This thread is for general discussion for the Android RPoL app.  New features, design suggestions, etc can all start here.  If the topic is discussed, new threads will be started to discuss the topic.

An FYI since I haven't really posted it anywhere.  After entering your username and password, you need to press your menu key and select Register/Unregister.

Sorry, I'm cleaning up the login for the next version (hope to release next week).

I've had a few questions about security so I'll post this here for everyone.

Privacy statement for the app:
http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/privacy.html

At no time do I have access to your password, nor will I ever put a feature in that would require me to have it.  The app logs directly into RPoL and pulls your feed url from your preferences.  The only thing I can see is your feed's URL, your username, the GCM ID (a Google code specific to your install of the app).  Lastly your last fetched feed is saved so it can be compared to the new version for changes.

Basically, if I where for some reason to get curious, I could pull a list of games you play in.  That's it.  I wouldn't even really have a way to know what role you had in the game unless you where the GM.

If you look at the XML source of your feed, you would find entries like this for each game (from my feed):
<entry>
   <title>%5BUnofficial%5D RPoL Mobile App Discussion</title>
   <link href="http://m.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=55883" />
   <id>tag:rpol.net,2005:1.55883</id>
   <updated>2013-06-02T01:52:17Z</updated>
   <category scheme="http://m.rpol.net" term="Games You Own" />
   <summary>There are no new messages.</summary>
</entry>


The category tag would show if you GM or play/persue.  By even with that, if I wanted to see if you GM a game, I could just do a search from the main RPoL page.

This is why I can't send notifications for rMail.  It's not listed on the feed.  You currently can't check its status without logging in.  :(

New version is looking to just about complete.  For those that know how to install APKs outside of Google Play, The release canidate is available here:
http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/RPoLNotifier-v2.apk

1. Login Screen:  There are several people that have installed the app and were unaware they needed to hit the menu key and register.  I finally made a screen that makes this part work like you would expect.
   
2. Show Password:  Their is a check-box to show your password for those that have trouble typing.  Also, the app no longer saves your password to the phone.  After logging in, it saves the RPoL session cookie and discards the password.
   
3. New graphics: First.. Launcher icon.  It now uses the RPoL "impossible cube" instead of that ugly red d6 filler graphic I had.  The login screen also has the familiar banner graphic (with unofficial stamped across it).  Even more fun... As notifications arrive for each game, the app now looks up and cache a copy of your players portrait.  For honeycomb and newer, it's used as the large icon for your notifications.  Currently it will only download these once, you would need to clear all of the apps data to flush them out if you change character portraits.
   
4. Quiet Hours:  You can now specify a range of time to have Lights, Sounds, and Vibrations turned off.
   
5. Multi-Browser Support:  With a check box, you can force the app to always prompt you to choose a browser (for those that bounce around a lot, or prefer one for RPoL, but not as a default).
   
6. LED Settings:  For those that have hardware that supports it, you can now specify what color your LED should blink.  You enter a hex value, Red (FF0000) Green (00FF00) Blue(0000FF).  http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm  This site can help you play with the colors.

Bug Fixes:

1. Vibration actually works now.  HOWEVER... you will want to change that setting if you already have the old version.  I put a ridicules vibrate pattern in the initial release, and since it didn't work I forgot to take it out.
   
2. Special Characters in game titles are decoded (actually already fixed for v1 users as well, it was a server thing, I needed to urldecode the game titles from the feeds.)

It looks like Google has finally use dated the store entry.  The new version is available at the Play market.
https://play.google.com/store/...knights.rpolnotifier

Version update 2.00.01

Corrected a minor bug in the Quiet Hours settings.  The app was hushing all notifications, regardless of the time.  It's what happens when you code a new feature at 4am.  You put in && when you mean ==.

It's posted to the market, however it seems to take Google about 4-6 hours to finally get it published.

First up - thanks for building this. Thanks thanks thanks.

You rock.

bug report: all my notifications are taking me to the one game. only one of the last ten notifications was for that game in question.

I'm not sure here.  I've never seen that behavior.  Are the game titles and player portraits loading correctly?

will check on next notification.

but certainly looks like the game is loading normal in the browser.

seems weird...

will try a different browser next notification... might be browser specific.

