yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] graey:
As I see it the safest way to accomplish this is to write a mobile theme for the forums.

If an actual app were to be written, these would be major worries:

- safe data transfer, as you want your username and password to be completely unobtainable for third parties

- to get the posts from the forum, there are two options: one is to extend vBulletin so that the application can request a post and get the plain text without any markup whatsoever (which is more work than creating a new theme for the forums), the other is to parse the forums, which brings other issues, namely that it wil take more time as you've first got to download each page fully and then parse it, secondly that it is verry error-prone, you'll have to extract useful data from a full html-page, which contains many information about markup that you don't need for the application.

A mobile theme would be the safest, it would be a minor effort compared to the other options and it would still be the best experience unless someone is to really put A LOT of time in an application. And if someone is going to put A LOT of time in this application instead of a theme, it's not even sure wether the time is worth it considering the little difference between the application and a good mobile theme for vBulletin.

But that's just my 2 cents ofcourse :p
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mindfrost82:
If someone wanted to contact an admin about a mobile layout for this site, I could help set it up. I know where to find some of the mobile themes, and I set them up at PPCGeeks as well.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Well I tried using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom, but it doesn't seem like that's going to reach an administrator. So, does anyone know an administrator? Possibly you moderators know the administrators?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Ather:
try contacting mikechannon
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] nir36:
Frankly, I still think an application is better than just a mobile layout, as an application can have so many more features... and as this is a huge forum, it should have one..

This is just another project like any other application being developed in this forum. It shouldn't be hard to find someone. Keep digging.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
I will contact him and post back with the results.

And I agree that an actual app would be a lot better.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] hibby50:
mindfrost82 is an admin at ppcgeeks. he takes care of the server.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Well I don't have the rights to send a message to the administrator, so could someone with a higher level account write a message to the administrator with a link to this thread??? Maybe you could do this, nir36, since you're a moderator. Thanks!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] GSLEON3:
Send me all your questions in one PM & I will put them in the mod thread & run it by Flar & Mike.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] joel2009:
As already stated, login ect would need some type of api work. I've already looked at stepping through the html, it wouldn't be hard.

Another proof of concept would be the OpnMarket program i am currently working on.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Awesome! Sounds like this could work! I'm currently attempting to learn some Visual Studio, but that will take a while, lol. But it seems like we have some talented people, such as you, that are already starting on this project, so we could make this work!

I sent you the message, and when I get a reply, I'll put it up here for all the other developers to look at.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] anikolop:
I would also love a xda app.

The problem i think is that there must be some server site application installed to working together with the client app in our mobile so that when requesting a page it downloads only the necessary informations and nothing else.

I think the best way to get xda on our handhelds is to install to the forum a mobile theme like this one: Mobile, Cell, Phone, PDA, iPhone Style, and also this Mobile Phone / iPhone / PDA Detection and Style Assignment
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] uniqueboy:
I love the sound of this but I am just not too sure what the actual advantages over using a browser, I use UCWEB to view the site. With UCWEB the pages are nicely rescaled on the server side and data usage is minimised, and I have all the normal site facilities available to use.:confused::)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mindfrost82:
I can see the benefits of both ways.

The nice thing about hibby's PPCGeeks app is that it was probably easy to write since it just uses the PPCGeeks Mobile style. Nothing on the server had to change. Since its still an app wrapped around a webpage, you could still add menus and shortcuts to things.

I believe the WM Facebook app works this way too.

If you want a real client, then someone would have to get an admin with root access to install a server side app that interfaces with the MySQL database. The app would have to use the vBulletin tables and scheme of the MySQL database and can't alter that or it could mess up the entire site. It would also have to be very secure since it would interface directly on the server.

The other nice thing with the app like hibby's is that people can choose to either use the app or can just use the mobile style in their browser of choice.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] anikolop:
I am must agree with you.

I also believe that the facebook app works like that. And just to remember facebook has a api for visual studio.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] l3v5y:
I think the WM Facebook app uses the Facebook API rather than a WebBroswer control. May be wrong though.

Accessing the data base would be far more complex than a web browser, but unlike PPC Geeks, XDA doesn't have a mobile view set up. (There's the archive view, but that has very limited functionality).

