TinyPortal beta testing so far...

[Ciinien]

Very few TinyPortal beta notes (read: problems) so far, but then again it was a pretty hectic week so I haven't gotten to test nearly as much as I would have liked. This coming week I should have more time to test though and begin to put a 'face and focus' on my testing site, which is slated to become the mother-ship or housing all my variouos other projects such as my guild site, etc.

Here are a few suggestions and observervations I've made this last couple of days using TinyPortal. I looked to see if these were covered in another thread, and most aren't. Some are kind of touched on somewhere peripherally, but none are actually explored, that I could find at least:

Random testing notes:

I need a little help and/or clarification on some of the following issues if anyone has encountered and solved them. If any of these features aleady exist, and I just haven't poked around deeply enough in the TinyPortal interface yet to have found them, please pardon the redundancy:

SUGGESTIONS/REQUESTS ONLY

* In the Admin section, Time Formatting section, could we please have a drop down box listing the GMT/UTC time zones? It would make it orders of magnitude simpler and more intuitive than the trial and error method now employed (SMF needs this also). Either that, or could you put a clock beside the Time Offset edit box so the user can see the results of their choice immediately without having to shell out to the main page every time? Not every user knows what UTC zone they live it by heart.And yes, I know there's an 'auto-detect' feature. However, I'm not 100% certain this works reliably every time--I know it sometimes doesn't for me... . Whichever of these methods is the simplest to implement seems to me like it would be fine, but one or the other option is definitely needed, in my opinion.

* Is there a way to put a Browse button on the custom avatar selection edit box in case the user wishes to search for a custom av on their local machine?

* Is there a way to add an option like left/right blocks 'off' while in forum by default? When doing management work in the SMF admin section, I can turn them off manually using the upshrinks of course, but having radio boxes to make it the default behavior would be pretty cool and save from having to upshrink every time you do SMF management.

* Any possibility of adding a pre-fab Links editor; something along the lines of the url linking edit box for userlogo, for instance. Maybe tied into custom buttons 1, 2, and 3, or something, which I haven't quite gotten my mind wrapped around how to use just yet... lol. Such a feature would allow admin to simply create a menu link, edit the path the link should point to, then set the proper Menu Item drop-down, and off you go. The way it is now, when I link to Coppermine via a Menu Link Item I created, I lose session tracking and Coppermine doesn't know about SMF or TP. Hacking our own links does currently work. However, a more elegant solution would be preferable as it would keep session tracking and use the same user queries as the Mambo/SMF bridge. If adding something like that wouldn't take tons of time and effort to code.

Test Notes:

• When in tp_Admin --> Edit Blocks, if I click the on|off|right button for Themes, my forum clock moves ahead 2 minutes every time I click? Too wierd!


• tp_admin --> Edit Blocks --> User Block: when I click on the check boxes to turn 'on' avatar, login time, real-world time, unread replies/messaages, et cetera, they aren't saved. Only one I can get to save is the choice to display PM status.

• tp_admin --> General Settings: when I check the radio boxes for right and left blocks 'off' while in forum, the settings aren't saved.


• tp_Admin --> General Settings: Use WYSIWYG editor radio box doesn't save

I will have more time this coming week for testing so I will get the site moving a little faster.

Cheers!
Ci

[Bjørn]

- time formatting..I am a bit unsure of what you are thinking of , but urrently TP just use SMF own routines for times displayed, to not confuse too much.

- browse avatar I think is better off done in the profile section, again to avoid confusion.

- on-off left/right blocks when in forum in already in. Check tpadmin/general settings. In the next release the upshrink buttons also reflect this...you won't see the left upshrink button when leftbar is hidden or off - as it does not. Also the upshrink for top part of forum has been added again.(if "show top" setting is ON)

- links boxes..is more a theme feature I think...though I am still thinking how to best add links to various modules that will come. Should they be a menu in a block, or added to the template main menu of buttons?

