Mobile style updated

[potsy]

Mobile style back on, Oh the relief

 

[Norm]

When I'm on the phone and using the "darker" skin, tapatalk seems to ask every time I change pages. I can't say that I've tested it hugely as I usually switch styles after less than 4 or 5 pop ups.

 

[Shaun]

Norm - do you have Tapatalk installed on your mobile?

Just trying to workout whether it is an issue with the device application, or the server-based site add-on.

 

[Norm]

No, I don't use Tapatalk. I'm also not sure if it changes depending on whether I access through 3G or Wi-Fi. Let me go grab the phone and I'll let you know.

 

[srw]

While everyone's complaining about mobile skins, can I reiterate my comment about very variable download size - anything from 32k to 250k per page delivered. I haven't done a systematic check, but I think the culprit is the little red alert box - it seems rather bloated for a 10x10 pixel icon.

This is on v1.0 of the skin (the link is not responsive for me to investigate other options), not on tapatalk (corporate phone) on Blackberry.

Size matters when you're on slow, firewalled GPRS.

 

[Shaun]

The alert boxes are done with a couple of lines of CSS - no images used.

With the multi-level caching I've added to the CC server you shouldn't be downloading the whole of every page every time as much of the static content should be cached in your browser - unless your browser/device isn't caching?

Just double-check your Blackberry to see if caching is disabled or if you've got it set to download everything for every page request?

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[srw]

I have an extremely generous 1.0MB of cache. Perhaps that's the problem - but it's not one I had on the previous forum.

 

[jonesy]

I don't think my more primitive phone gives me any control over caching.

But thanks for restoring the older mobile theme, that's a lot easier! One odd thing though is that previously I had selected the mobile theme just once on my mobile, and then every time I returned afterwards it appeared automatically; yet whenever I visited CC from a PC the normal theme was always automatically selected. Which was great! Now however it seems to select whichever theme I had last used, irrespective of which device I'd used it on, so I now have to select the preferred theme each time. To make this a bit easier, is there a way to bookmark a link that directly selects the mobile theme, rather than having to go via a large initial download and the pop-up window?

 

[Shaun]

I'm planning on upgrading the Tapatalk server add-on and the newer mobile theme tonight (there's been a bug fix update for both).

Unfortuantely though, for the moment at least, the only option for auto-switching themes on a mobile device is an add-on that keeps you locked-in to the mobile style; no escape, no reverting to the default theme. So I'm not using it and instead waiting to see what XF come up with.

I realise that good mobile access to CC is desirable and will continue to update it as options become available.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[ColinJ]

As a matter of interest Shaun - could you give us a breakdown of some of the stats for CycleChat visitors? I'd be very interested to know what percentage of visitors are accessing by mobile. How many of those use Android devices, iPhones etc. Can you also tell what screen resolutions they use?

I know that mobile access is becoming a big issue but I don't know what scale it has reached, whether it is 5%, 15%, 30% ...? I reckon it will probably end up at 50+% one day, but I don't know how close we are to that situation now.

 

[Shaun]

It's around 15% with the most popular devices being iPad and iPhone. HTC, Xperia, Galaxy, and a range of others get a look in, but the two i devices take the lions share at the moment.

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks!

 

[jonesy]

...

Unfortuantely though, for the moment at least, the only option for auto-switching themes on a mobile device is an add-on that keeps you locked-in to the mobile style; no escape, no reverting to the default theme. So I'm not using it and instead waiting to see what XF come up with.

I realise that good mobile access to CC is desirable and will continue to update it as options become available.

Cheers,
Shaun

Shaun, my point was that with the old version of the mobile theme, once I'd selected it once on my mobile it didn't subsequently need to be re-selected on future visits, but still displayed the normal version when I viewed from a PC browser. So somehow it must have been remembering what version I'd selected on those different devices and was using the same setting for subsequent visits. Now it isn't, and I'm curious to know what has changed...?

 

[Shaun]

You can still select the old version. Just use the style selector at the bottom left and chose Mobile Style.

For anyone using the newer mobile version (CycleChat Mobile) - I've updated it to the latest version which has a few bug fixes.

Same rules as usual for updates - clear your browser cache to load the latest files.

Cheers,
Shaun