Cemetech is proud to announce the development of a mobile app. We've wrapped the current mobile website in a special style designed to be easily useable on smartphones, and turned that into a simple PhoneGap application. Alex "comicIDIOT" Glanville spearheaded the efforts to create the app, while the rest of the team chipped in when possible: Peter "Tari" Marheine helped on the backend by ensuring the proper hooks and services were running, Peter "PT_" Tillema wrote a version of SAX that'll run smoothly with intermittent and high-latency network access, and in the rare spare minutes between working on Geopipe and trains, Christopher "KermMartian" Mitchell helped create the page templates.

We're currently testing the app within the administrative team as well as with a few select Cemetechians (whom we've asked to not share the early versions they've been testing). Once we finish building, testing, and polishing, we plan to release the app by May 1st. Some features you'll be able to find in that first release of the app:
  • You can read and post on the forum
  • Interact with users on SAX
  • Read and send private messages
  • Review our site resources
  • View and edit your profile and settings
  • Log in and out

Things that are planned but will happen some time after release:
  • Browse the file archives and read reviews
  • View your SourceCoder projects (it's unlikely we'll get SourceCoder editing or jsTIfied working any time soon, but you can still just use the mobile website)
  • ...is there anything you'd like to see added?

For a brief tour, check out the video below:


Look for it on the iOS App Store and the Google Play store in May. We at Cemetech want you to know that we heard you about wanting a mobile app, and we look forward to helping you engage with our community in new ways.

Edit: As encouragingly few of you guessed, this was an April Fool's joke. It's helpful to us to know just how many of you care about using Cemetech on mobile devices, but we'll continue to address that by improving the functionality of the mobile stylesheet for the website itself rather than spending our already scarce development time on a dedicated mobile app.
Looks nice! I hope this makes Cemetech accessible to more people.
That looks really cool! One concern. I hate typing up posts and messages on mobile, but that might be because of the current layout of the website on mobile. Will we be able to expand the text boxes in the app? That would be really helpful. Good job!
jcgter777 wrote:
That looks really cool! One concern. I hate typing up posts and messages on mobile, but that might be because of the current layout of the website on mobile. Will we be able to expand the text boxes in the app? That would be really helpful. Good job!
The current post entry box in the app is a lot like the Quick Reply one in the mobile site, but please let us know if you want a larger one.

Ivoah: Thanks, us too!
WOOOT! It's finally here!

I can't wait for this to be fully released!
A few questions:
1. Does this support swipe-to-go-back? Like in iOS settings, to visit the previous page you just swipe from the left edge of the screen to the right. If not, I would like to see that implemented. It would be more natural and easier to swipe rather than reach toward the top of the phone.
2. Is there a 'view most recent posts'? I didn't see it in the video but I may have missed it. I probably use that button more than any other one.
3. When scrolling down I see that the big "forum" text disappears (nice!). When you scroll up, do you need to scroll up to the top for it to reappear? (if so then question/ recommendation 1 would be even better in this case) Or does it reappear when you scroll up just a little bit?
4. More to come...
This is a very obvious April Fools prank. It would be really cool if it existed, though. I'm just going with the flow. The rest of this post is simply complete BS. This will be an awesome addition to Cemetech.

One concern, though. Is it TI-OS compatible Razz

The app looks very sleek and modern. Well done! Is this a hint at a potential Cemetech styling update?

I've been waiting for this for a long time. In fact, I use the iOS feature that lets you put a shortcut link on your home screen. This will be a much-welcomed app!
The size of the quick reply box is good, but for longer posts, it'd be more annoying. I think the best thing to do is make a handle that can resize it (if it's not there already). How about making it bigger automatically in landscape mode? Also, I never saw a scroll bar when typing posts on mobile, but is there? If there isn't, I think that's be good. (The phone I use for this stuff is old, so it could just be my phone)

I do have a question though. Since it is an app, will we be able to go through posts offline? If not, I would make it so that when online, it would download all the topics in the newest posts, or have the user select them, and then when they get disconnected, they can still read the posts. (something like a reading list in Safari)

I think TLM mentioned a lot of what I was going to say about some of the features, so I won't repeat them here.
TheLastMillennial wrote:
1. Does this support swipe-to-go-back? Like in iOS settings, to visit the previous page you just swipe from the left edge of the screen to the right. If not, I would like to see that implemented. It would be more natural and easier to swipe rather than reach toward the top of the phone.


Sadly no. I feel that by tapping the topic and sub-forum titles is easy enough but I totally understand that swiping to go back is naturally intuitive. Since phone gap relies on HTML, CSS, and JS it's unlikely to ever support the swiping thing. But I'll look into it.

Quote:
2. Is there a 'view most recent posts'? I didn't see it in the video but I may have missed it. I probably use that button more than any other one.


Surprisingly, I never focused on that in testing. It was always more about how does this look and how are the buttons? But I'll put that on the to-do list.

Quote:
3. When scrolling down I see that the big "forum" text disappears (nice!). When you scroll up, do you need to scroll up to the top for it to reappear? (if so then question/ recommendation 1 would be even better in this case) Or does it reappear when you scroll up just a little bit?


It stays at the top, exactly like Cemetech's header and navigation now.
This looks awesome! Been waiting for it for a while and I can't wait to use it Smile
_iPhoenix_ wrote:
This is a very obvious April Fools prank. It would be really cool if it existed, though. I'm just going with the flow. The rest of this post is simply complete BS. This will be an awesome addition to Cemetech.

One concern, though. Is it TI-OS compatible Razz

The app looks very sleek and modern. Well done! Is this a hint at a potential Cemetech styling update?

I've been waiting for this for a long time. In fact, I use the iOS feature that lets you put a shortcut link on your home screen. This will be a much-welcomed app!


I would enjoy such a modern styling update
Nice stuff guys! I remember seeing a topic where this was suggested a while ago and I'm happy to see it come to life.
I second the idea of adding a latest posts button. I think that it is probably the most used feature for a lot of members.
I look forward to downloading and using this 💻➡️📱

Something smells fishy though, given that this was posted on/around April 1st
I'm disappointed that the "Show Blub >(<') flying across the screen with bubbles" option is missing.
xlibman wrote:
I'm disappointed that the "Show Blub >(<') flying across the screen with bubbles" option is missing.


Doesn't mean there aren't any Easter eggs Wink
What day was this thread posted??
Yesterday night. You should look at the date posted Wink
ACagliano wrote:
What day was this thread posted??

jcgter777 wrote:
Yesterday night. You should look at the date posted Wink

Oh, I didn't even think about that. So this app isn't an April Fool's joke then; I didn't think it was.
Alex wrote:
xlibman wrote:
I'm disappointed that the "Show Blub >(<') flying across the screen with bubbles" option is missing.


Doesn't mean there aren't any Easter eggs Wink


Because fish are essentially walrus food, can CW's mascot be chasing the fish Razz

Does the app include the ability to PM users? That's a very important thing to me.
_iPhoenix_ wrote:
Does the app include the ability to PM users? That's a very important thing to me.


You're kidding right? That's mentioned in both the video and one of the two bulleted lists in the first post Razz
I think this is awesome!! Good job!
I also support the idea of the addition of “view most recent posts” if that is possible because I use that button more often than anything else.
Also, love the fact that one of the topic threads I created was used in the video. Laughing
Alex wrote:
_iPhoenix_ wrote:
Does the app include the ability to PM users? That's a very important thing to me.


You're kidding right? That's mentioned in both the video and one of the two bulleted lists in the first post Razz


Well, my ability to recall what I read at midnight last night must have been compromised Smile
  
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