Preddit

[jetsfandb]

Preddit (Beta)
Preddit is a WebOS tailored version of the popular social news site Reddit.

Feeback is appreciated
I welcome all feedback but please be sure to read the details on what it does and does not currently do before replying.

Installation:
Download from the PreCentral app section.

Important notes

• Replies that are only visible by clicking 'load more comments' on Reddit are currently not accessible.
• Instructions are not currently in the app but are simple. Tap the article text area (white) to open the link of the article. Tap the article information area (gray) to view the rely threads. EDIT: its obviously grown more since this part was first written. I will try to create some useful help when 1.0.0 is
  ready, until then most things shouldn't be hard to figure out.

This my first WebOS app that I have released so please be patient and kind with me.

Version history

• 0.1.1 - Fixes issue when going to next or previous page the newly retrieved list of articles did not jump to the top of the list.
• 0.3.0 - Added login, voting (submissions and replies), comment reply/edit/delete, submission reply.
• 0.4.0 - Added popular subreddits list. Increased size of voting arrow, added save button to Preferences.
• 0.5.0 - Portrait/Landscape mode, external links open in an in-app web view, self links open to comments view, which now shows self text, youtube and .mp3 links open directly to their viewers (webview doesn't seem to open them correctly or start planting them) so no more double cards (web+youtube).
• 0.5.1 - Refresh behavior when returning to main form corrected.
• 0.5.2 - Enabled Edit | Copy menu in web view to copy URL to clipboard.
• 0.5.3 - Quick bug fix. Discovered voting no longer works on submissons on main page.
• 0.5.4 - Voting on a submisstion stays on current page as was the intended behavior.
• 0.6.0 - Added swipe-to-hide for submissions, save/unsave for submissions, categories (hot, new et al) and their sorts/filters (year, week, hour et al).
• 0.7.0 - Full subreddit functionality. List all reddits, subscribe/unsubscribe, search, view popular, new, My Reddits as subscriber/Contributor/Moderator.

Roadmap

• 0.2.0 Login and voting.
• 0.3.0 Add/edit/delete Replies.
• 0.4.0 /r selection.
• 0.5.0
  • Submission links in in-app Webview (possibly offer default external view as a preference if requested by enough people).
  • Landscape mode (if the UI appearance is acceptable).
  • More subreddits.
  • Open submissions linking to Reddit directly to comments view with submission, instead of a a web view.
• 0.6.0
  • Save/unsave for submissions.
  • Swipe-to-hide for submissions.
  • Categories/filters (new, hot, saved etc.).
• 0.7.0 More complete subreddit implementation.
• 0.8.0 Messaging (except for composing - uses captcha).
• 0.9.0 Requested Features
  • Position within comments indicator.
  • Open article in seperate web browser when cued by the user to do so (gesture area + tap, for example).
  • Add default view to preferences (new, hot etc.).
  • Any remaining asthetics issues.
  • Make sure any links to any media playable in an app get played in the app similiar to .mp3s.
  • If possible: Try to get "get more comments" to work. (Currently there is insufficient data returned from reddit to perform this feature).
• 1.0.0 All above, thoroughly tested.
• 1.1.0 Submit articles (requires captcha, not sure how to make that happen yet)

Notes about 0.3.0.

• If you are wondering what to do after entering the user ID and password, simply use the back gesture to save them and login. I assumed that for a WebOS user this would be an intuitive thing to do. I will add a button explicitly labeled Save for clarity's sake.

Notes about 0.4.0.

• Subreddits selection now available via '/p' button. Currently only the popular subreddits as returned from Reddit are available. Subscribing/Unsubscribing is not currently available as I have not been able to identify an API call that returns what reddits users are subscribed to. To return to the front page listing tap the 'fp' button.
• Increased size of voting arrows to allow easier selection.
• After entering a user and password the Save button or a back gesture will save them and log you in.

