Mobile Default Dolphin Modules - Why Not?

This topic is my own opinion along with some questions/concerns I have. I apologize for the long post up front :)

I would like to start by saying that I understand there some developers who sell mobile versions of default dolphin modules and I have absolutely nothing against that.

I have always been one to complain about the lack of 'interaction' the mobile apps have since day one. 'Ugh, this is read only', 'Hey, I can upload a photo', etc..Since then, the apps have been updated (still lacks interaction) but, at a much much slower pace than I would expect. Especially since the world is quickly being dominated by SmartPhones, Tablets, Phablets, and soon Watches.

As I have said many times, when a member of a site uses a mobile app, the first thing that want to know is: "Hey, I wonder what my friends have posted recently". Unfortunately, when using the Dolphin mobile apps, the member says: 'Hey, I wonder what my friends have posted recently. Well, the only thing I can do is start opening each 'module' and search for anything new. If you are fortunate enough (like myself) to own the Evo Wall and Mobile Evo wall (by ilbellodelweb) that issue is resolved. However, not every does.

In order to make your Dolphin Mobile App more 'interactive' and include a 'few' default dolphin modules, it would take about $600+ dollars to do so in the Market. And how much is it to get a license for the mobile apps? Currently, $499. So for about $1,100 - not including Apple ($99/yr)/Android($25 one time) fees or rebranding if you do not do it yourself - You can have a pretty interactive mobile app.

So I have to ask BoonEx this: 'Dolphin 7.1.4 is working better than any other version I have seen yet. Why not shift your focus on the mobile apps to make them more interactive?'. I firmly believe that if Dolphin had a more interactive mobile app, your profits from Prime licenses would skyrocket. Just take a moment to read all of the member comments on your blogs and other forum postings here at BoonEx regarding mobile, and you will see them all saying the same things. Wanting more modules integrated.

Now to the main point here. We have a few of the default modules available in mobile now:

News - View Only (members can't post news anyway - not sure how many sites even use this)

Articles - View Only (members can't post articles anyway - not sure how many sites even use this)

Photos - View/Upload options

Videos - View/Upload options

Sounds - View Only

Blogs - View Only (not sure how many sites even use this)

Obviously its possible to integrate the default mobiles into the mobile app (just look in the market), so why not do it? I have tried going through some of the install files (ex. blogs module) to see if I can figure out how to get other default modules (groups, events, etc.) to also integrate. I got about as far as getting them in the Mobile Page builder before getting an extreme headache. of course, I am not an expert developer either. But if I can ever figure it out, I am going to be a happy man.

So what do we want added in the mobile apps? This is very simple:

- ALL of the remaining default modules in Dolphin that are not already available.

- Since Dolphin now uses 2 separate Timelines (one that shows only friends activities, one that shows only yours and allows you to post to) then I would suggest a Timeline feature that allows you to view your friends activities, your activities, and ability to post text, comment, and upload photos/videos (since these options exist in mobile). Very similar to the way it was when Dolphin had a 'wall' instead. For example, Anton even created a Site Wall that showed all user's activity. Of course, I would put some type of config in the admin area that let you choose the default privacy level.

- Allow users to create/edit/delete/join groups/comment/ within that particular module.

So what's the downfall?

- We have all seen, and some became victim of (including myself - numerous times), modules that we have paid for because we wanted/needed that feature, become a 'default' module of Dolphin later down the road.

- We have no way of knowing when these features will be added to the mobile apps or ever be added. So that might mean that some of us will get burned again.

- This could keep BoonEx members from purchasing a Prime license or even a Standard license for that matter.

OK. Now that I got that off of my chest (I feel better now), I would like to know from BoonEx what your thoughts and plans (if any) are regarding my topic. I checked Trac and to be honest, I haven't seen an activity with development in over a month. Of course, that doesn't mean there hasn't been any and Trac has not been updated with it. Oh and I would like to hear from the members too.

Actually, it is not much better for non-mobile uses.  Two things my members constantly complain about and has caused me to lose members is that it is too hard to know when their friends have posted new content, comments, replies (this is not even there; so if someone replies to a comment you left, you don't know about it).  I have tried to get some developer to write a better spy module; one that does not lump all notices together; you get 30 comments to your profile comments and it pushes everything else off.   The other thing is lack of real-time comment updates.  You have to constantly refresh the page to see if new comments have been added.  I have tried to get a developer to do this.  Why doesn't the great ilbellodelweb ajax the comment sections?  I have played with the EvoWall many times and I personally don't see it as being so great.  Ajaxed comments sections would have my members coming back more than the EvoWall would.

