SJ77 Posted February 20, 2017 Posted February 20, 2017 Downloads is an awesome app and the best way to monitize a community. However, it's largely unusable for iOS. Potential file types to improve: - Video: needs formatted to mobile friendly small files size format. - Pictures: need resized to something manageable on iOS - software, someway to save the file so it's available later (outside of my wheelhouse, ideas?) Point is, iOS is a BIG part of the market now and downloads should make an effort to work with these users.
Joy Rex Posted February 20, 2017 Posted February 20, 2017 Agreed - employing responsive image techniques (applies to the Gallery as well) would be advisable, but as for actually saving downloads - iOS really doesn't have that capability straight out of the browser (unless you have a cloud drive service like iCloud Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, etc.)
SJ77 Posted March 6, 2017 Author Posted March 6, 2017 Okay for any file I should have a choice which app to use with download. Look at this example with a large-ish video file. I end up staring at a black screen (for a very long time) and it makes my site appear broken.
GriefCode Posted March 6, 2017 Posted March 6, 2017 4 minutes ago, superj707 said: Okay for any file I should have a choice which app to use with download. Look at this example with a large-ish video file. I end up staring at a black screen (for a very long time) and it makes my site appear broken. That one is an IOS issue. You cannot download videos on IOS. It is always webbased played. Does neithere work on chrome for IOS.
SJ77 Posted March 6, 2017 Author Posted March 6, 2017 1 minute ago, GriefCode said: That one is an IOS issue. You cannot download videos on IOS. It is always webbased played. Does neithere work on chrome for IOS. Well that's horrid! It's unusable. There must be some kind of work around
GriefCode Posted March 6, 2017 Posted March 6, 2017 Just now, superj707 said: Well that's horrid! It's unusable. There must be some kind of work around I wish there would be I couldn't find one yet, as I got to lazy searching for something, I commonly use my android phone and sent it over if I want the video locally on my iphone.
SJ77 Posted March 6, 2017 Author Posted March 6, 2017 2 minutes ago, GriefCode said: I wish there would be I couldn't find one yet, as I got to lazy searching for something, I commonly use my android phone and sent it over if I want the video locally on my iphone. The "what I want" screen shot is it working from google website for gmail. If it's IOS, how is it that Google can make it work like it should? Why can't IPB do whatever it is they did to make it work the same way?
GriefCode Posted March 6, 2017 Posted March 6, 2017 Just now, superj707 said: The "what I want" screen shot is or working from google website for gmail. If it's IOS, how is it that Google can make it work like it should? Why can't IPB do whatever it is they did to make it work the same way? This is the reason for it, one is the webbroswer, the other is a native app. A native app can handle things differently than a webbrowser. IPS has no control over the webbrowser of IOS, and there wont be a solution to download the video directly from webbrowser, it will be always embbed and suggested to be viewed directly. You could try to find an app which may will do that task.
SJ77 Posted March 6, 2017 Author Posted March 6, 2017 Dammit, my apologies I see now that my web browser must have auto kicked open the gmail app. UGH. @GriefCode
Linguica Posted March 7, 2017 Posted March 7, 2017 I don't have an answer but you should look into how web servers handle MIME types. You may have had the experience at some point of trying to open a picture in a browser and the browser tried to download it instead of displaying it. It sounds like you want to purposely force that sort of behavior which I am sure is doable. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6169002/force-video-webm-mime-type-using-htaccess-based-on-request-uri there's just the first link I found, I think you want to force the video to "application/octet" or something like that iirc.
GriefCode Posted March 7, 2017 Posted March 7, 2017 5 hours ago, Linguica said: I don't have an answer but you should look into how web servers handle MIME types. You may have had the experience at some point of trying to open a picture in a browser and the browser tried to download it instead of displaying it. It sounds like you want to purposely force that sort of behavior which I am sure is doable. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6169002/force-video-webm-mime-type-using-htaccess-based-on-request-uri there's just the first link I found, I think you want to force the video to "application/octet" or something like that iirc. This does neither help on the issue OP described here. It is NOT an issue of the web server. It is an issue on IOS: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4855607?tstart=0 Quote What you can download via Safari is limited, and as the iPad doesn't have a 'file system' like a 'normal' computer, everything has to be stored within an app e.g. you can download PDFs and epubs to the iBooks app, but you can't download videos to the built-in Videos app
SJ77 Posted March 7, 2017 Author Posted March 7, 2017 8 hours ago, GriefCode said: This does neither help on the issue OP described here. It is NOT an issue of the web server. It is an issue on IOS: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4855607?tstart=0 Ok, I can agree that this is the limitation, but what is the solve/work around?
opentype Posted March 7, 2017 Posted March 7, 2017 23 hours ago, superj707 said: Anyone know of a work around? There can’t be one. It’s made impossible on the level of the operating system. No website owner can influence that.
