External Links missing on cellphone version of forum [SOLVED]

[greengeek]

I could be wrong but I think this is an issue that started occurring just recently.

If I view the forum on a laptop or desktop I can see a "Links" link that when I click it shows me various puppy sites I can visit - including the Puppy Search (google assisted) link.

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But on my cellphone there seems to be no way I can find that "Puppy Search" link.
The arrow has gone:

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I thought if I click the Quicklinks button the arrow might have been moved there - and there does seem to be an arrow - but it doesn't take me to any other links - just takes me back to the basic forum homepage.

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Did I miss something or am I starting to lose it ?

[keniv]

@greengeek
I'm not sure this will be of any help but on my old iPhone 5 "links" appears in the normal position and when clicked on produces a drop down menu. "Quicklinks" also appears normal but it does not show the "links" arrow that yours does. Could this be a browser issue?

Regards,

Ken.

[greengeek]

I'm not sure this will be of any help but on my old iPhone 5 "links" appears in the normal position and when clicked on produces a drop down menu. "Quicklinks" also appears normal but it does not show the "links" arrow that yours does. Could this be a browser issue?

Thanks Ken. How bizarre - I just tried a couple of other cellphones with different browsers and it appears that the problem only occurs when I am logged in.
If I browse the forum without logging in I can see the links arrow as normal.
I don't think this used to be the case - i feel this problem has started in the last couple of weeks.
Does your iPhone browser show any difference to the display format when logged in or not?
cheers!

[greengeek]

It seems that it is fine if I rotate the screen to landscape mode.
Never needed to do that before...

[keniv]

@greengeek
My iPhone 5 works fine when logged in as I have to be just now in order to reply to your post. As the screen on this phone is small by today's standards I tend always to look at the forum in landscape, however, just turned it through 90 degrees and end up with a similar display to the ones shown in your original post including the arrow in quicklinks. If I press the arrow in this position nothing happens but if I the rotate the phone back to landscape the "links" drop down menu appears. It's possible this is something recent but I'm unlikely to have noticed it as I always use the phone in landscape when on the forum. Hope this is of help.

Ken.

[TerryH]

On my Samsung S20 it depends on orientation what is displayed. In landscape mode I get icon and text. In portrait mode I get some text and icons and the Links is shown as just the arrow icon. So the external links is shown in both orientations.

@greengeek I notice that you are also not showing the Donations link in your portrait mode, which is shown in mine with text and icon.

[rockedge]

Just noticed this topic! So I looked on my cheap CoolPad Android mobile phone and the same thing! When in Portrait mode there is just the arrow, which when clicked does show the links menu. It will display normally in Landscape mode.

THIS MAY BE an unwanted side effect of the Topics List extension!! Tested it and this is not the case!

Very strange, since I have not changed anything that can explain this behavior. Maybe I have not noticed before and this has been so for awhile? Or is it anew thing?

We must test with other board themes activated to see what happens with the other styles. Time to try out the local test platform I have running on the iPhone/iPad and Androids laying around.

[rockedge]

Really weird, I have tried all of the themes and they behave the same way! No "Links" menu

I will go to the phpBB forums and start a topic and see if this is being reported elsewhere.

[rockedge]

Also occurring on the copy of the forum running on a localhost server! this behavior I have not noticed until now.

[dogcat]

What I see on my phone for both phone version and desktop version.
I don't see missing icons as far as I can tell.

Phone Screen

phone-cellphone-version.png

Desktop Screen

phone-desktop-version.png

[rockedge]

I found what is occurring. It's a cascading style sheet (css) problem and the custom placement of the Links drop down navigation link in the php code in the styles section.

The theme style is "responsive" and the css that takes over when switching media size/resolution has a display:none; parameter set when the style switches to a mobile phone's small screen size in one of the CSS's classes.

Tricky now that we know that it might be dependent on the type of browser the pages are being view with.

I see the problem on my phone and testing on Firefox using the developer's tool to set media size. But finding the best way to keep it compatible with the ones that are working as reported by @dogcat and fix it with an adjustment for those that are not working

[dogcat]

Hi rockedge, Those screens were from a fork of Bromite Browser, it is based on Chromium.

I can also see full icons in the Mozilla based Mull Browser for both windows.

The Webview based Privacy Browser shows full icons as Cellphone with no browser options for desktop (for all websites), all 3 on a Teracube phone.

[rockedge]

The complex layering of divisions and their CSS selectors is like going down a rabbit hole. It can get confusing on what takes precedence and when. I've made a couple of adjustments but it is a matter of space available on the navigation header bar to what is hidden when.

Totally will melt the brain trying to get the right combinations of CSS selectors to make it work. The "Links" field is a custom addition to begin with and is shoe-horned into place in the code. It seems to be okay enough.....any reports on performance will be appreciated.

[dogcat]

.....any reports on performance will be appreciated.

The Mull Browser (Mozilla based) lost the "Quick links" when in Cellphone vertical display. Cellphone horizontal display still works ok, as do both desktop display modes.

There was no change on either Bromite or Privacy Browser.

[keniv]

@rockedge
Your adjustments seem to have made a difference to my old iPhone 5 using dolphin browser. When viewing in portrait I now see "links" which when clicked produces the usual drop down menu which also seems to work. The "quick links" symbol is also shown (though no text). When clicked the drop down menu appears. If I click on the "links" arrow (again no text) the drop down menu appears. I think this is an improvement on what we have previously. However, I rather than trying to deal with the complexities you mention to try and fix this it might be simpler just to suggest that the forum is viewed in landscape when using a cellphone. As my phone has a small screen I always do this. As I said in an earlier post, I would not have noticed this as a problem if it had not been mentioned by @greengeek.

Ken.

[greengeek]

@rockedge As keniv says - the change you have made does allow the links icon to appear now, even when I am logged in so thats a good outcome on my devices anyway (Android and Blackberry).
When I log in the "Donations" button moves out of the top area and appears under the quicklinks column and is still active.
(But unfortunately it still does not process any donation as it tells me that "the recipient cannot accept donations from your country")

Thanks for looking at this weird display issue - I will rate it as solved.
(Hopefully it wont have any downstream negative effects on other devices...)

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