Mobile Wikifang

Discuss anything that involves Wikifang, the Telefang Wiki, here.
TimeWalker(imported)
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:13 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by TimeWalker(imported) »

More and more people today actually surf on mobile devices. They often don't have a high enough resolution to have Wikifang appear correctly. That's why I thought that maybe we could add a simple support for mobile devices.

Currently there are some problems when looking at Wikifang on mobile. For example font sizes are all over the place. And you have to tediously zoom in and scroll all around to read infos. With a mobile version, we'd have a much more simpler but friendlier version of Wikifang which should show everything readable and correctly on mobile. This could be useful if you quickly have to look up something on devices like mobile phones.

Right now as a test, it has been already installed but has to be manually switched to view it. The mobile version kinda works like the Wikipedia mobile site. To try it out, you just have to go on the bottom of the page and tap on "Mobile version". It's not perfect and there are issues that need fixing, but it gives an idea how it could work.

So the question is, would it be useful to have a mobile friendly version? If yes then we could collect some ideas what to add or change and work will initiate to fix some issues that mobile site has.
And if we add it, should it automatically turn to mobile view on phones? As a note, you'll still be able to switch to Desktop and vice versa.
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by RacieB »

For an example, here's Firefox on my phone showing both desktop and mobile versions of the mainpage:
Image Image
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Sanqui
Posts: 736
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:25 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by Sanqui »

Pics:
Spoiler!
ImageImage
Guess which I prefer.
TimeWalker(imported)
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:13 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by TimeWalker(imported) »

Comparison on my device with the latest Firefox Mobile:
Image Image
DaVince
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:10 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by DaVince »

If it helps, there is a CSS media query that allows you to check whether the device is in portrait mode (orientation:portrait and orientation:landscape):
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/css-orientation-styles/

Considering that screens that are in portrait view are almost exclusively phone/tablet screens, perhaps this query can be used to our advantage.

Or you can use all of these to ensure it'll look right on most devices, I suppose: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/media-queries-for-standard-devices/
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andwhyisit
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by andwhyisit »

When it comes to creating responsive websites there is no easy fix. Especially not for a massive website filled with numerous tables and inline styles. The content would need to be extensively reworked.
DaVince
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2013 8:10 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by DaVince »

Obviously, but reflowing most of the basic content (pictures, text) shouldn't be *too* difficult, and the little information tables are also small enough to fit in a nice mobile style. That should cover 90% of the information on the wiki.
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andwhyisit
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 pm

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by andwhyisit »

I wasn't worried about tables for layout as much as stuff like this:
http://wiki.telefang.net/List_of_Denjuu_in_Telefang_1
RacieB
Posts: 871
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 4:27 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by RacieB »

I actually got this email from Google a week ago,
wrote:To: webmaster of http://wiki.telefang.net/

Google systems have tested 352 pages from your site and found that 100% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these 352 pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.
The reasons they go on to give in webmaster tools are Viewport not configured, Small font size, Touch elements too close, and Content not sized to viewport (the last one coming up only ten times and mainly wrt pages in the Angios and Gymnos lines which has gotta be their huge evo template hahaha)
TimeWalker(imported)
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 4:13 am

Re: Mobile Wikifang

Post by TimeWalker(imported) »

The plans to make it mobile was put on hold as the Mobile Extension for the MediaWiki software wasn't really great and it's right now too difficult to make the current skin fit on any device smaller than 10".
The problam with making the current template work on small devices was that I had too much trouble with tables like the List of Denjuu or the evolution tree. They most likely need a lot more fixes than just small CSS stuff added to make it more responsive.
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