Tapatalk app alternative made for Xenforo and XF plugins

[Ludachris]

Let me be clear, I am not suggesting forums are the same as social networks, nor do I want my forum to turn into a Facebook clone. I can fully appreciate what makes forums more useful over those social media sites, and I find myself preaching those aspects to our members more and more as I beg them to keep posting their content on our site instead of on (or in addition to) just FB. What I'm saying is that the ease of use of those sites and integrated functionality with mobile devices is taking away a lot of the participation and community dynamics that used to take place almost exclusively in forums (sharing photos, sharing status updates about their cars, etc). Little by little the media sharing that was once considered to be outside of the real meat of the tech content is now shifting away from the forum, and the user behavior is changing too. I just don't want to be naive about this and assume that this trend won't continue and won't start hurting the stickiness of our forum and eventually the tech content that the site is built on.

 

[Aayush]

In Android, as far as I know, you can create "addons" but are basically other apps designed to listen and replying to the main app.

I was talking iOS, android is way open for this, not sure if people would want to have tons of addon apps installed just to use one site.

Besides that I agree with lot of you guys who said that a sole app which replicates the core of XF with notifications functionality is needed to engage users.

Another suggestion : Maybe user upgrades could be added as in-app purchases.

 

[Mouth]

Create a framework or hooks so that add-on developers can quickly and easily ensure they can support the mobile app.
Also would need to be able to interact with the onboard GPS, so that the app can capture location and pass it through to your XF site (as post location, or add-on tracking route).
I'm in for crowd sourcing.

 

[Aayush]

Create a framework or hooks so that add-on developers can quickly and easily ensure they can support the mobile app.
Also would need to be able to interact with the onboard GPS, so that the app can capture location and pass it through to your XF site (as post location, or add-on tracking route).
I'm in for crowd sourcing.

Where does XF capture location data?

 

[Kintaro]

I was talking iOS, android is way open for this, not sure if people would want to have tons of addon apps installed just to use one site.

Besides that I agree with lot of you guys who said that a sole app which replicates the core of XF with notifications functionality is needed to engage users.

Another suggestion : Maybe user upgrades could be added as in-app purchases.

iOS 8 will be open to extensions
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/0...opening-the-platform-while-keeping-it-secure/
https://developer.apple.com/library...General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/index.html

 

[Alpha1]

Where does XF capture location data?

It was not stated that XF does. The only way XF does capture location data is auto-detecting time zone.

 

[Aayush]

It was not stated that XF does. The only way XF does capture location data is auto-detecting time zone.

I meant where did it use location data.

iOS 8 will be open to extensions
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/0...opening-the-platform-while-keeping-it-secure/
https://developer.apple.com/library...General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/index.html

Didn't look into that , but how do you think installing 10 apps for a website would engage the user in a good way with the site over his mobile.

 

[FredC]

I'd be down if it was Simple and monetizable.

 

[Kintaro]

I meant where did it use location data.


Didn't look into that , but how do you think installing 10 apps for a website would engage the user in a good way with the site over his mobile.

I don't think that iOS extensions are "different" apps... I think they are more something like firefox's.

 

[Alpha1]

I meant where did it use location data.


Didn't look into that , but how do you think installing 10 apps for a website would engage the user in a good way with the site over his mobile.

There is a location field in member profile. This can be filled with location data from mobile location services.
Once location data is available it would be possible to expand the use of location. For example by adding it to status updates.
There are also some addons that make use of location data, for example xenreviews which allows members to check-in to locations or create items based upon location or addons which make use of google maps like member map.

 

[Aayush]

Lets see this through.

We want an iOS app:
1. The app should include all core XF functions : This is possible as the things required to be coded are clearly defined.
2. The app should be able to support plugins : This is where things start to get complicated. First up you can't include all the plugins. Secondly the code for the plugins will have to be written by the person coding the app. In case of an update to the web version of plugin the app will also need to be updated, suppose the app has ability to support 20 plugins and suppose nearly 5 of them get an update in a week. The developers of the app will have to go back and update the code for the XF app. Now consider the amount of hassle this will cause to the devs. Either iOS devs will have to sell the addon devs support for their addon. This seems to be a plausible solution for ios devs but this might be bad for the addon devs as they are paying a premium for the iOS support and they might just won't want to pay a price for that. Maybe they are fine with the web version of their addon. There should be a considerable business model for both the iOS devs and addon devs which helps them both in the long run.

