Advice needed: forums on phone app

[scooter]

Hi, all. Need a bit of help.

I'm attempting to extend my forums' reach by establishing a phone app. This would be a simple bit of code that opens the forums in a native browser window. I have an alpha written in Java for Android; it is portable to iOS with some difficulty, but I haven't attempted that yet. (Keep in mind that my coding skills are pretty rudimentary. I'm a network guy. I don't generally write anything but simple scripts. And they do have to be simple.)

The idea is to allow my users to have an app icon for the Forums sitting right there on their phone. The app would just provide HTTPS access; the phone software would also show notifications from the Forums right there on the phone.

My forums are in phpBB and I was lucky enough with a bit of investigation to find that an extension has been written which does exactly one part of this - sends notifications. The trick is, it sends notifications only to established browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Samsung Internet, and so on. And it only works for Android.

So I now have either an app which can't receive notifications, or a notification extension for phpBB which can't use a proprietary app for my Forums (or indeed any iPhone).

What do I do? Write and release the app without the functionality? Set up the extension? Try to do both? Spend a lot of money and find a coder who can make these work together? Find a forum software that sends notifications natively? Give up and try something else?

 

[KnownSyntax]

You'll need to code your app to accept and handle Push notification systems, with a node backend on your web hosting server. The issue is that doing that, you'll then need to keep track of users and their devices, along with possibly finding a way to link all of them into the forum software nicely. I've been trying to slightly do the same thing but on my own time as well, mostly focusing on Android for now since iOS you need more than a native browser window (they won't accept your app into the App Store, so notifications, etc. is a requirement).

I think that is why the forum groups that do have their own app, do tend to have all of this setup and the experience is vastly different in their app than it would have been from a mobile browser on their forum community.

 

[meetdilip]

Been there. You will need some coding help to achieve what you are trying to do.

 

[scooter]

I think that is why the forum groups that do have their own app, do tend to have all of this setup and the experience is vastly different in their app than it would have been from a mobile browser on their forum community.

Which forum groups are they? I don't know of any software I could run on PHP that has a native app on both platforms.

 

[scooter]

Been there. You will need some coding help to achieve what you are trying to do.

Have you done this? I don't know of any phone apps for the standard forum software packages.

 

[KnownSyntax]

Which forum groups are they? I don't know of any software I could run on PHP that has a native app on both platforms.

There isn’t many. VerticalScope is one group, or stand-alone forums have their own.

You can use Tapatalk, which runs on PHP for a mobile app. But outside of that you’ll need a nodejs backend for notification support. Plus you will need to pay for a developer license for Google and Apple each year, and comply with updates to privacy, etc, in order to avoid not being delisted/removed.

 

[scooter]

There isn’t many. VerticalScope is one group, or stand-alone forums have their own.

You can use Tapatalk, which runs on PHP for a mobile app. But outside of that you’ll need a nodejs backend for notification support. Plus you will need to pay for a developer license for Google and Apple each year, and comply with updates to privacy, etc, in order to avoid not being delisted/removed.

I was looking into Tapatalk; there is an extension in phpBB which I could use, so that takes care of the backend. AFAICT, the only other thing that needs to be done is to list my forums on their service - I can't tell from their website whether or not there's a fee for that. Will keep researching.

The developers on phpBB scream bloody murder about Tapatalk, saying that it isn't secure - they did have a very serious bug about two years ago which allowed users to see all private messages on the entire board. That has been fixed, but it's clear that they still don't trust it.

Of course, I have my issues with the phpBB dev team. They usually respond to requests for features with, "Why would you want to do that?" - including push notifications...and then scream about people using Tapatalk, literally not understanding that it's because Tapatalk provides what they're looking for.

 

[Carlos X]

My recommendation based on how feedback is on PHPBB, and how you're interested in a mobile app... my recommendation is migrate to...

xenForo.

There is a migration plugin that allows you to migrate from PHPBB to xenForo. It costs money, yes, but I promise you: You're going to love it.

I also second the Tapatalk recommendation. Its both a mobile app, and search engine. Problem is, the support is a bit slow for their mobile app. They're trying to encourage their "customers" to their "Proboards" business model. The software is PHPBB, which leaves them to exploits.

PHPBB is poor in terms of almost everything except that its a free forum solution. They think being free is a marketing strategy and its gonna work forever.

Dumbass.

 

[meetdilip]

Have you done this? I don't know of any phone apps for the standard forum software packages.

It is possible only if your forum software people help and is technically possible. I haven't checked phpBB lately.

 

[Nomad]

I am not a programmer, therefore, I can't give you any advice but a question just popped up in my mind. Why don't you use a no-code app development platform to convert your website into a functional app with push notifications

 

[Deleted member 4320]

You can literally just have a touch icon defined in your meta data in the head of the HTML and then have people add the bookmark to their home screen. This is baked into iOS and Android without needing any code.

 

[tahssa]

I think forms are better on the Windows then the phones

 

[Fait]

I personally just make it a progressive app, I considered making an app but I’m only a web programmer (PHP & Jquery) so decided not to until if my site ever gets more active.

 

[saoussen5765]

Most of PHPBB or Xenforo or My BB are mobile friendly so no need to code phone app as they provide a version in mobile phone that you could for example access it and doesn't take much space.