Mobile Improvement + Forum Fixes

[DukeofRealms]

Greetings,

Over the past few weeks, I've been focusing on improving the forum, through optimizations, feature additions, bugfixes, etc. These last three days I've worked on uplifting the appearance of this site. The primary focus has been for better mobile support. I've started from scratch with an upgraded theme framework (thanks to Audentio) and recreated SMD's style. The appearance changes should offer an improved experience on mobile devices as well as a performance increase for both mobile and desktop.

Mobile Improvements

Collapsible menus

While viewing on mobile devices, the navigation links should collapse into three sections (Menu, User & Search).

Clicking on "Menu" will slide a sidebar from the left that will display all navigation links (Home, Forums, CC, Staff, Chat & Rules).

Spoiler: Menu Bar

​

Clicking on your username will slide a sidebar from the right, this bar will contain all user options, the conversation menu, and alerts.

Spoiler: User Bar

​

The search bar has been changed for both desktop and mobile. Clicking on the search button will replace the entire navbar with a search box. This reduces an unnecessary dropdown menu (advanced search options can be accessed by clicking on the gear icon).

Spoiler: Search

​

Desktop + Mobile

• Forum category layout is now dynamic. Depending on the width of the browser, the layout will split between table mode and list for categories.
• While viewing a thread, the sticky navigation bar will display what post number you are up to.
• Scrolling down a thread will make "jump to" arrows appear, allowing the user to go quickly to the top or bottom of the page.

• The "Download" and "Buy" buttons on the StarMade menu will disappear before clashing into the navigation links.
• StarMade header navigation links will disappear after a certain length, this will likely be replaced with a drop down menu at a later date.
• + Lots of little additions/improvements here and there.

Bugfixes

• "Click to expand" has been fixed to expand
• Chat BBCode spoilers no longer duplicated
• Chat commands have been restored
• The "click to whisper" in chat has been fixed
• Logging in on a forum or community content page will bring you back to the page you were viewing
• + A few other fixes

Optimisations

• Unused CSS has been removed, reducing page size
• Uploaded images are compressed using kraken.io for PNG + GIF, JpegOptim for JPG.
• Compressed assets from the StarMade header
• Removed all feature and appearance reliance on star-made.org and registry.star-made.org . Authentication from the Registry is the only external dependency now.

If you come across any issues with the site, please report them here: Site Support/Suggestions

Thanks for playing StarMade,

- Duke

 

[Blodge]

Good work, sir

 

[SkylordLuke]

very cool!!

 

[splatthecat]

I have been unable to login via my windows phone for some time now and I guess this is why. I still have to login via a forum post and cannot use the login link on the home page.

I know it is hard to cater for every eventuality but it used to work before the major malfunction a few weeks ago.

Thanks!

 

[Andir]

Ugh... I used to be able to tap on the 'forums' in the top bar and it would take me right to the forum index. Now it just opens a menu where there is no option to get to the forum index...

 

[Valck]

Welp, I'd prefer less JavaScript, not more.
SMD really taxes the browser if you have a few tabs of it open at the same time. And I have no issues with several windows with lots of tabs in each, as long as SMD is not among them. I can track down browser slowness to SMD each and every time.

 

[DukeofRealms]

I have been unable to login via my windows phone for some time now and I guess this is why. I still have to login via a forum post and cannot use the login link on the home page.

I know it is hard to cater for every eventuality but it used to work before the major malfunction a few weeks ago.

Thanks!

Can you login with the green login button while on windows phone?

Ugh... I used to be able to tap on the 'forums' in the top bar and it would take me right to the forum index. Now it just opens a menu where there is no option to get to the forum index...

There is an option, I will most likely remove the long list of sub-links from the home area to make it more visible.

Welp, I'd prefer less JavaScript, not more.
SMD really taxes the browser if you have a few tabs of it open at the same time. And I have no issues with several windows with lots of tabs in each, as long as SMD is not among them. I can track down browser slowness to SMD each and every time.

This is most likely to do with the performance heavy ads displayed on SMD, not the actual site content. This has been the number one cause for delayed page loading time and resource usage. Taxation on browser performance has been reduced with this new theme, are you experiencing greater usage from SMD than before?

 

[splatthecat]

Can you login with the green login button while on windows phone?

No. It redirects to the registry but doesn't login. I have to open it as a new tab. Same with the link at the top of the home page or the link below a forum post saying you need to log in. Hope that helps?

 

[DukeofRealms]

No. It redirects to the registry but doesn't login. I have to open it as a new tab. Same with the link at the top of the home page or the link below a forum post saying you need to log in. Hope that helps?

It should redirect to the registry, then you should login, and it should redirect you back.
[DOUBLEPOST=1460728003,1460727146][/DOUBLEPOST]I will test this myself on a Windows Phone tomorrow, what browser are you using splatthecat ?

 

[splatthecat]

Not always. Sometimes it just adds a # to the URL. Sometimes it shows it is redirected to the registry but I am not logged in once it gets back. The most foolproof way of logging into the site on my phone is to open the login link in a new tab. That works about 95% of the time. Most strange!

Standard Internet Explorer on 8.1 update, Lumia 925.

 

[HolyCookie]

Love the arrows in the top and side. Great update!

 

[Reilly Reese]

How do I force it to go back to the old list format?

My laptop and I don't like the tables.

 

[Keptick]

Nice update!

For those that didn't notice, there's an option/button at the bottom left of the page that lets you toggle between the old and new layout. So if you liked the old layout better you can still use that :D

 

[HolyCookie]

Nice update!

For those that didn't notice, there's a button an option at the bottom left of the page that lets you toggle between the old and new layout. So if you liked the old layout better you can still use that :D

Thanks, some of he letters got too small for me :P

 

[kikaha]

Nice ! Thanks !

 

[DukeofRealms]

How do I force it to go back to the old list format?

My laptop and I don't like the tables.

Nice update!

For those that didn't notice, there's an option/button at the bottom left of the page that lets you toggle between the old and new layout. So if you liked the old layout better you can still use that :D

The table change is one of the smaller changes, obviously the most noticeable. I wouldn't recommend using the old theme, though, as it's no longer supported and has many issues. I'm working on an alternative list format at the moment, when that is put in the options, I suggest you use that instead.
[DOUBLEPOST=1460772807,1460769632][/DOUBLEPOST]I've added an option to change back to list, this new option includes all the updates and fixes that the default theme does. The only difference is the category layout.

 

[Reilly Reese]

The table change is one of the smaller changes, obviously the most noticeable. I wouldn't recommend using the old theme, though, as it's no longer supported and has many issues. I'm working on an alternative list format at the moment, when that is put in the options, I suggest you use that instead.
[DOUBLEPOST=1460772807,1460769632][/DOUBLEPOST]I've added an option to change back to list, this new option includes all the updates and fixes that the default theme does. The only difference is the category layout.

View attachment 24405

Thanks Duke. \o/

 

[kiraen]

I like the new format, but I miss the 'NEW' tag on new posts.
If I scroll the window, I lose track.

Other then that, it I think it looks more...sophisticated.

 

[DukeofRealms]

I like the new format, but I miss the 'NEW' tag on new posts.
If I scroll the window, I lose track.

Other then that, it I think it looks more...sophisticated.

Ah yes, when I was recreating the theme it initially had the new tag. I didn't think we had it before and it looked distracting, so I removed it. I'll add that back later today.

 

[kiraen]

Feel free to make it smaller or redesign it completely. I just want an indicator, it doesn't have to be exactly the same.