Turning Tiny Portal on/off?

[Artimidor]

Okeydokey, made some progresss - and Tiny Portal definitely is a keeper, so congrats to everyone who has worked on making it real :up:

Now comes another question:

I intend to have the Tiny Portal blocks all integrated, but would like that the user first reads up on everything to know what these are good for. So he/she should be able to turn them on or off whenever he/she chooses. Besides the Message Board is being displayed with a frame, so it might get cluttered with the Tiny Portal stuff shown on startup.

The intention therefore is that when the new user enters the board and isn't registered yet, the Tiny Portal blocks should be closed. However, with a click on the expand links on top to the left and right one should be able to view them. This way you can configure how to view the blocks yourself (left or right ones open  or not etc.), but the display of the site is in general simple (displaying only the Forum) until you discover these features - and whether you turn it on or off is up to you.

I've had a look what you can do with the control panel. Well, there are for example settings like "Use left bar" or "Use right bar" and "Hide bar when in forum" - the problem is, that you can untick "Use left bar" and the expand link disappears completely, and if you hide the bars in the Forum, the open links are gone as well. So, in short:

How can Tiny Portal be shown in closed state on startup with the expand links on top still being shown? Maybe it's simple to accomplish and I just haven't seen it. - But maybe any of you guys knows more

[bloc]

It doesn't have such an option yet. It would essentially be a setting that would have them closed at startup, until a member open them, then its user settings.

This will not make it into v0.9.5 but maybe for v1.0.

[Artimidor]

I guess it would really be an appreciated option, letting the users first get accustomed to the Forum and then discover the new features.

BTW: There's another problem related to that issue, which you might already be aware of: If you enter a community as a guest (because you haven't registered yet) and collapse the already shown Tiny Portal, the next thread you view as a guest brings the Portal miraculously back. That's quite annoying at times because the user might think the board is bugged or something. So if the Portal could be collapsed or disabled before registering you wouldn't have that problem (or diminish it at least).

[Assistance]

you can set your members to user groups and give them a little bit at a time.

something like 20-30 posts = a upgraded user group = a block
then you dont need to worry about cookies

or make a FAQ section with lots of pictures
everyone loves pictures to learn from

[agridoc]

If you enter a community as a guest (because you haven't registered yet) and collapse the already shown Tiny Portal, the next thread you view as a guest brings the Portal miraculously back. That's quite annoying at times because the user might think the board is bugged or something. So if the Portal could be collapsed or disabled before registering you wouldn't have that problem (or diminish it at least).

I had this request too, it might be added in the next version. Bloc has shown interest on this issue.

If you run a site where most members are not very able with PCs you must be very careful with changes. Even a more experienced user will stick after some time to what he has used to in a site he visits frequently.

[Artimidor]

Yeah, don't tell me... I'm just about to switch to a completely new message board, you know.. And people who have used the old ones (we have 2) for, well, 6 years or so now perhaps think...  (nice smiley BTW)

So you know, I try to keep things as simple as possible for the regular users

[bloc]

Guests not saving the upshrinked state will be in. Though not in v0.9.5.

(hm, the list for v1.0 is already beginning to be quite long lol )

[Assistance]

(hm, the list for v1.0 is already beginning to be quite long lol )

you do what you can and we all bow to you for that

[mhf]

Agridoc, you said : ...the best way to play and learn TP (also any other mod for SMF) is have a test install in your PC or another directory in your server...
Well from somone that started life with an XT and 250ko of RAM, I'm afraid to say that I don't know how to set up a test install on my PC - this would be very useful, could you instruct please?

[agridoc]

Well, I started with a TI-99/4A and 16Kb RAM  :laugh:

You must have Apache, PHP and MySQL in your PC. One good way is XAMPP
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/
I prefer the zip file.

Play a bit with it and you will see that it is like to install in your server. Instead of FTP you use a file manager to copy ("upload") the files to the directories.