Could be.  I've only used the default browser that CyanogenMod has.  When I first added the feature to force a browser choice I used Firefox, but I only tested a few notices that are from the same game.

yep, something ifs broken.

tested with chrome and dolphin...

all notifications take me to the one, inaccurate game. :|

how does the app get the game links from rpol?

Its scraped from the XML feed on RPoL.  The game ID is used to identify the notification and pull the portraits too.  That's why I don't get it.  The notification knows what game to take you to.

It just appends the ID to the URL:
http://m.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=

In reply to Ninthbit (msg # 13):

Ok... Figured as much.

What about caching or storage of notification information?

What happens to the data once I click the notification?

Maybe, for some reason, the app hasn't cleared' it's data properly - and therefore the whilst the notifications text is accurate, the link isn't.

?

Should all be discarded.  The app doesn't log the messages unless its built as a debug version.  Even then, its only in the system log, still shouldn't affect the app.

Hmm.

Are you going to test the app against multiple game thread notifications?

Not tonight.  I'm playing with my kids.  Tomorrow I'll give it a try.  On a side note, do the browsers your using have a tab limit.  I wonder if you're hitting the limit and the new tab can't be created.

Oh, cool. Have fun with the kids :) I have a five year old. Good times.

Yeah - not hitting tab limit at all... I close all browser tabs when I close the app.

Hmm. Let me know how you go with testing. If you want to join another of the games I GM, just to test notifications at your end - let me know.

I havent had this issue. Tmobile's Samsung galaxy sI using AKOP android.

Ive had a bunch of games on my sticky list, just monitoring different things and reading threads. Upon installing the app, I was alerted to every single thread I had on my sticky. Ignore list works well although I had to do some research to figure out where the game ID was located. There is also a small discrepancy with the coma placement but that is easily remedied. Once I had figured everything out, it works gloriously.

Just wanted to give my two cents as a GM here on RPoL... Very awesome app. Good work Ninthbit.

Ignore list is something I plan to tackle.  Im hoping to be able to list all a users games and apply setting per game.  I really want to eventually expand out to a full blown mobile client for the site.  I'm debating if I should fork the app.  One version for simple notifications like we currently have, and a second that has support for reading threads, writing posts, and rMail.

There'd be a tonne of work in replicating the features for authoring posts, surely?? Formatting, colours, private lines, secret to's... I suppose it's all fairly rudimentary though. Hmm.

One thing with app development though: need to ask yourself, Why build an app? Will it improve on the native website?

For the notification app - yes, it certainly improves the native website's notification offering.

But a second app that is an RPOL client? You'd be reinventing the wheel, no?

For someone like me, who spends 99% of his online time using a Galaxy Note, any advantage is worth the effort.  The browser is fine for reading, but it does involve a lot of pinch and zoom.

Formating new posts is a pain in the browser though.  Highlighting passages and adding formating doesn't work well at all.  Having a mobile client that takes this into account could help a lot (though I agree, it would be a lot of work).

In any case, making this app is more of a hobby anyways.  I've learned a LOT about Java and the Android platform.  The main reasons I was thinking of forking the development is because after the next version, I can't really think of anything I would want to add to the notification portion.  Also, by forking, I can leave a light weight and stable product that just about anyone can use.

I use a HTC One X, and yeah, there is a lot of Pinch and Zoom, and highlighting text is a no go. Although my screen is smaller than the Galaxy note, I would love to have an actually program, that I could load up to replace how I post from my phone. Simple Mobile viewing, formatting for my screen size.

looks like you have to do it now Ninthbit

It's half the reason I published the app.  Peer pressure  :)  I've used a hard coded version since January.  By sharing it, I was forced to make it more user friendly.  Plus, it's nice not having to manually type my Google Cloud Messaging ID each time I reinstall because I changed a setting.  The GCM ID is LONG.

Example:
APA91bHYMC9u6GB8Rczg-p7Bd3WrZTYjzuGaFl8f3jQhgbf6ZBfIHpsoIGEXg
gKvgxjTxBJlNZTZTy9tMIkPOrZUArQwbeovu0nVRfzaxSEc8K1Jcr2cCbPQxL
f-lttP_MD-YOmtNFkKXVkJpibvi2kHK7cr9a18FEckxL--Z-RTFJoiZFffiUE

Yup... in the first version, you had to read that off the screen of the phone and then manually edit it into a PHP script.  There was no database or web based registration.  I was typing it in a unix terminal using vi.  Peer pressure makes some things better.

