Problem using search box in this forum on mobile phone

[yesnaby]

Hello,

On this forum, when I try to enter anything into the search box using a mobile phone, the search box immediately disappears and I can get no further. The only way I can do a search is by using the 'advanced search' option, in which case everything works fine. This has been going on for some years now.

This only happens on mobile, on my PC at home there is no problem using the 'ordinary' search box.

Michael

[Station X]

Same thing happens to me when using a Nokia phone. I've always assumed it's a problem with the phone's browser.

[paulsherwin]

I think it may be a bug in the forum Javascript code. It seems to happen on all mobile browsers.

[emeritus]

The search function works fine on my rather elderly Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Android smartphone using Chrome: I just checked to confirm. I use the Google "search this web site" box at the middle of the top of the page. Using the "SEARCH" button in the blue menu bar produces a dialogue box that vanishes as soon as you try to enter anything.

[Paul Stenning]

Is this the Google one in the header or the built-in one from the Search option on the top blue menu bar?

Either way I will have a look somewhen, but the code here is old and long out of support by vBulletin, so there may be limits with what I can do.

[paulsherwin]

It's the built in one. The Google one is fine.

The search box pops up, but if you try to type any text in it disappears.

[Paul Stenning]

Does the more detailed search here work?

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/search.php

[Paul Stenning]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

It's the built in one. The Google one is fine.

The search box pops up, but if you try to type any text in it disappears.

Works OK on my iPhone 8.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, the advanced search link works as you'd expect.

I'll try it with Javascript disabled later today.

[Paul Stenning]

It's a strange one. As far as I can see from a quick look at the source code (from right-click, Inspect Element in Firefox), the only Javascript used is to make the form appear/disappear. The form itself just posts to search.php

From Paul's comment in #6 it sounds like that Javascript is where the problem lies.

[paulsherwin]

It's always been like that on phones and tablets. Maybe it's a touchscreen thing, or something to do with onscreen keyboards.

The workaround is to tap on 'Advanced Search' and use that.

[Paul Stenning]

I was doing some work with touchscreen keyboards in a different area recently, and there are differences with how Javascript sees touchscreen keyboard activity compared to regular keyboard activity, which I couldn't find a reliable way around.

I think the workaround Paul suggested (or using the Google one) is probably the best option really.

If I ever need to look at different forum software for here then how it works with mobile devices will be a consideration. Hopefully that won't be needed though, as long as CloudLinux continue their own security patched version of PHP 7.0.

[Uncle Bulgaria]

It doesn't work on the browser in BlackBerry's BB10 either. Although, I didn't know it was there before reading this thread as I always use the box at the top. It seems very effective, though without the ability to sort by date or thread which I suppose are part of the built in search and advanced search. Which I will now investigate.

[paulsherwin]

The forum mostly works very well on mobile browsers, though that appalling browser misfeature 'font inflation' or 'font boosting' can make it look ugly sometimes. There is an HTML hack to stop browsers doing this, but it's probably not worth bothering about it.

[Paul Stenning]

That font size niggle is something I'm aware of and is on my to-do list. Should be a fairly straightforward fix.

[Nuvistor]

Works ok iPhone 6 iOS 12.4 and iPad 6th Gen IOS 14.1.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

Over the years I've had various android phones and on all of them I have not been able to get the forum search facility to work, when clicking the search tab at the top of the screen the search box appears but when you click to place the cursor inside the box you get a brief flash of your qwerty keyboard and the search window closes leaving you at the homepage.

Is there a way around this?

Cheers

[paulsherwin]

Tap the 'advanced search' link. That works.

This is a well known vBulletin bug affecting Android and some other phones and tablets which has been discussed before.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

Thanks Paul.