New version... When?

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Author Post
Member
Registered: Aug 2009
Posts: 17
When will be available the new version?
Will be mobile friendly?

Thanks
Administrator
Registered: Aug 2008
Posts: 3382
There will be a new version, but I'm not going to commit an availability date.

Floatbox is already mobile friendly. Is there some specific functionality or bug fix you are hoping to see in a new version?
Member
Registered: Aug 2009
Posts: 17
Floatbox is too much sensible with touch devices (if I move down with the finger a page with more images, every time open floatbox).

More Bootstrap integration/style.
Administrator
Registered: Aug 2008
Posts: 3382
Older versions of Floatbox would open a floatbox after a touch/swipe/drag gesture on a link or thumbnail. Recent versions will not. This bad behaviour was fixed in version 5.6.0, released in December of 2012.

If you have a case where a recent version is misbehaving in this regard, I'd appreciate the chance to look at the page where this occurs to determine why.
Member
Registered: Apr 2009
Posts: 56
One of the things that would be useful is displaying Floatbox option settings for either mobile or desktop scenarios and making it easy to invoke in the options string. Here are two real world scenarios:

===========
Example one:
1. Show captions on desktops
2. Remove captions on mobile devices (perhaps removing them @ <= 767 pixels, or perhaps a configurable pixel setting in the Floatbox options.js file?)
===========

Captions take up valuable real estate on tiny phones. For example Youtube videos that use Floatbox captions can create significant dreaded black bars because they affect the aspect ratio of the video. Insert too much text in a caption and you can have a tiny video on a mobile device, but it looks great on a desktop. Floatbox works well on mobile devices with no captions.

===========
Example two:
1. Show tooltips on desktops
2. Remove tooltips on mobile devices
===========

There are other scenarios as well that I've come across.

Maybe there's an easier method, but right now, for me, when using Floatbox on desktop and mobile devices, it requires jumping through a lot of hoops with media queries to get what I need. Throw in the myriad of pixel ratios on mobile devices and it becomes even more cumbersome for reliable behavior and testing/debugging. You end-up with a lot of HTML that is difficult to maintain. This may not bode well for easily updating Floatbox when versions change.

Perhaps you have a javascript snipppet that will reliably detect mobile device screen sizes and pixels ratios and could display different Floatbox class options based on screen size and pixel ratios? This would help with a few scenarios.
if (screen.width <= 767) {
// don’t show these fb.classoptions --> tooltips, context boxes, captions, etc...

}

This can still lead to a lot of code to show and hide options.
I am not a Javascript expert so I don't know whether the performance would be more reliable than a combination of complicated CSS media queries that show and hide HTML (which I'm currently doing now). I do know this, it can be a bear to maintain.


And finally, I would agree with John's input about the sensitive firing of Floatbox on mobile devices (HTC Android Device here). I cannot send you to a link because I don't even know if they still exist. But, from my testing of Floatbox windows opening on mobile devices, it can be difficult to get the link to close or open smoothly. Just sayin....
« Last edit by jatss on Tue Aug 05, 2014 7:32 pm. »
Administrator
Registered: Aug 2008
Posts: 3382
Thanks for sharing your detailed considerations.

Floatbox's small screen detector is something like this:
var smallScreen = window.screen && screen.width && screen.width + screen.height < 1790 * (window.devicePixelRatio || 1);

This seems to do a good job of differentiating phones from tablets, notebooks and desktops. The 1790 value puts most 7" screens in the smallScreen camp. If you think they should get the largeScreen experience, use a cutoff of 1300.

The algorithm works because only traditional large-screen browsers lack the window.screen object and only low-pixel-density screens lack the devicePixelRatio value. Factoring in devicePixelRatio prevents high-density displays from reporting giant screen size based on pixel dimensions alone.

I do hope to have smallScreen configuration and options part of the next release, but please have some sympathy. It's actually quite challenging to do this in a simple and effective fashion which can be easily documented and understood. There's no point pushing it out if it confuses and alienates people.

I'm curious about your comment on sensitive or difficult firing and closing when using small touch devices. I'm pretty sure John's complaint had to do with a floatbox opening after a page scroll by finger drag on a floatboxed thumbnail. As noted, that bad behaviour was put to bed in version 5.6.0.

Small touch devices generally drive me nuts for any serious browser usage. Often I will attempt to navigate a link or similar with a touch that just does not register. The soft smear of my finger tip was probably not precisely enough located. I often poke things two or three times to get them to fire.

Floatbox links cannot be any different. If the O/S and browser don't recognize the touch gesture and don't fire the touch and click events, there's nothing Floatbox can do. If the link would be taken had Floatbox not been present, then the floatbox will open when touched - otherwise, no.

If you are talking about something different than the mobile browser failing to register imprecise touches, please let me know. Floatbox will never be able to pick up touch gestures that the O/S or browser fails to recognize.

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