Tapatalk forum app
« on: July 04, 2014, 10:17:10 PM »
Tapatalk is a forum app available for all major mobile operating systems. Many popular forums can be used in the app. You can monitor, post, and add photos to all your favorite forums, all in a single app. You can even elect to receive push notifications on your favorite threads.

Tapatalk can be activated for just about any forum very easily.

Just go to https://tapatalk.com/activate_tapatalk.php and follow the instructions. It only takes 15 minutes.

Tapatalk can be activated for the FES forum because FES uses the SMF 2.0 which is compatible with Tapatalk. The plugin can be found here. There is simple instructions there on how to install the plug-in so that people can easily view and participate on these forums from a mobile app.

You can even easily build your own forum app with a personalized app icon, look and feel, branding, plus additional features including Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Admob, DoubleClick for Publisher, iAd, Push Notifications and more - 100% under your own brand with full control. In other words the Play Store and App Store can have a personalized FES forum app and it can even be a money making opportunity for the administrators of this site.

Click here for more info on how to build a personalized Tapatalk app.

I strongly urge the administrators to enable tapatalk for the FES society so that users can enjoy FES while on the go.


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Offline Snupes

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2014, 02:02:38 AM »
Though your post reads like an advertiser, I actually kinda agree with this and would be all for it. I'm not fond of browsing FES on mobile; it works, but it's not a very enjoyable experience (especially with a high-res screen so everything's smaller).
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline xasop

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2014, 05:37:57 AM »
We use a git-based deployment system, so the usual mod installation process won't work for us. I'll have a look over the mod source later and see what we can do.

Also, I already frequently use FES on the go using a mobile web browser.
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Offline xasop

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2014, 05:48:16 AM »
The licence for this plugin doesn't seem to permit redistribution of the plugin:

https://tapatalk.com/forum_owner_license.php

Since we push all our code to GitHub to permit visibility into and reuse of our modifications to SMF, I'm afraid we can't use that plugin as that would violate the licence.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol

Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2014, 06:21:24 AM »
The licence for this plugin doesn't seem to permit redistribution of the plugin:

https://tapatalk.com/forum_owner_license.php

Since we push all our code to GitHub to permit visibility into and reuse of our modifications to SMF, I'm afraid we can't use that plugin as that would violate the licence.

This doesn't make sense. Every forum I use, many of which also push their code to github, also use the Tapatalk plugin.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2014, 08:32:33 AM »
Parsifal, you appear to be wrong (although I don't blame you - they have multiple conflicting licences throughout the site)

https://github.com/tapatalk/tapatalk-smf2

Quote
License
Tapatalk API for SMF 2 is free and open source software released under the BSD License. (http://www.simplemachines.org/about/smf/license.php)
This software includes a modified version of the SMF 2 open source library available at http://download.simplemachines.org/. These modifications were made by Tapatalk as of May 30, 2014.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2014, 08:46:26 AM »
That said, if you're of the opinion that we should stick to the most prohibitive of the licences they provide, it appears that most of the code is isolated in its own files, so we could probably use it without redistributing it.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
Follow the Flat Earth Society on Twitter and Facebook!

If we are not speculating then we must assume

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Offline xasop

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2014, 09:02:20 AM »
It looks like the intent is for it to be freely reusable, they just suck at communicating that. I'll install this a bit later.

Our codebase is already illegal to distribute as it is thanks to conflicting licences between the nobbc and Banlist mods, so that issue will need to be revisited at some point anyway.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2014, 12:43:37 PM »
I have no idea what kind d of problems exist on a mobile browser for you.  I use opera mobile on this forum constantly and have no problems or difficulties. 

Supes, why is smaller bad?  Can't you just zoom in?
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2014, 03:48:34 PM »
I have no idea what kind d of problems exist on a mobile browser for you.  I use opera mobile on this forum constantly and have no problems or difficulties. 

Supes, why is smaller bad?  Can't you just zoom in?

There is nothing stopping you from enjoying the site in the unmodified state that you do even if this is enabled. For those that are interested there are advantages, otherwise, why would anyone bother making mobile versions of anything? Furthermore, its massively convenient to have a powerful app where all the fora that you use across the internet are can be accessed. It's as easy, if not easier than using the site on the desktop.

I can't wait til you guys make this available if you do. I use it all the time for many other forums and it works massively well. I get notifications when discussions I'm in have new comments and replying to them is so much easier from the app than it would be otherwise, especially on the go.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2014, 03:55:33 PM by rottingroom »

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2014, 04:19:13 PM »
I have no idea what kind d of problems exist on a mobile browser for you.  I use opera mobile on this forum constantly and have no problems or difficulties. 

Supes, why is smaller bad?  Can't you just zoom in?

