Q: Why is Apple Support Communities website not iPhone responsive?

Apple will not see your post here, only end users like you who also have complained long and loudly about the lack on a mobile version of ASC. You can contact Apple with your concerns and frustrations using this support feedback link:

https://www.apple.com/support/feedback/

Under "Topic Area" select "Discussions."

Howdy Ryan

Apple has designed the User eXperience (UX) as a "hybrid" - or "compromise" - between mobile devices and computers. This avoids serving up content in more than one way. We computer users are just as upset but for the opposite reason - we think it is UX designed for mobile devices! I have used ASC with an Android fone - small screen - and find it "usable" but certainly not ideal.

It would be possible to offer different versions relatively easily by detecting User Agent of the visitor and invoking a different set of stylesheets for each, instead of one set of stylesheets for all = Apple's decision.

As Allan says, send your feedback. It may be that when enough folks do that, Apple will prioritize the issue and both mobile device and computer users will benefit.

ChitlinsCC:

I heard that Android web browsers accepted user style sheets.  Would be real interesting to see how Hiroto's or the combined style sheet run on a small screen.

Stylish for android firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/tag/user%20stylesheet

----------------------------------

Have not found or heard of a way of adding a user style sheet for the iPhone.

Don't know what the problem is with apple.  You would think they would support their own devices. There are web coding techniques to support different screen sizes.  Apple doesn't use them.  Apple has not seen fit to copy what Hiroto has done with a user style sheet.

R

Apple does support its own devices as evidenced by their own website which does adapt itself to iPhone screens.

However the ASC is not run by Apple.  Apple outsources the forum to Jive software.   Jive's forum software is not designed for small mobile screens unfortunately.

beat ya to it

I have had it loaded since early in your efforts

I only load up tt2's Minimal - and only use my fone for testing SCREENSHOTs like these

iOS "sandbox" strategy prevents browser add-ons from development.

The solution is to DETECT User Agent and serve up content with appropriate set of stylesheets at the server level. Websites all over the place do so. Literally that easy.

IF

     Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 9_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/601.1.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0 Mobile/13C75 Safari/601.1

THEN

     MobileSetOfStyleSheets

END IF

(instead of the ones that show up in the Page Source)

I don't see Jive Support Communities as the name But Apple Support Communities.  Has Apple ever stated that they user JIve software?  ChitlinsCC reported there is a mobile version of Jive, but cost more $'s.

The web pages are highly modified by Apple.  Apple could add in Hirioto's changes to support different size screens. 

R

Like Robert sez, Jive sells an add-on (per user $) that is even available in the the App Store

Jive Mobile on the App Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jive-mobile/id634499583?mt=8

It IS run by and HEAVILY modified by Apple. There is a group called the Apple Jive Development Team that actually "test bed" created what we see here and rolled it out months before in Spanish and Portuguese forums

Comunidades de soporte de Apple oficiales

https://communities.apple.com/es/welcome

Comunidades oficiais de suporte da Apple

https://communities.apple.com/pt/welcome

I have seen AppleJobs postings for Jive Developers on several occasions (use "jive" as a search term)

One there today

Apple - Jobs at Apple-Search

https://jobs.apple.com/us/search?pr=1#&ss=Jive&t=0&so=&lo=0*USA&pN=0

CONCLUSION: Apple does in fact run ASC with folks hired because of their JiveSoftware qualifications

rccharles wrote:

 

I don't see Jive Support Communities as the name But Apple Support Communities.  Has Apple ever stated that they user JIve software? ChitlinsCC reported there is a mobile version of Jive, but cost more $'s.

 

The web pages are highly modified by Apple.  Apple could add in Hirioto's changes to support different size screens.

 

R

NOPE.

But do they need to? Open Page Source and ya need not look far to see "jive" in URLs - browser find for ease of use and I see " n of more than 100" next to the search field.

BTW, you make a good point about the app... even JiveCommunities would NOT do it because it would conflict with a revenue stream.

Apple's business choice is to not pay bazillion$ for something they "can" customize themselves = we hope it is a work in progress

Slightly off topic

Forget it - I figgered it out = bad top variable value!

ios devices have been problematic for 2.5 years.  It's actually better today.  2.5 years ago you could not do a reply on an ios device.

Apple doesn't seem focused on making ASC better.  They got this idea that they could save money on support by turning ASC in to a question & answer machine.  Of course, they forgot that folks have to provide answers.

R

rccharles wrote:

 

I don't see Jive Support Communities as the name But Apple Support Communities.  Has Apple ever stated that they user JIve software?

Its well known the ASC forum is based on Jive's forum software.   While Apple may support it for every day glitches, and the general look and feel, the underlying structure, and support comes from Jive themselves.

For the ASC to support mobile devices, the underlying HTML and forum generation would need to be re-written so the CSS can then successfully adapt the layout to mobile.

Currently the HTML is so convoluted, its quite difficult to get anything to properly hide, and work in reduced spaced with CSS mods alone.

Not accurate

As I explained, Apple has an in-house team responsible for the UX.

Jive SELLS an add-on to make Jive mobile friendly, so they would not even begin to offer modifications that would hinder that revenue stream - and they ARE NOT responsible for ASC anyway. They sell SOFTWARE that runs ASC and has the FEATURE of being highly customizable by folks that buy it.