Maybe we just need to ask the admins nicely for a mobile view? (I said in the first thread for this that at one point I think Flar was working on this, but apparently that didn't finish well, or she has had more important things to do...)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
I also believe that the Facebook App must use an API. It draws the raw text from posts and then re-formats it into the App's style. That's what we have to do with our XDA App.

I've sent the message to the admins but they haven't responded yet. We'll see what happens there. Yet I know that their servers can handle this XDA App because they already have Email notifications which pull the raw text from the threads. So it can be done, we just have to tap into that system, with the help of the Admins.

And I vote against a mobile theme for the website because it still wouldn't have all the functionality that we are planning on. Maybe I should put in a poll about that, anyone second the idea of putting the poll in the thread?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] xerootg:
While an app would be nice, we could temporarily use a mobile theme while we wait. Better yet develop the app around a mobile portal theme that never changes. A good example of a mobile forum is the wap side of howard forums. Once we do get an app and if the theme is ever changed, just push an update through up2date.

Here are some mobile solutions.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100764

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=151186

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108641
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Martinhdk:
Mobile view please

I think a mobile theme would be great. We have a site dealing with MOBILE - and the only thing it does not support...is MOBILE..

Does sound a little strange to me.

I check my fav threads at least 7 times a day and I guess that 3-4 times are from my phoney by OperaMini.

So - a HUMBLE demand from a true believer;

"A MOBILE VIEW"..please..:D

Regarding the APP:

1) To make any sense, an APP should be a least as fast as OperaMini

2) The good thing about the existing mobile/PDA view is that its very easy to see new threads as they come first - so that feature would be nice in the APP.

Lets have the best and most ultimate mobile website and mobile app in the world to the number one site on mobile dev.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] incubus26jc:
my current xda developers app is Skyfire lol
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Mexy:
Mobile View like hofo wap ... oooh yes pls!!

hear hear!!!!

I tried to request this in my own lay terms n I was shot down 6ft under!!!!!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] schteve:
Someone has put together a vBulletin extension that exposes a true API using JSON or XML: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletin-api. As a developer, I personally would much prefer this to scraping HTML. This would require installation of the API code into base software of the site: something to be considered carefully due to security concerns.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Sounds good, but does it even have a working login system yet? and security isn't really there yet, it seems like. But maybe something like that will work. I've been trying to learn Visual Studio lately, but I still haven't written anything that truly works yet, lol.

But maybe the admins could look into your link. They would have to implement it. Oh, and the admins never got back to me yet.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] TheChampJT:
An app would be an awesome idea, but I think the most efficient idea would be to have a mobile server similar to CB. I know nothing about vB, so can't really comment on it too much.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
The one I linked to is a much better solution. All communication with it is passed through the forum's security before it is processed. That's precisely what drew my attention to it.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mbarvian:
I like the idea of an app more than I like viewing it on skyfire or a browser :)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] LilGBlood:
I would also like this app. Though maybe if the mobile version of this site could help, getting an App using API like the facebook app would be nice. It would probably be a wise idea to disable signatures and avatas if an app is made without a mobile view. Though this is probably common sense.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
The makers of Tapatalk are looking for Windows Mobile developers that are willing to hop on board with them to make a Windows Mobile client for their program.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Tapatalk: http://tapatalk.com/iphone/

Yea it sounds interesting. Looks really good, like just what we imagined. I could possibly help as a developer, but they probably don't want my newb-sauce clogging up their developer tubes.

Any developers here that could help with this? We also need the admins to implement the forum API that it uses, if we could develop the app, that is.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
When it comes to Windows Mobile, they're newb-sauce as well. So don't worry.

I contacted them a few days ago, and the staff member that contacted me said they were waiting for the release of Android before they would begin development of a Windows Mobile application (yeah, that didn't make sense to me either).
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] apreichner:
Yeah I'm waiting for the release of Windows Mobile 5 before I start my development. So I definitely understand where they're coming from.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
You mean WinMo 6.5, lol. Idk, there's no reason to not write apps for WinMo 6 right now, since they're all compatible. It's pretty rare to find an incompatible app.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] apreichner:
I don't think you got the joke...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] joel2009:
I got a good laugh out of it :D.....
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
I laughed as well.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] schteve:
Yeah, you're right. Missed your post first time through the thread.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] apreichner:
I'm not sure what's funnier, the joke itself, or him taking me seriously.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ChrisKringel:
Hi

i wrote an C# app to acces an German Social Community. I think it dosn't differs much from an mobile app. The problem was, that it parsed the whole sourcecode to read my messages etc. with regex. So it was not fast at all -.-' I'll do some tests how fast this is on my mda touch and report back...

