Posts by WPWiseOwl

Happy Birthday. It’s my birthday too. Definitely enjoy it!

Saw this article in my news feed today, thought of this thread. Do you agree / disagree?

Android’s F-Word mostly irrelevant, but affects Apple similarly – http://phandroid.com/2013/02/27/android-ios-fragmentation/

Don’t disable any built-in filters just to fix shortcodes. Make sure all styles and scripts are enqueued.

If the theme doesn’t offer an advanced admin back-end theme options panel for changing colors easily, etc then that will likely be enough to get it rejected. There are many free frameworks for the admin options if you don’t have your own.

You also may wish to consider also integrating the new WP Customizer. Lastly, WP 3.5+ users will likely expect you to use the “new” media insert / upload dialog to set most (if not all) image path rather than having to learn some goofy proprietary 3rd party thing.

@PixelEntity – I totally agree with the Safari comment with regards to the Stock browser (even with the improvements in 4.2). While I’d like to see Google completely remove / replace the stock browser with Chrome across the board, it’s easier said than done. The additional choice that Android provides is my favorite feature even if does make testing as difficult as on Windows sometimes.

Do you also feel similarly about the mobile Chrome / Firefox apps optionally installable from the Play Store? Do you have them installed and use them in your testing somewhat like you would on a computer?

I need my sites to support Windows / Mac OS / Android / iOS and anyone who helps with that gets my business. I try not to let my personal preferences affect the standard of my work when I’m doing my own testing. Android certainly is not alone in being difficult to work with though from my own experience.

Great responses! I consider Android to be somewhat analogous to MS Windows though. Windows has much fragmentation in it’s ecosystem too. The Android / Windows approach seems to most often produce more variation than that of a closed / controlled system due to the multiple partners / OEMS involved. Apple designs but doesn’t builds / manufactures nothing. Since it doesn’t license anything out, it’s limited to a few devices / configurations per year. This is both good and bad.

I think the Android device you choose can affect the quality of testing. The Nexus and Surface Pro are these respective companies best efforts to try to have more control of the fragmented OS distribution models. However, if you have even just one Nexus device (which gets updated much more quickly / often directly from Google – bypassing OEM / Carrier) this is the probably the closest thing to owning an Apple product. At $200 USD for a Nexus 7 (for example), that’s much less than what an iPad Mini or Regular would cost you. The OEMs and Carriers are partly to blame for the fragmentation but Google hasn’t enforced many rules either. Apple rules with an iron fist and there are obvious pros and cons to this.

While iOS is fragmented too, Apple does a rather admirable job of hiding it from the public though. Google isn’t as on top of this issue. There are plenty of iDevices out there that are stuck on iOS 5 and Safari 5, never to be updated again. Even the devices that qualified for iOS v6, don’t qualify to benefit from all the features the update brings. This isn’t the first time this has happened to Apple products but Google’s failure to better manage people’s perception of Android has garnered it the reputable it currently has.

Fragmentation can be nothing more than an convenient excuse to not to test Android at all for some. I’d like to see that attitude change. I DO think it’s too much too expect ALL IE / iOS / Android versions devices to work with products sold here. I’m really just hoping that that more products will get tested on at least ONE device (as opposed to NONE).

@WebSmacker – True. I’d hope both the emulator and an actual device would get used. Since the emulator is not perfect. Apple also provides a simulator for it’s iOS enviroment. So, this should be able to apply to both. No need to go into the reasons here why an emulator / simulator alone is insufficient for final testing.

@VF – With many Android users not using the Stock browser but instead Chrome or FireFox, standards are less of an issue. Safari 6 is certainly not without it’s issues. Using “real” (not just a skinned version) of Chrome / Firefox is not an option on iOS, perhaps Apple will change this one day.

I’m simply surprised how many authors say “I don’t have an Android device to test on.” I’ve informed some of them of the availability of the SDK but I typically don’t hear anything after that. It’s this support that I look for in an theme / author while reviewing the “live preview” pre-purchase. Do you they support iOS and Android? No, ok…moving on even though it might be a perfect fit otherwise.

I have also often heard, “Works fine on my iPhone / iPad. I can’t see what you’re talking about.” So, you send them a screenshot and while it gets confirmed, it never gets resolved (judging by the live preview / changelogs). I bookmark the themes and come back but eventually I remove them from my bookmark list.

I’m seriously interested to hear anyone’s “real world” reasoning(s) for why or why not? No one?

With how many (ThemeForest / CodeCanyon) authors that I’ve I encountered here that offer mobile compatible products but don’t yet own an Android device, it may be time to purchase one?

I have both iOS and Android devices. How can you really consider yourself professional and not own both?

Good article with some good comments. Seems especially relevant to TF.

I’d be interested to know how many people use what they purchase here from for a client vs for personal?

Additionally, how often are you upfront with your client when you do purchase something that’s not directly on their behalf (or is not purchased directly through their own Envato Account)?

These stats are encouraging – http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-monthly-201211-201301-bar

If you look at the “map” version instead of the bar chart, it would appear that China is the largest offender in this category with Iran second.

When jQuery 2.0 is released though and drops support for IE 6, 7, and 8, I’ll likely follow suit myself. Migration to v1.9 was the hardest part and v2.0 will be a breeze by comparison IMO.