Have you guys ever thought of making a Metal Archives app, downloadable for smartphones (particularly I-phone)? It would be convenient when shopping for music, if you stumble across albums you don't know much about to read reviews on them first, before purchasing. It would also make it convenient to read reviews and forums when on the go (such as when I'm on break at work). And the resource for bands is right there at any time, should you ever need to look something up.

I don't know, just an idea that I thought of that may be useful.

Well, there is one for Androids. I am smartphone ignorant, so I can't comment much on the specifics, but you obviously aren't the first to suggest this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ives&hl=en

I've never used the app either but is it really that hard to just bookmark the MA homepage on your phone and go from there? I mean it's literally as easy as tapping the screen for me to load MA and then type in said random band which I'm assuming you'd have to do anyways. The only way I can see the app being handy is if it would give you multiple search bars at once a la the advanced search function but really then that's just being lazy because it would only save you a matter of seconds when searching for bands.

As others have noted, there's an unofficial mobile app for Android phones, although it is somewhat broken and it appears the person behind it hasn't paid it much attention.

We do have a moderator (Alhadis) who has been working on an official mobile version and app, but lately he has been pretty busy with offline responsibilities and understandably the app shouldn't be a priority for him. Folks are more than welcome to create apps of their own if they like, though - respectfully - we wouldn't want them to be marketed as official.

@Erosion of Humanity, for some people (myself included) apps can come in handy for very quickly finding the information I need when I am out and about. I wouldn't call it being lazy, call it convenience instead.

I guess it would depend on how the app is set up. What I was trying to get at is the way I have my phone set up MA works pretty much like an app already. As I said all I do is tap the screen and I've got the home page or the forums (whichever I'm going for) and I'm ready to search for bands or post as I'm set to auto login to the forum. I don't really see how you could much improve upon that.

I used to love the Android app. It was a really easy way to navigate the discographies and lyrics, but for the past few months it automatically crashes as soon as you tap an album title.

The app has essentially become useless.

There are numerous complaints about it in the reviews in the PlayStore, but it seems pretty clear that who developed the app has zero interest in fixing its bugs and is always unresponsive to crash reports.

I'm glad I came here to read this since I assumed the app was officially associated with the website, but I suppose not.

Hi guys. Sorry but now there's no application of Metal Archives on Google play.
And the second version - please think about mobile version of your site!
22nd century is coming close at hand and almost everyone use mobile internet, it is very inconvenient to browse your site via 4.7" :[

The only member of our staff capable of making mobile applications is, unfortunately, quite busy these days. Thus far there have been no official apps from us.

Perhaps this is something worth pursuing, but we'd need people skilled in making apps to show an interest in doing it.

I would be the staff member in question, and yes, I'm still pinned down by real-life commitments; I have, however, been chipping away at something that WILL eventuate into a nice, beautifully slick mobile-friendly version... but this is being done out of my love for the site, and not because I'm being paid to do it. Real life commitments come first, as we all know.

And just an FYI, this isn't like tweaking a few lines of code. This is involving heavy-duty reconstruction.

Was thinking though, wouldn't it be pretty simple to make an app that makes the forum easier to navigate on Android? Found it to be quite a pain. Something like they have at skyscrapercity.com, if anyone is willing to look at it to see what I mean.

Well, you could place a "donate" button in this forthcoming application, maybe I'd found a couple of cents

phpBB is being used to power the MA board, whereas that site you've linked to is powered by vBulletin. Both are different sets of third-party software, and the latter obviously has an option for mobile-optimisation (possibly even paid for as a premium feature). I'm not sure what phpBB offers by way of mobile-friendly optimisation, but you can bet your arse it probably isn't a simple matter of hitting a checkbox.


If people are serious about this, my PayPal address is gardnerjohng@gmail.com ... make no mistake, though, showering me with donations isn't going to have the mobile-optimised site wheeled out in a week, but it might put pressure on me to reallocate what spare time I have these days. But I'm not doing this out of a desire to profit from it.

I'm thinking about an app that pulls Rhapsody/Bandcamp/Spotify/etc playback experience alongside the Encyclopaedia. I have the site open side by side with one of these sites alot of times, but most of these services don't let you surf by record label, band member, producer etc.

I've been playing with the API here: https://code.google.com/p/metalarchives/ Is this the best starting point for building an app with MA data? I can throw my code up on github if anyone wants to collaborate.

FOR THOSE DISCUSSING APPS:

The mobile-optimised version of the site will mean any browser will be able to peruse it without having to install a platform-specific application. This is what's known as "responsive design", and it'll render virtually any vendor-specific app redundant.

I have published an Android version of Metal Archives on Google Play. It's "Metal Archives" by 2DevCats developer.

Agreed. It's what I do, plus in doing it this way, it also saves room on your phone.

I may have missed it, but is there a responsive design version of the site yet? Thanks!

Not yet, Alhadis kinda disappeared on us... But we're working on a new one.