Smilies Under type box.

[inph]

No no... the number of smilies that show in the box under the text editor.

Ahhh, currently it's just displaying all the smileys. In the thread on the demo we're discussing ways to divide them up and control them. There isn't a display order in the XF smilies table not a categoryid. I was thinking of maybe using something similiar to the xf thread multipage nav in the form of left and right arrows on the sides of the smilies box.

 

[Peggy]

Ok I see.

My point is that I'd like to see the dropdown menu hold only maybe 10 smilies, with a "see more" link.
Then the slide down tab would hold all of the smilies, as it does right now.

I know that this would all have to be changed when the categories etc are implemented, but til then....

 

[inph]

My point is that I'd like to see the dropdown menu hold only maybe 10 smilies, with a "see more" link.
Then the slide down tab would hold all of the smilies, as it does right now.

This is doable, it involves editing the javascript that generates the smilies menu. The point I have is that it's effectively two clicks and the drop down menu is mostly awkward in it's current form.

Also one point raised earlier by a friend was it was duplicative having two smiley selection systems which both require 1 click to get access to the smilies (xf drop down and smiley panel.)

We should be looking at just having one smiley system that works a lot smarter and better.

I know that this would all have to be changed when the categories etc are implemented, but til then....

A smilies roadmap would be really helpful, at the moment i'm having more ideas on the whole implementation of the smiley system.

(List stolen shameless from one of shelley's posts)

1. Display of large amounts of smilies and selection (Frontend)
2. Smiley categories (Backend)
3. Smiley weighting/sorting (Backend)
* ArnyVee http://xenforo.com/community/threads/smilie-smiley-categories-or-sort-weighting.6342/

I've tried smiley boxes on both the bottom and the side and i'm convinced that having them at the bottom of tinymce textarea is the best location.

The current idea is to look at using the box below the textarea with scrolling arrows for left and right a bit like the thread multi-page navigation.

Was also wondering if grouping by mood emotions through different states (left: happy - confused - upset - mad - ranting :right) // misc (ninjas, pirates, aliens) would be a better way of doing it.

Also whether common smilies should be listed separately as most people will type them : D : ) ; ) etc and let the forum convert on the fly.


4. Smiley in rows (for people using many smilies) (Frontend)
Smileys in a collapsible box - How we're currently looking at displaying them in a box underneath the textarea (this thread)
iTuN3r - modifying the drop down box to expand horizontally in columns as well as rows http://xenforo.com/community/threads/suggestion-smilies-shown-expanded.5281/#post-105230

5. Smiley large sizes appearing correctly (Front and backend)
Full size or resizing them to fit a grid. Large smilies are definitely an issue for styling and fitting in then into a selection area.

6. Import multiple smiley upload (anything that isnt enter all the information one line at a time)
* makdeniss http://xenforo.com/community/threads/multiple-smilies-import.7706/
* Peggy http://xenforo.com/community/threads/uploader-for-smilies.7873/
* Blandt http://xenforo.com/community/threads/importing-custom-smilies.5652/

I wrote a quick script to generate some SQL inserts based on filenames from a directory, i'll post it here if i remember!

It's typically something you only do once and it's mostly just to save c&p, typing and clicking

 

[Peggy]

Oh sweetheart I would love to give you a roadmap on the smilies but there isn't one. We're still waiting for a kind coder to step up and code the smiley categories/sorting feature which you'll find a link to in Shelley's signature.

 

[Peggy]

I read the rest of your post above. Categories and sorting is what I was referring to in my post above. We need for admins to be able to create whatever categories they want, and then to be able to sort each smiley in the order they are to appear.

You have the idea. I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

[inph]

Cant find the link in shelleys sig.

On categories, sorting and ordering. I get what you're saying but I'm thinking more about how you present that those smilies to the user in a fashion that is better than "here is a huge box/dropdown of smilies I'm sure you'll have no trouble hunting down the smiley you want".

I think we can come up with a better smiley interface which in turn will define whether how we categorise/tag/weigh/order/whatever the smilies.

Juggling two ideas in my head, one is mood based categorisation with all the smileys again in a single box, maybe good use of general mood colours to guide the user
Think vertical bands of colour with the smilies in those bands.

The other is an extension of the same below the textarea box, but with tabs on that box for different categories/types of smilies. Those tabs can either be text eg "Fun" or an image/general smiley to indicate the contents.

 

[Peggy]

Hmmmmm interesting....

 

[inph]

Here's a quick mock-up example using tabs for categorising the smilies (the mood one is a lot harder to mock-up hah)

Again the tabs could be text or an image (think images can be used for obvious things - happy smilies, unhappy smilies and text would be better for fun smilies or themed smilies).

The question in my mind now is:

Would you use it to categorise by division or use it as a filter?