---

BTW, here is the relevent section of code for the browser chooser for anyone that knows Java/Android:


I don't see how the browser choice is losing the game's ID.  If I can't reproduce the problem tommorow, then I'm incline to think it's a browser problem.  I'll try a few diffrent ones and send a bunch of notificatinos.  I already have a script on the server that allows me to fake a notification, forging GameID, Tittle, and Summary.  The only things I can think of are tab limits, or if new tabs open in the background.  :/

Well that took FOREVER to find.  Since the PendingIntents were all calling the Intent.createChooser with just different extras the system thought it was the same and didn't create new ones.  You have to specify an ID to differentiate between them, BUT GOOGLE DIDN'T FEEL THE NEED TO DOCUMENT THAT!!!

Google's Documentation:


In any case... I found a StackOverflow article that was similar and it was pointed out there.  I stuffed the game ID into function and it's working now.  Bug squished, v2.00.02 has been sent to the Play Store.  It takes about 4-6 for them to finally publish it out.  For the impatient that have "Unknown Sources" enabled, the APK is HERE

Aha! Sounds like you nailed it!

I will apply the update tonight and let you know how it goes.

I better go post in all my stories, to ensure some replies to test it with ;)

Thought....

Any chance of a "test vibration" button?

Or I can just open my notification tester to everyone.  I've updated it to support multiple users.  You just need to enter the hash from your news feed.  By doing it this way, you can actually do a full test.  For example, LED color can only be checked if the screen is OFF when the notification comes in, otherwise it won't light up.
http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/SendNote.php

---

To find your hash, go to your list of feeds:
/usermodules/profile.cgi?action=feeds

What we're looking for from that page:

Ok... another bug update (v2.01.00) has been published.  It will be in the market in a few hours.  I rewrote and updated the login\registration process.  It was causing the login screen to launch whenever the app launched from a new process (full exit, and then opened).

Because of the way the login was checking if you had already registered, the app may continue to have the quirk until you clear your data.  Since I had already wiped mine as part of the debug process, I can't be sure.

After updating, if you continue to have the problem.  First try to unregister the app via the menu.  This way you won't lose your custom settings.  Worst case, uninstall and reinstall.

Hey :)

Looks like I'm not getting private message notifications. Test it here. Send me a pm.

Also, how often does it scrape for new post info? Can the timing or frequency be set by the user? Some days hourly is good, other days instantly is good

Well son of a biscuit... Looking at it, I don't think PMs have ever worked correctly.  :(

The server side script that scraps the XML feed checks that there are messages of some kind.  It reads that the summary does not report no new messages.  Just to clarify, double negatives are common in programming.  (Not nothings, means there is something)

Here is the kicker, I was checking the <updated> element to make sure I only reported the notification once.  If the games time stamp was the same as the previously scraped feed's, then it wouldn't send a notification.  The problem here is that I'm just realizing that this time-stamp doesn't update for PMs.  It only updates for public threads.

I'll need to think of a decent solution, because right now the only thing that's coming to mind is a new php function that makes database entries for each player, with each game, the games last status, and the last time a notice was sent for it.  It is not the end of the world, just more DB setup and coding.  I basically need to rewrite half of the server side script.  It won't be happening today, or even this week most likely.  (I already blew of a lot of work last week to squash bugs, I need to get caught-up with what pays my bills.)

