BeerAdvocate mobile beta: Testers Wanted

This sums up my thoughts in a single sentence. How is it considered an app when it is just a mobile site? It is sweet progress, don't get me wrong, but can it at least be called what it really is?

 

So does this work on my Blackberry or Palm Pilot?

 

I seem to be the only one having trouble using it. I have a Samsung Charge SCH-i510 running Gingerbread (2.6.35.7), and I'm unable to log in using the default browser or Dolphin. In Dolphin it didn't even let me type in my username, but in the default Android browser the login always failed, and I quintuple-checked my username and password.

 

Sure. ENIAC too.

 

You should make the sliders on the beer profile page bigger. I can't see much around my thumb

 

That's easily circumvented by spoofing User Agent header, many plugins available for Chrome and FireFox ( User Agent switcher my fave)

 

Is there an AJAX request that submits my rating? It doesn't seem intuitive that my rating is being saved as there's no submit button. Considering there is a slider, I assume there is some kind of delay on this since I may not have ticked it exactly where I wanted to at first given the UI.

 

This is due to the framework being used, jQuery Mobile. Notice when you are browsing and searching the site, your URL bar always remains at http://beeradvocate.com/m . The Android hardware back button will take you to the previous URL. I believe this is the solution to solve for it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12859759/take-control-of-hardware-back-button-jquery-mobile

 

The navigation page is very buggy on my phone in dolphin and default droid browser. Some of the stuff on the interface doesnt slide over

 

I like the look of it. A few things:

- When I search for a beer, and click into a result, the android keyboard stays up and covers half the page. It'd be nice if that dropped automatically instead of me having to click back to make it drop. Not sure if that's a page code thing or a my phone thing.

- When I'm on a beer page and I click the BA logo to slide the menu open, the rating slider, wants, and gots buttons don't slide and sit there floating.

- I'm sure it's on the list but I'd like to see quick access to the top beer lists.

 

I would strongly vote for actually using proper browser navigation entries than just overriding the back button. Then forward and back will play nicely in all browsers.

If I recall, it can be done without changing the URL.
http://diveintohtml5.info/history.html

 

Pretty nice so far, guys! Love how fast everything works, auto-query when typing a beer name is great, and also love the .25 incremental rating scale. Don't particularly care there's no space for writing a long-winded review- really, who wants to type all that out on a phone? Perhaps if I were using a tablet I'd be singing a different tune, but as of now it's nice and streamlined, and I like that.
I too fell victim to hitting the "back" button on my phone instead of hitting the app icon, so that will take a little bit of time to get used to. Really looking forward to seeing how this further develops!

 

As previously mentioned, it would be great to be able to see a beer's "score" in the results list. Not sure if this has already been addressed, and maybe I'm just missing it, but is there a way to read a beer's reviews?

 

I would personally consider being able to read reviews of beers as the number one use case for the mobile site/app, with giving a quick rating/review as a close second. When I'm out at a bar and looking to try a new beer, or perhaps at the liquor store and see a new shipment in of something I haven't tried before, I will usually pull up the RateBeer app or Untappd and read several reviews before making a decision to try it or not.

 

When I try to log it, it goes to the loading screen then takes me to the log-in page again...

 

What a great step to the mobile app distro, keep up the great work!!

 

Many similar points from me, as well:

1.) The back button on my phone was the first option to me, so when I clicked it I was taken back to this thread instead of my search page.

2.) The automatic completion in searches is cool.

3.) Adding ratings to the search automatic complete suggestion box would be awesome so that we could just type a few letters, see ratings, delete, and move on to the next search instead of enter the full beer profile and then have to click back and start again.

4.) BETA is just being tested, obviously, but forum access, beer mail access, and such would be a huge must for me to actually use the Mobile Site.

5.) I'm a young man with an old soul and cranky geezeresque attitude: I don't like change. I still prefer the regular site through my browser on my phone. It's just more familiar.

I am running Ice Cream Sandwich on an Android Motorola Razr.

P.S. Cool bullet points, Todd. I wanted to use them, but have no idea how on my phone...

 

Don't know if you guys know about this but pulling up the side panel in search after autocomple sends the side panel to the back and leaves the search results on top. On galaxy s2 running gingerbread.ucla3 default browser.

Edit: on everything side panel is sent to the back.

 

Not sure if this is the forum for bugs, but on iPhone 5 when I launch from the home screen (after prompt to save the icon down) I have get this screen. Works great when I launch from the url in Safari

 

Not sure if this is device specific or not, but when I'm on a beer page and click the BA button to pull the slide out menu, the controls are overlapped on the menu. I have a Galaxy Nexus ( verizon 4G) Android 4.1.1

Here's a screenshot: