bits work but not on all devices

  • I have installed this plugin.

    The link to add to my homepage seems to work OK on any android phone if I use Chrome but I nearly missed the link at the bottom of the page.
    If I try to use it with Firefox the link only shows up on the address bar as what looks like a house with a star in it, when I clicked on it, I now get the link on my phones home page, but when I clink on it I get a black screen with a dot in the middle and an address to an icon on my phone belonging to a different app ( I know it does not make sense to me either) if I close that screen the PWA id behind that.

    It does not work at all on my Ipad, I don’t have an iphone to try it.

    I really like the idea of what this plugin should do, but I would prefer the ability to have a page on my site where I can explain to users what a PWA is and a button link to install it (I assume it should work on ios devices).

    I have seen the post “How to add progressive web app to website with a conditional install button” by Dr. D which looks interesting, but I don’t know where each bit of the text should go, should it be in functions.php in my child theme ? I would have hoped that if Nico thinks it is “hacky” he would have provided a better full solution.

    Could we have some better examples please

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Thread Starter Clivesmith

    (@clivesmith)

    Can I add to the above, is it possible to add a counter so we can see how many users have installed it, If it could be added to the postmeta table I could add it to the page.
    Thanks

    Dr. Flow

    (@wtsadmin)

    Good day Clive. Having worked a bunch with PWAs I have to say the technology is new, and when you’re on the bleeding edge you often get cut. Much of the issues with the plugin is with PWA tech. The following may be a “hacky” way of implementation yet it came about from a discussion as to why the default plugin frankly wasn’t working. Getting results is really what counts.

    That said let’s refer to my previous post of How to add progressive web app to website with a conditional install button. It is designed to allow the user a pattern to control and understand the install process.

    Step 1, create a landing page or a place to put your main call to action. That is where you would put the code from 1.)

    Step 2, create a page telling the user that thanks to new technology they are about to install the app but not from an app store, and that they can uninstall at any time. Explaining what is to happen builds trust and confidence. It’s in this page you put code from 2.)

    Step 3, use Header Footer Code Manager to put the code from 3.) in the footer of your page from Step 1.

    Step 4, use Header Footer Code Manager to put the code from 4.) in the footer of your page from Step 2.

    Step 5, cross your fingers. And PS, I haven’t had any luck with the latest version of Firefox.

    • This reply was modified 5 years ago by Dr. Flow.
    Dr. Flow

    (@wtsadmin)

    Ah. I just now discovered why the previous works with Chrome yet not other browsers. It’s the ‘beforeinstallprompt’ event. As of writing it is still in development. See:

    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/BeforeInstallPromptEvent

    Thread Starter Clivesmith

    (@clivesmith)

    Thank you Dr D.

    I have no problem with “hacky” ways of doing things, I am a bit concerned that your code is not being taken up. The last update to this app was 4 months ago and the comment I put here was over 3 weeks ago and you have answered it and not Nico. Thanks for the information above but I think I will look for an app authored by someone more proactive.

    Plugin Author Nico Martin

    (@nico_martin)

    Hi @clivesmith

    I know I’m not very active here in this forum. But here are two things you should be aware of:

    1. I’m very activly following the development in the browser landscape. So if there are any huge changes or new capabilities I will try my best to implement it. I’m also testing the plugin with all WordPress updates to make sure it won’t produce any errors or even break your site.

    2. The development of this plugin is a sideproject. I’m investing time besides my job and my family without expecting anything in return. That also means I can’t dig deeper into any special edgecases (sub-dir installation) or answer the same questions over and over again (install prompt on iOS).

    I hope you understand that it is not always easy to live up to every expectation.

    And more than that, everything I did so far is open source and I’d be more than happy to “share” my maintainer status and to accept pull requests from you or the community:
    https://github.com/SayHelloGmbH/progressive-wordpress

    Kind regards,
    Nico

    Thread Starter Clivesmith

    (@clivesmith)

    Hi Nico,

    I am sorry for my last post, of course I understand about family and other commitments and I do appreciate the work you are doing.
    I am afraid that my comments were borne from my own frustrations, in the past I would have sorted it myself. I used to program starting in the early 1970’s with Fortran, cobal through basic, Pascal, assembly, Oracle and a few more in between. Now in my late 60’s I am struggling to get to grips with the languages behind wordpress. I would love to help and that frustration seems to be making me a grumpy old git, so please accept my apologies and keep up the good work.
    Regards
    Clive

    Plugin Author Nico Martin

    (@nico_martin)

    Hi @clivesmith

    Thanks for your message. That means a lot!

    Kind regards,
    Nico

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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