XenForo 2.0 Discussion

[Tim Jay]

Exciting news, but I can't imagine everyone wanting to upgrade to 2.0, at least for a while.

I would expect heaps more of updating to get styles & framework working right again, but I'm sure you guys will do an amazing job.

 

[turtile]

I think those who say we need to push more into mobile are right. Outside of use computer users, tablets and smartphones are taking over. I know many people who only own a smartphone (no tablet or laptop/desktop).

Xenforo got it right with the notification system but the next step is to make an app that pushes those notifications to users' phones and tablets. If I ask a question on Xenforo, do I really want to refresh Xenforo 50 times until I see a notification that my thread has a reply? Nope! Do I want a million emails for the subscribed threads? Nope!

I want a notification on my phone, that I carry everywhere to say "person 1 replied to your post" "click here to reply" Simple!

 

[Daniel Hood]

The problem with expecting them to make an app is that apps have to be packaged. In order for the app to be specific to your website, they'd have to release the code and expect admins to be able to modify it accordingly. You would also have to pay $105 or $120 to release it on iOS and android play store (I forget if android is $5 or $20). I do like the idea of the sites having apps and push notifications. I just don't personally see how it work.

Also, this is a php project and android apps are programmed in Java. Ios has its own language based on C. Not saying that makes it impossible but I don't know if kier or Mike know those languages. Just because they know php very well doesn't mean they can release something in any language.

 

[turtile]

The problem with expecting them to make an app is that apps have to be packaged. In order for the app to be specific to your website, they'd have to release the code and expect admins to be able to modify it accordingly. You would also have to pay $105 or $120 to release it on iOS and android play store (I forget if android is $5 or $20). I do like the idea of the sites having apps and push notifications. I just don't personally see how it work.

Also, this is a php project and android apps are programmed in Java. Ios has its own language based on C. Not saying that makes it impossible but I don't know if kier or Mike know those languages. Just because they know php very well doesn't mean they can release something in any language.

I only know very basic programming but I think the app would be extremely easy to build for them. Xenforo would only need to send the notification data out and the app would just be used to show the notifications. I'm pretty sure you could just run the responsive website within the app too without any additional programming.

I think Google just charges a $25 developer fee for unlimited apps unless you charge for the app.

 

[Jeremy]

Unless it is a full service application that allows complete interaction with the site, I doubt it would get passed Apple's reviews:

Apps that send Push Notifications without first obtaining user consent, as well as apps that require Push Notifications to function, will be rejected

 

[rainmotorsports]

Also, this is a php project and android apps are programmed in Java. Ios has its own language based on C. Not saying that makes it impossible but I don't know if kier or Mike know those languages. Just because they know php very well doesn't mean they can release something in any language.

While I don't care to see any stupid app developed. If they did it would likely mean bringing someone on to the team. I don't see the language as a problem. Objective C and Java are not difficult for experienced PHP developers to grasp if they have a decent amount of experience with a non web platform. Window's development for example. My real concern wouldn't be their grasp of the language as much as supporting multiple platform's and being fluent in their API's. Regardless of language I would want a platform specialist.

 

[Daniel Hood]

I'm pretty sure you could just run the responsive website within the app too without any additional programming.

People seem to think responsive isn't enough. They want a full app experience. Also you still run the issue of it not being a custom app for that site. It wouldn't be their logo icon. Plus the issue Jeremy pointed out.

 

[Renegade]

The problem with expecting them to make an app is that apps have to be packaged. In order for the app to be specific to your website, they'd have to release the code and expect admins to be able to modify it accordingly. You would also have to pay $105 or $120 to release it on iOS and android play store (I forget if android is $5 or $20). I do like the idea of the sites having apps and push notifications. I just don't personally see how it work.

Also, this is a php project and android apps are programmed in Java. Ios has its own language based on C. Not saying that makes it impossible but I don't know if kier or Mike know those languages. Just because they know php very well doesn't mean they can release something in any language.

Whoever wants to release an app will have to have that publisher license or they can ask someone to release an app for a fee.

You don't need to know all the native programming languages if you are working on a hybrid app. The same code base can be used to compile for each platform. Once you have the APIs in place I think it should be even simpler.

 

[SneakyDave]

Should be easy peasy lemon squeezy, sounds like a great idea

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I think if it were that easy, someone would have done it by now. I think it would bridge the gap for tapatalk users tho.

But until then there is this. But you have to pay

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xen-pushover.3039/

 

[RickM]

Yes, REST API please

Ditto to this. I've had a suggestion thread open for a long, long time and there's lots of support for it. It'd be inexcusable to leave it out of v2 IMO.

Not sure if this has been asked before. But would XenForo 2.0 still be on the 1.x branch of the Zend Framework? Or would you move it to the 2.x branch? Or would you use a completely different open source framework? (ie - Symphony)

It shouldn't matter either way. Both Symfony and Zend 2 are composer based frameworks, which makes it very, very easy to extend them and make things work between the two. As an example it's pretty trivial to port a Symfony project over to another composer based framework and vice versa. Either way it's going to massively improve the mod community if they're going down the composer route.

It reminds me of this 3+ years old thread.

Recommended/Suggested last year as well http://xenforo.com/community/threads/full-native-restful-api-built-into-xenforo.48787/

XenForo is ready for mobile devices coz it has a responsive skin and no effort is needed on that front? Don't think so. Maybe those forum admins are serving a userbase which has access to superlative bandwidth, high end tablets/phones and the users are happy clicking on tiny links. Its understandable to not be able to appreciate the issues which you have never faced before.

