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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
 Posted - 05 June 2001 : 13:06:47
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Ok... this "simple little mod" is getting complicated...
I've reimplemented the SubjectLength=0 and MessageLength=0 possibility -- as indicating that you want the entire length of the subject (which is usually the title or link, depending on the display mode) or the entire length of the message/body.
So now, when you set either to zero, you get the whole message or subject... thanks Bozden for pointing this out earlier....
A few comments...
With DisplayMode = 0, there is no message -- it is a link only. In this case the behaviour of setting the MessageLength = 0, is slightly different. For DisplayMode = 0, I have set the Acronym Title value for each link, to the T_MESSAGE value, so that as you hover above a link, you get to read part of the message (the length defined by the MessageLength parameter, of course!) If you don't want the actual message text there, then by setting the MessageLength to zero, the Acronym Title simply says " ...click here to read more!" I think this is a suitable approach -- it is rare that you would want a HUGE pop-up to display the entire message, and some people may not want to show the message at all.
I tested most of the modes, but with 10 different parameters, and with differing content, there are a LARGE number of permutations and the manner that display issues arise make it difficult to test. In other words, test this well before you use it!
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I think this is getting close to done... I've been playing with the idea of a new "horizontal-split mode" -- links on the left side, with content(message) appearing on the right, as you hover over the link on the left. This would require DHTML, or some other approaches that may not be worth the trouble...
If anyone has some other 'brilliant' ideas, let me know... before I close this off and move to a newsfeed mod that I've been working on...
BTW, the new version has been uploaded and available through the original link on the first page of this topic...
Cheers!
Rob Poretti 
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960 |
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Morpheus73
Average Member
Denmark
597 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 13:47:40
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quote:
If anyone has some other 'brilliant' ideas, let me know... before I close this off and move to a newsfeed mod that I've been working on
Well...to tie those two together, you really should try setting up a new sort of post.asp - lets call it ressourcepost. This system should consist of two main functions:...
1.
a ressourcepost.asp, where you can choose from type of posting (article, articlesection2, link, news etc.) - all these from a dropdownmenu, that read from a DB field containing the different options.
2. an ressourceadmin, where you set the different sections available to post in (article, links, news etc.), the moderators and so on.
then the system should generate strings from that, that both the newsfeed, the displaycontent and what might follow can read from in the following order...<% DisplayContent strnews, 6, 2, 4, 0, 7, 275, 35, 5 %>
I know it´s a major job, but it would make things easier in the future + make SNitz the backbone of a REAL CMS system?
mph73
NB maybe you could also include option to set header-fonttype/size/color, content fonttype/size/color and backgroundcolor, since it may differ on the different pages from the forum?
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com
Edited by - morpheus73 on 05 June 2001 14:01:03 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 15:30:42
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Hi Morpheus73,
Well actually, I'm doing something along the lines that you are talking about with another programmer -- but it will actually use a set of different DisplayContent.asp files. For example: DisplayNewsFeeds.asp (my next project).
The problem of doing one "generic" DisplayContent is that it all the recordset fields have to be isolated since they will all be different, dependant on the content -- it could be done just a lot of work and I don't know how much of a benefit it would be than programming specific ones.
For example, the newsfeed mod I'm working is working with XML newsfeeds. Those XML streams is processed by an XSL file that will eventually get parameters from the SQL database (first of all, to select the approriate XSL file -- different XML newsfeeds may have different schemas or DTD's) plus a number of "display" parameters from the calling routine. (Similar to the DisplayCOntent mod -- ie: do we want just links, how much content do we display, do we want ornaments, etc.) The parameters get passed as XSL parameters and then processed accordingly.
This is VERY different approach then what is going on with the DisplayContent mod and the Snitz Forum altogether -- as I said, it could be done, but I don't know if it is worth the effort.
In the end, if you have a number of different DisplayCOntent mods (one for newsfeeds, one for calendars, one for links, etc.) we still get modularization, but optimized for each of the types of content that you want to display.
Of course once we have a number of different DisplayContent "tools" you can abstract everything one step further -- but this project is for another day...
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Concerning font styles, sizes, colors: Well I've tried to use the Snitz approach where I could, but it would certainly be nice to "dynamically" specify them on the fly -- do we really want []more[/b] parameters??!! Perhaps CSS? There might be a few different approaches here... any specific ideas? I gave it some thought earlier, and then went with the idea that people could modify that portion of the code easily enough -- and most people will want the forum configuration to control this anyway.
If you have more specific details on approaches, I'd be interested in hearing them...
Cheers!
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
Edited by - Rob Poretti on 05 June 2001 15:39:39 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
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jumpingflash
Starting Member
26 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:03:48
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When I try to get the data (with the ACCESS version) it says :
ADODB.Recordset error '800a0cc1'
Item cannot be found in the collection corresponding to the requested name or ordinal.
/archinet/forum/content.asp, line 598
What is wrong ?
I know that in that position (forum ID or category ID) some data exist...
Edited by - jumpingflash on 05 June 2001 16:13:41 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:16:42
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quote:
I just tried the ACCESS version and fives me back NO results : it says "no topic found", whereas my forum is full of messages and things to show... why ?
Not having closely looked at bozden's version or even have an Access DB to connect to, I couldn't exactly tell you...
I can tell you this... pretty well the first thing after creating the recordset, it test for an EOF/BOF, and displays that message if either are true. So the resultant SQL string did not create a recordset. Are you sure you used the right ContentType or ContentID values for your specific forum? The TopicStatus and DisplayOrder can also give and empty recordset -- check those. Before you do anything check this over carefully.
If everything is fine on your end then follow these directions:
Insert this right before the open method, like this:
Response.Write(strSQL)
Response.end
rs.open strSql, my_Conn, 3
This will print the strSQL in the display column and then stop executing so that you won't get the error message.
Then post that string here, so we can have a look at it!
Cheers,
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
Edited by - Rob Poretti on 05 June 2001 16:18:02 |
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Morpheus73
Average Member
Denmark
597 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:17:55
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Well, I think the formatting of text and background is important to many of us (pleas post,if!...), since that woulæd be the first major step towards lettin g snitz work as backbone of different sections of a site.
Sounds complicated...and by far to long a way from the current configuration of Snitz (are you guys developing for the .NET platform? - check this out:IBUYSPY.com)
well my idea wasn´t that complicated, it would basicly be just a modified version of post.asp, where you would be able to post only in the "fixed" forums set in the admin interface...let the interface generate a <% strressourcecat %> string and let that be displayed in the dropdownmenu in post2.asp? - wouldn´t that be easier?
like this...
fixed toplevel cat named "content management"
forums called...
news - frontpage
news - community
news - employees
content - frontpage section1
content frontpage section 2
could be just "fixed" sections setup during design of forum
topics in the different sections.
admin/moderators should be able via the post2.asp to add/delete/edit topics(content)
to the different forums by choosing them from a dropdown-list (also an option could be built in to manage moderators for these specific forums.
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com
Edited by - morpheus73 on 05 June 2001 16:26:03 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:35:32
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quote:
All working fine now thanks Rob, is there any way of showing the last five or six topics from various forum categories or can you show only one category at a time?
Oops! And I thought this mod was flexible!<LOL>
Ok... this is actually fairly simple to do:
Look for this in the content.asp page:
' Then specify criteria to select topics
strSql = strSql & " WHERE " & strTablePrefix & strContentType & " > " & ContentID
Change it to this:
' Then specify criteria to select topics
if ContentID = 0 then
strSql = strSql & " WHERE " & strTablePrefix & strContentType & " > " & ContentID
else
strSql = strSql & " WHERE " & strTablePrefix & strContentType & " = " & ContentID
end if
Now, whenever you set the ContentType = 0 and ContentID = 0, you will always get the top xxx messages of all categories above 0. By the way, you can change the ContentType to what ever you want, and you will any Content type messages with an ID "over zero".
I think this might be usefull... I'll update the files shortly...
