Support for multiple HumHub Sites

[marc-farre]

Maybe, in a first time, we could save the previously URLs entered in the form, and show them as a suggestion to avoid having to type the hole URL each time we switch instance?

And if we can go back to the instance URL form without login out, we could switch instance quite easily.

Of course, it's not perfect, mainly for notifications, but if it's simple to develop it can help the time beeing.

[PrimozRatej]

Hey @marc-farre, as you suggested, I've prepared a quick demo.

Users can switch between instances using a dropdown list in the TextFormField. When they are connected to an instance, a swipe gesture on the WebView will reveal a back button for quick navigation back to the opener. Reconnecting to logged-in instances is instantaneous (current session inside WebView). Push notifications are configured per instance, so there's no problem here, and the redirect should continue to work. My concern is only how we can indicate to users that this exists, considering the hidden nature of the back button.

https://github.com/humhub/app/assets/10835179/62315a51-85dd-4beb-b02c-7603842f431d

@luke- any thoughts?

[marc-farre]

@PrimozRatej Thanks! That's awesome! Maybe it will solve https://github.com/humhub/app/issues/139 ?

Perhaps we could add an entry in the account menu, next to the "Logout" entry, called something like "Return to form URL"? Of curse, this entry will only be shown in the mobile app (we should have a way in PHP to know if Humhub is currently executed in a browser or the mobile app).

Another idea: adding a "Clear" button on the URL form to quickly remove the current URL and access to the URLs dropdown list?

[luke-]

@marc-farre I like the idea of offering an additional menu item "Back to app" or similar when using the app. We can recognize and display this.

But then we have to somehow collect currently logged in HumHub instances and offer a logout (clear) option.

[PrimozRatej]

Hey @luke - we could use the JS channels for this and a custom app header, as you mentioned, and the logic will stay on the web side, I like the idea here.

Regarding saving currently logged-in instances, I don't think that would be necessary. Instead, we can simply save the instances that the user has ever connected to, not necessarily logged in.

If the issue you see involves push notifications (those will be sent to the user if the user hasn't logged out of a particular instance), when the user clicks on a specific push notification, they will be redirected to that instance, and then they can log out.

We can save the connected instances on the mobile device itself in local storage.

[luke-]

@PrimozRatej Do I understand correctly that we only save the instances that have ever been entered?

But the user is only logged in to one installation at a time and should therefore only receive push notifications from this one.

Later, we can expand the feature to allow multiple "Logged In" instances in parallel, including push notifications.

[marc-farre]

Users can switch between instances using a dropdown list

@PrimozRatej Do you plan to release this new feature? It would be very useful! Thanks!

[luke-]

@marc-farre We should definitely get push notifications for one site to work reliably first. Before we start with multi-site support :-)

[PrimozRatej]

Hey @marc-farre, @luke-, do you think now is the time to support this feature?

[marc-farre]

@PrimozRatej I would say we must focus on:

• iOs app
• custom branded app
• reliability of the application (testing)

@luke- ?

[luke-]

@marc-farre @PrimozRatej

I think that with multi HumHub support, we have a clear argument in favour of apple app approval.

Here is a mockup masterpiece of how I would see this feature.

• Maybe we can also add a count of notifications

What you think? Should we focus on this topic? (After Branded Apps.)

[marc-farre]

If it helps for the Apple store and it's not too much work developing it, then yes of course, it would be great to have. But I don't know if it's a big value compared to the browser navigation in the eyes of Apple (it's similar to multiple tabs).

For the UX experience, I feel like it's not intuitive to switch from an instance to another. I think we need somewhere a dropdown accessible when browsing HumHub.

[luke-]

If it helps for the Apple store and it's not too much work developing it, then yes of course, it would be great to have. But I don't know if it's a big value compared to the browser navigation in the eyes of Apple (it's similar to multiple tabs).

Perhaps we can find another feature that is quicker and easier to implement. The multi-instance mode is not that easy to implement.

For the UX experience, I feel like it's not intuitive to switch from an instance to another. I think we need somewhere a dropdown accessible when browsing HumHub.

• If multiple instances are added to the app, the "Instance selection" should always be displayed first at startup.
• It should be possible to switch to the "Instance selection" via the account menu.

[Eladnarlea]

@luke- I would suggest to position Switch HumHub Instance either under My Profile OR above Logout

Under My Profile

Above Logout (Icon would be changed as in the screenshot above)

[luke-]

@Eladnarlea I would prefer above Log Out

[marc-farre]

I share with you how https://www.mightynetworks.com allows switching instances on their mobile app. They call the button "Switch network" which might be more intuitive to general public than "Switch HumHub instance". They use a sidebar offcanvas (sort of modabl box on the side, see https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/components/offcanvas/):

[Eladnarlea]

@PrimozRatej I have sent you a pm via Element to discuss possibilities of UI elements to use. After your validation I would post it to this issue.

[Eladnarlea]

Please find the suggested design solution below.

The idea:

1. Show up to three last logins to avoid cluttering the interface
2. when clicking add network you will be guided through the existing flow
3. Need help should still be visible on the first front screen

@PrimozRatej I know that I already asked you if it was possible to display the fav-icon. But do you maybe know whether you can also show the logo of the network in the app preview? I guess so, but please confirm :)

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9909b885-08cf-4c05-ad21-aeb148bb0c28

[PrimozRatej]

@Eladnarlea, I can access the favicon through https://community.humhub.com/manifest.json. I assume the network's logo is different, so I think we would need to add it to the manifest or make it accessible through some kind of open API.

[PrimozRatej]

We would likely need to add the badge number value to that same API as well. Or use silet push like discused here https://github.com/humhub/app/issues/52

[luke-]

@PrimozRatej @Eladnarlea We should only work with information here that is available in ‘manifest.json’. (Square Icon) This is the only thing that is reliably available for every HumHub installation. Unfortunately, we cannot add custom attributes here as the format is fixed.

We have to add the notification count later via the SilentPush notification.

[Eladnarlea]

@luke- @PrimozRatej That's fine. So only the icon will be visible instead of the whole logo - right? @PrimozRatej Do you need new mockups for this, or will that not be necessary?

[PrimozRatej]

@Eladnarlea, there's no need. If there are any changes, we can address them in the second iteration.

[marc-farre]

@PrimozRatej In older versions, once logged in to a HumHub instance, it was possible to display the app homepage form (to enter another HumHub instance) URL, by swiping right from the left edge (or clicking on the Android return button). On v1.0.110, it displays "Do you want to exit an App?". So we need to sign out each time we want to switch to another HumHub instance.