Relevant part of XML feed from RPOL
<entry>
   <title>%5BUnofficial%5D RPoL Mobile App Discussion</title>
   <link href="http://m.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=55883" />
   <id>tag:rpol.net,2005:1.55883</id>
   <updated>2013-06-02T01:52:17Z</updated>
   <category scheme="http://m.rpol.net" term="Games You Own" />
   <summary>There are no new messages.</summary>
</entry>

Relevant PHP code from the Notification Server:
 foreach (array_keys($new_data) as $key ) {
    $sendnotice = false;

    if ($new_data[$key]->summary != "There are no new messages."){
      if (array_key_exists($key, $old_data)){
        if ($new_data[$key]->updated != $old_data[$key]->updated) {
          $sendnotice = true;
        }
      } else { $sendnotice = true;}
    }

    if ($sendnotice == true) {
        GCM_notify($GCMUser, $new_data[$key]);
    }
  }

The private messages should be working now. If someone wants to drop me a PM I'll know for sure that it's working.  It tested fine on the BETA site.  I can't manually test it on the main WWW site due to RPoL's duplicate account policy. (cannonc got me the PM I needed with his RTJ)

Here's how it works (and it's pitfall):
When the feed is being read, if a game is listed as having new private messages (Blue on the main screen).  It will check if it had any private messages the last time it checked your feed.  If not, then it must be new and a notice is sent.

Now the pitfall:  If in-between feed checks you have read all your new PMs and then after received a new PM, the script has no way to tell that the newest PM isn't an old one that hasn't been read, so it won't send another notice.  It will assume its the same old one.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:45, Tue 09 July 2013.

Hey mate. Hows the development world? :)

I had a thought: I'd love to be able to set different alert sound and vibration pattern for both Private and Public messages.

Is this doable?

Shouldn't be hard.

BTW, sorry there hasn't been any updates in a while.  I recently become obsessed with aquariums.  I'll try to knock this little feature out though.  Should be easy enough.

You're the best ^_^

Aquariums are, indeed, a fine hobby.

Though I prefer to keep lizards. ;)

Ok... I got this done WAY sooner than I expected.  Slow day at work.  Version 2.02.03 should hit the Android market in a few hours.  For the impatient, if you have your security set to allow Unknown Sources, you can download it directly from here: http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/release/

v2.02.03
Added new settings for Private messages.  Per the request, you can specify a separate sound for Private messages.

Additionally, there are now two ignore lists.  Public will ignore only public messages to a game.  The new Private list will supersede Public, so if a game is on this list, ALL notifications will be ignored (like the old version).  Your previous ignore list is saved as the Public list in the current version, so if you want any of those entries to be fully ignored, you need to move them to the private ignore list.

Also added a new menu option to clear portrait information.  To prevent the app from trying to download your portrait for EVERY notification, the previous version would grab it from the first notice and save it.  Unfortunately, if you changed portraits the app would not update.  Now you can clear the list and each portrait will refresh.

Looking forward to testing! :)

I've been wanting the separate ignore list, but just haven't gotten in the code in a while.  Figured since I was there I'd add it too.  I have a few games I co-GM, and with their high post count, I had to ignore them.  Now I can still be flagged with a PM.  :)

Clearing the portraits was a back burner thing since I could clear the apps data and re-register.

OK... here is the source.

https://github.com/ninthbit/RPoLNotifier

It's ugly... but it works :)

This is a lovely app and standard for me throughout the day.  Should you ever feel motivated on making an Rpol browser-replacement, I'd adore it (it's annoying having to pinch and zoom to read stuff and I wouldn't dream of actually replying on Rpol with the browsers the way they are).

One comment: I've noticed the app only seems to work on one device at a time.  I had it on my phone but, when I installed it on my tablet, it stopped working on my phone.  Once I cleared everything on the phone and relogged in, it stopped working on the tablet.

Not sure if that's a bug or lack of feature but it'd be awesome if it could work in more than one place. :)

Thanks again for creating and supporting this tremendous app!

Its not a bug, it due to the simplicity of the database.  Most people have there phone near them, even when they're on their tablet.  I've looked at making a full (or at least functional) client, however I really haven't had much time to code anything recently.  Not to mention, that becomes a huge task.  Maybe someday though :)

Yeah, I have it running on my phone and it does the trick just fine.  This is definitely a 'nice to have' as opposed to a 'need to have' feature request.

Thanks again for making the app in the first place.  :)  My F5 key on the keyboard thanks you too!

*chuckle*

At first my F5 was grateful for the reprieve... but now he's all like "WHY DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME?"

Is there a way to disable notifications from particular threads within a game?

Eg - I don't want a notification about the Apple iOS Development thread in this board.

I highly doubt it.