€dit: Hmm... It takes 12 seconds to get the HTML Sourcecode frome the first "Development and Hacking" page... I think thats too long :-(
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Iceman692:
I hate to state the obvious but we have way too many Indians in this thread and not enough chiefs.

lol I guess I'm not really helping. :p

My vote's for the mobile skin as well as a program. since the mobile skins are already made, it seems simple to implement. Since we may be waiting a while for this app if we even get one...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Well for the mobile theme, we still need the help of the Admins, which I haven't even gotten a response from yet. But yea, we haven't gotten any progress from developers either. I recommend we halt all development on other apps and build this one, since we all use XDA!!! lol.

Let's hope those Admins write back soon....
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Iceman692:
I second that. We should ban all development until this is finished!

we can be optimistic and hope that the admins are coordinating behind the scenes right now to try and make this work instead of avoiding us. lol
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Well then I'm putting up a poll! Look @ the first page to vote!

Poll is now up, take your votes while we wait for a response from the admins. I know we can't force developers to work on our XDApp (btw, is that a good name?) but we can encourage them to design the app since everyone here uses XDA and it's about time we have an app for our phone. After all, we are the community that is supposed to do anything with our phones, so we should at least be able to visit our own forums with our phones?!?!?!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] :
Its a bit harsh to BAN the development of other apps for this app lol. :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
mmuahhhaha, enslave the developers!!! Nah, we would just encourage them to work on this app more.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Finalforce1111:
Yeah lets make a bounty then the developers will work for this app ;) ;)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jmckeejr:
I second that. I put forth the first 5$. Its not much, but hopefully others would be interested. It would be great to be able to check all the threads from my device without waiting for pages to load forever. It hasnt been that bad, but I do think a community of developers could come up with a simple app to visit their own community.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] dnieman13:
I put down $5

I put down $5
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Message from Admins:

Hi Andrew,

I am the administrator so please provide me with all relevant info.

Best regards,

Flar

Site admin

Xda-developers.com​

So, everyone: Which mobile system should the admins implement into their system? We have these possibilities:

Some Mobile Solutions:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100764

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=151186

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108641

Someone has put together a vBulletin extension that exposes a true API using JSON or XML: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletin-api. As a developer, I personally would much prefer this to scraping HTML. This would require installation of the API code into base software of the site: something to be considered carefully due to security concerns.

I think the best way to get xda on our handhelds is to install to the forum a mobile theme like this one: Mobile, Cell, Phone, PDA, iPhone Style, and also this Mobile Phone / iPhone / PDA Detection and Style Assignment

The makers of Tapatalk are looking for Windows Mobile developers that are willing to hop on board with them to make a Windows Mobile client for their program. Tapatalk: http://tapatalk.com/iphone/

Everyone please reply back with what you think will work best. I will then e-mail the administrator back with what we believe would be the best solution, and hopefully he will be able to implement it. Thanks!

Well lets start a bounty then! $5 is currently in the pool, anyone wanna add some more? Thanks to jmckeejr for being the first to put forth money!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] apreichner:
I think Tapatalk is going to probably be the best approach to this. They already have the server-side stuff down, now we just need to help them get a Windows Mobile application.

I would also like to give $5 for the bounty.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Hmm okay, 1 vote for Tapatalk. The thing is that the makers of Tapatalk want to make the Android app first, so we might have to wait, well that's what I've heard.

And you've been added to the bounty!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] dnieman13:
i put $5 down:confused:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Sorry, I missed your post. You're up there now. Thanks for telling me!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jmckeejr:
I think that the first step would be to implement the mobile version of the site. Once that is together and security concerns are taken care of then it should make it easier for someone to put together an app to connect with mobile server.

