I forgot about the forum too...  I agree with Reinier, probably best to keep
the existing mobile interface around.  At least for now.

There are some tools available that maintain lists of devices.  I am not
sure how easy it is to do in rails, but I have used it in php with Drupal.
The data can come from here: http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/  Something to
think about.  There are a lot of user agents out there these days and I
wouldn't want tracks to have to keep track of them.  Short of using some
sort of detection scheme, a subdirectory would good idea.  I would suggest
that we keep it short as we are talking about mobile devices here.
Smartphone is too much typing.  Maybe /sp or /lite?

I also suspect that it would easier to dumb down the main interface vs
adding functionality to the mobile.  DRY is good.

Eric, I like the idea of a discussion on skype.  That would be very
helpful.  Are you in the US?

Tim

On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 3:41 AM, Reinier Balt <[email protected]> wrote:

>  I keep track using http://www.getontracks.org/forums/atom/
>
> The traffic manageable
>
>
>
> We could indeed start with a smartphone view. Perhaps select the right
> mobile view based on user-agent?
>
>
>
> Reinier
>
>
>
> *Van:* [email protected] [mailto:
> [email protected]] *Namens *Eric Allen
> *Verzonden:* maandag 22 maart 2010 19:45
> *Aan:* track-discuss
>
> *Onderwerp:* [Tracks-discuss] Re: Future of the "mobile" interface
>
>
>
> Oh right, I keep forgetting that there's a forum. If the existing mobile
> interface is going to be kept, then what do we call the new mobile
> interface? Smartphone mode? How do we differentiate the two?
>
>
>
>   What is the target of jquery for mobile devices? Is js support common
> nowadays?  I’m no expert here…
>
> jQuery is used heavily by mobile sites designed for the iPhone, often with
> something like jQTouch <http://www.jqtouch.com/>. Android, WebOS, and
> iPhone all use some form of WebKit, which has great JavaScript support.
>
>
>
>   I like your strategy for the next mobile interface. Reuse as much as
> possible from the regular interface.
>
> DRY, right? :)
>
>
>
> On Mar 22, 2010, at 11:17 AM, Reinier Balt wrote:
>
>
>
>   I don’t think the current mobile view is throw-away (yet). Looking at
> the tickets and the forum messages, the mobile view is widely used. We also
> have a gmail widget that uses the mobile view. Not everybody is using an
> iphone or android :-)
>
>
>
> What is the target of jquery for mobile devices? Is js support common
> nowadays?  I’m no expert here…
>
>
>
> I like your strategy for the next mobile interface. Reuse as much as
> possible from the regular interface.
>
>
>
> Reinier
>
>
>
> *Van:* [email protected] [mailto:
> [email protected]] *Namens*Eric Allen
> *Verzonden:* maandag 22 maart 2010 14:53
> *Aan:* Tim Madden
> *CC:* track-discuss
> *Onderwerp:* [Tracks-discuss] Re: Future of the "mobile" interface
>
>
>
> Tim,
>
> I totally agree with you. I've found myself using the desktop Tracks
> interface on my iPhone for everything but adding tasks. That's even on a
> crappy 2G wireless connection.  I've wanted to do something with the mobile
> interface at some point, but I haven't found the time to make it happen. I'm
> happy to do what I can to support you on bringing a better mobile interface
> to fruition.
>
>
>
> As for how to get there, I think the current mobile interface is probably
> throw-away if we want a real, rich, mobile interface. I'd take the desktop
> interface and throw some stylesheets at it to avoid forking code as much as
> possible. This could be our chance to get real graceful degradation in all
> of Tracks, not just the mobile interface. Now that I've cleaned up the
> JavaScript code (and put it all in application.js), the way is open to fix
> up a lot of the view templates, and in doing so we should be able to isolate
> things into partials such that the mobile interface is just a re-combination
> of those same partials with a different set of JavaScript and CSS. I'd be
> interested in going through the view layer with you over Skype or something
> to see how feasible this is.
>
>
>
> I'm excited!
>
>
>
> -Eric
>
> On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 9:58 PM, Tim Madden <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I wanted to start a discussion about the future of our mobile interface
> with the group and solicit some feedback.
>
> First, the mobile version is a great asset to have.  The interface is super
> lightweight, clean and works universally (more or less). However, the
> mobiles that are in the pockets of many tracks users today, likely most,
> have browsers capable of much more.  Every "smartphone" and many
> non-"smartphones" support some level of javascript.  However, if you visit
> the mainline tracks interface on your smartphone, the experience is
> comprised.  I happen to use a blackberry (and we used to have an ipod touch,
> but the kids fried it) and it works but much of the javascript goodies are
> lost and this actually limits the interface's usefulness.  For example,
> autocomplete and javascript powered drop down menus among others (at least
> on my blackberry) do not work.
>
> So my thought is we need some happy medium between the two.  Something with
> some basic javascript for things like ticking off completed actions while
> respecting the expected screen resolution of ~320px wide.  It should avoid
> drop down menus and the add and edit form probably need to be left to a
> separate page instead of region of the page or an overlay on the existing
> page.
>
> The question I have is what path offers the least resistance to achieve
> this goal? (We must be realistic. This is an open source project after all.
> We may have big dreams, but we also have small time budgets to contribute!)
> One path would be to take the existing mobile interface and layer in some of
> the important javascript goodness we want... Alternatively, we could clone
> the rich interface and dumb down the javascript to the essentials and slim
> the width of the interface to an arbitrary goal ( say 320px)? Maybe there
> are tools to use I am unaware of??
>
> Let me know if you have input on the idea.  I am willing to take a run at a
> development branch, but wanted to gather some opinion first,
>
> Thanks, Tim
>
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