Besides, that @Kintaro I don't think they are something like firefox addons, they are more like a specified set of triggers which will interact with another app.
Suppose if we have XF app installed and we want to use XenMedio or something similar. We would have to go to app store and install another app for XenMedio. As far as apple is concerned, apple states that it won't host any app which is an extension only app i.e. every app will have to have an interface for interaction and that app can be used solely as well. Now further if I am in XF app, and I want to upload stuff to XenMedio, the XF app will have to have support for XenMedio already built in. Extensions aren't something that will get inserted right without code being written explicitly for their support in the app.

Correct me if I am wrong.

There is a location field in member profile. This can be filled with location data from mobile location services.
Once location data is available it would be possible to expand the use of location. For example by adding it to status updates.
There are also some addons that make use of location data, for example xenreviews which allows members to check-in to locations or create items based upon location or addons which make use of google maps like member map.

That makes sense!

 

[Kintaro]

Correct me if I am wrong.

I think you're right.

I think also that the base xf app doesn't need to be compatible with too much addons or will be an hell to maintain, maybe can be a solution more "app level". Base, bronze, silver, gold with every level more addons supported?

 

[Aayush]

I think you're right.

I think also that the base xf app doesn't need to be compatible with too much addons or will be an hell to maintain, maybe can be a solution more "app level". Base, bronze, silver, gold with every level more addons supported?

Ya but how will we be choosing what all addons to support, people tend to use various addons and everyone would want their addon to be supported.

 

[Ridemonkey]

Ya but how will we be choosing what all addons to support, people tend to use various addons and everyone would want their addon to be supported.

I agree that it's probably a bit of a complicated process. I'm guessing the only way it will be sustainable is for the developer of the app to create a framework for plugin developers to submit the code to the core app developer for inclusion. Monetization/incremental purchasing could be controlled through in-app purchasing.

That said, the hurdles to overcome plugin challenges shouldn't put the kibosh on the whole idea of the project. At the end of the day, most of us are running a forum - that's why we're here talking and not in the Disqus communities, or the WordPress communities, or whatever. Getting the core forum functionality up would be huge strides towards providing a full native experience for users.

If plugins aren't included out of the box, or if the choice of plugins comes down to "what plugin has a base of users willing to throw money at crowd funded development," then so be it.

 

[surfsup]

I am highly interested in this, why not just use the top add ons?

 

[surfsup]

No other updates on this? Geez

 

[eberkund]

Would each XF forum have its own app that would be recompiled and downloaded separately to match each site's branding?

 

[adwolf1]

Would each XF forum have its own app that would be recompiled and downloaded separately to match each site's branding?

this is what forumrunner does or did (before their acquisition) -- one of their 'products' was a subscription service, you'd pay them to build and maintain the 'white label' version of their app with your branding in the respective app stores. So to the end-user, it would be like using a site's own 'native' app that you download from the store.

i am a bit surprised the XF team hasn't thought about breaking off a separate group in the company to build and service something like that -- the revenue can be significant. Even tapatalk charges like $70 a month for a similar service, and people hate forking over the cash, but there are no alternatives.

 

[Martok]

i am a bit surprised the XF team hasn't thought about breaking off a separate group in the company to build and service something like that

Considering there's only 3 developers and they are all working hard on XenForo 1.5 and 2.0, they really aren't big enough to 'break off a separate group'. And no, they couldn't hire developers to work on this, they'd need sufficient revenue in the first place to do this, not pay in the hope of a big return. Bear in mind only large forums generating a fair income would entertain paying $70 per month for an app service, most of us wouldn't pay this sort of cost.

 

[Kintaro]

IMHO with official APIs this problem will be solved from 3rd party devs... but we need official APIs so devs could relay to a official supported feature and extend them with to their addons.

Here's the suggestion to vote if you agree with me:
Full native RESTful API built into XenForo