BuzzerBeater Forums

I've been doing some work on this in my spare time, and I have had some success.

I use two approaches:
1. For Read transactions, like viewing your roster, checking your schedule, checking PAST scores, etc I use the BBAPI web services, which only requires a user name and the access key (not password).

2. For Write transactions, like making bids, setting your lineup, etc I use browser screen scraping and browser emulation. I also use screen scraping to get LIVE scores from the scoreboard that is displayed across the top of the screen. I haven't had any success in decoding the data stream that goes into the flash viewer, I think its either compressed or encrypted, maybe both. This method needs a username and password. I'm pretty sure this would be against Terms of Service, which is why I haven't released anything - plus everything has been done on my local machine and hence is not on the scale to service the traffic that would come if many people were to use it.

If the BBs were able to provide web service APIs to get live scores, and do essential things like set lineups, make bids on players, etc, I think that would make creating a mobile site very easy.

But what is the point of all that? If you have an iphone or ipad you can do everything except watch the live games, but even then you can still use the scoreboard function and the live scores update automatically. And if you really want to know what's happening you can still use the play by play function from your iphone or ipad.

But what is the point of all that? If you have an iphone or ipad you can do everything except watch the live games, but even then you can still use the scoreboard function and the live scores update automatically. And if you really want to know what's happening you can still use the play by play function from your iphone or ipad.

Two reasons:

1. Presentation. The site might look OK on an iPad, but on an iPhone its tiny. You spend a lot of time pinching and zooming around on an iphone. Granted, functionality of the full site is still accessible from a mobile device, but its not as well presented as it could be. If presentation didn't matter, why would anyone bother making mobile sites at all?

2. Performance. The actual connection to the buzzerbeater website is done by the web server hosting the mobile site, not the mobile device itself. The way I designed it - the mobile connects to the web server, the web server then establishes a connection with buzzerbeater, retrieves (or sends) the appropriate info, parses it and packages it into a mobile response, and sends it back to the mobile device. Using this method, I reduce the amount of network traffic the mobile device uses by 90%, hence increasing the speed of the site. This was the original reason why I developed a mobile site - using buzzerbeater on the go (while on the train going to/from work, etc) was far too slow on my 3g carrier connection, hence I needed to design something a bit more efficient.

As I said in my previous post, this was a pretty complicated way in solving a problem - that is...developing a mobile site for buzzerbeater. If the BBAPI was to be expanded and included a few more web service calls to write information, that would be fantastic and make writing a mobile site a hell of a lot easier (and less fiddly and prone to error).

Also, the ability of the site to let you see your game on an iPod without getting CloudBrowse or anything would be appealing.

Ok, so unless someone can tell me how to do it, I say it doesn't...

Check your settings. I could watch the games even 2 years ago, when the version was too buggy. Possibly you switched off flash.

For those willing to get Iphone app. I'm not sure that's smth that BBs should try to do. Not sure if some of developers even knows how to create Iphone app. If there is some user having ideas how to create this - just contact BBs, I believe you could be rewarded by Supporter for example.
Again: third-party software is called so, because it is third-party, not the developer's.

They should do an app. And I think this is crucial to this game's survival. The most important thing is to find a way to place adverts that makes good sense. If you could play BB on an iphone without the need to zoom in and out, while always having an advert visible that doesn't take up the whole screen that would be equally huge for BB and the public.
The way the mobile devices are becoming more and more popular, this is a huge opportunity for BB to grow with it.
IMO, making it a supporter only feature would be a big mistake.

PS: for idea on how to place adverts see (http://mobile.lemonde.fr/) on an iPhone. Granted it takes up some space and it takes a little time to get used it but that's the way things are these day.

ttt

This must be a possibility with the B3s. A simpler version of BB in a downloadable iPhone app would be really helpful when on the go.