Tapatalk!

[samchavles]

Hey everyone, so there's an App called Tapatalk. Basically it's a forum app that makes browsing thousands of forums so much easier. They support many different formats, including PHPBB, which is what this site uses! The site owners simply need to register themselves with tapatalk,
Then everyone who has the app can browse these forums
Mobile!

 

[beardie]

It's not a matter of "registering". It requires changing the forum to "support" tapa talk. If Tapa Talk actually worked to support the software instead of pushing to be the other way around, it would be adopted sooner.

 

[samchavles]

Oh, my bad! I only assumed (making an ass out of myself clearly) that the site owner had to register because that's what someone told me. I guess it's true, not EVERYTHING on the Internet is true haha.
Sorry bout that, thanks for clearing it up!

 

[beardie]

No worries.

There is a way to do what they call "legacy installation", which only creates a display style that TapaTalk can use, but some functionality, including push notifications, are not supported with that. For the "cooler" features, it requires modifications to phpBB (what is commonly called MODs). It's the common way to extend phpBB functionality. Unforunately, the phpBB developers are lame because they never developed a true "plugin" architecture. MODs make keeping the base phpBB code updated MUCH more difficult.

Sometimes, having been a software developer for a chunk of my career makes me aware of how far short some software has fallen from where it could have been (phpBB included).

 

[samchavles]

Wow, that's a bummer. But for now, wouldn't legacy mode be an option at least? I mean I basically get a notification in an email from the forum every time. So until its supported, couldn't that work??

 

[beardie]

I can look into it when I have some time. There is an alternative style currently in place to be more mobile friendly via mobile web browsers. Not as slick as TapaTalk, but a good first step.

 

[samchavles]

Cool! Thanks! Here's a pic of my smiling dragon to close the conversation haha