i mentioned using display:none with elements that just plain act goofy...). 

there were a couple cases where i had to place an element in a container just so i could control it via css... maybe that's what you're talking about? 


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