Tapatalk technology

[Peter Froh]

I belong to an online photography community that recently installed this software called Tapatalk (http://www.tapatalk.com). It allows iPhone (and other smart phone users) the ability to review forum posts without having to go through the mobile phone's browser.

This allows users to read posts without having to zoom in and out at every page turn which can be a pain.

There is a free limited version of the software for phone users and a $2.99 USD fee for the full version. The software that is installed on the forum's server is free.

Is there a chance that this software can be installed on this forum for users to take advantage of the new technology???

[Aaron Koehl]

I, too, recently came across this software on my iPod touch. I'm not fully convinced of its security, though, or how well they keep up with vBulletin patches and upgrades. Perhaps after the upgrade to vBulletin 4.x and the new server comes online, we could look into it..

[Kevin Gagne]

Any update on this? I have been using Tapatalk with other forums and it works great.

[Jason White]

Aaron, is there an iPhone app that works with SMC yet? Jason

I, too, recently came across this software on my iPod touch. I'm not fully convinced of its security, though, or how well they keep up with vBulletin patches and upgrades. Perhaps after the upgrade to vBulletin 4.x and the new server comes online, we could look into it..

[Jason White]

Bump!

Still wanting an app that plays well with Sawmill Creek. Any updates on this? Jason

[Peter Froh]

Is there an iPhone app that works with Sawmill Creek? I can't seem to find any posts that indicate there is one available. Too bad.

[Kevin Gagne]

Seems like this is getting ignored since there hasn't been any response since January. I use the software on other sites and it works great.

[Keith Outten]

Kevin,

We aren't ignoring the topic just being very cautious since there are security issues involved and we have a very large Community to consider.
The Tapatalk software isn't an option for us because it isn't native to vBulletin. We don't know what impact it will have when we have to upgrade our software and we don't want to get into a tech support battle if there were problems between their software and ours.

vBulletin has a new iPhone/Droid app that is still unproven, currently we have more questions than answers about how we could implement the software. Our server administrator Aaron Koehl has this on his list of things to do/watch.

I have more to gain than anyone when can get this option installed and working. I own an iPhone and an iPad and it would make my life much easier working behind the scenes. I also have to help our advertisers frequently uploading banner graphics and setting up accounts, it would be nice not to have to run for a PC every time I needed to make a small change for them.

No need to accuse us of being conservative because we are and always have been where The Creek is concerned and security is our number one concern.
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[Kelly Colin Mark]

I'm not sure what "native to vBulletin" means. I do know that according to Tapatalk's website, it is supposed to support vBulletin 4.x, which would seem to include SMC.

It certainly makes browsing my favorite forums a heck of a lot easier. It works wonderfully for me, and I notice I am now a lot less active on forums that do not support Tapatalk.

[Kevin Gagne]

Has this been looked into any further? Of all the sites I regularly visit this is the only one that doesn't support Tapatalk. VBulletin is listed as being supported.

[Peter Froh]

I've been using Forum Runner on other sites. It works better, IMHO, than Tapatalk. The mobile solution for this site is not very good.

Other major sites use Tapatalk and Forum Runner without any issues around integration, upgrading or security.
I'm not sure why SMC is lagging behind.

I would love to see Forum Runner installed on SMC. I would come by here more regularly if it was. Right now I don't read or contribute to this site as much as I do others because the mobile solution in place on this site frankly stinks.

My two cents.

[Kevin Gagne]

Do any administrators have any comment on the possibility of having this forum support mobile devices. Thanks

[Keith Outten]

We have looked at various mobile software options before. Our server administrator has ruled out all of them that are not provided by vBulletin because they cause us nothing but grief when we have to upgrade our software. vBulletin provides several software upgrades every year, most involve a fix for one security hole or another. The last upgrade included a major change in their programing that caused all of our custom hacks to fail, Aaron is still working on new hacks to correct these problems.

Another concern is security. Its a crap shoot when you consider how many upgrades we already have to deal with every year. Add another software module and the risks increase, the idea of even considering a program developed by a company other then vBulletin and you get into the trap of one company blaming the other for something that doesn't work or for a breach in security.

I dislike the idea of paying fees for add on modules. I also dislike the idea of our Members having to pay a fee for a module setup to connect to The Creek. Last but not least I don't need to have to answer hundreds of tech support questions every month when people have problems and blame our side of the the system.

The percentage of people here who use mobile devices to connect to The Creek is miniscule yet everyone here would be affected if something went wrong. That's 40 to 60 thousand people per day.

Whenever a solution becomes available from vBulletin that is low risk our server administrator will decide if it is worth the risk we will take to provide better support for mobile devices.
I know all to well how frustrating it can be when a change in software causes our server to drop offline for no apparent reason and we are down for hours until I can get back to the office and reboot the server. Right now our server is rock solid reliable and I like it that way.
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[glenn bradley]

Running Tapatalk 2 on many V bulletin forum sites all function well. The functionality is not the same as a desktop application directory browsing to the forum site but for mobile devices makes things very readable and navigation quite intuitive.

[Aaron Koehl]

In case anyone missed, we're now supporting ForumRunner-