Mobile Apps that just present the website

Dakis

Dakis

Well-known member
I am moving to XF at the end of the month, and up to now I've been using a branded app by Forumrunner that is doing considerable amount of traffic. Now that I'm moving, tapatalk looks like the only solution, but costs 500$ per year to get ios+android app.

Miner built me a 100% responsive design, so I'm thinking since I already have that, isn't there a way to build apps that simply include the website itself inside? That way I can keep my mobile app users - otherwise the day of the conversion, their apps will simply stop working.

Any ideas?
 
Hello,
If you feel like doing a bit of development, it is very simple to create mobile applications for both platforms using something like PhoneGap or Illumination Software Creator (http://lunduke.com).

PhoneGap - You would simply need to add a massive HTML frame to occupy 100% of the screen and set your site as the source.

Illumination - This will create a "Native" app, in this case you would create a webkit control and set your site as the source URL.

Or just use Tapatalk
 
Well as I said, tapatalk costs 500$ per year, and I can't justify this cost. Thanks for the links, I will have a look :)
 
What exactly is the point of an app that just wraps your site? Couldn't your users just "Save to home screen"? (Unsure if Android has that feature though)
 
Yeah they could, but most users don't know how to do that. Plus, I don't have any way of informing the current app users for this change - as said above, they will simply see their apps stopping.
 
I send regular newsletters, but it doesn't mean my members are the ones that use the mobile apps - it could very well be more simple guests/visitors that use them.
 
Dakis said:
I am moving to XF at the end of the month, and up to now I've been using a branded app by Forumrunner that is doing considerable amount of traffic. Now that I'm moving, tapatalk looks like the only solution, but costs 500$ per year to get ios+android app.

Miner built me a 100% responsive design, so I'm thinking since I already have that, isn't there a way to build apps that simply include the website itself inside? That way I can keep my mobile app users - otherwise the day of the conversion, their apps will simply stop working.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
FormRunner quit coding a plugin for XenForo? I know at one time they had one - I just removed it because of the stupid *ss way they were playing the lawsuit.
 
Even if I ignored the fact that forumrunner is now owned by Internet Brands, their price is similar to that of Tapatalk's, so it's out of the question.
 
Dakis said:
Even if I ignored the fact that forumrunner is now owned by Internet Brands, their price is similar to that of Tapatalk's, so it's out of the question.
Click to expand...
From my understanding, you already had a branded app - is it branded for vB only?
 
Keith Myers said:
Hello,
If you feel like doing a bit of development, it is very simple to create mobile applications for both platforms using something like PhoneGap or Illumination Software Creator (http://lunduke.com).

PhoneGap - You would simply need to add a massive HTML frame to occupy 100% of the screen and set your site as the source.

Illumination - This will create a "Native" app, in this case you would create a webkit control and set your site as the source URL.

Or just use Tapatalk
Click to expand...
None of that will fly with Apple without some iOS-specific feature. If you are interested in my current iOS project though, sign up and reply here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4969012 or here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=17140773#post17140773
 
Wondering if you made any progress on this. I installed node.js and used PhoneGap for a bit, but it seems it wants me to upload the entire html directory of files for the forum, which can't be right. I just need it to show a webview of the responsive design of my site.

I did experiment for 5 minutes with AppGeyser, and was able to download an APK that did just that. However, if you distribute your app, they place their banner add on every page (because it's a free account). I didn't see a purchase option to rid that.
 
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