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#1 2012-10-12 18:27:35

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

ArchWiki Viewer for Android

This is something I mentioned a while back and I finally put it together.

The application is very simple. Basically it grabs pages from the wiki online, then replaces the css with my own, which is used to hide parts of the page that are not essential to the content. The result is a clutter free viewer for reading and searching the contents of our beloved ArchWiki. It is a dedicated reader as the full function of the wiki (editing, viewing changes, etc) can still be accessed through the standard Android browser. For the time being, it's (mostly) English only. However, I haven't figured out how to filter other languages out of the search results.

This is my first Android application and I intend to update it based on feedback, so expect frequent updates for the time being. If you have any input, please leave it in this thread or email me at the address listed in the Play store.

The source is available on my github.

Link to Google Play.

ONJUJ.png?1 YOczH.png?1 DAnKF.png?1

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#2 2012-10-12 18:48:38

ZekeSulastin
Member
Registered: 2010-09-20
Posts: 266

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

A couple things:
1) The title bar is HUGE on a Galaxy Nexus (as is the font, comparatively - you can zoom in but not out)
2) Dark CSS theme please smile

Very nice app otherwise.  (I'll test it on my old LG Ally if I can find the thing ...)

Last edited by ZekeSulastin (2012-10-12 19:22:13)

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#3 2012-10-12 23:46:28

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,728

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Very well done.  Thank you, the App is now a fixture on my phone.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#4 2012-10-13 08:30:45

robstwd
Member
From: Brisbane
Registered: 2010-10-31
Posts: 32

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Brilliant! I have just downloaded it. Thanks ioos smile

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#5 2012-10-13 09:12:30

satanselbow
Member
Registered: 2011-06-15
Posts: 538

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Excellent tool - will be very helpful in future for those inevitable "I borked my installation cos I didn't read the wiki" moments big_smile

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#6 2012-10-13 12:11:16

prazzb
Member
Registered: 2012-10-12
Posts: 14

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Why isn't page formatted to the screen...... much of the page on the right side is blank...why is it so

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#7 2012-10-13 20:12:27

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

ZekeSulastin wrote:

A couple things:
1) The title bar is HUGE on a Galaxy Nexus (as is the font, comparatively - you can zoom in but not out)
2) Dark CSS theme please smile

Very nice app otherwise.  (I'll test it on my old LG Ally if I can find the thing ...)


I'll look into the title bar. It should scale to the screen size, but I can see how it might be too big on smaller screens. (Most of my testing is done on Nexus 7.)

Not allowing it to zoom out further was intentional. I don't think it would be readable if the text was any smaller. Please tell me if you feel differently.

Dark css might be something that I look into down the road, but for now I want to focus on making the core functions work before I add any "unnecessary" complexity.

prazzb wrote:

Why isn't page formatted to the screen...... much of the page on the right side is blank...why is it so


99% of the page content will be formatted to the screen size. Most pages don't have the white space on the side. The ones that do, for example the Beginner's Guide, have a portion of text formatted as "code" which never wraps the text by design. I'll play with the css to see if I can force it to wrap in a way that makes it clear that it's a continuation of the previous line. I'm not sure if it's possible though.
EDIT: Dumb. Of course this is possible.


Thanks for the compliments guys. If you like the app, please don't be afraid to leave a rating in the Play store smile

Last edited by ioos (2012-10-30 19:33:09)

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#8 2012-10-13 20:18:55

rutgerr
Member
From: São Paulo, SP - Brasil
Registered: 2011-06-06
Posts: 72

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

I'm using this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta … y5BV09MIl0.

I will try yours too

Last edited by rutgerr (2012-10-13 20:22:04)

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#9 2012-10-14 02:22:08

Jristz
Member
From: America/Santiago
Registered: 2011-06-11
Posts: 1,022

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Ups forget report:

Thanks for this app, it USEFULL in the good sense

Last edited by Jristz (2012-10-14 02:23:14)


Well, I suppose that this is somekind of signature, no?

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#10 2012-10-14 02:25:31

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,728

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

It was in Play Store here in the states.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#11 2012-10-14 03:04:43

FlyingHappy
Member
From: Cincinnati, OH
Registered: 2011-04-18
Posts: 192

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Downloaded it on my og transformer, looks very nice.  I think it will be quite useful in many situations!

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#12 2012-10-14 17:27:32

prazzb
Member
Registered: 2012-10-12
Posts: 14

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

ioos wrote:

99% of the page content will be formatted to the screen size. Most pages don't have the white space on the side. The ones that do, for example the Beginner's Guide, have a portion of text formatted as "code" which never wraps the text by design. I'll play with the css to see if I can force it to wrap in a way that makes it clear that it's a continuation of the previous line. I'm not sure if it's possible though.