Personally, those two are more important to get users to use your site than anything else.  Anything.

 Not sure I understand 'what' comment sections you are referring to. Comments on photos, profile comments, blog comments, etc.

Yes, exactly, all of them.  The comments are all part of the same code; driven by the same scripts.

When I was on the now defunct Multiply, you could go to someone's blog post and as members left comments it would update every so often without refreshing the whole page.  It added greatly to interaction between members and members held discussions with each other about the content.  My members want this on the new site but I lack the skills to add it.  Every time we hold a discussion about improving the site, two things always come up, real-time (or near real-time) comments and better site notifications.

Now of course if it is done too soon, it can be annoying.  I was on a site the other day reading a news article and it was updating way too often and the comments kept scrolling by too fast.  They had a button to turn off the updates.

I see what you are saying I think. Since that is not really 'mobile' related, we can continue the discussion in the topic you created about this HERE

Is there yet a good mobile platform?

P.

Good topic. I think if I'll start to open my soul pain now about these non-documented mobile apps, I'll never get finished :) The only thing I would like to mention, is that Boonex guys at least should fix some obvious mistakes and bugs in both apps. And for sure any complicated open-source code should be with comments, especially if you have a lot of classes and not obvious function names.

If I'm buying open-source app, I don't expect to spend a couple days/weeks figuring out how it works by tracing every function, but I just want to do what I need to do.

We will improve current mobile platform gradually. 

Next major version of Dolphin will be fully mobile compatible.

Thanks for the reply Alex. When you say 'major version', are you referring to 7.2 or something like D8? I don't guess it really matters either way. If 7.2 is considererd a 'major' version and we end up going to 7.1.9 before 7.2 release (like previous versions), we are still possibly looking at 1-2 years before this will happen since we haven't gotten to 7.1.5 yet.  

he mean version 8,, dont you remember they announced it in 2009 or was it 2010?

 Major version is 7.2, 7.5 or 8.0

 "OR" to me means Version 8.0.  So maybe we should wait for another 3-5 yrs to be able to see the major update. 

I have a way that makes doing module integrations easy for me. There are a few modules that I have created in which will need mobile access. First off, the following code is what I use as a template (in modules/vendor/module/XxXxxxModule.php:

    function actionNetworksMobilePage() {
       
        bx_import('BxDolMobileTemplate');
        $oMobileTemplate = new BxDolMobileTemplate($this->_oConfig, $this->_oDb);
        $oMobileTemplate->pageStart();
        $eNetwork = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM cf_networks_main");
        while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($eNetwork)) {
            $Thumb = $row['thumb'];
            $Description = $row['desc'];
            $Address = $row['address'];
            $Country = $row['country'];

?>
<div class="bx-sys-row bx-sys-mobile-padding bx-sys-mobile-border bx-sys-mobile-box-bg bx-sys-mobile-margin-top-auto" onclick="if('__url__'.length) document.location = '__url__';">
  <table width="100%">
    <tr>
    <th width="11%" align="left" valign="top"><img src="../../../../modules/boonex/photos/data/files/<?php echo $Thumb ?>_t.jpg" width="56" height="56" alt=""/></th>
    <td width="89%" align="left" valign="top"><?php echo $Description ?></td>
  </tr>
</table>
    <div class="bx-sys-row-accessory bx-sys-mobile-margin-right">
        <img class="bx-sys-row-accessory-img" src="<bx_icon_url:mobile_next.png />" />
  </div>

</div>

<?php
        }
        $oMobileTemplate->pageCode('Networks', false, true);
    }

section in purple is my sql query to show data, sections in blue - areas that help the content fit within the template properly (templates/base/mobile_page_padding.html and templates/base/mobile_row.html are the html files that I use for the base template code), section in red - html template page name in module (duplicate of templates/base/mobile_box.html).

To access the page, just go to your web browser yourdomain.com/m/module_name/mobilepage

Hope this makes sense and helps others who are wanting to add mobile features to modules.