June 10, 2016 justin.pfenning@gmail.com

Blog Stash

BACKSTORY: Sometime around Christmas of 2015, I went to the App Store and tried to download the SBNation app. I was shocked to discover that there was no app available to download. I did the next best thing and saved the website I usually visit to my home screen. This just left more problems, however, because SBNation has 331 339 different sites. I got to thinking, and wondering, and thinking some more. Then I decided why not learn a new language and write a new app. So the journey began…

WHAT IT DOES: sbnViewer is a wrapper app for SBNation.com. It has many functions, some of which are:

  • Easily save which of the 331 339 blogs you like best so you can access them all in one location.
  • If your saved blog is a team blog and that team has a game coming up soon or one that just recently passed, their opponent blog will also show up on the Saved Blog section. You can quickly and easily find out what your opponent is saying about you, or just learn more about them!
  • You can save articles to view later with just one simple click and then see all your Saved Articles in one location.
  • You will get recommended blogs to follow based on what is happening in the sporting world. For instance, the NBA Finals are happening now so you may be interested to hear from a Golden State or a Cavaliers perspective.
  • Recommended articles will also be suggested on occasion for you to read and stay up to date on sports news.
  • By putting all 331 339 SBNation sites in one app, you will be exposed to more things sports and have more information at your fingertips. Did you know there is a Horse Racing section? Or a Longform section? Or a section just on college recruiting? You name it, it is there.

TECHNICAL: The app is written in Objective-C and uses JSON to talk to a a few back-end webpages, which in turn hit a MySQL database to get various information (the upcoming games or the recommended articles, for instance). The backend webpages are written in PHP and there is even a backend administrative section comprised of multiple webpages that help me push out content quickly, easily, and efficiently.

LINK: I know everyone is curious to learn more, and see this baby in action. Well, wait no more. Here is the link to view it on the Apple App Store!

PROBLEMS: If you encounter a problem, have a suggestion to make this app better, or just want to leave a word or two – please either leave a comment below, use the Contact form on the very top right of this page, or shoot me an email at: justin(dot)pfenning(at)gmail(dot)com. 

UPDATE HISTORY: The version history is below, with a description of things changed.

Version 1.0: Released June 9,2016

  • First release. We are live on the Apple App Store

Version 1.0.1: Released June 27, 2016

  • Added pulldown to manually refresh the ‘Saved Blogs’ and ‘Articles’ tabs.
  • Minor tweaks to squash bugs and enhance user experience.

Version 1.0.2: Released August 3, 2016

  • SB Nation Radio is a new blog at SB Nation. You can now find it under the ‘All Blogs’ tab under the ‘Other Sports and Blogs’ category.
  • Fixed the crashing issue that only occurred on iPads when user hit the share button within the web view.
  • Small performance enhancements to speed things up

Version 1.0.3: Released September 13, 2016

  • Fixed issue with popups not being allowed in the WebView. This was causing problems with users not being able to login through the social media buttons like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. There is still an issue if a user has never logged into SB Nation before using these buttons because the user cannot select a username. However, this is a bug in SB Nation’s code and has been logged with them (try it in your devices browser for confirmation).
  • Increased clickable area of the heart in the web view so it is easier to save the article for later viewing.
  • Added following blogs (teams):
    • The Daily Stampede (USF Bulls)
    • Fosse Posse (Leicester City FC)
    • Fear The Wall (Borussia Dortmund FC)
    • FMF State of Mind (Mexican Soccer)
    • Indomitable City Soccer (Sacramento Republic FC)
    • Got The Battle Fever On (Rangers FC)
    • American Ninja Warrior Nation (American Ninja Warrior)
  • Always adding a few under the hood tweaks to improve performance and usability. I won’t bore anyone with the technicalities, but we average less than 1 crash a month per the Analytics that Apple provides. My goal is to get that number to ZERO!

Version 1.0.4: Released September 19, 2016

  • Fixed issue that had caused a black box to appear at the top of the web pages in iOS 10.
  • Fixed issue that had caused web page scrolling to be jerky. This only happened in iOS 10 and was due to the issue above because it kept trying to “push” the web page down and out of the box if text landed on the line.

Version 2.0.1: Released January 9, 2017

  • Complete UI redesign.
  • Recommended blogs section can now show recommended games, with a recommended article tied to that game.
  • You can now save a recommended article by just clicking the star.
  • Easily save a recommended blog from that section if it is a single blog and not a game.
  • Automatically check for new blogs so they can be pushed without needing an app update.
  • Added Google Analytics collection

Version 2.0.2: Released February 2, 2017

  • Fixed issue where the next comment dialog was covered up by the ad banner.
  • Minor bug fixes.

Version 3.0.1: Released September 12, 2018

  • Complete UI redesign – blogs are now grouped by teams.
  • Added 700+ blogs.
  • Renamed to Blog Stash

Version 3.0.2: Released September 19, 2018

  • Fixed issue that prevented the app from working on iPads.

Version 3.0.3: Released October 1, 2018

  • Fixed bug that would sometimes take you to the wrong blog from the Saved Blog screen if you had only one saved team and they had a game.
  • Minor typo corrections and grouping corrections.