Safari push notifications coming to macOS and iOS

[TheGroove]

The only issue that we couldn't overcome (which involves a core js file) is to show the number of notifications on the app's icon. Other than that, there are no bugs or issues that I know of (nor the developers of the add-on).


This is not true. Worst case scenario users will need to re-install the app.

I think honestly that license holders just lost hope (and maybe trust) in XF devs' timelines, so that's why they are ready to jump pretty fast on add-ons that solve their issues or implement new features they want.

Exactly. Love Xenforo but with their track record the wait could be pretty long, the current method works great and it's been proven on my site. There's been no need ask users to re-add on my site yet but if there was I don't see that as any problem and TBH I don't know what Xenforo could add to this that doesn't already exist. The badge thing appears to be an iOS issue, not Xenforo. I've also learned that most don't even seem to care about it, they're relying on just notifications.

 

[Moshe1010]

The badge thing appears to be an iOS issue, not Xenforo.

How do you know?

 

[TheGroove]

How do you know?

Can't say that I know for sure, they do appear only after you open the browser from the saved page. It gives the appearance it's browser related but it's only a guess.

 

[Moshe1010]

Can't say that I know for sure, they do appear only after you open the browser from the saved page. It gives the appearance it's browser related but it's only a guess.

It most likely requires changes in service_worker.js to work

 

[Kirby]

BUT the fact remains, it's not here in 2.2.12 and there ARE bugs in the 2.2.12 implementation. Not everybody is crazy about jumping onto an add-on that could cause issues in the changeover to a 2.2.13 implementation.

I am not sure which "bugs in the 2.2.12 implementation" you are referring to, but I can assure you that https://xenforo.com/community/resources/ozzmodz-pwa-ios-standalone-mode.9135/ does not have any bugs (in its current version).

That chance that this Add-on would cause any issue with future XenForo versions (that can't be fixed instantly by just disabling / uninstalling it) is pretty much zero as the Add-on basically does nothing except setting mode to standalone for iOS - which is a hard requirement to support Web-Push on iOS so if XenForo does want to support this they will have to do it anyway.
(If the board owner wanted to get creative, the exact same effect could even be achived without any Add-on at all, but using this Add-on is most likely easier for the vast majority)

Therfore I don't see any reason for XF admins who want to have this feature now to wait for "official" support.
In fact we've set iOS to standalone for all aour XF 2.2 installations yuite a long time ago already and got zero issues or complaints.

 

[TPerry]

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/ozzmodz-pwa-ios-standalone-mode.9135/ does not have any bugs (in its current version).

And I didn't claim that it did... there ARE issues with the XF implementation...otherwise, what need of an add-on would there be?

Therfore I don't see any reason for XF admins who want to have this feature now to wait for "official" support.
In fact we've set iOS to standalone for all aour XF 2.2 installations yuite a long time ago already and got zero issues or complaints.

Because not everyone wants a ****-ton load of add-ons to fix minor issues that are most likely going to be resolved soon in their stack of add-ons.

 

[Chris D]

The implantation of a PWA in XF 2.2 is perfectly valid. There are a few display options. We opted for the display mode named “browser” (or more accurately minimal-ui) because this, at the time, seemed like the best approach. It essentially treated the PWA as a browser shortcut stored on your Home Screen. It provided the complete browser UI including address bar, reload, forward and back navigation.

It was somewhat unexpected that Apple’s implementation of push notifications would rely on a display mode called standalone.

This renders the page in a standalone browser window, with no UI whatsoever. No back button, forwards, reload or address bar. For some, this won’t be usable. You can navigate through pages, forwards and back, using left/right swipe actions. For reasons I don’t understand, there’s no gesture for reloading a page.

These UX issues were notable at the time and will be significant to some users so on balance I believe we made the right choices. The behaviour on Android devices was kept to standalone as this had a more complete UI.

Apple requiring a standalone display mode for full PWA support was unexpected and, in my opinion, is severely lacking in usability when compared to many other browser‘s implementations. But that’s where push notifications is, so to provide support for that we need to engineer solutions that, frankly, we shouldn’t have to. This includes at least a software back button, and some mechanism for reloading, probably a pull down to reload system.

So, no, this isn’t a bug in our implementation. It’s a side effect of a potentially unusual and definitely unexpected approach by Apple.

 

[TPerry]

So, no, this isn’t a bug in our implementation. It’s a side effect of a potentially unusual and definitely unexpected approach by Apple.

Unluckily Apple has always seemed to walk its own path.
The only reason I stick with one is how well it interfaces with the Mac when compared to Android and the fact some of my astro mobile apps are Apple specific. Luckily the main one also now has their paid version on Google Play. Once the Mac Mini goes the way of the dodo (it's 13 years old and still running great with original hardware) I'll probably build out a astro photography processing Windows machine and then move to a Pixel based phone.