I'm not a programmer, but it sounds like the apps go off the information from the Main Menu (red/blue/purple notifications), and don't actually look deeper into the games themselves.

We operate based off of the feeds provided by RPoL.  All it indicates to us is if there are new messages for a particular forum.  Sorry!

We could put android and apple into their own groups, but then no one outside the "game" could read them since they would be private to the group.

No dramas.

Just asking :p

Anyone else seeing Community Chat notifications even though game 134 is on their ignore list?  That's the only one that's not being ignored for me.

Nope. I'm all good.

A bit of playing, and it looks like the last id in the ignore list is not being ignored.  I added another one on the end, and now Community Chat is being properly ignored.

Quick question....

I cleared the cache of portraits in an attempt to update a pict and have now lost them all.  How do I get the app to grab portrait icons?

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling.

Any help?

Feature request

Able to set different notification sounds per game ID.

Bump...

@sherlock:  Sorry, I thought I replied to this.  Clearing the app data should force them to redownload upon the next update for each game.  You need to make sure you update your portraits on RPoL prior to clearing the app data, otherwise it will just redownload the old one.  Another problem is that if the portrait server is down, it won't retry later.  I probably should add a "Refresh Portraits" option to the menu.  If I can find time, I'll look into it.  This should be easy enough to add.

@ashberg:  Notification sound per game was one I was looking at a while back.  Unfortunitly it was a lot of work and I haven't had the time.  Right now, the settings are saved in a simple android data store called Quick Settings.  I'll need to move them over to a database that can add and remove games as your sticky list changes.  The nice bonus about this would be that once it's done, I can have an "Ingnore Public" and "Ignore Private" check box instead of a delimited list of game IDs.  With my time being limited, its not likely to happen any time soon though.  :(

@Ninthbit

So, since you are offering this alert system for free, but appear to have time constraints on updates & feature requests, I'm wondering if you'd consider opening up the app to community development?

Secondly, what are your goals with this app, if any?

For feature requests, I'd like:
- Only one notification box,
- If it opens Chrome it could update my opened rpol tab rather than open new ones,
- Let me set unique notification icons per game,
- more easily select/deselect what I'm following (can vary),
- some way to show a summary of the post or poster & info

(*And of course, I'd love to see the whole thing integrated smoothly with rpol as a mobile app.*)

The app is posted as open source on GitHub (See post #40)
https://github.com/ninthbit/RPoLNotifier

Anyone could download the code, compile it, and sideload it to their phone (assuming they have the rights on their device).

I'm not currently playing in any games and rarely even visit RPOL anymore.  As sad as it is, I don't even have my own app installed currently.  :(

As for features, You can have unique icons per game.  The app pulls your character portrait to use for each game.

For selecting what you're following, it uses your sticky list.  Well, actually it uses your ATOM xml feed, but RPOL generates that from your sticky list, so removing games like Community Chat and the like from your sticky list will stop the app from trying to notifiy you.

Many of the apps limitations come from the fact that we're basically scraping the site.  I don't have access to the server to setup push notification for things like rMail.  I have to  have my server poll the site on a set interval, and then push a notice when it sees something.

@Ninthbit --
Any discussions with the RPOL site owner re: letting him/her take over your server's functionality &/or allow you more access?

With your app (and someday a 'mobile-friendly' makeover of RPOL), this site could be a profit-making 2014+ tech social website...?

Or am I talking crazy again?

So the RPOL app on the app store is just for notifications?  The link in this thread is to a different app?

It's just notifications the app that hack I threw together to help myself a few years back.  The notifications link you back to your game though so it's easy to post from your mobile device.

Posting from your phone, are the windows resized any for a phone's screen?

The Android app doesn't render the page, it just calls your default browser to do it.  The typical Android pinch and zoom would be how you scale the page.

The sites dev/owner "jase" had no interest in mobile clients when I brought the app up in the past.  Since I don't have time to develop on it anymore it's not likely to get readdressed.

I did recently realize that devices without a physical menu button can't get to the menu to clear their portraits cache, so I really do want to update this.  It's just REALLY low on the priorities since I don't play in any games right now.

