Compendium doesn't load on mobile devices anymore? Why?

[Ferghis]

As a D&Di subscriber, I've been consulting the compendium pretty regularly during sessions on my iPhone. It's a small screen, but it's a good size for me.

Today, I clicked on my bookmark for the compendium, and it says that there is a Server Error in '/' Application. But the url looks weird. It's www.wizards.com/mobile/mobile.aspx - but the compendium url in my bookmark is Dungeons & Dragons Compendium - but the latter url is apparently now redirecting to the "mobile" url - but maybe just for portable devices. That's a lotta buts.

So I navigate through the wizards.com site to see if they've changed the official compendium url. Nope. When I get home, I click on my bookmark in chrome, which links to Dungeons & Dragons Compendium and loads up fine. The behavior of the url on my phone has not changed: still no compendium on my phone.

So, my questions are: (1) why can't I use the compendium via the regular url on my iPhone anymore?

And, (2) why is my iOS Safari browser redirected to a url that doesn't work on my iPhone? Why doesn't it just tell me that the url I'm trying to access requires a different browser?

EDIT:

If people are having problems, could they post here (or PM me) the OS (including carrier, because I *think* that makes a difference), the browser you are using on your smart phone as well as the link that you are pointing towards.

I will pass it on to WotC.

 

[wayne62682]

Don't have an answer for you, but I can't say I'm surprised given how amateurish WotC is with their software development. Their forums don't even work properly on mobile although it's using a mobile version (text is scrunched on the right side of the screen making it very hard to read)

 

[wedgeski]

This will be a half-implemented framework for rendering core services like the Compendium differently for smaller screens. Of itself, a good plan. I would suspect you were redirected there by accident. Is it still broken?

 

[hayek]

Yeah, I was wondering about this myself - I use an app since my phone can't load the compendium, and even the app gives me the same message now...

 

[DarkMasterBR]

Same here. Unbelievable. The one DDI tool I could get on the iPhone.

As an semirelated aside, it's amazing how WotC cannot get its grip together when it comes to digital offerings. The fact that there's no iOS / Android native apps for D&D is amazing, but much, much worse is the fact that MtG has none as well. And not because they don't see the potential. I remembering reading back when the iPhone launched Mark Rosewater saying he thought Magic was inevitably turning into mostly digital entertainment. And yet, four years later iOS / Android is widespread, the iPad is here and not even WotC's cash cow has a decent offering for those markets.

Sorry for the semi off topic rambling. I just feel sad when I think of the potential DDI had and what it became. The iPad feels like a perfect complement to a D&D table, and yet Wizards doesn't even seem to know it exits.

 

[malraux]

xkcd: Server Attention Span

 

[Ferghis]

Sorry for the semi off topic rambling. I just feel sad when I think of the potential DDI had and what it became. The iPad feels like a perfect complement to a D&D table, and yet Wizards doesn't even seem to know it exits.

I don't think it's off-topic at all. I agree with your points. The second of the two questions I posed is exactly what stunned me the most.

Although I disagree with the choice, I can see why they might decide to move to the compendium to a new technology that doesn't support mobile devices. What I utterly can't fathom is why they would redirect those browsers to a url that appears to be specifically made for mobile technologies, but doesn't work. If they were going through the effort of redirecting the browser to another url and setting up a website for that "mobile" url, it would have taken less effort to just make it say "hey, we're working on something, bear with us" or even "we don't care about you mobile users, screw you" instead.

Sadly, this is obviously an error on their part, but I have low hopes for a meaningful apology, even though that's normally what I expect when someone makes a mistake like this.

 

[Zaran]

Wow I didn't even know they had a mobile version of te compendium. I have been using a 3pp app and its search feature is very basic

 

[King Nate]

It works fine now.

 

[Zaran]

It works fine now.

Nope, still doesn't work for me.