New version

[TosaInu]

Hello,

You may have seen that this board still reads v3.03. There have been a load of fixes lately, they appeared minor, but some bugfixes were very important. Patching vbulletin is a pretty easy thing to do, but this board is customized a bit. Most of those hacks have to be installed again after patching, this will take a while and thus we've only added the important security fixes.

Today, I found a new hack, one that will really add something, but it's made for 3.07. This new hack adds an addressbook to your Private Messaging system.

I test this hack on a testboard first, but I'll likely update this board soon too. The hacks like the awards and the tables will be gone at first. They'll be restored later. The table hack is a simple one file edit and should be back soon enough, but the awards one is much more complex. It may even require rework.

The board will be offline for a safety backup of the database and the upgrade proces. This should take 20 minutes when all goes well.

I'll see whether it can be put to work on the test board first and let you know when this board is getting updated.

[therother]

Thanks for the update Tosa.

About the addressbook for PM, doesn't the buddy list kinda have that function, or does this hack significantly extended this idea?

[TosaInu]

The buddylist indeed has such a function, but this one expands. Say you start compiling a PM to A and then you figure you should also send to user B and C. The buddylist doesn't allow this. You also need to have user B in your buddylist already. It also helps to find the correct name, was it Bo0 or B0o?

[Lonewarrior]

I been to another site with version 3.07 and it's cool.

When will the updates be?

[TosaInu]

Hello Lonewarrior,

3.07 is installed on the testboard now. I'm having a hard time to spot differences with default 3.03. I guess the extras provided by hacks is what makes the difference.

I have installed the Recipient hack, and it's neat. Not doing everything I was hoping for. The weird thing is that if you just want to send a PM to say A, that you still have to go through the new system. Not sure yet we should like it.

I've seen the hack and am pretty convinced it should work here too. The PHP file edit just adds, only the content of one template will change. So, I'll give it a shot here with the experimental skin so we can see it in action.

Added now. Load up the Experimental skin and send a PM. I'ld like some feedback on this one.

[KukriKhan]

Added now. Load up the Experimental skin and send a PM. I'ld like some feedback on this one.

Had multiple addressee lines to choose from (all said 'none specified'). Attempted to send to my test account, but got hung up in the text box.
1) no cursor in the text box, and
2) no font selected by default, so
3) selected a font, but it 'hung' in the font selection menu box (could not escape - clicked back to return here).

Seems like there needs to be a 'select' button to select which, or all recipients, are to receive the PM. 'Search', 'Add' & 'Remove' are all visible.

[KukriKhan]

Switched 'Miscellaneous Options' from WYSIWYG to 'simple text'. Works now. Sent and received a short test PM. (Still using experimental skin).

edit: Also works with 'standard editor'. Just not WYSIWYG option.

[TosaInu]

Ah WYSIWYG. Is a neat tool, but causes some tiny problems at times. I'll try that mode myself and talk with the author. I still miss the buddylist there like we had with Ikonboard. It's a pity you can't just type a recipient in the old fashion anymore. It doesn't just add, it replaces .

The server is preparing the 3.07 directory now Lonewarrior, has to copy images for example. That is done in the background, when done we can decide if and when to jump.

[TosaInu]

This doesn't work in 3.07 either.

[therother]

Quick comments on the new system, with the proviso that I've never used Experimental before, so some differences may be due to the style change.

The Good

• Removes the rather awkward system where you have to use ; to separate multiple PM recipients.
• The search system is a reasonably good idea round here, and I can see clans liking it especially, as their members usually have a unique tag in their username, which can be searched for.
• It'll cut down on the mistyping of usernames.
• Works fine with my 4 browsers (IE, Mozilla, Firefox and Opera), at least so far.
• Buddy list system still works as normal, as does all the other "send PM to user" functions that I've tried.

The Bad

• Not being able to quickly type the recipient name is a little annoying, and having to search for each member, even if you know their username, could put unnecessary stress on the server. Not much, obviously, but still.
• WYSIWYG editor, as KhuriKhan points out, doesn't work for new PMs or replies, on any of my browsers.
• The recipients box takes up a fair amount of room with my account. Less, I suppose, for Members. Unless it has some wrapping system, I don't want to imagine how it looks like with TosaInu's account!

The Ugly

• Pressing return, instead of clicking search, in the Insert Recipient Username sends the message! This one is very ugly indeed.

Anyway, in general, I could live with it, although I'm not sure that it adds that much to the board for the effort involved.

[TosaInu]

Hello,

A new version of this hack is installed (thanks Zero Tolerance from vborg for making it).

-WYSIWYG mode is working now, there was a nameclash between variable names.
-Recipients are in two columns instead of one to reduce space. The remove buttons are replaced by small toggles.
-The buddylist is added, so you have sort of an addressbook.

The return issue wasn't reported yet, this guy codes faster than I think, this return glitch may get fixed.

I guess that just typing the name as extra option will become difficult with the rest of the hack, or that at least heavyweight code is required. The buddylist should make life easier there and looking up a username does indeed involve a SQL query, but it's a fast one in the usertable.

It would be possible to reduce the allowed max of recipients therother (I myself normally send to 1-2 users at the same time, rarely 5 and never more than 10).