Notes about 0.5.0

• External links now appear in-app as a webview.
• Tapping self links on the submissions page now opens to the comments page. Self texts (if any) are now displayed on all comments pages.
• YouTube and .mp3 external links now open directly to their related apps. No more double cards (web then youtube).
• Enabled portrait/landscape mode.
• Removed save button from preferences. The button is violation Palm UI guidelines. They have specifically stated that the back gesture is the expected method of save preferences and returning to the previous scene and I agree.

Notes about 0.5.1

• Refresh when returning to main for only occurs if an affecting action takes place away from the main from. For example, voting for a submission from the comments form.

Notes about 0.5.2

• On web views Edit | Copy menu is now enabled and will copy the URL to the clipboard.

Notes about 0.5.3

• Fixed bugged after discovering voting on submissions on main page was no longer working.

Notes about 0.5.4

• Fixed undesired behavior where after voting on main form articles list would return to first page.

Notes about 0.6.0

• On main for you can now swipe a submission to hide it.
• A (working) save/unsave button is now available on the submission info bar.
• The familiar filter/categories across the top of the submissions (new, hot, etc.) are now available from the menu as well as their filter/sorts (by month, week etc).

Notes about 0.7.0

• Full subreddit features now implemented. Check the app menus for features such as My Reddits, new reddits etc.

Follow at Preddit (Preddit) on Twitter

[rb2k]

can't seem to find it so far... looking forward to it though

[jetsfandb]

Thanks for the reply. I just submitted last night around midnight and I believe there is a review process before it is made available.

[rb2k]

concerning the login and API, you might want to take a peek at the python API:
/r2/r2/controllers/api.py – reddit – Trac

[relic419]

Great, I've been waiting for a reddit app

[jetsfandb]

Upcoming changes for next minor update

• Article list will always have the top article at the top of the screen upon completion of retrieval. Previously when navigation between pages of articles, the list would load the retrieved articles, but the view position would remain unchanged. In other words, if you had scrolled to the bottom and requested the next or previous page, when the retrieval of the page was complete you were now looking and the bottom of next/previous page.

Still waiting for any other feedback before next update. If no other issues are being dealt with, I will update Feb. 4 around 9:00 PM EST.

[cherrywithns]

I saw it, but never really looked at it. Thanks for the update on the application, I will check it out now.

[punzada]

Considering reddit is very comment/rating focused though it will be important to try and incorporate logging into your account and doing account-related functions (I know it's a planned feature, just felt it needed to be said).

It's definitely a good start and all us redditors out there definitely appreciate it. Hopefully you'll consider making it an open project (and say even, make a reddit thread about it to gain interest) and we can have a fantastic app for reddit on our webOS devices

One question I have while using it (I've only browsed a few threads so far and haven't come across a particular example I'm thinking of) is what you do about heavily nested comments? I see it pushes them to the right just like the page but what if say the thread is ... 30 comments nested? (it happens.) I would assume any type of wrapping at that point you could lose the 'flow' of the comments and get confused with the conversations.

(I still hit up reddit on my phone all the time but it is quite cumbersome, something more in line like this would be nice).

[zachtib]

awesome!

I've been looking into doing something like this, but never got around to it.

productivity--;

[jetsfandb]

Thank you for very much for the feedback.

Originally Posted by punzada

Considering reddit is very comment/rating focused though it will be important to try and incorporate logging into your account and doing account-related functions (I know it's a planned feature, just felt it needed to be said).

Very much agree. You will be happy to know that I did in fact have a break through today and was able to log in! I am currently working on getting the article voting working.

Originally Posted by punzada

One question I have while using it (I've only browsed a few threads so far and haven't come across a particular example I'm thinking of) is what you do about heavily nested comments? I see it pushes them to the right just like the page but what if say the thread is ... 30 comments nested? (it happens.) I would assume any type of wrapping at that point you could lose the 'flow' of the comments and get confused with the conversations.

This is an issue I knew I would need to deal with eventually, but for now I am putting my efforts into getting the interactive features working. At first I wasn't really sure what else to do about the comments. After reading your post I was thinking perhaps of adding an expand/collapse widget that would pull the comments back to the previous visible reply. I would welcome your thoughts on other ways on how you would like to see the nesting issue dealt with.

