hi John,
>> Sorry Bruce this sounds like a rant, and it is certainly not meant to be that. But how come others can get a mobile app working presumably using menus and I cannot and can reproduce it every time?
The key issue here is the familiarity with the web, and NetTalk, which allows you to identify your problems, narrow down the cause, and be able to quickly define what the exact issue is. It's not surprising that those that have been doing it a bit longer understand the process, and are better able to narrow down the cause of something. by starting with mobile, and ignoring the learning curve of the desktop you are wasting hours of time. You've mentioned several times of spending "hours to identify an issue" - usually when that should take at most a few minutes. I understand your frustration - it's hard when you're learning and everything seems new. It's worse when you've picked the "alpha" section of the feature set to learn on. There are likely to be numerous issues there, and you lack the experience to isolate them, and work-around them.
>> Your advice to concentrate only on the desktop does imply something in mobile is not ready to run on a smartphone.
I've said all along that mobile is definitely not "ready" yet. During the webinar I stressed it was in alpha - on the thread in share-knowledge (
http://www.nettalkcentral.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=36&topic=3003.0) I've mentioned that it's only working with a very limited subset of functionality right now. You've asked all along if it'll be ready by the end of Jan, and I think I've consistently said "maybe". Mind you it's not even the end of December yet.
But mobile is not the highest priority on the list. The highest priority is ensuring that NT5 users are able to upgrade smoothly, and completely. there are massive architectural changes "under the hood" and frankly the upgrade has gone surprisingly well considering. The biggest on-going effort seems to be around the use of lookups, especially non-normalised lookups. That's mostly done now - although a couple of tidy-up areas remain.
The next biggest priority is the wizard, because this obviously has a huge impact on both new users, and those wanting to expand their apps. Sure, I could work on the wizard forever, but for now I'm just trying to make sure it's "feature complete" (at least for now) and "everything works". That's mostly done, although there are a few of the edges to get done as well.
Mobile comes behind those two - which is not to say it's completely ignored, just that I only have 4 pairs of fingers. On the up side, one area often spills into another, so solving an issue on the desktop also tends to improve mobile as well. There are a number of mobile things happening "under the skin" but I don't want folk to waste their time on it right now, unless they're skilled enough to manage it.
You've stressed over and over that you need iPad, and preferably phone interfaces done by the end of Jan, and my suggestion that you concentrate on the desktop for now is two fold;
a) the desktop interface works well on the iPad - and having a "complete" solution there will give you a lot of experience while at the same time letting you become familiar with what the templates can do. this is likely to be more productive for you because there a lot more folk able to give you advice when you get stuck.
b) the next major update to the mobile may, or may not, come before the end of Jan, either way you're maximizing the use of your limited time - if it does come you will be better equipped to make use of it.
This note was not meant to be critical, or pick on you personally (it's not a rant <g>) - however you need to devote your limited time to where you will get the most effect. Pretty much everyone here knows exactly how you feel - we've all worked our way through the learning curve. the only way to get through it is to put the effort, and practice in. You are lucky in that resources (like the book) and the experience of others are here to help you.
Cheers
Bruce
Topic: Mobile mode and forwarded subdomains (Read 6430 times)