That not rescaling to the screen is the only reason I, still, run most of my games on facebook and not on RPOL.  I would love too but that, and not being able to post pictures to RPOL posts, are major obstacles for a dial-up used like me.

I feel like this would be a fun project to tackle if I ever have the time to learn Android developing

Dial-up user?  What's that?  In 2016?!?!?
:)

App works great.

The app doesn't yet work on my Kindle Fire HD, but I'm sure that's not a part of the development goals just yet, considering that I needed to install it as a third party app.

The fact that this is being made is still just awesome.

It uses Google's Cloud Messaging (GCM).  The FireOS version of Android likely doesn't have support for that.

For my 7" Fire Tablet ($35) I wiped it and put on Cyanogenmod and side loaded the Play store.  Works great.

Random issue but seemingly out of nowhere the avatar pictures for the different games don't come up any more with the notifications. Is there a quick fix for that?

Yes and sadly no.  If your device has a menu button (not likely on today's devices) you can get the menu and just clear all your portrait data and they will redownload as needed.

Without that option, you need to clear all the app's data and resetup.  :(

Sorry, just haven't had the time or inclination to make a better version.

So I wrote a little custom PHP script that takes the RPOL site and makes it mobile friendly, including the posting interface.

It uses PHP and cURL to request the page elements then render's the page with modifications to make it mobile friendly.

I would love to turn this into an APP so I can share this.

I can't currently b/c every request to RPOL would come from my server and RPOl would block us.

Thread here with code and screenshots: link to a message in another game

If we could make this into an app, then people could have it on their phone and the requests would be from their IP addresses.

I would also love to make the app work with the notifier (or part of) where the notices would open in the app and take  you to the mobile friendly interface.

Thoughts?

@ byzantinex
My thoughts are that I hope you get someone to make this work,
bc right now this is one of my alltime fav websites and it's not cashing in on it's own value.

Mobile is the spot, just gotta make this site more mobile friendly...
Really, even just a 'mobile front end' making the UI kinder to iOS / Android would bring in a ton of new users.

I've mentioned to Jade several time I would like to help.

I started with just a custom style sheet but the entire site is laid out in tables so I actually had to parse the site code and strip out the tables using be php simple Dom utility.

I haven't read anything yet, could you tell me more how the streams work that rpol supplies or point me to documentation?

Maybe I could just make a simple app that puts the mobile face on the site. I've got the posting part submitting. I might also be able to do the registration process.

How many more people would discover rpol if it was an app and super mobile friendly?! Tons I think.

Not to mention most people probably aren't even at their home computers but are more likely to be somewhere with a tablet or smartphone to use the rpol app

Right?! Exactly. How many more people who increase their posting frequency if they got a notification, clicked it, typed something up and were done? All from their phone.

I hated the mobile un-usability so much I wrote my own program to fix it :D :D :D

I thought about using a script to parse the site like byzantinex created, but I'm a privacy nut, and hate the idea of having access to other players passwords.  To log in, they'd have to pass through someone else's server to be passed to the site.

For the longest time, I bypassed my company's firewall/proxy filter using a similar method.  I hosted a perl script that acted as a proxy on a private https site.  The script is here:
https://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/


I don't think I had the feed-processing script in with the Git repo for the app... Soooo here you go:
http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/checkFeed.txt

Fair warning... This whole notifier was an endeavor I threw together in a week, so be gentle when criticizing my poorly written code.  This php script runs via cron on a set interval.  Basically, it pulls a list of registered users.  Then checks their feed for changes one at a time.  The site's feeds aren't done right, but they get the job done.  The whole reason I use the feeds over ripping the main page is that they don't require authentication.

I also have a daily database cleaner that removes stale app installs. No point checking feeds of people that can't get the notification.
http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/purgeRPOL.txt

Lastly.... we have the auto posting thread bump for the game advert. :)

http://www.evilknights.com/rpol/autoPost.txt

Every 8 days we post a bump to the advertisement thread.  I didn't use cron for this because I wanted the day it posts to walk through the week and reach players that may only play on certain days.

So do we have a download ready for the App? I'd like to test it.

Ha!!! I did the proxy bypass script route too when I worked for a company. That's hilarious. :-)

Interesting on the feed method.

