TDR Lite deployed for PDA & dial up users

[Steve St.Laurent]

Yesterday I deployed a new stylesheet for users on slower connections (dial-up & cellular) as well as PDA users. We are going to roll out a graphics redesign of the site in the not too distant future and while working on that I came up with the idea of a "TDR Lite" for those users. We try to balance the wants of our users on high speed connections with the needs of those on slower connections. Also, PDA's & cellular connections are becoming more and more popular. Now we can have the best of both worlds. If you connect to the forums on a PDA you will automatically be taken to the TDR Lite version of the forums. If you are on a slower connection and want to be able to browse around the forums faster either go the bottom left of any page and select the "PDA/Dial-up" style (for temporary use) or you can permanently choose that style via the user control panel under options. I've tried to give it as much capablity as possible while still being compatible with small PDA screens, etc. You won't have all of the functionality of the full version of the site but you can search, view new posts, make new posts, edit messages, etc. Let me know what you think and any suggestions you might have. Enjoy.



-Steve St. Laurent

Webmaster

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

SWEET! Thanks Steve!! I now have a reason for the IpaQ to get setup once again Yahoooo! 'Specially when ya work at a community that has 260 some odd apartments and 180 of them have wireless :-laf :-laf 'net for everyone Oo. Oo.

 

[DCornelius]

Very nice. I've tried viewing the site before with my PDA and it was miserably slow. Now it's VERY usable.



Thanks for the great improvement!

David

 

[R-N-R]

This is very very cool! I am submitting this right now from my blackberry the font is a bit funky, but definately cool!

 

[KBennett]

Great idea! I'm with Tim, it gives me a good reason to setup wireless on the Palm.

 

[paccool]

OK, this sounds good but where on the lower left area of any page is it? I don't have anything at all that pertains to this. Do I need to dump all the cookies and start over to get it?



The computer challenged need help!!

 

[wmorden]

Paccool - use the pickbox in the lower left hand corner and scroll down to the PDA selection...



This just made my Blackberry much more useful! Thanks!!

 

[gwagner]

Ill tell you what you technalogicaly advanced guys amaze me. the stuff you guys can do is amazing. Keep up the good work.

 

[paccool]

wmordon, Got it! Thaks a lot!



Keep getting an Internet Explorer Error message.

An Error has occurred

Line 20

Char 2

Error - Null is Null or not an object.



Man, this is much faster. Thanks Steve.



Now, can I change the light blue color back to Graphite?



Stan

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

What light blue color paccool? There isn't anything on that style that is colored AFAIK. Let me know where you are talking about. I've tested on a number of browsers and don't get any errors - anyone else getting that error that paccool is? What version of IE are you running? Glad you guys are enjoying it.

 

[paccool]

Steve, this is really fast and I love it! The light blue I was referring to is the letters on the main forum page and the main page of each of the sub forums. When I click on an item to read, the letters are dark and it's no problem. I had trouble with the colors when you made the changes a couple of years ago, the old eyes seem to have a problem with the lighter blues and some of the reds. Not a big deal but would be easier for me if graphite. As I type this, the color of the letters are black or graphite and are fine.



I'm on AOL, thats probably the problem!



Stan

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

That is the default color for links. I changed it in the style sheet to black/graphite. How's that? On PDA's it looks like it stays blue - at least on mine it does (all websites are that way so it must be something built into the PDA browser).

 

[paccool]

Right now it is OK. I switched over to Mozilla and just now came to here. Thought I had found the problem but see you changed some stuff. I'll go back to AOL and see if it is still blue or not.



OK on AOL also.

Now, does this mean everyone has the black or just me?? Some of the guys will like the blue better I'm sure so if there is a choice, go with the majority and I'll cope.

 

[FMcClaren]

Thanks Steve, This is great ,The ole dialup isn,t so bad

after all. Helps keep the blood pressure in check to.

Frank

 

[klenger]

Wow, now the TDR is as fast as our trucks. Oo.

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

Ah, can I ask a stupid question... . ? What is a PDA... ?



And you thought you were computer illerteriate... :-laf

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

PDA=personal digital assitant. I got mine primarily so that I can log in to the TDR servers and fix them anytime and not have to carry a laptop around with me.



Here's mine:

 

[paccool]

git-r-done,

Glad you asked the question. I didn't know what the heck it was either!

 

[Bill Lins]

I'm a little confused. I went to Options (or Edit Options) on the UCP & didn't find anything. What did I do wrong?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

If you go into the user control panel and then edit options, the last box on the screen says under miscellaneous options you'll see "forum skin" with a pull down menu. Pull down that menu and you'll see the different option for the look of the forums. There are various color choices and then the last choice is PDA/dial-up. If you just want to try it though at the very bottom of every forum page there is a drop down menu on the lower left that says "-- Default" unless you've changed it to something else. You can select it there and it will stay that way until you clear your cookies.