- for the errors you have: the first I am not sure of, but the other ones stems from missing settings in the tportal_settings table. Next version will check everyone of these at update stage, but right now you can check/add if you have these ones:

   Name => userbox_options
        Name => hide_leftbar_forum
        Name => hide_rightbar_forum
        Name => use_wysiwyg

The data you don't need to enter, just do a send on the general settings page( after selecting things you want on/off correctly)

[Nokonium]

- links boxes..is more a theme feature I think...though I am still thinking how to best add links to various modules that will come. Should they be a menu in a block, or added to the template main menu of buttons?

An (index.template) button would be fine, as the current Arcade is (or not if you have 6 of the smegging things). The other place I would need it to work would be as a menu item in 'Content'.

A seperate menu block for a random game and/or champions etc, but I think peeps need to just be able to load the module with a click. Same goes for a Gallery, random picture (IIRC with Coppermine this is via an SSI), or list of Galleries, but also have a one click option from the (index.template) menu or Content Menu.

If you have too many things that can only be accessed via their dedicated blocks I think that you may be drifting away from 'Tiny' towards the other portals and CMS.

[Ciinien]

No, you pretty much missed the entire gist of my post, Bloc, so apparently I explained it badly. I'll try again and re-word a few things, hopefully making it clearer:

• No worries on the time thing, I figured that was probably an SMF deal because it's in their admin section "Features and Optionis => Overall Time Offset", but I wanted to double-check. I just want that little box to be a drop down with time zones instead of having to muck with it and 'guess' which time zone one might live in (on Windoze, the same kind of drop-down time zone chooser as in the clock/day/date applet)

• I'm not saying the avatar selection needs to be moved, where it is now is perfect. What I meant was, in addition to the current behavior (two radio boxes and two text areas, there also needs to be a Browse button so a user can find an av they may have stored locally instead of having to try to get the path right when they enter it by hand--like every other avatar chooser in the world... . Again, probably an SMF thing, my apologies.

• tp_Admin => General Settings: Okay, this one you mistook my meaning completely. I know where the various settings I mention are. I'm saying they do not work correctly at present on my system. I don't know how else to get that across.
  
  In other words, 2nd and 3rd choices down, respectively, are USE LEFT BAR and USE RIGHT BAR. On those choices, we can use them (setting block width, if desired) or not, OR hide either bar, or both, by default when in forum. If I check 'YES' to hide in the bars while in forum mode (I want them both hidden when in forum), those settings are not saved when I click SEND to save the configuration editor. Hope that is clearer than before. That functionality apparently doesn't make the update query to the settings table on my system.

• Concerning the Links editor,I personally would rather see them remain as menu links, as they are now. However, some might want them on their toolbar (the top bar across the forum) as well. It doesn't seem like it would take much to add that functionality to what already exists. In other words, in tp_Admin => Edit Blocks, there is a 'TYPE' column with the drop down to choose pre-defined types of block behavior.
  
  I'm voting for pre-defining a Links behavior that when clicked on, takes the admin to a configuration editor page that allows them to link that menu item to whatever url they desire, but stil have session tracking and all the other things need to maintain cohesion across the entire app. This behavior would kind of emulate what is currently available for the html/javascript/php editor. The only thing is, you wouldn't need the 'BODY' box, just an edit box to enter an url. Is that clearer than before, or more confusing?

• I'm not getting any errors. I was just trying to explain how the various choices in tp_Admin were reacting/behaving. The only errors I have right now are with CaRP, and I think that is only because the XML feed I have coming in from this one site is not well-fromed and is using characters CaRP finds offensive. I just need to pour over CaRP's configuration files, find those tokens and comment them out for the time being to test this theory. If I am proven correct, I can then advise the XML sender of what is happening and hopefully they'll ammend their code for better XML compliance.

I hope I've made things at least a little clearer. Actually there have been very few issues so far other than minor ones, easily gotten through. These above though, I think are more on a code level and I haven't gotten that good with my coding yet. But I am gaining on it...

Cheers!
Ci

[Ciinien]

W-e-l-l, okay then. I suppose lack of answer means I won't be getting one. I guess I'll just wait until the update/upgrade when it comes out...

Cheers!
Ci