Menus do not display/appear with iOS in Safari with ad blocker (Purify)

[cmw]

Running iOS 9.1, iPhone 6s Plus. Purify pop-up blocker is installed and enabled in Safari. Purify is configured to only block “Ads and Tracking”, which is the default setting.

The Purify ad blocker that is now supported by Safari and iOS prevents the menu from opening.

With the increased use of ad blockers like Purify on the mobile platform this is a problem. I know the Neighborhood theme developers don’t have any control over the behavior of the ad blocker but, for now, the state of affairs is that people are going to increasingly be blocking ads on their mobile devices. If the menus in the Neighborhood theme are treated as pop-up ads this makes the site un-navigateable when a user is using an ad blocker.

Can these menus be brought forth in a way that doesn’t cause them to be treated as ads that need blocking?

While I understand the cause, the people who visit my site won’t and they will just move along to a different site that works. That’s a big deal, for obvious reasons. Is there a solution or do I need to search for a different theme (because I can’t control who is/is not using an ad blocker on their mobile device)?

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[Rui Guerreiro – SUPPORT]

Hi,

Guess the problem can be the way that Purify pop-up blocker determines if something is an Pop Up or not.

But will forward to the development team so they can reply their thoughts about this situation.

-Rui

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi @cmw

Don’t personally have Purify, but have tested with Crystal (free + more popular from the looks of it) and the menu works 100%. Difficult to see what the issue could be here, but will see what else I can find.

– Ed

[cmw]

Hi Ed,

Crystal is slightly less than free in the App Store ($0.99) which is the same price I paid for Purify (on sale) and they both have about the same number of reviews and stars which hints at comparable levels of popularity. But I didn’t really want to discuss the merits of one ad blocker vs another; the situation is that many users are installing them and at least one of them is causing issues with this theme. Recent articles like this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/10/01/heres-how-some-of-the-top-ios-9-ad-blockers-stack-up/ are generating awareness (Purify and Crystal are listed first and second) which means users of this theme have a legitimate concern. I’m assuming other SwiftIdeas themes will suffer the same problem.

I really like this theme and want to continue using it. But I can’t if something that is rapidly increasing in popularity (ad blockers) is going to make my site unusable to an increasing number of mobile visitors. I’m hoping the theme developers (which I just noticed is you …cool!) will be able to offer some guidance or a solution (other than ‘uninstall Purify’).

-Colin

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi Colin,

Apologies, that wasn’t my solution – was just offering an insight to my experiences. I downloaded Crystal a while back when it was free. Will check out Purify, in hopes that I can shed some light on the issue. Don’t suppose you’ve been able to test any other WordPress sites with it? We don’t do anything out of the ordinary with the menu on mobile.

– Ed

[cmw]

Some sites that I have noticed:

This theme has the same problem: http://themeforest.net/item/3clicks-responsive-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/5092225

Example: https://www.itdojo.com

This theme does not:http://themeforest.net/item/bazar-shop-multipurpose-ecommerce-theme/3895788?s_phrase=&s_rank=5

Example: http://www.constrictionaddiction.com

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Ok so I downloaded Purify to check this out. Basically the issue is that it prevents WooCommerce’s cart fragments JS (the script that powers the cart functionality) to use the .cookie function, which causes a JS error and prevents the Neighborhood JS from running. Screenshot of the error here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ma99mx0ny4pwd4u/Screenshot%202015-11-15%2019.28.35.png?dl=0

This is likely something that WooCommerce or Purify would need to figure out on their ends. We can likely work it to prevent issue on the theme’s side, however pretty pointless if there is no cart or WooCommerce js functionality that would prevent users from buying anything on your site.

– Ed

[cmw]

Ed,

Much love to you for taking the time to dig deeper. Thank you for that.

My site is heavily shopping cart driven so it is definitely a ‘lose’ for me.

As a consumer I’m no stranger to what I’m about the experience. When I contact WooCommerce they will say, “it’s the theme” or “it’s Purify”. When I contact Purify, they will say, “it’s the theme” or “it’s WooCommerce”. As the one least capable of arguing the technical merits of the problem, I will ping-pong around between the 3 (theme, plugin, iPhone App) and struggle to get anyone to say, “Oh, we can fix that.”

I appreciate the heck out of you looking in to this, though. The few times I have needed support with the Neighborhood theme have always been met with quick and efficient help.

Off to WooCommerce and Purify’s forums/tech support page…

Thanks.

Colin

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Hi Colin,

No problem, apologies it took me a while to get to it. I don’t like having to suggest you to another place to get the resolution you need, but the truth is that the point of error isn’t with our code, and it wouldn’t be right for us to patch up something that should be fixed at the root of the issue.

Hope you manage to get a resolution.

– Ed