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[perkiset]

That's how I have it running now in the test environment, but that's not how SMF wants it done.

There is a whole API (or at least a structured method) for how to add options to the SMF code base and how to add code through their own, proprietary patch system (akin to ./patch, but just for them). The challenge is not how to programmatically execute it for *me* but how to make it something that non-programmer users of SMF can enjoy. And what exactly they'd like to see it do. As soon as I move my notion past simply iPhone, like handling multiple themes for them & Android, or WinCE etc, it starts to get a little confusing. It's a logical/UI challenge.

Say... you have an iPhone do, yes? You want I should hook you up?

[nutballs]

very cool perk. just checked it out in the shitter so I gave it my full attention. But then I forgot what i found when I flushed... 

so... i will give a report later after i actually check it out.

[perkiset]

Wow. TMFI. 

Glad you liked it though. Was the 2-finger scroll thing OK? It doesn't "swoop" like normal scrolling, but given the interface constraints I think it's a reasonable concession.

I am working on actual thread display right this very moment, I'll let you know when that's all set as well. My target is to be able to reply to a post, then I'll call it a 0.001Alpha version and let more folks try it out.

[nutballs]

err 2 finger scroll?
feature i dont know about apparently lool

[perkiset]

Scrollable DIVs on the iPhone are not scrollable normally. They don't show any scrollbars either.

Touch the area with 2 fingers rather than just one and then swipe. If you use one finger, it will try and scroll the whole website, which it cant (it's perfectly sized for the iPhone viewport) - bit two fingers says you want to scroll the INSIDE area (the DIV). This works on all sites with a scrollable div.

[perkiset]

BTW: Now and again I'll get the middle div stuck - it will no longer scroll. I have not yet been able to ascertain why this is. A single swipe quickly with just one finger seems to clear it, but it frustrates me that I don't know why I'm causing it.

[nutballs]

ah ok. didnt know that lol

ya I have experienced the stuck div thingy as well.

i think its because the viewport gets slightly shifted left.
Its not locking to size, and preventing a left-right scroll. you might want to look at that.
you can see it by just dragging 1 finger left on the home screen.

[perkiset]

The ability for it to slip slightly left is new - I think I touched something in one of the CSS files and screwed it up.

I'm a little dissappointed in the feeling of the scrolling div - it was cool at first and is a reasonably strong solution for the limited space, but it offers a couple things that I don't like as well and have to do some thinking.

The most important flaw in that design is that if you click the "Go to end of thread" button it goes to correct page, but the #name value is not correctly moved to, because it's inside the div. Big troubles there, not sure if that's a deal breaker. I can write some JS around it, but not sure if I can give the kind of experience that users will expect.

Secondly I'm just not as happy with the two-finger scrolling mechanism - it is really clunky compared to normal scrolling. But if I put everything in a big ol' div and make the user scroll up and down it's also a bummer. I am trying to reconcile a couple of those sort of design concerns into it - if you have any ideas I am all ears. I thought about putting a small (perhaps 15px wide) strip on the right and/or left side that when you touch it you go to an options page, so you could get standard scrolling but have the options availability with you no matter where you are. I also thought about JSing the header module to the top of the viewport, regardless of where you are in the page like an ad, but that will look jumpy and I 'm not sure, again, that I can make it pro enough to feel right.

::furrowed eyebrows:: The answer is in there, I just can't see it yet.

[perkiset]

The intertubes FTf'ingWIN!

OK - back on track. Found some research on exactly what I want to see and I've witnessed it done. The JS is a bit nasty, so I have a little bit of work to do to understand it, but I believe I'll be able to have the interface I'm looking for AND take advantage of the iPhone scrollyness.

Gonna take me a little bit to implement this, but as soon as I get my arms around it I will.

[BazzaCAD]

WOW Perk, this looks amazing!!! 
I found your forum from the SMF forums. I've been trying to get my SMF on the iPhone too & that lead me here.
You've made great progress, do you have any ETA for alpha\beta testing?
I notice you're still on SMF version 1.1.2, do you know if you're theme will work on the latest 1.1.8 build, or the new 2.0 when it's made public?
Thanks for the amazing work & looking forward to seeing more of it.

Barry

[perkiset]

Hey Barry - thanks for stopping by!

I've not put any work into it for the last week-ish, due to client load - but I will be returning to it probably later next week. I was stopped because I didn't care for the "two finger scroll" feeling - it works, but it's just not as cool. It hurt my design. But then I found some folks doing *excellent* work mimicking the normal scroll mechanisms with fixed CSS frames and I'm back into it. I don't know yet if it's going to all work, but my next proof of concept should have it. Additionally, the #name feature of setting the browser to the right post was right out - I have some thoughts using the new stuff I've found, but it's still going to be challenging.

My first target is simply getting this board to do board index, message index, display thread and reply. When I'm there, I'll officially open it up for testing here at the board. The goal is a completely functional theme, with every aspect of SMF handled via the iPhone - and more importantly, handled in an iPhone kind of way.

Your next question is a little tougher: I've not built a theme for distribution, so I have no idea (yet) about how to do that. Nor do I have any idea about the differences between versions and what I will be getting myself into. My primary goal has been to overcome the screen real estate challenges of the phone before I move there. I don't think it will be that bad, but one never knows. I'm not really an SMF developer, more an SMF hack.

But the next piece is more critical: right now I have built a "hard switch" into SMF that says, "If the browser is an iPhone then use the iPhone theme, otherwise use whatever the forum would normally have" - writing this as a mod for SMF looks a little more intricate and I may request assistance from others to write the deployment code for that - unless I just dig in and assimilate it. My goal here is that part of the theme is this switch - so that people do not have to select the theme, the board selects it for them (based on admin configuration, of course). Given different versions of SMF, I have a bad feeling that this piece is going to cost me in Advil

As soon as I feel comfy about version 0.001a I'll put your name into the beta group that will allow access to this board on an iPhone with the new theme, if you'd like that. Please let me know.

Thanks again!

[BazzaCAD]

Thanks for the update, & yes please add me to the beta list.

thx

[Miguel]

That is awesome, perkiset. I've been looking around to see if there was anything out there for iPhone for SMF boards. If you don't mind, I'd like to try this out as well. The board that I'd like to see this on is running SMF 1.1.7, and I'm sure a few words with the admin of the board should allow some testing if you are ever planning on setting it up outside of your boards. http://www.1560.tv/forum/index.php is the board. There's a good number of iPhone users there that could test it out, and it would give you another version (outside of 1.1.2 and 1.1. to test it on.

But for starters, I'd love to give it a try even on this board. Again, looks great.

Miguel

[perkiset]

OK Miguel, I'll keep you in the loop. I'll be posting here when I'm ready to go with a test. Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it) even in this economy my client load is staggering, so I'm pretty busy ATM. This is not far down my ToDo list though, so as soon as I've got my next version ready to go I'll ping here and email you.

Thanks for the support!
/perk

[Miguel]

I'd say that's very fortunate. Thanks, look forward to seeing something I can play around with.