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Interested in Open Source Android and iOS App for Vanillaforums?

juliencancodejuliencancode New
in General Banter

Hey,
I am looking for a nice summer project for university and was thinking about doing an open sourced Android and iOS App for Vanillaforums.
Would anybody be interested in using it?

I would be doing it with the Flutter Framework (by Google), Ionic Framework or React Native Framwork (by Facebook).

Please shout out if you want them some Apps, it keeps me motivated B)=)

Comments

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited June 2018

    I don't need it, but my advice it would be hybrid in the sense you still want a webview serving the forum, with a lite chrome around it if at all. Otherwise you have got your work cut out for a summer project and beside there is not much point in a fully native solution it would be a nightmare to maintain for little gain, in what is already a product better suited to html pages.

    The question is what native features are worth supporting if any. Having worked on client specific solutions, many of the native element didn't turn provide any particular benefit. However if you are discerning about, you could think of thing that would provide a native advantage such as using local storage, drafting, push messages, certain api usage, etc.

    Webview can be quirky especially on iOS. Quite simply Apple doesn't care about maintaining safari mobile/iOS webview all that much and developing in on apple is expensive by design.

    grep is your friend.

  • R_JR_J Admin

    That would be great! I've started toying around with Ionic creator and it looks so good! I fully agree with x00, not because I know anything about platform specific problems but simply because of portability. Choosing a native app makes sense when you have to access functions that are not accessible otherwise or when speed is really a concern. But for a forum, the bottleneck is the server and not the client.

    So yes! Go and create an ionic app, please =)

  • phreakphreak MVP
    edited June 2018

    It‘s not open source but we have developed „Vanilla APP“: https://vanilla-app.com

    Maintenance, enhancements and the general integration of a variety of Vanillaforums addons seemed to be better for us from the perspective of providing this continously as a SaaS. All money collected go into either App or Addon development for Vanilla.

    • VanillaAPP | iOS & Android App for Vanilla - White label app for Vanilla Forums OS
    • VanillaSkins | Plugins, Themes, Graphics and Custom Development for Vanilla
  • juliencancodejuliencancode New

    Thanks for your input guys/gals.

    Of course these apps would include native features like push notifications.

    On my smartphone I personally prefer apps over browser when I'm using something often (like a forum). I think I'm not alone with this: if you look at the stats Facebook Mobile App vs Mobile Website.

  • FBIFBI ✭

    Its a matter of taste, Apps vs Mobile Responsive.
    Both are good.
    The main different is only "push-notification"
    If your forum is not big, app is waste..
    We can't pushed visitor to install app on their phone :)

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