Should the mobile version have the same look as the full version? I suppose it might be good to make it fluid, but I am not against an updated theme.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Well what mobile version should the admins implement? We need to decide.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] jmckeejr:
Well, I don't know anything about which would be the most efficient and best meet the needs of the community, but I thought this one was interesting.

Also, I made a preliminary mockup of what I had i my head. Now, this is not the best artwork and does not represent what the end product should look like, but it is to give some idea of something that MAY work. I like the menu easy to use, and easy access to main site features on top. Maybe some sort of configuration so you can select the items to display on top and possibly have settings menu on bottom bar as well as quick reply to the currently viewed thread. Remember, this is only a mockup and not the best one at that.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Ok, that brings us to:

1 vote for #3

1 vote for #4

And nice mockup, it looks pretty decent.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] uniqueboy:
In considering the advantages of a standalone XDA Developers app over a browser, it occurred to me that if the app could cache certain selected parts of the site, for example the user cp and then update that automatically and invisibly to the user according to a schedule that would be very useful. If it were possible to select any thread and have it automatically cached and updated on my phone so that I could for example just start the app and immediately check say this thread for any new posts with a 0 loading time. For others they could schedule a sync only when a free connection was available to avoid a data charge. Just a thought.:)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
wtf is this ****?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] v5HMeca:
What a disrespectful poll.

All of the yes votes are from leeching ****heads with a sense of entitlement. Big surprise.

Petition to ban ace10134 for being self-important demanding little asshole starts here.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ace10134:
Yep that sounds like what I was thinking. I'm gonna put your idea in the first post, you wrote it pretty well.

You're cool. I just put the poll up there to waste a little time while we waited for the Admins to respond. And if you actually read the thread, you would see that I said we would just encourage the developers, hence our bounty has been started.

I'm sorry if you're having a bad day, and I'm fine with you venting your anger, just please, if you want to be respected and make me look bad, use more professional language next time. [EDIT:] And I'm not selfish actually, since every single person on this forum would benefit from this App being made. It makes sense for us to have an app for our forum, since, after all, we are the community of WinMo users, so why not visit our community from our phones?!?

Thanks!

To Everyone who hasn't responded yet:

Which type of mobile site system should the Admins implement? We need to decide so that the Admins can start setting it up now. Our options are:

Some Mobile Solutions:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100764

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=151186

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108641

Someone has put together a vBulletin extension that exposes a true API using JSON or XML: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletin-api. As a developer, I personally would much prefer this to scraping HTML. This would require installation of the API code into base software of the site: something to be considered carefully due to security concerns.

I think the best way to get xda on our handhelds is to install to the forum a mobile theme like this one: Mobile, Cell, Phone, PDA, iPhone Style, and also this Mobile Phone / iPhone / PDA Detection and Style Assignment

The makers of Tapatalk are looking for Windows Mobile developers that are willing to hop on board with them to make a Windows Mobile client for their program. Tapatalk: http://tapatalk.com/iphone/

Respond as soon as possible so that I can tell the Admins which system would work best. Thanks!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] magicalan:
I like the idea hope you guys can make it work :) am not a developer D:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Ather:
dumpydooby and ace10134, keep it cool guyz, take the flame somewhere else and stick to the topic!

1st warning for both of you
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] thejigsaw:
I am willing to create this app. But i dont see any interested people, and the notification that you plan to do is kind a stupid cos it should check your mailbox to see if there are new messages from XDA and that's a lot of uneeded programming and waste of phone battery and internet. If the admins could implement some server side scripts i could make the notifications too. But in this form with mail i am not very into that, cos at the end i'll configure my email account to take messages from my server and the windows itself will notify me about the new messages.

If you want my refference of what i have done you can look here:

http://www.samsung-omnia.org/software-development/olddialer/

http://www.samsung-omnia.org/software-development/quicksix-the-game/

http://www.samsung-omnia.org/software-development/todaybio/

And a new app that i am thinking to start the development now:

http://www.samsung-omnia.org/software-development/'2fit'-a-new-project-on-it's-way/
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] uniqueboy:
So in your app should you build it, you build into it an option....Notifications Y\N :)

Only 7050 interested people so far.