Originally Posted by punzada

It's definitely a good start and all us redditors out there definitely appreciate it. Hopefully you'll consider making it an open project (and say even, make a reddit thread about it to gain interest) and we can have a fantastic app for reddit on our webOS devices

While I am a huge open source advocate, I would like to see this project to the end myself for now, for 2 reasons. First, I am still relatively new to web developement technologies and I am learning alot through this and other apps I am working on. Second, in an admittedly selfish fashion, I would like to able to point to the app when I am done and say "I did that!" . That being said, I am sure I will reach a point where I will open up the project and let the Reddit community refine it and move it forward.

[punzada]

Originally Posted by jetsfandb

This is an issue I knew I would need to deal with eventually, but for now I am putting my efforts into getting the interactive features working. At first I wasn't really sure what else to do about the comments. After reading your post I was thinking perhaps of adding an expand/collapse widget that would pull the comments back to the previous visible reply. I would welcome your thoughts on other ways on how you would like to see the nesting issue dealt with.

That was basically my thought process, some type of expand/collapse system that maybe auto focused/horizontally scrolled to that nested thread that you can then just scroll up and down just like you can currently with the automatic wrapping all nice and neat. It's a challenge trying to take reddit's general comment layout and properly express it for ease on mobile devices with limited screen real estate. I really have no idea how I would go about this myself, hence why I was curious what you implemented/considered :P

Originally Posted by jetsfandb

While I am a huge open source advocate, I would like to see this project to the end myself for now, for 2 reasons. First, I am still relatively new to web developement technologies and I am learning alot through this and other apps I am working on. Second, in an admittedly selfish fashion, I would like to able to point to the app when I am done and say "I did that!" . That being said, I am sure I will reach a point where I will open up the project and let the Reddit community refine it and move it forward.

Good to hear, I can understand how a project can become 'yours' and wanting to push yourself to create and expand on it. Good luck with learning to further develop with this platform and this app.

[jetsfandb]

Eureka!
I have located the necessary information to perform interactive functions.
Login and voting have already been successfully tested.

See original post for roadmap.

[Goyena]

Excellent work (so far)! As a big reader of Reddit, I'm really looking forward to your upcoming milestones.

I'll be just lurking for the moment, since you are probably hard at work, but I'll be back to give you feedback as you need it! (How 'bout that 0.2.0 alpha for testing? )

Oh, one more thing: how about sub-reddits?

[cujoe]

I'm always on Reddit. Thank you for this. Cant wait to try your app out.

[jetsfandb]

Update
Login and voting are complete. I am going to try add reply functions as well before submitting next up as it looks fairly easy and straightforward. If it gets to be to hairy, I will submit the version with just the login and voting.

[Goyena]

Ready and waiting!

[jetsfandb]

UPDATE
I have submitted a new version (0.3.0) tonight.

Changes:

- Added login.
- Added submission and comment voting.
- Added submission reply.
- Added comment reply/edit/delete

Up next:
Subreddits!

[atomichumbucker]

Originally Posted by jetsfandb

UPDATE
I have submitted a new version (0.3.0) tonight.

Changes:

- Added login.
- Added submission and comment voting.
- Added submission reply.
- Added comment reply/edit/delete

Up next:
Subreddits!

IDK whats happening with mine. I can enter my username and pswd but thats it.... all i can do is enter them, I cant log on (theres no button), I cant browse reddit (theres no other options). Just enter my user name and pswd... then stare at them

[jetsfandb]

Originally Posted by atomichumbucker

IDK whats happening with mine. I can enter my username and pswd but thats it.... all i can do is enter them, I cant log on (theres no button), I cant browse reddit (theres no other options). Just enter my user name and pswd... then stare at them

Just use the back gesture and it will save them and log you in.
In light of your post though, I will add a button to save/login as well.

[errade]

jetsfandb, thanks for an awesome app.

I'd like to request something though - the voting arrows are so small & so close to eachother & also to the main article link. Most of the time when I want to hit an Up arrow I either hit the link or the down arrow

Could you make them bigger? And space them further apart?

Otherwise awesome app, thanks for your work on this