Life In 19x19
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L19 on mobile
http://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15037		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  daal [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:22 pm ]
Post subject:  L19 on mobile
Does anyone have a good solution to looking at L19 on one's phone? I have tried several browsers, fiddled with all the settings and have yet to find a problem-free way to view the site. Either the sgfs don't display, or the text won't wrap, or changing the size of the text messes something else up etc. Is it me, or is L19 just not very mobile friendly?
Author:  jeromie [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
I haven’t really had a problem on mobile Safari, but I haven’t tried to tweak font sizes or anything. I’m just glad L19 doesn’t try to push its own mobile app on me every time I visit. I happen to like the idea of using a general purpose browser instead of 100 walled gardens!
Author:  Kirby [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Is there something specific that would help? Font size adjustment, or something else?
Author:  hyperpape [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
I probably spend more time on L19 on my phone than on the computer. Landscape orientation is your friend. Threads with sgfs are pretty hard to deal with. Pure discussion or diagrams are not too bad.

Kirby: tap targets are the biggest thing I'd complain about, especially for threads with multiple pages: the links to the pages are super small and close together (view unread, etc aren't too bad).

The text field for responding to posts is weird on iOS: I think there might be bugs related to scrolling once it doesn't fit in a full screen.
Author:  Kirby [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
One simple option would be to add a style that's been designed for mobile devices, such as Artodia:
https://www.artodia.com/phpbb-styles/mobile/

There are instructions for having it auto-detect mobile devices, but we could omit that part (so that users would explicitly set the style in their user CP settings, if they wanted the mobile style).

It's easy to install - just drop the files on the server.

Adrian is the only one that can upload to the server, though, so if we want to do this, I'll have to get in touch with him.
Author:  jeromie [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Actually, thinking about this a little further, the one major problem I have is with viewing sgf files on mobile. Eidogo is terrible on a small screen touch device. I think the biggest improvement would be changing the sgf viewer to one of the modern mobile friendly libraries. But that might be a lot of work.
Author:  BlindGroup [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
I agree. That's my only challenge as well. For games with links -- where the sgf file was uploaded to L19 -- I just paste the link into an app like Smartgo Kifu. But for the games where the sgf files are pasted into the post, I haven't found a solution.
Author:  Kirby [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
jeromie wrote:
Actually, thinking about this a little further, the one major problem I have is with viewing sgf files on mobile. Eidogo is terrible on a small screen touch device. I think the biggest improvement would be changing the sgf viewer to one of the modern mobile friendly libraries. But that might be a lot of work.


It's not too hard if you have a particular SGF viewer in mind. It's simply a matter of uploading the files to the server, and making a new bb-code.

Is there a particular SGF viewer that is good for mobile?
Author:  EdLee [ Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hi daal,

Small iPhone 5 screen here, Safari. I'm OK so far. :)
Author:  daal [ Tue Oct 17, 2017 12:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Kirby wrote:
Is there something specific that would help? Font size adjustment, or something else?

For me it would be for the text to wrap, so that when I make the text large enough to read comfortably that I don't have to scroll sideways. I also like blindgroup's suggestion of using a different sgf viewer. The eidogo buttons are too small to tap reliably. As to using a separate mobile style, that might be good as long as one doesn't have to switch back and forth on each device.

@hyperpape, though I don't like using landscape view, it is better for L19. Thanks for the tip.
@everybody else: iphone? Not for me.
Author:  BlindGroup [ Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
BlindGroup wrote:
I agree. That's my only challenge as well. For games with links -- where the sgf file was uploaded to L19 -- I just paste the link into an app like Smartgo Kifu. But for the games where the sgf files are pasted into the post, I haven't found a solution.


Just to clarify my earlier comment. This is an example of sgf data that I haven't figure out how to access on a mobile sgf viewer: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?p=223376#p223376
There is "Download SGF" link, but that link never works.

These links work fine: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?p=223967#p223967
Either the "Download SGF" link or the link for the uploaded sgf file provides a URL that I can paste into an sgf editor.

Is there a way to access a URL for the first kind of sgf data? Even on a computer, I haven't been able to figure out how to load the data directly into an sgf editor. I just cut and paste into an sgf file using using a text editor.
Author:  jeromie [ Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Kirby wrote:
jeromie wrote:
Actually, thinking about this a little further, the one major problem I have is with viewing sgf files on mobile. Eidogo is terrible on a small screen touch device. I think the biggest improvement would be changing the sgf viewer to one of the modern mobile friendly libraries. But that might be a lot of work.


It's not too hard if you have a particular SGF viewer in mind. It's simply a matter of uploading the files to the server, and making a new bb-code.

Is there a particular SGF viewer that is good for mobile?


Glift, which is the one gogameguru was using, comes to mind.
Author:  daal [ Wed Oct 25, 2017 11:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
It seems that L19 works fairly well on Opera's android browser. In most situations, zooming in causes the text to wrap, eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling. There are however still a few places (such as when writing a post, or on the index page) where it doesn't work.
I often encounter sites that either automatically offer a mobile version (which is what my wordpress site does) or asks the user if they want to switch to a mobile version. What would it take to have L19 offer one of these options?
Author:  Kirby [ Thu Oct 26, 2017 6:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Installing an existing mobile theme is just a matter of copying the files to our existing installation (either Adrian does this directly, or someone makes a pull request with the files).

Having the site prompt you to use the new theme is a matter of updating some config files - it’s debatable whether we want this, given the annoyance toward the tapatalk notifications from earlier.

I experimented with glift plugin for an SGF reader. It seems to require an existing html div on the page to draw the reader. When I put this div at the top of the html hierarchy, the reader works, but it’s displayed at the top of the page - not within your post body, so that obviously won’t do. If I put the div within the post body so the viewer would be drawn within your post like you’d want, the div inherits zero height from parent html, and isn’t rendered.

Long story short - I need to debug the glift thing more before it’s usable, but a theme for mobile would be easy without debugging, if we wanted to go that route.
Author:  Gomoto [ Thu Oct 26, 2017 9:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Chrome on Android, Nexus 5x, no problems.
Author:  Laerthd [ Sat Aug 07, 2021 4:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: L19 on mobile
Sorry to revive such an old topic but I cannot help but think that the low interaction in this forum could be at least partially solved throught a better mobile experience.

Speaking for myself, I often read the forum while not being connected and NEVER use it on mobile to interact. This reduce greatly the opportunities to discuss any topic.
Above all, as stated above, the viewing of sgf on mobile is quite hard given the size of the buttons.

Was the usability problem solved with a method that I don't know (I read in horizontal mode but that doesn't change the sgf problem)?

If not, what would be required to improve the mobile version?

The solutions to the two main problems (sgf + mobile theme) seem already in this thread. What blocked the deployment last time this discussion happened? Is there other reasons for the current state of the forum that I am not aware of? Does it only affect a small portion of users?
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