Webif problem when viewing on Apple Ipad

Hello,

when I view the vdr web interface on my Ipad I can see the epg but I am not able to see the details of programmes to program a timer for example. When I press on a link nothing happens. I tried the webif in the Safari Browser on a Windows machine and it works fine. I'm wondering if someone else has similar problems using Mobile Safari ?

Regards
Michael

I have the same problem on iPhone. But if you use the Opera browser instead of safari, you can see the details and order a recording from the channel list (not the TV general chart). Unfortunately, on Opera the page gets a strange format and you can't use other functions.

I have tried several other browsers and all of them have the same issue than safari. On Android 2.2 on a ZTE Blade, it's the same too.

Thank you for the hint with Opera. Unfortunetly the Opera Browser for Ipad only shows a blank screen instead of showing the webif. What's so special on the VDR web interface that mobile devices, even Android phones, do not work ?

Regards
Michael

In my iPad all the browser fails.

Unfortunately there is no change in IOS5 Safari Browser. Are there any plans to get the webif running on mobile devices ? For me the Ipad or a similar device would be the ideal platform to program timers or view the epg.

Rgard
Michael

Not runing in safari, icab, atomic...

How can I test this problem on Linux?
Are these problems also in Safari for Windows?
I've seen in Google that Safari can be used under Linux using wine.

Bittor, thank you for your interest. This issue is not Safari related. It works as it should in Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer for Windows. It seems related to mobile phones, maybe to touch screens. When you click with a mouse over the name of the tv program, it shows the info about the program and the options of recording, creating EPG search and search in Google. On a mobile phone, the browser doesn't recognize the name of the tv program as a link, so when you "click" on it with your finger, nothing happens.

I have tested it with around 20 different browsers in iPhone and with the stock browser (chrome) and Dolphin HD in a ZTE Blade with Android 2.2. I don't know if it happens with all the android devices because they are very different, both in hardware and in software.

I don't think this is related to the issue, but both phones don't support Adobe Flash. However, I have used an unofficial Flash tweak in iPhone to browse the Webif, and it was the same.

I have seen an iOS emulator for Windows, Linux and Android, but it seems it is not working yet:
http://www.iemu.org/index.php/Main_Page

I have also used
http://www.testiphone.com/
and this Android emulator
http://cloud.addictivetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/Android-Emulator.zip
and they work OK, like in a PC, so I don't really know what happens.

If you live near Málaga, I could lend you my iPhone for some days to test it.

Just an idea:

Is it difficult to make a desktop version of the webif and a mobile version? It would be like a lot of web pages, which switch between them depending on the device that access to them.

If the mobile version could open the program info in a window (like when you program a recording or create an EPG search), instead of moving down all the web content to show it, it would work in a mobile device. I think it was like that before, or maybe I'm thinking of a different firmware, I can't remember.

Agathos escribió:If you live near Málaga, I could lend you my iPhone for some days to test it.

I live very far from Málaga.

Agathos escribió:Is it difficult to make a desktop version of the webif and a mobile version?
It would be like a lot of web pages, which switch between them depending on the device that access to them.

It seems simple and explained here, but is a great work to have two different versions and is better to correct the problem with Iphone to work in any browser.

Agathos escribió:If the mobile version could open the program info in a window (like when you program a recording or create an EPG search), instead of moving down all the web content to show it, it would work in a mobile device. I think it was like that before, or maybe I'm thinking of a different firmware, I can't remember.

OK, now webif is coded using jQuery, css, ... and probably exist a javascript or css incompatibility.

Does the problem only happens with program info or more links do not work?

Ok. I'm doing some tests, and I have no clue

First, in Android 2.2, Dolphin HD browser, it doesn't work, just like iPhone. In Chrome (stock browser), it works but it's extremely slow, I click on the TV program name and 10 minutes later (that's why I thought it didn't work at first), it shows the program info.

Second, on iPhone 3GS, Safari, when you click on the TV program name, nothing happens. All the rest works OK, including calendar, recordings, EPG searchs, etc. I have been using it for a year to make EPG searchs when I'm not at home, but I cannot set recordings directly from the TV programs view.

On iPhone 3GS, Opera browser, when you are at the main window (Parrilla TV), nothing happens when you click on a TV program name. BUT if click on a channel logo and go to that channel list, you can click on the TV program name and it works as intended. Unfortunately, everything is formatted in one thin column and the menus don't work, i.e., when you touch on "Grabaciones", it doesn't show a menu with "Grabaciones", "Resumen (Título)" y "Resumen (Fecha)", but it goes to the "Grabaciones" window automatically and you cannot select the other options. In Safari, the menus work OK.