Simon Woods Posted March 7, 2017 Posted March 7, 2017 Yep, if it's an iOS level restriction then you're SOL. If you get frustrated with IPS on here then you'll really find unhappiness dealing with Apple.
SJ77 Posted March 8, 2017 Author Posted March 8, 2017 call it a difference in philosophy but I believe there are few (if any) unsolvable problems. We just need to think outside the box a little more. Perhaps there can be a streaming service that kicks in if user is downloading from iPhone. Or something else perhaps from our creative people here.
The Old Man Posted March 11, 2017 Posted March 11, 2017 Hi SuperJ, I have an iPad (3) and ios lets me download files from the Marketplace okay? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding. ? I have the full version of Filebrowser app installed which is what I choose to open the file in. FileBrowserLite by Stratospherix Ltdhttps://appsto.re/gb/EIZ_t.i FileBrowser - Access files on remote computers by Stratospherix Ltdhttps://appsto.re/gb/XFxVv.i I usually save a file to the Share With Apps folder in Filebrowser and from there it is available in other programs, or if it's a plug-in update for IPS I click on it to unzip it first and Filebrowser puts it in a sub folder. Then I can upload it into my AdminCP as usual. Hope this helps! ? Regards, Graham
The Old Man Posted March 11, 2017 Posted March 11, 2017 Hi, I've just tested with a couple of MP4 files, and no it doesn't work. I downloaded them using the iPad to Dropbox and they played fine in the Dropbox app, but when I uploaded them into Downloads, they open and don't have a line through the Play button, but you can't play them. Clicking on the options button in iOS only gave an option to download to Dropbox, not Filebrowser. I've read iOS is fussy about the profile used to encode the MP4. I tried it again withe second file on the test page mentioned on this page... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24042894/php-ipad-does-not-play-mp4-videos-delivered-by-php-but-if-accessed-directly-it?noredirect=1&lq=1 But although it plays fine streaming the second video clip, when I uploaded it to Downloads, it still wouldn't play back. My Mimetypes seem to be set correctly for MP4 video files, so I can't find a solution at the moment. Filebrowser works for other file types though, but it seems not MP4. Will try it with the third video on this page: https://www.matheretter.de/test/ipad/ Update: no it failed to stream play again. You can download it to Dropbox though and play it okay in the Dropbox app.
SJ77 Posted March 12, 2017 Author Posted March 12, 2017 So basically I should advise people to use Dropbox. Seems like the only option at this point.
The Old Man Posted March 12, 2017 Posted March 12, 2017 That seems to be the general consensus, it's because iOS doesn't have a normal file-system, so you need to download MP4 files into Cloud storage like Dropbox using the Save To Dropbox sharing option in IOS once you have Dropbox installed, or to an app like Filebrowser (which works fine and let's you store files on your iOS device but doesn't work with MP4s as there is no option to save the MP4). More on this here... http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/04/14/how-to-download-files-and-documents-to-iphone-or-ipad/ Look on the bright side, you will have lots of extra Dropbox space yourself if you use a referrer link! Update: I've done some testing with the Filebrowser app using the option to download from a URL. If the MP4 download is available to guests to download and the option in Downloads/Settings/ Prevent direct linking is disabled, it works, you can paste the download URL and the MP4 downloads into Filebrowser and you can then play the video okay. However I don't think that would work well for you if you are charging for downloads or have guests blocked from downloading them, so simply downloading MP4s to the Dropbox app and then watching in Dropbox is the quick and easiest option, it also lets you move/copy/export your file from in the app. If you want more options for non-MP4 video files, I'd recommend Filebrowser (or additionally use Filebrowser afterwards to connect to your Dropbox cloud account so you import or work with the MP4 video file, copy to your Windows PC, other cloud storage or NAS etc or import from Dropbox into the Shared with Apps folder using its various built in functions). I've read Documents 5 is also another good file manipulation app and is free but I've not tried it myself. Hope this helps!
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