XF 1.2 Responsive Design

In order to better support smaller-screen devices such as mobile phones and tablets, XenForo 1.2 will be introducing a responsive version of the default design.

What is responsive design? At the simplest level, it allows you to specify CSS that applies only if the screen width is below a certain level. This allows the design to be significantly altered to fit smaller screens. For example, tabular or horizontally-focused designs don't work well when you only have a screen that's 320px wide (an iPhone).

So, what options will XenForo provide?

ss-2013-05-24_11-33-30.webp


Here you can see that we provide 3 "inflection points". In general, they correspond to particular classes of devices.
  • Narrow (max width: 480px): phones vertical, some phones horizontal
  • Medium (max width: 600px): some phones horizontal, 7" tablets vertical
  • Wide (max width: 800px): 7" tablets horizontal, 10" tablets vertical
You can also disable the responsive design entirely. Specific pages can also opt out of the responsive design with a <xen:container /> line.

For add-on developers, many of your pages will automatically support the responsive design well. It really depends how much "default" CSS you are using. If you are creating multi-column layouts (such as some resource manager pages), you will need to write custom responsive versions. However, if you're just using standard systems like tabs and forms, you will automatically inherit the responsive changes.

The extent of changes on a page will really vary based on the width of a device. For example, "wide devices" (601-800px by default) will see mostly similar pages, but things like sidebars will be moved if needed.

But this is really more about screenshots. For ease of my job, I'm taking these screenshots in Chrome on a desktop machine. :) As always, this is a work in progress and things are still subject to change.

ss-2013-05-24_11-45-57.webp


This part does deserve special mention as it's very dynamic now. The short of it is that if there's not enough space to fit things (at any resolution), navigation/search options will be hidden as necessary and shown behind menus. User alerts/unread conversation counts will be folded into your user menu. If there is a selected navigation tab, it will always be shown as well.

These screens are all taken at the "narrow" level to show you the full extent of the possible changes.

ss-2013-05-24_11-49-35.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-50-00.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-50-46.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-51-04.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-52-22.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-53-06.webp ss-2013-05-24_11-53-36.webp
 
Apologies if this has been covered already, but all users of our forum have squished text when viewing the site from a phone. Any ideas what I'm missing?

umWeNV8.png
 
I have to say after using it for a few weeks on multiple forums, that the Responsive layout was really well done! I like having all of the forum's functions available now, especially moderator functions, meaning we can handle member issues faster if we're not at a computer. It has also saved me having to worry about a separate mobile theme.

However, the one major disappointment is the few vocal members on our big board who actively hate everything about the 1.2 upgrade: the new quote style, the new editor, and especially the fact that we dumped Tapatalk and Forum Runner due to the responsive view: some mobile users of the forum hate it to the point of harassing the forum's owner, demanding we reinstall both. I just don't understand some people! Responsive view gives everyone all forum functions as opposed to poorly implemented versions of less than half when using these other apps. I explained the poor (or lack of) support by both companies, the security issues with both (I trust XF on our server; I do not trust either one as an add-on due to the unorthodox way they access the data outside the XF system), and numerous other reasons, yet they complain.

XF 1.2 is an all-around major improvement. Other forums I've helped upgrade have all embraced the changes with overwhelming support. Some on another board were impressed at how nice a bookmark from the forum looked on their phone's home screen, and the way it gave them a quick way to hop onto the forum via mobile. (Mobile bookmarks tend to use the "open graph" logo...so make certain you have a nice one in place!) Personally I'm impressed to the point of changing plans on a couple of upcoming sites, and using responsive WordPress themes rather than separate desktop and mobile themes as I'd done in the past. It is just so much less work, and easier to design and maintain.
 
Since the responsive features are built into the default XF theme, does this mean that all custom themes should be built on top of it and inherit from it?
 
Yes, they will inherit the default responsive code. You may still need to tweak and work the code into your custom theme.
 
You need at least one style on your forum. I believe the software doesn't let you delete what is marked as your default style, but yes, if you have a style and remove the "Default Style" that ships (ie, the style here), it will still function.
 
Hmm I never looked under the hood on this. So there's an invisible default style that is separate from the shipped 'default style' (the latter which can be deleted)?

Thanks for your help on this.
 
Yes. The "Master Style" (what things are 'reverted' to if you have no parent) is only visible in debug mode, as its the 'global style'. Upon upgrades, this is actually where XenForo inserts the template data.
 
Ok so, one final clarification then:

Say I want to take advantage of the Responsive feature. I don't need to copy the Default style and in fact I could've deleted it. I can just go to "Create Style" in the styles menu and select No Parent. Right so far?

Then, when I have created the style, will it be a full copy of the Master Style including templates and CSS, or (as long as I don't change anything) just an empty label with all properties passing through from the Master Style?

Is all this correct? I'm trying to think of whether I'd need to do something to maintain responsive features, or whether they'd be automatically there unless I applied hard stylesheet width rules.
 
Is anyone else having issues with the private tabs moving to a new line on the default theme when switching from portrait to landscape or vice versa?
 
Top Bottom