I switched to Discourse from Vanilla. Discourse has been wonderful but I’ve been hearing complaints from users that the forums do not function as well on iPad when writing posts especially for writing very long posts. One user in particular finds it difficult to insert pictures into posts using an iPad.
For me the Discourse experience on iPad is really important as these users provide really valuable feedback for my products.
What exactly makes it difficult for them to do? As in, on the long posts part - what exactly makes it difficult for them? Mostly curious so I can experiment with it.
It’s a long story but there are crippling bugs in iOS 8 in Mobile Safari that didn’t exist at all in iOS 7. Really, really bad ones.
And yes the experience is quite bad particularly when trying to add an image.
See more at:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/composing-interface-is-hard-to-use-on-ios-8/21776
Thanks for posting this link! Yes, this is the issue.
It might be worth figuring out a new approach for iOS 8. I’ve submitted my fair share of Safari bugs and in my experience they only fix bugs like this in new major versions of Safari and not in updates so iOS 9 would probably be the soonest they would address this bug if they decide to at all.
Hmm, not sure about that, good odds they will be fixed in iOS 8.1 which is due soon.
You mean 8.2 right? Just tried in iOS 8.2 beta and the bug is still present.
Oh yes IOS 8.2 – well, let’s see what happens because there is really no fix on our end. Basic HTML / CSS stuff is broken.
Have you tried reporting this to apple, would be nice to track a ticket here.
@eviltrout said he filled out a detailed bug report and I’m not knowledgeable enough about the problem to file out a duplicate one. I would suggest to update any existing bug reports that the issue is still broken in the latest beta.
Apple’s bug reporting system is closed so you can’t view other people’s bug reports unfortunately.
@eviltrout can you provide a link here, and in the other topic, to the bug report you filled out so we can see if there is any activity and publicize it a bit more?
I’ll be happy to file a bug report if I have the information as well,
We’d also need a sample project that can demonstrate the bug. I have read Apple puts more importance on the number of duplicate bug reports submitted for an issue.
There don’t seem to be any public links to Safari bugs. However, they did close my bug as a duplicate of another which is a good sign that they are aware of it. Here’s their reply to me:
Hello Robin,
Engineering has determined that your bug report (18811562) is a duplicate of another issue (18559320) and will be closed.
The open or closed status of the original bug report your issue was duplicated to appears in the yellow "Duplicate of XXXXXXXX" section of the bug reporter user interface. This section appears near the top of the right column's bug detail view just under the bug number, title, state, product and rank.
An example of the duplicate section from the bug reporter user interface with your bug and the duplicate bug info is included below:
18811562 `position: fixed` is busted on mobile safari on iOS8
State: Closed Product:
Rank: No Value
---------------------------------------------------------------
Duplicate of 18559320 (Open/Closed)
---------------------------------------------------------------
They provide the bug ID that it is similar to 18559320 however that doesn’t link anywhere to review its status and what they’re doing about it.
In case you’re interested here’s my initial report:
Summary:
There are many issues with `position: fixed` in Mobile Safari on iOS 8 (and 8.1) that were not present in iOS7.
Here is a list that shows many of the issues we are seeing on our project in video form.
http://vimeo.com/user17710548/videos
In particular this behavior, where focusing on a fixed element is scrolling the page is very bothersome (http://vimeo.com/107938078).
Additionally we are seeing buttons that are not able to be clicked too, which is totally breaking our web app that used to work perfectly fine. (http://vimeo.com/107938076)
Steps to Reproduce:
Scrolling bug:
1. Create a text area in an position: fixed element on a page that you can scroll.
2. Click the text area
Expected Results:
Page should not scroll at all, as in iOS7 and other browsers.
Actual Results:
Page scrolls to top/bottom depending on where element is fixed
Version:
iOS 8.1
Notes:
Configuration:
iPad 4, iPad Air 2
Thanks for that @eviltrout
So if you want to assist @JohnOeffinger75 and @BerryBlue and @olemoritz (or anyone else reading this, please) follow the repro steps above and file another bug with Apple.
I’ll file mine tomorrow - iPhone 6 latest build; iPad 3 latest build.
Hi guys, I have an idea that could make the whole thing more usable on iOS. Since i have some troubles on getting a working dev version, i can explain how to fix it. And there are two kind of fixes:
The most easiest way to fix is to add when compose window is visible:
body, html {height:100%; overflow:hidden}
Surely, this will make impossible to scroll between existing posts, but… at we will have a functional compose window.
The other solution would be a bit trickier to implement, but with good results. First, we need to move #reply-control div outside of #main div. Then, some CSS magic:
body, html {height:100%; overflow:hidden}
#main { height:100%; overflow:auto; -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch; }
#reply-control { position:absolute }
In my quick tests (safari + GapDebug), everything play nicely.
Depends how long these brutal iOS 8 Safari bugs go on…
Compose window is plenty functional on iPad, it’s just dialogs with the compose window open are 100% crazytown.
I have a method of adding images to posts on iPad that is weirder than a voodoo chicken sacrifice. I’m embarrassed to even describe it frankly.
I think we are ok with a PR that corrects works around the issue seeing IOS8 is so prevalent. Provided we can easily disable it when IOS fixes things.
Compose window to reply? Yes, functional. Compose window to create a new topic from the homepage? A total nightmare! It tries to scroll down to focus the editor, but then new posts loads, so will blur the editor and scroll more and so on.
Hmm no repro, I am able to create topic fine on iPad 2 air. Landscape or portrait? I mostly use landscape.