Drop down menus don't work on mobile devices

[Manimal]

Perhaps I'm one of the few on this board that access the site from mobile devices so it may not prove to be worthwhile to change but i have noticed that the drop down menus don't work on a mobile device. Essentially anything with a little triangle next to it is not accessible.

(written from my iPad).

[Cred]

Yep I have had the same problem with my iphone. Thought it was just me...

[Yudda]

Wierd...it's working fine from here using my iPhone. infact I surf d90 exclusively with my iPhone.

Sometimes clicking a pic is a problem. but for the past few days even that issue has fixed itself.

[rijosho]

sometimes you have to just try it again. Drop downs like clicking on a member's name or clicking the search button sometimes just take a moment longer. I sometimes just keep my finger on the member's name or the search link a moment longer, and the drop down then appears. Double click the area to zoom in, then click on the link I'm going for (member profile, advanced search, etc.). This is from my iPhone. Haven't used the iPad yet for this site.

[chrisvonc]

I havent tried the pull downs from my iphone yet. I noticed a few weeks ago I couldnt see pictures. I'll look into it.

------ Follow up post added May 7th, 2010 08:54 AM ------

I'm checking in now from my iPhone and the pull downs seem to be working ok for me. I have to zoom in a little to make sure I hit the arrow to show the menu.

The pictures either open a new browser window or open the light box. Not sure why I get differant results

[ArmyRover]

Ipad's in general from what I understand have been having some issues with browsing the web that doesn't affect the iphone or the ipod touch

[Manimal]

The browser in the iPad & iPhone uses the same universal binary, they are essentially identical. I haven't had any iPad specific problems (0 problems at all actually). I noticed on my iPhone that the drop down menus wouldn't work, even if zooming in and even after many attempts. I didn't have a problem with pictures other than they would load off the screen and I would have to scroll to find them. I noticed that these problems are the same on the iPad as well but the iPad is way easier to use with this site because the screen is so much bigger. Both the iPhone/iPad are mobile devices so they interact with websites differently than normal computers. Essentially websites need additional code to be mobile device friendly. Do you know much about this, Chris? Is it a ton of extra work to get a website to be mobile device friendly?

[cellulararrest]

They're the same in the sense that they use WebKit... However I'll put money on them not being the same bin... Anyway, it's not too bad to implement a mobile vBulletin style that is applied if you visit the forum via mobile device (Android, iPhone, iPad). That might be something Chris or Charles could look into for this site.

Having said that, maybe you guys should dump Apple and go Android... It has no problem with the drop down menus here :)

EDIT: Here's a link to an add-on (and listed styles) that will do that: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=226946&highlight=mobile

[chrisvonc]

I can read up on that but I most likely wont install any kind of style changes before v4 goes public and is moved to the official release. None of the styles migrate over to v4 and if I am going to jump into making a whole new style set, I'll wait and just do it once.

[Manimal]

Android Schmandroid :grin

Surfing the web on any phone will always be an inferior experience, even on a phone as nice as the iPhone. That's where the mobile device optimization comes in. Because of tiny screens you really need to change the format for an acceptable experience. I just learned that the iPad (as opposed to the iPhone) should not be treated by a website as a mobile device (see quote below). Safari on iPad uses the same WebKit layout engine as Safari on Mac OS X and Windows. When the website checks the browser it should not serve a mobile version to the iPad. This really doesn't explain the drop down menu problems though since I assume you (Chris) have not yet implemented any sort of mobile device optimization but helpful nonetheless for future reference.

"Many websites perform server-side checks on the browser's user agent string to determine whether or not they should serve the mobile version of their website. Safari on iPad is capable of delivering a "desktop" web experience, and users will expect this experience since iPad has a large screen and fast network connectivity. If you have a version of your website that is optimized for mobile devices with small screens, do NOT serve this mobile version to iPad users."

I realize Chris is doing all this work for free so I am not really asking for anything. Just curious about the topic and learning. But if it is as simple as throwing in a string of code during the next major update then great!

Link: http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/technotes/tn2010/tn2262.html

[cgalpin]

About the only thing I miss when surfing the site from my iphone is the ability to upload pictures from it. I believe there is a VB plugin that can be used by an iphone app to give a better experience but have not tried it. In general it would be best to make a change that supported all mobile devices though (but I'm guessing they have apps for the other major phones too).

[TexasD-90]

I can't access drop down menus either from my iphone. It doesn't make any sense why some of us are having trouble while others aren't with the same device.

[Yudda]

I can't access drop down menus either from my iphone. It doesn't make any sense why some of us are having trouble while others aren't with the same device.

It is weird.... 90% of the time i surf D-90 with my iPhone.

My phone is an antique 1st gen running 2.0


The only intermittent problem i have is sometimes viewing pics......the window pops up but closes immediately after it DLs the pic. For the most part, of all the forums is surf regularly....d-90 is perfect for my iphone.



Rob

[DMSLongLake]

+1 on the no dropdowns from my iPad

[Manimal]

Strange. Now they work on my ipad. On my iPhone I have to hold it down and it asks if I want to open a new window. If I do that then the link opens in a new window. The links on the iPad now works just like a desktop computer.

+1 on the no dropdowns from my iPad