I reported  it after seeing the systemd page on the app. A horizontal scroll bar for no reason.

Not a bug however. Does exactly what it says. Nice big_smile

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#13 2012-10-14 18:18:55

SS4
Member
From: !Rochford, Essex
Registered: 2010-12-05
Posts: 699

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Good work! And thank you for keeping the permissions light. Something like this could easily request phone state and sd write.


Rauchen verboten

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#14 2012-10-15 05:14:36

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Updated. I made the title bar smaller and fixed most of the text that wouldn't wrap before. On really small screens it will be difficult to avoid scrolling on certain pages.

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#15 2012-10-16 08:35:38

satanselbow
Member
Registered: 2011-06-15
Posts: 538

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

rutgerr wrote:

I'm using this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta … y5BV09MIl0.

I will try yours too

Saw that one a little while ago too - but bawked at the 11M install size (full offline dl of wiki? ). That would lead to a rapidly out of date local app given the living breathing nature of the Archwiki with an 11M dl over 3G at every update? No thanks - and I'm on a generous data plan.

Also, the formatting / typography is not in keeping with the wiki style and pretty damned ugly (IMHO).

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#16 2012-10-16 22:15:26

rutgerr
Member
From: São Paulo, SP - Brasil
Registered: 2011-06-06
Posts: 72

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

satanselbow wrote:
rutgerr wrote:

I'm using this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta … y5BV09MIl0.

I will try yours too

Saw that one a little while ago too - but bawked at the 11M install size (full offline dl of wiki? ). That would lead to a rapidly out of date local app given the living breathing nature of the Archwiki with an 11M dl over 3G at every update? No thanks - and I'm on a generous data plan.

Also, the formatting / typography is not in keeping with the wiki style and pretty damned ugly (IMHO).


Agree i changed, really better than previous in many points, five stars.

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#17 2012-10-17 04:13:33

securitybreach
Member
From: In front of my computers
Registered: 2007-11-18
Posts: 416
Website

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Thanks a lot for the app!!!!!


"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H.L. Mencken
Website      Configs
Forum Admin: Bruno's All Things Linux   
securitybreach<a>archlinux.us

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#18 2012-11-01 01:17:26

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

App updated again. I made quite a few changes, so let me know if you have any feedback. I tried to add some of the requested features that made sense to me. I also merged the custom CSS with the actual CSS from the Wiki. Pages should have a much more familiar look now. (The screen-shots haven't been updated yet.)

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#19 2012-11-08 07:21:11

zAo
Member
Registered: 2012-11-01
Posts: 26

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Thanks, works great on my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7!

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#20 2012-11-19 05:41:40

Schoewilliam
Member
From: Réunion Island, France.
Registered: 2011-12-28
Posts: 26
Website

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

This app has already been quite useful a few times now. Why not a functionality such as saving favorite pages ? just a proposal smile


blog (in french) · configs

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#21 2012-11-21 01:06:53

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Schoewilliam wrote:

This app has already been quite useful a few times now. Why not a functionality such as saving favorite pages ? just a proposal smile

That is the next planned feature. I think it will be a "Favorites" list where those pages are stored offline. Is anyone aware of an application with a similar feature? I'd like to get some ideas of how to implement it. (Not the code, but the GUI for the menus and layouts and such.)

What do people think of the mixed language search results? I'm trying to figure out how to return one language at a time, but having some difficulty. If I can get it to work, my plan is for an "English Only" menu option. Then it would be either just English or all languages. Would international users find that acceptable? Making each language individually selectable would require a lot of work in languages that I don't speak. For example, the start page is local. I'd have to recreate it for each language.

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#22 2012-11-21 08:14:14

FreeTheBee
Member
Registered: 2011-01-02
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Thanks for this app, it looks very good.

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#23 2013-03-02 00:50:46

ioos
Member
Registered: 2011-01-25
Posts: 125

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Update coming soon for the second ever crash report I received. They are very helpful. Please hit the "Send Report" option if the application crashes (and you're given the option).

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#24 2013-03-13 21:53:44

thesilentboatman
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2012-11-04
Posts: 18

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Great! This was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

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#25 2013-03-14 05:25:24

trollger
Member
Registered: 2012-06-20
Posts: 9

Re: ArchWiki Viewer for Android

Very nice app it works great on my LG Optimus V, it only has a 3.2" screen so I think it should be compatable with anything... but you probably already knew that...

The one feature that I think would be aswome wouold be the ability to dowload pages of the Wiki, ya know for when you arent connected to wifi.

Otherwise five stars from me.

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