Categorised by division: you click a tab and you see a different set of smilies.
Filtering: you see all the smilies initially, you click a tab and then only see smilies which relate to that tab (rest fade out etc)

 

[CyberAP]

I have a similar idea.

I have a hack on my vB board that can make this

 

[Peggy]

I have a similar idea.
I have a hack on my vB board that can make this

Looks alot like how vB displays them. I really like the smilies in the slide out tray beneath the text editor.

I'm hoping that we can end up with the default smilies only, in the drop down menu, and all the extras in the slide out tray.
That would be awesome.
Having them categorized would really make me very happy.

 

[Paul B]

I'm hoping that we can end up with the default smilies only, in the drop down menu, and all the extras in the slide out tray.

I plan to remove all the shipped smilies and replace them with the ones we currently use so the concept of default smilies won't work in that situation.

What is required is some sort of checkbox to annotate which smilies are displayed in the built-in editor button and then the pull down tab can display all smilies.

 

[ArnyVee]

I think that it looks more professional (and works better for fixed or fluid layouts) by having it below the editor. Just my opinion

But, as long as we get it working to display in a better way than the never-ending dropdown, we'll be good

 

[Peggy]

By "default" I mean the ones that people generally use... smile, sad, mad, confused, etc. I think there's like 6 or 8 of them.

This is why we need categories. The defaults would be under a category like "general" or something like that, and that cat would automatically show in that little dropdown on the text editor.
The rest would display in the slide-out tray beneath the editor.

 

[Shelley]

Regarding the frontend smiley catergory. I thought that this was being implemented like a slideshow so to speak with the multi-page navigation in mind.?

I did a quick mockup with two navigation icons on either side and pending on what category you want the user only needs to click the icon and the box slides along to the next catergory of smilies much like a slideshow except the box makes that transition to the next catergory . I provided a mockup (below)

 

[Shelley]

I have a similar idea.
View attachment 5868
I have a hack on my vB board that can make this

I really hope the side display doesn't make an appearance as it would make the whole smiley add-on useless to me. I like my smilies on full display and we already have the option to hide them. infact, I've always hated the sidepanel layout that I find uses up uneede space and loathed the fact to "see more smilies" you have to click a link for a pop-up box to display them all.

If the side panel is an option with underneath text area as default and side display as an alternative option then that is fine. If it's a suggestion to replace under the text area arrangement then I think this is a bad idea as it's essentially going backwards. Imo.

 

[FredC]

This makes perfect sense, since there are no longer post icons.. Although i do miss them they were used heavily on my site essentially replacing thread prefixes.. But thats another thread.

+1 for smilies below QR, QE.. I always found smilies next to these editors problematic.
Shelleys Mock up looks perfect, id love to see this as default functionality. But a Plugin would certainly do.

 

[CyberAP]

I really hope the side display doesn't make an appearance as it would make the whole smiley add-on useless to me. I like my smilies on full display and we already have the option to hide them. infact, I've always hated the sidepanel layout that I find uses up uneede space and loathed the fact to "see more smilies" you have to click a link for a pop-up box to display them all.

If the side panel is an option with underneath text area as default and side display as an alternative option then that is fine. If it's a suggestion to replace under the text area arrangement then I think this is a bad idea as it's essentially going backwards. Imo.

Personally I don't need a lot of smilies in the box. 5-6 smilies is quite enough for me. I'm not saying that my concept should be default, I just showed how I want it to look on my forums because most of users on my forum doesn't use smilies at all and showing them for about 25 smilies is not a good idea.

 

[Shelley]

Personally I don't need a lot of smilies in the box. 5-6 smilies is quite enough for me. I'm not saying that my concept should be default, I just showed how I want it to look on my forums because most of users on my forum doesn't use smilies at all and showing them for about 25 smilies is not a good idea.

Wouldn't it be best if using 5-6 smilies to use the current drop-down menu being that your site uses such a small amount of smilies? I think the side-panel structure as an alternative is a bonus so don't get me wrong but I wouldn't like to see the side structure as a replacement and the whole "underneath the text area" being abandoned for it.

That was primarily my concern that the side-panel structure you suggested was a replacement with the underneath being abandoned.

 

[CyberAP]

Wouldn't it be best if using 5-6 smilies to use the current drop-down menu being that your site uses such a small amount of smilies? I think the side-panel structure as an alternative is a bonus so don't get me wrong but I wouldn't like to see the side structure as a replacement and the whole "underneath the text area" being abandoned for it.

That was primarily my concern that the side-panel structure you suggested was a replacement with the underneath being abandoned.

Yes, the drop-down is OK for me, but I am used to the side-box

 

[Shelley]

Here's another mockup (which would be styled better) for catergory smiley selection frontend pending that backend new categories can be created. When I refer to catergories I mean by different sized smiley packs, appearances not emotion based.