Given up

Anything about use of this forum : NOT about cycling
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Vantage
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Re: Given up

Post by Vantage »

Click on CTC Forum on the iPhone and I get a pop-up from Tapatalk asking me to install it. I click x for no and it disappears.
Click on a section of the CTC Forum and again Tapatalk springs up asking to install. Again I click no and carry on. When I'm done, I click "back" and click on another section. Tapatalk again. And around and around we go as I visit the various CTC Forum sections constantly wishing Tapatalk would **** off till I'm ready to launch the damn phone at the wall.
I don't have Tapatalk installed and this doesn't always happen, but when it does happen and all I want to do is read and/or post on the forum it is excruciatingly irritating. Turning off notifications makes no difference and to the best of my knowledge there is no way to block the app from my phone.
Why don't I want Tapatalk when I visit the forum? I'm used to viewing it in it's standard format on the pc and that's how I want to view it on the phone. Its a bit like having some decorator constantly offering to re-do your home when you like it the way it is. :evil:
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
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Mick F
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Re: Given up

Post by Mick F »

Why do you and the OP have this, and others don't?
I cannot replicate what you say on an Android, and iPad, or any of our computers.
Mick F. Cornwall
Mark1978
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Re: Given up

Post by Mark1978 »

thirdcrank wrote:If there's one thing worse than some IT gadget putting its tongue out at you, it's somebody who can't help you sort it out telling you there's nothing wrong.


As I work in IT that's half my job ;)
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Vantage
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Re: Given up

Post by Vantage »

No idea.
It seems worse just after an update which might clear the cookies on the phone.
My daughters android tablets don't have the issue either.
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
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gaz
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Re: Given up

Post by gaz »

High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
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Mick F
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Re: Given up

Post by Mick F »

Thanks Gaz.

I still don't understand, because I don't get constant popups yet have never clicked on the link to the app store, not on the iPad or on the Samsung Galaxy.

There's more to this, but I don't know what ..................
Mick F. Cornwall
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gaz
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Re: Given up

Post by gaz »

I don't understand either for I have not one of these mobile devices of which you all speak :wink: .
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
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mjr
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Re: Given up

Post by mjr »

Every page on the CTC forum wrote: <!-- App Indexing for Google Search -->
<link href="android-app://com.quoord.tapatalkpro.activity/tapatalk/forum.ctc.org.uk/?location=topic&tid=92825&page=2&perpage=15" rel="alternate" />
<link href="ios-app://307880732/tapatalk/forum.ctc.org.uk/?location=topic&tid=92825&page=2&perpage=15" rel="alternate" />

<meta property="al:android:package" content="com.quoord.tapatalkpro.activity" />
<meta property="al:android:url" content="tapatalk://forum.ctc.org.uk/?location=topic&tid=92825&page=2&perpage=15" />
<meta property="al:android:app_name" content="Tapatalk" />
<meta property="al:ios:url" content="tapatalk://forum.ctc.org.uk/?location=topic&tid=92825&page=2&perpage=15" />
<meta property="al:ios:app_store_id" content="307880732" />
<meta property="al:ios:app_name" content="Tapatalk" />

The above junk and then some is in the header of the source code of every page on this forum. My browsers (such as Firefox) don't seem to react to it, but I guess some might. I don't use the built-in Android browser because I don't trust it to be secure against attacks and I can't upgrade it as easily as Firefox.

Two questions come to mind:
  • Why are the meta[@content] attributes malformed html (the & should be written &amp; to be well-formed) and does that cause some problems?
  • Why is this forum advertising Tapatalk anyway?
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
SteveHunter
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Re: Given up

Post by SteveHunter »

In order for this forum be available in Tapatalk the Tapatalk plug in has to have been installed as an add on to the base phpbb forum code.

As part of the config in the forum Admin you can elect to prompt someone accessing the forum on a browser on a Tapatalk compatible device whether to install and use Tapatalk.

This should only appear the first time you access the forum from the device as it stores your answer as a cookie. If you have your browser set to not store cookies it will ask you everytime you access the forum.
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mjr
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Re: Given up

Post by mjr »

SteveHunter wrote:This should only appear the first time you access the forum from the device as it stores your answer as a cookie. If you have your browser set to not store cookies it will ask you everytime you access the forum.

Why in the blue blazes does it store it as a cookie instead of putting it in the PHP session??? :shock:

What's the point of all the clever sessions-without-cookies code in PHP being used by phpBB if then a plugin is just going to ignore it all and poo into the cookie jar? I hope the plugin is better written in other ways, else it seems a bit of a liability.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
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Mick F
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Re: Given up

Post by Mick F »

SteveHunter wrote: If you have your browser set to not store cookies it will ask you everytime you access the forum.
That sounds spot on as the reason for continual prompts.

Not a good reason, but THE reason.
Mick F. Cornwall
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admin
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Re: Given up

Post by admin »

If you set your browser to not store cookies, you will see the Tapatalk prompt every time you visit the Forum. Cookies are needed because HTTP is stateless: the only way the server can know your Tapatalk preferences next time you connect is if it sees a cookie from the browser saying you don't want to use Tapatalk.

mjr wrote:Why in the blue blazes does it store it as a cookie instead of putting it in the PHP session???


The PHP session can only persist when the browser is closed if you allow cookies. So if you don't allow cookies Tapatalk would have to keep asking even if it did hack the PHP session.

Having a separate cookie for Tapatalk makes things much neater as the Tapatalk cookie is visible if you wanted to investigate what was going on.

Tapatalk's preference cookie is also completely independent of the Forum code: Tapatalk works with lots of different Forum software, not just phpBB3, and hooking into each Forum's session data could be problematic.

If you're worried about cookies and tracking, a good compromise is to allow cookies from the domain of the website you're visiting, but not from other domains (e.g. advertisers).
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mjr
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Re: Given up

Post by mjr »

admin wrote:
mjr wrote:Why in the blue blazes does it store it as a cookie instead of putting it in the PHP session???


The PHP session can only persist when the browser is closed if you allow cookies. So if you don't allow cookies Tapatalk would have to keep asking even if it did hack the PHP session.

Sure, once per visit, not once per page load.
Tapatalk's preference cookie is also completely independent of the Forum code: Tapatalk works with lots of different Forum software, not just phpBB3, and hooking into each Forum's session data could be problematic.

Tapatalk only supported forums written in PHP the last I saw. It could use the PHP session data (not each Forum's). Using $_COOKIE instead of $_SESSION seems a bit lazy.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
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