XenForo's not mobile ready. Not by a long shot.

Making a design responsive does not make it mobile/tablet ready. It's just a bandaid on the problem.

A true mobile/tablet ready interface requires changes to text formatting, button sizing, link sizing, etc. As an example the 'like' button, the pagination, the WYSIWYG and tons of other tiny-text stuff in the current design make it not at all mobile friendly.

A mobile friendly UI will require a mobile-first approach to the design. As an example think of a two-framed iPad application. A real mobile-ready forum would have a sidebar containing threads and a summary (a bit like the inbox view in the mail app) and on the right, the thread. A fixed top toolbar would provide links to reply, create new thread, etc. A fixed bottom toolbar would provide things such as alerts, options, etc.

The end result should be something that looks almost like a native mobile application BUT at the same time scales down to a smaller mobile view, and up to a usable desktop view.

Not a single commercial forum system has correctly implemented mobile-first design yet, and somehow all of them seem pretty happy with "oh but its responsive, so it's mobile ready".

It's NOT easy - it's the hardest thing to do as it's extremely complex to get perfect across a bunch of devices. I'm about to be doing it with my travel site. My traffic has shifted in the last 2 years from ~80% desktop to just 18% desktop. The rest is split fairly equally between phones and tablets.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I could see that on travel sites, definitely.

 

[Jim Boy]

I don't agree with others who say the current mobile arrangements are "perfectly fine" - they're not, they're very, very average. Our users hate the responsive layout, hence why we invested on a mobile only skin.

Unfortunately another thing that is very, very average in XF is mobile detection.

Emphasis on a mobile strategy is essential going forward, relying upon making the skin responsive as your mobile strategy would be a fail and would seriously compromise XF's attractiveness for existing and new customers going forward.

 

[eberkund]

I don't agree with others who say the current mobile arrangements are "perfectly fine" - they're not, they're very, very average. Our users hate the responsive layout, hence why we invested on a mobile only skin.

Unfortunately another thing that is very, very average in XF is mobile detection.

Emphasis on a mobile strategy is essential going forward, relying upon making the skin responsive as your mobile strategy would be a fail and would seriously compromise XF's attractiveness for existing and new customers going forward.

I disagree, responsive is the way of the future. You may not like that the default XenForo skin does not do enough to optimize for mobile devices but that isn't the fault of it being responsive.

 

[Renegade]

I disagree, responsive is the way of the future. You may not like that the default XenForo skin does not do enough to optimize for mobile devices but that isn't the fault of it being responsive.

You are right but discussion is not about which technology or framework is better. It is that the current options are not usable enough compared to the experience of the mobile app.

If you think like an average mobile user, the primary reason they go to a browser is to search something. So the search result should turn up a responsive layout for the user to get a better experience than a desktop site. So we cannot do away with a responsive skin anyway.

However a regular user of the site would prefer a mobile app over the browser based solution anyday.

PS: All this is taking my user base into consideration. YMMV

 

[Russ]

You are right but discussion is not about which technology or framework is better. It is that the current options are not usable enough compared to the experience of the mobile app.

If you think like an average mobile user, the primary reason they go to a browser is to search something. So the search result should turn up a responsive layout for the user to get a better experience than a desktop site. So we cannot do away with a responsive skin anyway.

However a regular user of the site would prefer a mobile app over the browser based solution anyday.

PS: All this is taking my user base into consideration. YMMV

You can't claim every regular user of a site would prefer a mobile app though.

I'm a regular on many sites and could care less if they had a mobile app for me to browse. I prefer to browse multiple sites without having to load up some app.

 

[TPerry]

You can't claim every regular user of a site would prefer a mobile app though.

I'm a regular on many sites and could care less if they had a mobile app for me to browse. I prefer to browse multiple sites without having to load up some app.

The only exception I could see if it worked like Tapatalk or ForumRunner where one app could be used for multiple XenForo forums. But then you get into the problem of push alerts for the different sites, etc. I could see where it would end up being a real headache.

 

[Renegade]

You can't claim every regular user of a site would prefer a mobile app though.

I'm a regular on many sites and could care less if they had a mobile app for me to browse. I prefer to browse multiple sites without having to load up some app.

Like I said in my earlier post, its hard to appreciate a perspective unless you have faced it yourself. Lets just put forth our perspectives and leave it at that. I am saying I need it for xyz reasons. You are saying you don't need it due to some reasons. Its anyway upto the XF devs to decide based on demand and trend on the direction they want to take.

 

[Russ]

Like I said in my earlier post, its hard to appreciate a perspective unless you have faced it yourself. Lets just put forth our perspectives and leave it at that. I am saying I need it for xyz reasons. You are saying you don't need it due to some reasons. Its anyway upto the XF devs to decide based on demand and trend on the direction they want to take.

I'm for people having their own opinions, but let me clear something up: I never said I didn't want it. Meaning I'm not opposed to any app development just me being a regular user of many forums I've never once held up a pitchfork demanding an app to browse on.

 

[cellarius]

The beauty of a responsive style is that it will work reasonably well on any device that runs a modern browser, while on the other hand, worst case, you'll have to have (and maintain!) apps for iOS, Android, Win at least, each catering for phone and tablet sizes, needing to comply to various regulations from Apple or Google, and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a better mobile experience - I just doubt apps are the way to go given we have only 2 devs here on xF.