 

[TheGroove]

The implantation of a PWA in XF 2.2 is perfectly valid. There are a few display options. We opted for the display mode named “browser” (or more accurately minimal-ui) because this, at the time, seemed like the best approach. It essentially treated the PWA as a browser shortcut stored on your Home Screen. It provided the complete browser UI including address bar, reload, forward and back navigation.

It was somewhat unexpected that Apple’s implementation of push notifications would rely on a display mode called standalone.

This renders the page in a standalone browser window, with no UI whatsoever. No back button, forwards, reload or address bar. For some, this won’t be usable. You can navigate through pages, forwards and back, using left/right swipe actions. For reasons I don’t understand, there’s no gesture for reloading a page.

These UX issues were notable at the time and will be significant to some users so on balance I believe we made the right choices. The behaviour on Android devices was kept to standalone as this had a more complete UI.

Apple requiring a standalone display mode for full PWA support was unexpected and, in my opinion, is severely lacking in usability when compared to many other browser‘s implementations. But that’s where push notifications is, so to provide support for that we need to engineer solutions that, frankly, we shouldn’t have to. This includes at least a software back button, and some mechanism for reloading, probably a pull down to reload system.

So, no, this isn’t a bug in our implementation. It’s a side effect of a potentially unusual and definitely unexpected approach by Apple.

Thanks for this explanation, I suspected this was on the iOS 16.4 side all along, which is why I built in the reload button to replace the lack of pull down functionality on my site and it's been working well.

One workaround would be to just add the missing functionality directly (as Chris mentioned) through the UI of the mobile style and make it something you can toggle, then if/when Apple resolves this issue it can be turned off so users aren't forced to re-add the page to their home screen. So no gesture control but it's not a bad tradeoff to gain the real time notifications functionality, which is really the main driver for this anyway.

 

[benFF]

It provided the complete browser UI including address bar, reload, forward and back navigation.

I'm using a Samsung s22 and don't have any of these, any pwa I install is in full screen mode (I thought that was deliberate)

 

[Chris D]

I'm using a Samsung s22 and don't have any of these, any pwa I install is in full screen mode (I thought that was deliberate)

I‘m pretty sure this wasn’t always the case with some older phones, although isn’t it the case that you can bring up your phone‘s controls for going back, opening menus etc by scrolling up from the bottom? So you have a back button at least. Not sure if you have pull down to refresh.

 

[Kevin]

I‘m pretty sure this wasn’t always the case with some older phones, although isn’t it the case that you can bring up your phone‘s controls for going back, opening menus etc by scrolling up from the bottom? So you have a back button at least. Not sure if you have pull down to refresh.

No, there are no controls for Android users either (which is why I mentioned in the other thread some us have been adding our own icons as needed). The only stock option is to swipe down from the top to do a page refresh.

 

[benFF]

although isn’t it the case that you can bring up your phone‘s controls for going back

Yup, the soft back button (swipe up from bottom corner) works and drag down refreshes, so everything has always been great.

Which is why I couldn't see the issue with the removed browser controls.

 

[Kevin]

Yup, the soft back button (swipe up from bottom corner) works and drag down refreshes, so everything has always been great.

Hhhmmmm.... bottom swipe seems to have no response for me. I may have to RTFM to see if there is a setting or something I'm missing.

 

[benFF]

Hhhmmmm.... bottom swipe seems to have no response for me. I may have to RTFM to see if there is a setting or something I'm missing.

It might be a Samsung thing? I can swipe up from the bottom in any app and it counts as back.

 

[Chris D]

Which is why I couldn't see the issue with the removed browser controls.

On iOS you basically have no on screen controls. Not even pull to refresh. There is swipe left and right gestures for forwards and back but not everyone knows they exist. But we’ll come up with something.

 

[benFF]

Not even pull to refresh.

Is that very useful? I've never used it, only this time now to check if it functions.

 

[Alternadiv]

Is that very useful?

In general, I think it's a habit that native apps have taught us and it is definitely useful in those cases. But to refresh a website while using Safari? Probably not used much by regular people. I do use it to refresh my own website multiple times a day so I can quickly see if the staff/approval queue bar or my personal alerts have anything new.

 

[Mr Lucky]

But to refresh a website while using Safari? Probably not used much by regular people.

I’m obviously not regular people then. I stoped using the addon because I missed that function. Also the screen would freeze sometimes which I presume is a iOS issue.

 

[Alternadiv]

I’m obviously not regular people then.

If we’re posting in this thread, we don’t really qualify as regular people (lol ).