There is nothing stopping you from enjoying the site in the unmodified state that you do even if this is enabled. For those that are interested there are advantages, otherwise, why would anyone bother making mobile versions of anything? Furthermore, its massively convenient to have a powerful app where all the fora that you use across the internet are can be accessed. It's as easy, if not easier than using the site on the desktop.

I can't wait til you guys make this available if you do. I use it all the time for many other forums and it works massively well. I get notifications when discussions I'm in have new comments and replying to them is so much easier from the app than it would be otherwise, especially on the go.
I'm not against it, just wondering what problems supes is having.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2014, 07:48:38 PM »
I can zoom in, sure, but I'd rather not have to adjust the page size every single time I click a link, and I'm not gonna change text/page size permanently just because FES is tiny. It's not unusable and I browse it on mobile all the time, it could just be much less of a pain.
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

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Offline Lord Dave

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2014, 08:00:58 PM »
I can zoom in, sure, but I'd rather not have to adjust the page size every single time I click a link, and I'm not gonna change text/page size permanently just because FES is tiny. It's not unusable and I browse it on mobile all the time, it could just be much less of a pain.
Fair enough.
If you are going to DebOOonK an expert then you have to at least provide a source with credentials of equal or greater relevance. Even then, it merely shows that some experts disagree with each other.

Ghost of V

Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2014, 08:03:07 PM »
I can zoom in, sure, but I'd rather not have to adjust the page size every single time I click a link, and I'm not gonna change text/page size permanently just because FES is tiny. It's not unusable and I browse it on mobile all the time, it could just be much less of a pain.

What browser are you using on your mobile device? I use chrome and tfes runs great on it. I do have to zoom in every now and then but zooming is as simple as double-tapping... it takes about half-a-second to do.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2014, 08:42:31 PM by Vauxhall »

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2014, 11:04:25 PM »
Chrome. I don't know why people think I'm saying browsing is difficult, I'm saying it's kind of annoying. No other sites I browse require me to zoom ever. I go there, click things and am good to go. Zooming in to do the delicate task of hitting a page number isn't hard nor particularly daunting in annoyance, but I'd rather not have to do those sorts of things at all.
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

Ghost of V

Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2014, 11:07:25 PM »
Chrome. I don't know why people think I'm saying browsing is difficult, I'm saying it's kind of annoying. No other sites I browse require me to zoom ever. I go there, click things and am good to go. Zooming in to do the delicate task of hitting a page number isn't hard nor particularly daunting in annoyance, but I'd rather not have to do those sorts of things at all.

Most sites have mobile versions that you are directed to. TFES has no mobile version, that's why you have to zoom at times.

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Offline Snupes

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2014, 11:13:27 PM »
Yes, that is what I'm addressing.
There are cigarettes in joints. You don't smoke it by itself.

Ghost of V

Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2014, 11:32:25 PM »
I would like to see TFES come to tapatalk. It's just a matter of getting the admins to go along with it.

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Offline xasop

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2014, 05:36:09 AM »
I've just had a look over this, and it makes me appreciate how good SMF programmers really are. This code is a steaming pile.

Thankfully, most of it is tucked away in its own corner where it won't impact any non-Tapatalk users. There will be a slight performance penalty due to the way it sends post notifications to Tapatalk users, but hopefully that won't be noticeable. If it becomes a problem, we can solve it at that point.

I've submitted a pull request for one particular issue that was just completely wrong before, and rolled that into our code. I'll do some more cleanup and install this Real Soon Now.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol

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Offline xasop

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Re: Tapatalk forum app
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2014, 06:23:48 AM »
This is now installed. I don't know if adding FES to the Tapatalk network is mandatory for using Tapatalk with it, but it requires me to create an account to do that. rottingroom, please feel free to do so on our behalf.

I'd like to set one thing straight for the record. This isn't something we can feasibly support, as none of the admins uses Tapatalk and it duplicates a lot of SMF's own code (from an older version than we're using, in fact). This means that the Tapatalk part of the codebase is going to be missing a lot of our bug fixes, feature enhancements and performance improvements, both from SMF itself and from us.

I don't know how heavily Tapatalk relies on the SMF side of things, and I don't use it so I won't notice if things are broken. We will of course make a best effort to fix problems as they are reported, but the web interface is the one we primarily support and the one that is tested and considered to work well. If you report bugs with the forum using Tapatalk, we ask that you please also try to reproduce them using the web interface.

I'm not trying to be difficult, it's just that this code really isn't supportable the way it is. I'm more than willing to provide it as a convenience mechanism for people who want to use Tapatalk, but understand that in doing so, we can't guarantee that all of the problems we've fixed over the past eight months are going to be fixed for you.
when you try to mock anyone while also running the flat earth society. Lol