Cheers!
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
Edited by - Rob Poretti on 05 June 2001 16:37:59 |
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Morpheus73
Average Member
Denmark
597 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:36:21
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hmmm.... there should be an option so that the header isn´t a link to a forum topic, but is just displayed as plain text - possible?
mph73
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com |
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Bookie
Average Member
USA
856 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:40:50
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quote:
hmmm.... there should be an option so that the header isn´t a link to a forum topic, but is just displayed as plain text - possible?
mph73
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com
I did something like this. I added a Display Mode case 7 and copied one of the other cases and took the links out.
Bookie
"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your home."
- George Carlin |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:47:54
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Hey Morpheus,
Sure... but this is again one of those things that I'd rather not put in a parameter -- because I could have another half dozen parameters that are similar! (Example: link to forum - or not, link to author profile - or not, allow replies - or not, show the "more..." text - or not, etc.)
If we have anymore parameters, I should really start using a bitmask and constants!
I think this is easily edited in the content.asp file by individual users. If you need help on something specific, I'm happy to help...
Any other points of view to form a larger concensus would be appreciated...
Cheers,
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
Edited by - Rob Poretti on 05 June 2001 18:51:56 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 16:49:40
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quote:
quote:
hmmm.... there should be an option so that the header isn´t a link to a forum topic, but is just displayed as plain text - possible?
mph73
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com
I did something like this. I added a Display Mode case 7 and copied one of the other cases and took the links out.
Bookie
"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your home."
- George Carlin
THERE YOU GO!!!
(actually... that's how this mod originally got started!)
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
Edited by - Rob Poretti on 05 June 2001 16:51:59 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 17:04:21
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BTW, I would suggest that if you folks add other display modes, (and I'm sure most of you already have!), that you start from 10. This way, when I add other display modes that you would like to use, it won't mess you up, you can copy/paste the new display modes easily. Any pages accessing your personalized version will still work. (Of course you can still change the number of the new one I release, but the other approach keeps things in sync a little better.)
One approach, (if it is very similar to an existing version), is to use the original number as a "seed". So... if you modify DisplayMode 4, use 41 for your new version. It's easier to remember them this way...
Cheers!
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960 |
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Morpheus73
Average Member
Denmark
597 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 17:10:19
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quote:
Hey Morpheous,
Sure... but this is again one of those things that I'd rather not put in a parameter -- because I could have another half dozen parameters that are similar! (Example: link to forum - or not, link to author profile - or not, allow replies - or not, show the "more..." text - or not, etc.)
If we have anymore parameters, I should really start using a bitmask and constants!
I think this is easily edited in the content.asp file by individual users. If you need help on something specific, I'm happy to help...
Any other points of view to form a larger concensus would be appreciated...
Cheers,
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960
so what you suggest is to change fonts and backgroundcolors within the content.asp file?...possible, but then all content that uses e.g. displaymode 4 will have the same layout...if we were able to set font/backgroundlayout individually in each <% displayContent %> statement, it would be much more flexible for use on whole site with different sections
mph73
Morpheus73 - morpheus73@hotmail.com
Edited by - morpheus73 on 05 June 2001 17:11:36 |
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Rob Poretti
Junior Member
Canada
435 Posts |
Posted - 05 June 2001 : 18:50:43
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Yes... there are usually enough bgcolors, and font styles/sizes/colors that are set in the forum admin_config_colors that should allow one to put together a reasonable theme. If you need more, you should question your design from an "art-design" perspective. It's hard having a cohesive look when you have too many colors or font syles within a page or site.
Having said that, the only approach that would make any sense is using CSS and this would be a bunch of work that I'm not ready to invest in right now. If someone wants to do this, I'd certainly put my 2 cents in -- and support them.
And as Bookie already mentions, you could always copy DisplayMode 4 into 41 and change the colors, make the header larger and remove the link... or whatever.
Thanks for your feedback though...
Cheers,
Rob Poretti
Sascom Marketing Group ~ Toronto
vox.905.825.5373 fax.905.825.5960 |
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