How do develop an EN World iPhone application?

[Morrus]

This is an area I know absolutely nothing about! Has anyone here written and released an iPhone application?

What's involved? How difficult is it? If you've done it before, would you be interested in my paying you to write one for me?

I'm initially thinking either a news application or a cool way to browse the boards which is less fiddly than using the phone browser. So the app would have to speak to the EN World server in some way.

 

[stonegod]

For just browsing, I'd check to see if anyone has mad a VB skin for the iphone; it'd probably just be custom CSS for the most part if any (ala what Google News does when you browse it from the phone). It wouldn't be "programming" the phone; it'd be something for the website. Likely easier and quicker in the long run.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I am a developer though not an iphone developer but before you start forking out money for an application you should have a clear view of what the application is supposed to do and who the target audience is for it and why would they want it?
Browsing ENworld is really a site layout issue and I am not sure what you mean by a news application.

 

[mach1.9pants]

If you send me an iPhone to work on I am sure I could figure something..........

 

[stonegod]

For just browsing, I'd check to see if anyone has mad a VB skin for the iphone; it'd probably just be custom CSS for the most part if any (ala what Google News does when you browse it from the phone). It wouldn't be "programming" the phone; it'd be something for the website. Likely easier and quicker in the long run.

I found two links to a few skins:
- iPhone / iPod Touch Optimized Skin - vBulletin.org Forum
- iPhone based skin (iPhorum) - vBulletin Community Forum
I don't do VB stuff, so I don't know how difficult it would be to modify these, but that's what I found via GoogleFu.

 

[Janx]

If the goal is to make this site browseable on the iPhone (or other mobile devices), you'd be better off looking into css, html and vbulletin skins as others suggest.

There's no need to write an app, just get the GUI code formatted for iPhone layout. And as somebody googled, folks have solved that problem.

In doing so, it becomes an client-check in the code to figure out which browser you have, and send the proper html formatted to work best with the client.

That's MUCH simpler then getting a Mac, getting the SDK, learning it, and desiging an app.

Plus, there's no barrier to entry. Anybody with a iPod or iPhone can browse to the site, which is likely the first thing they try to do anyway.

Odds are good, you can get skins for vbulletin to support a wide range of mobile devices. Not just iPhone.

The core formatting problem, as I see it, is that this site has a lot of different elements on it. header and footer banners, the actual forum items, some stuff on the side, a menu bar at the top. I have to enlarge and scroll the heck out of the page, to make out the General RPG Discussion screen, just to get to this thread on my iPhone.

Whereas, on a small screen, you only really have room to show 1 topic(a list of items to select, or a single item in detail), with a little room for manipulation and navigation. I'm not sure where room for banner ads would come in (but then I don't want banner ads...)

 

[Janx]

also of note, I have seen at least 2 developers of iPhone apps post on in this forum about their apps. iNit was one of them. Can't remember the other, but it was more recent.

But before you pay, look into skins and vBulletin mods to support iPhone and mobile devices. Odds are good, you just download the code/skin files and plug them into place into the existing vBulletin code directories. You should be able to test this on a test server (you do have one don't you?).

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

There are a number of developers posting in this thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/264036-grand-list-iphone-apps-d-d-gaming.html

Also, I've got links to the developers websites.