I was thinking of just putting everything into the app to do all the work and not have them go through a server of mine. That would also prevent me from having to see their credentials.

In reply to Vane66 (msg # 79):

The app is in the google play store.

How do I get off of the notification settings, that seems to be the only menu that's available.

It doesn't work for me. I can only see the notification menu. I can't exit it or go to another menu. I can't see my games or anything.

I sent an rmail to jase asking if he would work with us to make a mobile app or at least give us his blessing and some ideas of the site architecture. I am also thinking we could do a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to develop a mobile app.

In reply to Vane66 (msg # 83):

It's only a notification app.  When a new message appears in one of the games/forums you're a part of, you'll get a notification on your phone/tablet.  I think you can click on one of the notifications to get to that game.

EDIT: Yep, that's it exactly.  You can close the menu, and whenever a notification shows up, you can select it and it will take you to the game using your phone's web browser.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Sun 26 Mar 2017.

Yup, notifications only.  I had to teach myself Java and the Android APIs to get it done.  It started as a crude hack to keep me on top of my games.  Then I had a week break from work so I updated it enough to share with others.

I'll be honest, I lack the skill/time to make it a full mobile client.  That's why I posted the code and started the forum.

In reply to Ninthbit (msg # 86):

isn't it possible to have a possible client run off of a base like Chromium for browsing the site?

Can you explain that further?

Yeah, I'm a web dev, not an Android one. :D

I can learn, but I don't have the free time either.

I have an contractor who I hire to do some work and he could tackle this project easily.
That's why I was talking about doing a kickstarter campaign.

I'll wait to hear from Jase, but if he gives me his blessing then I'll setup a campaign and share it with everyone via the forum and see if we can raise enough funds to get the app done :D

In reply to byzantinex (msg # 88):

I'm not a coder so I can't explain it all that well, but it's like instead of a notifier, it runs off a client based on the Google Chrome engine
This message was last edited by the player at 21:19, Sun 26 Mar 2017.

In reply to carnyzzle (msg # 90):

You're talking about push notifications from the Browser, right?

Yes, that would be possible, but only if we wrote a script that basically duplicated the site. What we're talking about doing instead is creating a mobile app that would pull the entire site into it, have native Android notifications via the app, and make the site mobile friendly.

Does jase ever respond to rmail?

In reply to byzantinex (msg # 92):

Yes, but he has a million things to do, outside of RPoL.  :P  He will reply, eventually.

Right on. I figured. Been a few days.

I pitched the idea of letting us develop a mobile app and doing a Kickstarter campaign or something.

I'd love to see RPOL with a mobile UI implementation -- neither Android nor iOS, but phone/tablet compatible.

The standard UI is not a showstopper, but it's sure unfriendly for my large-screen Android.  (But I don't let that stop me!)

In reply to REkz (msg # 95):

I'm totally okay with that as well, but I can't do anything about that.

Jase has started. You can see from the homepage if you click Beta, but it's non-fuctional.

So for the mean time I use my own script to pull the stie and make it mobile friendly.

The only way I can re-format the site for everyone is to make an App that renders the site mobile friendly :D

So I STILL haven't heard anything from Jase and I'm really thinking about moving forward regardless and just suffer the consequences.

Some added app features I think would be possible and epic for mobile.

1) Select a "default user" for the account you're signed into based on the game you're in.
2) Add a "Roll the Dice" floating button that allows someone to have their character info loaded then they just click "roll attack with primary weapon" or "roll Stealth check" or something like that, which then saves it in the dice roller and posts it into the thread for them.

Alright guys. I've got an update.

If it's alright with @Ninthbit I'm looking at developing an Android application that will basically just be a web viewer with custom CSS to force the current site to be mobile friendly.

I'm looking at using the RPOL Notifier app's code in this app to make the notifications open this app instead of the mobile browser so you get the mobile friendly version.

It's looking like it's going to cost me around $200-$300 to make this a reality.

I don't really want to pay that out of my own pocket entirely. Do you think I could setup a donation button somewhere to have fans that want this NOW contribute?

It should take less than 2 weeks for the developer I'm working with to pull this off.

We could have a completely mobile friendly RPOL.net with popup notifications in 2 weeks.........

thoughts?