[TosaInu]

About version 3.07. I was preparing the setup folder, but copying image bits over took a while (possibly because the FTP session was stuck). So, it's not ready yet.

[therother]

This is a much better version, and addresses many of the issues I had with the previous version. But the problem with the message being sent when you press return instead of clicking search is still there though.

[TosaInu]

Yes, the return issue is still there.

There's a thing an user can do right now: use the TAB key once to jump to the
correct button and then hit enter.

The submit button is the activated one in the form, I'm pretty sure it's relatively simple to make another one default. I fear though that the TAB has to be used no matter which button is set (I don't know whether it's possible to link the inputfield with the corresponding button automatially). I will see/ask.

[TosaInu]

New version is installed.

Table tags, and Spellchecker work again.

[TosaInu]

Hello,

A new version of this hack is installed (thanks Zero Tolerance from vborg for making it).

-WYSIWYG mode is working now, there was a nameclash between variable names.
-Recipients are in two columns instead of one to reduce space. The remove buttons are replaced by small toggles.
-The buddylist is added, so you have sort of an addressbook.

The return issue wasn't reported yet, this guy codes faster than I think, this return glitch may get fixed.

I guess that just typing the name as extra option will become difficult with the rest of the hack, or that at least heavyweight code is required. The buddylist should make life easier there and looking up a username does indeed involve a SQL query, but it's a fast one in the usertable.

It would be possible to reduce the allowed max of recipients therother (I myself normally send to 1-2 users at the same time, rarely 5 and never more than 10).

Checking features while I wait for the dump to download.

Is the Recipient system good enough to throw it in?

[TosaInu]

Quick comments on the new system, with the proviso that I've never used Experimental before, so some differences may be due to the style change.

The Good

• Removes the rather awkward system where you have to use ; to separate multiple PM recipients.
• The search system is a reasonably good idea round here, and I can see clans liking it especially, as their members usually have a unique tag in their username, which can be searched for.
• It'll cut down on the mistyping of usernames.
• Works fine with my 4 browsers (IE, Mozilla, Firefox and Opera), at least so far.
• Buddy list system still works as normal, as does all the other "send PM to user" functions that I've tried.

The Bad

• Not being able to quickly type the recipient name is a little annoying, and having to search for each member, even if you know their username, could put unnecessary stress on the server. Not much, obviously, but still.
• WYSIWYG editor, as KhuriKhan points out, doesn't work for new PMs or replies, on any of my browsers.
• The recipients box takes up a fair amount of room with my account. Less, I suppose, for Members. Unless it has some wrapping system, I don't want to imagine how it looks like with TosaInu's account!

The Ugly

• Pressing return, instead of clicking search, in the Insert Recipient Username sends the message! This one is very ugly indeed.

Anyway, in general, I could live with it, although I'm not sure that it adds that much to the board for the effort involved.

The quote box did weird cut offs in 3.03. That may be a skin/resolution thing. Hope it's gone.

[Fragony]

This sucks a bit I must say, not comfortable to the eye at all.

[TosaInu]

Hello Fragony,

I'm currently using the RTW skin and everything appears to be normal. What are you using? I guess I know the problem you face.

Edit: oeps, it isn't I'm looking at cached stuff. It's temporary.

[therother]

Many of the board images aren't showing up for me. And for some reason typing messages is very sluggish whilst pages are loading - just noticed that one just now. Maybe that's just my browser (Opera), but it never used to happen with the old version.

[TosaInu]

typing messages is very sluggish whilst pages are loading

How do you mean?

Yes, I was busy copying images to this new install, so one wouldn't even notice. But the copy proces was very slow (10's of hours and just passed 50%). I'm going to do a folder move, that is a thing that can't be done in advance nor is the current FTP tool capable to do it (:/). The dump download is at 50% now. After that I'll swap to the other PC and sort the layout.

[therother]

The sluggishness when typing seems to affect Firefox also. In fact, replying to a topic with my poor laptop nearly killed the thing - 100% processor usage for over a minute, just to refresh a page. Very odd indeed.

[TosaInu]

I don't have any other browsers installed here other than I.E. Hmm, perhaps it attempts to load all those images that aren't there?

[TosaInu]

Try the default style please. It has more images.

[therother]

How do you mean?

Whilst typing into my browser, when pages are still loading, the text will appear about half a second after typing. Processor usage on my desktop is minimal, and it is still sluggish. Processor usage on my laptop and Firefox is just horrendous.

[KukriKhan]

Just the opposite evidence here. With fewer images to load, my IE6 is just zooming.

[TosaInu]

Images are back, this FTP tool does it in seconds instead of hours

Opera 7.21 and I.E 5 on win98 have no problem, I still don't know what causes your lag.

[TosaInu]

The messing up with the quoting is still there :(

[therother]

Everything is fine now, lag and all. IE was always working for me Kukri. It was just Firefox and Opera that were causing problems.

Thanks for getting the tables hack back so quickly, Tosa.

[TosaInu]

Applied the new PM system to all skins. Improvements can be added from here on. Using the TAB key after typing/selecting the nick and before hitting ENTER is the alternative to mouseclicking for now.