Add-on API For Android App

[Daniel Hood]

I was going for full native just some people have seemed to be getting insanely excited over that one guy who's doing that.. I just don't get why that'd be "better".

I don't think that anyone is excited because it's better, I think they're excited because it's just something available that isn't tapatalk.

 

[Fayettemat]

I don't think that anyone is excited because it's better, I think they're excited because it's just something available that isn't tapatalk.

Good point, I'm sending @xfrocks a PM now asking about maybe teaming up and making this a joint effort to make XF shine on mobile. I was trying to avoid mentioning TapaTalk by the way as I don't want to sling mud at anyone as that's just not who I am.
Also, on that note: I'd likely be releasing it (when at least a mostly done 1.0 is ready) as open source so that people who know what they are doing can set it up themselves for no cost as I'm a fan of open source myself. That being said I'd be willing to help those that cannot do so for a small fee to get them up and running. Not sure what the fee would be, but I'm doubtful the customization would take much time so I'd price it reasonable and have a few options likely. Some ideas I've just tossed around in my head for for that would typically fall to being less than $300 (maybe even less than $200) for the simple-ish task of making it tied to their forum (basically set up the API key, get a GCM setup ready, change URLs, etc etc), however, the forum owner would be responsible for providing an icon for the app. TL;DR on that open source rocks and I'm not looking to become rich off the wants of a community of forum owners as I, to, am a forum owner and am sick and tired of not having a good app to use and the only one that's really out there is Tapatalk so a little competition would be a great thing

Edit: Just to head off any possible questions about me charging for open source stuff (as I just realized that might be asked): That's not what I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of doing the customization part as a service type of thing for those that cannot do so themselves, the code will be available to any forum owner who asks for such to be done for their branding and the main code would be on GitHub.

 

[xfrocks]

Are you working on an Android app for XenForo? Seems like you have a decent start (though I didn't dig in too far).

Nah, all I did was that demo app so I can test my api and show people example when they ask for it. The demo is pretty basic though and it does maybe only 5% of the functionalities of the api.

 

[xfrocks]

I am indeed. I'm now debating if I want to do a native or web view one like the one thread that was posted recently. My main reservation about web view is that it's not as clean and it's kind of obvious that it's a browser in a shell.

What's your opinion on that @Daniel Hood?

Edit:
@xfrocks I'm not familiar with XenForo's methods/functions yet which is why I was looking for an API and yours does look nice. Also, I'm curious as to what you did for the GCM part to get it to run. Is it actually on a cron or done in some other manner? Been shifting through your code on GitHub recently and haven't fully gone through yet.

As I said, the [bd] API add-on support PubSubHubbub so for GCM to work in Android, you need to setup the push server (also available on github).

 

[vbresults]

Web view doesn't work optimally for small screens as it caters to any kind of screen size. With native you can ignore functions that are not optimal on small screens and have optimal UI only.

That's possible in a web view, I've done things like this in the vBulletin 4.x version of my apps, it's called EMS. I haven't done that for XenForo because it already looks very good.

 

[Alpha1]

I do not agree with you on that. For example: clicking on a thread pagination button is difficult on small screens because a fingertip covers multiple buttons. These are too small and too close to another for small screens.
Also: swiping to go back is not possible on the default style. The default skin doesn't have a side panel. Those are really handy things that people expect in an app.

 

[vbresults]

I do not agree with you on that. For example: clicking on a thread pagination button is difficult on small screens because a fingertip covers multiple buttons. These are too small and too close to another for small screens.
Also: swiping to go back is not possible on the default style. The default skin doesn't have a side panel. Those are really handy things that people expect in an app.

I am dictating this, not asking a question. Making app-specific tweaks to the pagination is possible. Swiping left/right is possible too, I had this implemented on the vB app, but vB 4.x runs an outdated, vb-customized version of jQuery mobile which has problems I didn't want to fix. XenForo does not have that problem, and if I get enough asks from admins using I'll implement swipe left/right in XenForo too.

Again, refer to EMS for 4.x to see the possibilities. 4.x had no attachment uploads, no pull-down navigation, etc. Note, I won't be pulling jQuery mobile into XenForo, that's too heavy. I am piecing together the next big native-like jump, making the webview appear more app-like, see the before and after, this is the most recent work on this.