Whenever money gets involved I get very cautious/pessimistic.

While I'm hopeful that your intentions are true, what stops you from collecting the cash and disappearing?

After that concern, will the subsequent app be opensourced?  My code is shared under GPL so if it's incorporated, it should be open source.  If it's independent and closed, will it be free in the app store?

How will the app be maintained?  The smallest change on RPOL could render it completely inoperable.

Then lastly, would the money be better off being donated to the site to help encourage Jase in developing a real HTML5 mobile friendly site?

In reply to Ninthbit (msg # 99):

All good points and questions.

Maybe I should just pay to have it developed then anyone who wants to donate can easily. That eliminates the first few concerns you shared.

I approached the moderators and jase about donating to make this happen faster and I received either no response or was told it's not a money issue, it's a time issue.

The app will be open source and released on github just like yours. Again, I could just pay the money and then release it and ask for donations after the fact.

The app will be nothing more than your notifier code plus a web viewer. I'm going to have the web viewer pull in an external CSS file I'm going to host which will make it easy for me to change the CSS to handle any changes in RPOL without having to do an update to the App itself.

How do you feel about all the above?

I  can't really offer anything in regards to coding expertise, but I wanted to mention that I'd be happy to pay for an app. Say, 2.99?
There's bound to be at least a 100 people out there willing to use such an app.

In reply to derfinsterling (msg # 101):

I would never want to charge for the app. I would only consider taking donations up to the amount I paid to have it developed and nothing beyond.

I "can afford" to pay the $200 but not really, so we'll see.

Could you potentially update the app to open the notification links to responsive.rpol.net since Jase made that live?

I guess I won't be needing my app after all! :D

Might you consider a Kickstarter (or equivalent) and post the link here to all gamers?

Reward to us could include updated UI for awesome platform,
reward to rpol owners might include $$$?

In reply to REkz (msg # 104):

Huh?

If you're talking to me the responsive site update has rendered my app moot.

Gotcha.

Moot sounds like a great name for an April Fool's app, btw.
"Your app is moot!"
HA HA

Wow... Jase was quick with this one.  :)

I'll have to setup a dev environment.  I haven't looked at the code in years.  The real question is, can I remember my password for my publishing certificate.

If it doesn't look like to much trouble, I'll likely add it as a radio button option (www, m, or responsive).

Nice! Thanks Ninthbit!

p.s Quick? He's been talking about it for 3 years... haha :D
This message was last edited by the player at 19:07, Thu 20 Apr 2017.

The poll he posted in March was the first I heard of a mobile friendly site. Though I haven't been around much.

link to a message in another game

In reply to Ninthbit (msg # 109):

I was searching through past forums as I was doing some research and found him mentioning to people he was working on a responsive version as long as 3 years ago. So that's what I was referring to.

Thanks for the heads up today, Ninthbit! :)

Is there something I missed? My app hasn't been working and doesn't notify me of any more updates.

Yeah...  Ninthbit's server went down during an update.  Hopefully it will be back online soon.

I really miss this damn app. I have reverted to obsessively checking RPOL every couple of minutes.

I set up my app to ignore the wanted players thread but it still sends me the notifications for it. Any suggestion?

Double check your block and then relogin. Fixed this prob for me...

Make sure it's comma separated and not semicolon, also no spaces.

For example, I have: "4,7,36224"

4 is Players Wanted
7 is General RPoL
36224 is RPoL Development

OK cool. That's what I needed to know.

After a long hiatus, I'm back to RPOL for a new fun game.
I was wondering ... so what about that app that could check my games on my phone?

But... this looks pretty dead.

Any other similar projects going on?

NOTE:  I wish RPOL somehow connected to WOTC because playing on Discord is so much worse than playing on RPOL, IMO.  (But Discord has quick IRL talk which is pretty cool.)

In reply to REkz (msg # 119):

I think it actually still works. A player in my game uses it still. My game has started using Discord for all OOC chatter b/c it's so much faster. It would be epic if there was some way for RPOL to integrate and use Discord's notification system. I know the owner does all of this stuff themself, so I doub't they have time to tackle this. But who knows. Until then, discord for your games is probably best :D

The app loads in Android, but I can't get the atom feed to load into the app.  :(