Good news! Bittor is working on this issue and maybe we'll have a fix soon (please be patient because he has a private life, like anyone of us

We'll help him to test it, so if you have found any other problems (menus, windows...) with webif in your devices, please tell us.

Great to read that news. I love this implementation of VDR for M740. Thank you for that excellent work.

Regards
Michael

I have tried some apps for iOS and Android. You can find them in the App Store (dreamote, iVD and vdrRemote) or the Android Market (androVDR and others) and they work with our m740. I prefer vdrRemote. You can use the phone as a remote or set recordings from the EPG. I hope that helps :-)

Hello,

I'm sorry to read that there are problems with those browsers. The link that doesn't seem to work is not a 'real' link. The details of the EPG events are already present on the page, but hidden. What that link does is to trigger a javascript function that takes the information from a place and displays it on another place.

So, this is a javascript issue.

For the javascript code I've used a very common library (jQuery) that I think is well tested, but the version included in the webif you are using is rather old, so maybe there are problems there.

There is a new version of the webif on its way. I've almost finished it, but haven't been able to test it yet on the Gigaset (I'm not longer able to build the toolchain). As soon as I can do that, I will commit the changes.

The new version is more configurable, both at the server level and at the browser level. That means that you can enable or disable certain features in one particular browser and have then enabled in another one.
I've also started to implement css themes, and I will include a more compact one, to use in a more efficient way the space available in small screens.

I don't know if the new javascript code will work in smartphones (my phone is a 'dumb' one, so I cannot test it). I've upgraded the jquery version to the last one, but even if the code doesn't work, you will have the option to disable the javascript and use regular links that should work in any case.

Good news, we wait your new version.

To compile latest toolchain version you can follow these steps.

Because there was no free space in RootFS, I added extra processes to reduce file size in css, javascript and png files from webif and MediaTomb web server and you need to install the JRE from Sun (install openjdk-6-jre or openjdk-7-jre packages).

You can disable these processes commenting these parameters in .config:

# CSS Optimizer: Optimizes CSS code stripping unneeded characters
# URL: http://mabblog.com/cssoptimizer/
CONFIG_CSSOPTIMIZER = y

# Closure Compiler: Tool for making JavaScript download and run faster
# URL: http://code.google.com/closure/compiler/
CONFIG_CLOSURE_COMPILER = y

# PNGOUT: Optimizes the size of .PNG files losslessly
# URL: http://www.jonof.id.au/kenutils
CONFIG_PNGOUT = y

and activating LZMA compression to RootFS:

CONFIG_SQUASHFS_LZMA=y

If you have any problems or questions, you can open a new topic in spanish or send to me a message.

There is a much more simpler way to reduce the size of the webif. If there are really space problems, you can add the option "-z" to this line in the Makefile:

Código:

KLONE_IMPORT_ARGS = -x */.svn/* -x *.*~ -z

With this option, all static content is stored gziped inside the binary. That reduces the size, in my working version of the code, arround 200 KB. Maybe the final space saved will be less than that (I've more files than necessary) but even then...

There is a penalty in performance in doing so, though. Those files are also served compressed, and the browser needs to uncompress them each time, so it will go slower.

Regarding the toolchain, it is the unstable version the one I'm trying to build, not the trunk.

The last stagefile I get is .gcc_stage1_installed. After that, logs are plenty of:

mips-linux-uclibc-gcc: command not found

And that's because it doesn't exists. I've googled, and I've followed the usual recommendations (starting from scratch - several times -, adding "." to PATH, etc) except "dkpg-reconfigure locales", because I don't know the equivalent order in OpenSuse, and I really cannot figure out what locales have to do with this...

And I'm using gcc3.3 instead of gcc3.4 (it's not available prepackaged and I don't want to compile it), but I've always used that version.

Option "-z" requires zlib library and it is not included by default in firm and if we add it I think we get a similar size with shrinked webif + zlib that normal webif without zlib.

Error "mips-linux-uclibc-gcc: command not found" is normal after of gcc_stage1 because gcc has not yet been compiled and it only need to compile uClibc.

Try to compile trunk branch, it does not need gcc < 4 and is much more updated.

Thank's, but trunk also fails. I'll start another thread.