Implemented hover over topic title shows part of the first post

[Sador]

A feature I really like from vBulletin and miss over here is that if you hover over the topic title it shows the first part of the first post. Now it just says 'go to first unread message' which is just less useful.

(also, yay, first!)

 

[Enigma]

I think I said this elsewhere, but instead of the overhead and bandwidth needed to pre-generate the thread previews for all threads displayed on the page, why not grab the preview for a given thread via AJAX only when it's needed?

 

[AlexandrosD]

I don't like it, I never liked this feature inside vBulletin. Not all users hover a thread title and wait to see some of its contents. Why should they download that content if they don't need it? It was just a simple old-fashioned title attribute value, rendered by the browser core functions when you mouseover-ed the anchor element. And... you should wait to see it. There isn't any option to change the delay, as it's browser specific. Only javascript can help.

<a href="http://link_to_the_thread" title="This is what you see...">
Thread Title to Hover
</a>

A plugin would be nice for the folks that liked it. Either you can make it or request somebody other to do it, but not the core developers, not until they finish the core and release the initial version — bug free. Leave them do more interesting/important things.
Don't get me wrong, I simply didn't like the way it worked on vBulletin. Options/features like the following would make me rethink my previous statement:

• delay option before user sees the value.
• only show contents if the user has the privileges to see them.
• fallback when javascript is off - just like the way it works on vBulletin.
• fully customizable balloon box with css.
• ajax call option to download the value.

 

[Shamil]

If they're going to do this, they'd better not use the default OS tooltip, HTML title for this. It gets ugly.

 

[Enigma]

If they're going to do this, they'd better not use the default OS tooltip, HTML title for this. It gets ugly.

Yeh, if you're going to load the preview via ajax, then display them like the forum descriptions are displayed on forum home.

 

[Jura]

I'm interested in a topic as whole, so previews never do a thread justice. Not something needed.

 

[Erik]

If they're going to do this, they'd better not use the default OS tooltip, HTML title for this. It gets ugly.

It would be quite easy to "hijack" the title attribute using jQuery and display it like the forum description "tooltips". Then it would degrade pretty nicely for users without JavaScript as well. So yeah, I agree (definitely not default OS tooltip!), but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done with (+ a little jQuery):

<a href="http://link_to_the_thread" title="This is what you see...">
Thread Title to Hover
</a>

 

[TNCclubman]

This is a huge one for me. I dont want to have to click into every thread when I can just mouse over a thread and read the first paragraph or so of whats within. vBulletin does this. phpBB does not. I absolutely looove that ability, hopefully you guys do it.

 

[Dean]

It has been suggested a few times, and I highly endorse some type of thread preview. Last week it was not as necessary for this forum (for me), but I really miss it now that it is so busy.

Hover, right click, click on button... something.

 

[Ahmed]

It has been suggested before.
I miss such feature too

 

[calorie]

I'm going to post in favor of this. I find myself missing this feature here. Hovering over the thread title usually gives me enough information to decide whether or not I'm interested in reading the thread. I happen to use it often, though I agree that the title attribute is not the best way to handle it. Half the time it disappears before I get a chance to read the whole thing so something like on the main forum page here would suit my fancy better. Regardless of implementation method, I'd prefer to have the feature.

 

[fattony69]

This is one of those features that aren't huge, but makes a big difference and I for one want it terribly!

 

[moojiolu]

I think the best thing, for a split opinion like this, is to have it as an admin option. Personally, I like this feature, but it's not so important that it'll change my mind about buying this product or anything.

 

[Forsaken]

If its added, I'd like it to be done as an AJAX tooltip, and styled to give formatted information.

 

[kmike]

I like it as a browser tooltip that vB uses. AJAX tooltips that I saw are usually slow and clumsy because of the roundtrip to the server. It could be made as a CSS/Javascript tooltip that don't require a separate server request.

 

[Biker]

IPB's implementation of it is too long winded, a simple tooltip hover will do, or a bit of Javascript (I use tCatitude's add on for vB 3.8)

Agreed. I, too, miss the mouseover abilities and find IPB's implementation a pain in the backside.

 

[kmike]

Yes, IPB's implementation is a nice illustration of the "Not Invented Here" syndrome.

 

[Disjunto]

I didn't even realise IPB did thread preview until just now, took me a while to work out as well. Terrible design

 

[Dean]

I *really* think some type of thread preview is important.


Regarding the ipb implementation, I really like that for ipb. Reason being, they mark the entire thread as 'read' as soon as it is clicked on, so more information is better than less.

Example would be trying to read, and understand, a really long thread such as a support thread about a mod at vborg. The way the thread marking system is in xf I could read a few pages then go away, and when I come back and I would get back to where I was, instead of to the end of the thread. Obviously I could leave a tab open or make a book mark but that is not nearly as friendly to me.
.

 

[Enigma]

I like it as a browser tooltip that vB uses. AJAX tooltips that I saw are usually slow and clumsy because of the roundtrip to the server. It could be made as a CSS/Javascript tooltip that don't require a separate server request.

But using AJAX would help you avoid the extra overhead of pulling the data, parsing the bbcode, and generating the tooltip text, for *all* first posts in the list of threads ahead of time, plus the bandwidth to send it to the browser.

 

[---MAD---]

Totally agree.