UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Suggestions and Feedback Wanna play?

Thanks to everyone for the feedback so far. It seems the main them here is there really isn't going to be one format that is going to please everyone and the main factor behind alot of the decisions that go on here is you guys are the customers and the customer is always right[]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/]. So that means we need more flexibility so everyone can be happy.

Templates is something I've wanted to do for quite a while. I made a very serious attempt at doing templates for the PERL version a while back that didn't go very smoothly. The main reason for this is PERL is coded with use strict to run under mod_perl so the variables don't carry over from script to script which makes templates very tough to do properly, but I have a few new ideas for this. The PHP version would be much easier to apply templates to though. The main thing with templates in a total dynamic site is they have to be done properly or the whole thing becomes slow because there is so much reading and parsing being done for each script.

So, again here is my proposal. The only thing that really started this was the fact that I asked if post headers on top were worth it and the new post icon things. Before that, everyone seemed fairly ok with the 2 different layouts. So, why don't I just finish the next version up, get it ported over to php and then take a look at templates.

Like Sharif said, I could start with a small template system on just some of the scripts like showflat and showthreaded instead of trying to delve into a complete template based system. This would allow for a testing period to see how it works, how people like the templates and what changes can be made to make them better before trying to do more of the scripts.

Thoughts?

Excellent. That'll keep me happy. []/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/]

[]http://www.wopr.com/w3tuserpics/Eileen-sig.gif[/]

Perfect!

Count me in!

Brew
CustomShowCars.com

Sounds like the smart thing to do. []/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/]

http://www.yourvacationdreams.com

Hum... funny how things go, it all started out when... []/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/].
Even earlier today when I mentioned templates I was not expecting to see them at least for a year from now... so if you tell us you are thinking in getting them into the script... then, well, Yes! []/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/] Great news! Wow!

And yes, sure, go ahead and finish this version (nobody expected a design change in it), and though we were looking for better ways that does not mean the current look is bad, its actually quite good. Its part of the thing of being good, or even the best, but once you reach the best, you figure there is always an even better way. As soon as you reach the top of the mountain you see an even taller mountain... I guess it will always be like that.

Mateo Byler
CruceDeCaminos.com

i have beem wanting templates built into w3t since i have been using it. i guess you only really need templates for showflat and what not. all for that for sure........

[:red]--------------
http://extremeforums.org

Wonderful. Scream. Let's do it![]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/]

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Or, at least, I think it is... It was my intention that the body text would fill the space to the left and below the picture and it is hard to see if that is what you were doing in the example since the text has <blockquote> stuff in it.

P.S. Congratulations.

Bill Dimm, MagPortal.com - [:red]free feeds for your site.

This sounds great.

I agree, we can start slow on the template system. Doing the showflat and showthreaded is a perfect place to start. Those two alone would add a tremendous amount of flexibility and also solve every one of the ideas that folks had in this thread. They will all be able to have their pages displayed in the manner they prefer and to me, that's the way it should be. Thank you Scream!

Jhariden (aka Strategist)
Stratics Forums

Hey, this is a historic occasion! We are all actually agreed on something.
I reckon we should break out the champagne.

[]http://www.wopr.com/w3tuserpics/Eileen-sig.gif[/]

I whole-heartedly agree[]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/]

This thread certainly wended far and wide. If it's not too late, I have a few comments on the new Control Panel itself and its associated features.

Where has the last time logged in time gone? Couldn't this be displayed immediately under the "Control Panel for ..." row?

I prefer the way that received and sent messages display on the same page curently. I don't understand what the advantage of separating them is, unless it's to accommodate people who have a lot of messages.

With so little help for users, W3T could benefit from a bit more judicious use of descriptive labels. What "Remind Me" and "Favorites" do is not obvious - and the screen with the explanation flew by so fast that I was only able to read the first line. Remind Me will be especially confusing for users. Remind me to ... what? Check this thread? That would be my first thought. While you might not be able to fit more text on the thread pages, I'd like to see the Control Panel label be more explicit, perhaps something like "Remind me to Reply".

I guess "Favorites" has become universal, but I think you'll find that more than a few users will think this option will add the thread to their browser favorites. Off the top of my head, though, I don't have an alternative other than "Watch" and "Watched Threads" from newsreader terminology.

The delete icon for Reminders does not communicate. The common X used for delete would be better. (I couldn't get any Favorites to show in the Control Panel, so I don't know if it's the same icon.)

On the new options added to threads, I think that "Post Options" is potentially confusing, because it reads as the options have to do with posting, rather than options for a post, and the meaning of the icons other than the one for print are not obvious. If you don't want to call it "Message Options", I think "Options" alone would be better. I'd also like to see them have text attached, as the Reply icon does, or have an option to display as text alone. Or, could a tool tip display for them at least?


sam~

Here are some more suggestions for the Control Panel.
"Message Box" and "Friends Online" are in one invisible table, and "Thread Reminders" and "Favorite Threads" in a different table. I suggest moving these last two to that same first table. This way you would make better use of the table, if one has little content the one below would start right away, not having to wait for the left and right ones to finish before the below ones have to start. If you want me to show you this just tell me.

It seems the column with the Edit icon and text for the "Main Configuration" is not wide enough, looks like in most browsers it is forced into two lines because of lack of space, so maybe just increase the width of it a little. Removing the "Edit" text would also work. It should look better if it is in only one line.

Mateo Byler
CruceDeCaminos.com

Maybe make the titles in the control panel linkable to the FAQ file to explain what the various functions are for?

Like have the title "Thread Reminders", and other stuff in the control panel, linked to a bookmark in the FAQ for this function and so forth and so on......

A good idea would be to use the "title" function of the a href links. Like "< a href="http://www.link.com/to/file.html" title="This is a tooltip">link</a>

Brew
CustomShowCars.com
OldHouseForums.net
PoliticalForums.net