Some questions

Razasharp

Razasharp

Well-known member
Firstly blame @AzhriaLilu for me being here! I'm trying to get her to sell me her old vB license but she keeps telling me to get XF! (Anyone else selling one?)

I want an easy life for a new project (was just going to use a theme from my old site) but I dunno, Azh got me onto vB and she loves XF so maybe I should give XF a closer look for this project. I do like XF, but I don't have time for the learning curve (mainly on customisation - as my forums are always very heavily customised) but anyway, I have a few questions about features I can't see on the default install:

Thread icons - can we replace the avatars showing on forumdisplay with thread icons? The ones that give a status of a thread, such as new post, hot post, you posted in this thread etc

Forum subscriptions - I couldn't see this, and it would be a must as this new project is a support type forum where people will want to subscribe to forums.

Reply by email - Many of the users to this site will be used to mailing lists, is there (or will there be) a way for users to reply to threads by email?

MarkDown - As the project will be about Ruby, most of my users will be used to MarkDown, are there any plug-ins or plans to accommodate this for/with bbcode?

What's new/recent activity streams - I really like these, but feel they are missing auto-updates like twitter (and vbspy). Any plans to add this functionality?

Viewing forum - I like this on forumhome, any chance it will be added? it gives the sense of activity, and stops things looking quiet or stale imo.

Twitter integration - if you're gonna have FB then Twitter is a must imo, any plans for this?

I think that's it for now, any general thoughts about porting over vB styles also appreciated!
 
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None of those features currently exist in the core code, you would require add-ons for them.
DP Spy does exist as an add-on, as does a custom BB Code manager.

Suggestions have been made for most (if not all) of them.
 
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Thanks Brogan. Has Kier or Mike commented on the possible inclusion of any? I'm not really keen on plug-ins for important functionality so would prefer everything mentioned (apart from markdown) as part of core if at all possible.
 
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A few more questions for you Brogan :p

Is it possible to use XF's version of the dot icon (to show that you've posted in that thread - on forumdisplay) but rather than show your avatar could I just display a graphic - but anywhere in the 'threadbit' area? (eg next to the icons used for sticky/locked threads)

Is it possible to move the contents of the right hand col to the bottom of the forumhome page easily? (Like it is in vB)

Also are there any docs on how to get to grips with creating plug-ins or mods? If so can you point me to them please?
 
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You can achieve almost anything using CSS, template edits and add-ons.

I haven't seen a modification which replaces the mini-me avatar but replacing it with a different image shouldn't be too difficult. It will just be a case editing the template code to change the image reference.

There's a template modification for moving the sidebar contents to the bottom of the page - I helped someone with that a while ago: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/stats-staff-users-at-forums-end.15291/

For development help, this is the place to look: http://xenforo.com/community/forums/development-tutorials-and-resources.33/
 
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Thanks Brogan - I will check out those tuts and your template mod.

Brogan said:
I haven't seen a modification which replaces the mini-me avatar but replacing it with a different image shouldn't be too difficult. It will just be a case editing the template code to change the image reference.
Click to expand...

I want to completely remove the avatars on forumdisplay (it will be a new forum so don't want it to look like just a few people are starting all of the threads) however I want to display a tick icon to show when a user has posted in it - I guess that would be easy enough to do? I just want to check as that would be a potential show stopper.

Thanks again for your help!
 
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if you search the template contents for miniMe, you will see there are two templates which use that class: thread_list_item and watch_threads_list_item.

You can then inspect the code to see where the miniMe is applied and then change it accordingly.
 
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Thanks Brogan - I had a look on the demo and got it to work :)

On the same page, where it shows the last poster name, is it possible to make that link go straight to the users profile instead of opening the pop-up?

This code seems to be responsible:

Code: 
<dt><xen:if is="{xen:helper isIgnored, $thread.last_post_user_id}">{xen:phrase ignored_member}<xen:else /><xen:username user="$thread.lastPostInfo" /></xen:if></dt>

Am I looking in the wrong place?
 
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Razasharp said:
Thread icons - can we replace the avatars showing on forumdisplay with thread icons? The ones that give a status of a thread, such as new post, hot post, you posted in this thread etc
Click to expand...

We ripped out the avatar system and replaced it with an icon system. It can definitely be done. I don't think we did quite the same thing you want but its a very flexible system.
 
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tmb said:
We ripped out the avatar system and replaced it with an icon system. It can definitely be done. I don't think we did quite the same thing you want but its a very flexible system.
Click to expand...

Have you got a link I can take a look at? Did you release it as a mod?

I think so long as there's a way to show people have posted in a thread then prefixes can easily replace thread icons - I guess I just liked our old thread icons that showed when a thread was hot etc.
 
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Razasharp said:
Have you got a link I can take a look at? Did you release it as a mod?

I think so long as there's a way to show people have posted in a thread then prefixes can easily replace thread icons - I guess I just liked our old thread icons that showed when a thread was hot etc.
Click to expand...

You can see some old screenshots here (we're in the process of our 2nd major custom revision so for now we aren't linking till we finish):
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/show-us-your-xf.9236/page-27#post-196308
 
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Just had a look - looks really good man! And I like how your lead dev is a Rubyist! :D (How is he integrating the Ruby stuff btw?)

Are you doing the XF mods yourself? If so could you take a few moments to add your list to a thread I posted here please? I like planning out my reading list so hopefully it'll help.
 
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A few more questions...

Still on thread-bit; is it possible to check for the following,

That the thread:

  1. contains new posts (I guess so as such threads show up bold here)
  2. is a 'hot' thread?
  3. is a locked thread?
  4. is a thread the person viewing the page has replied in?
The functionality is there, but is is something we can easily call/check in the template? If so I could use that and hack up my own thread icons lol

(@Brogan please also don't forget post 11 - I can't find class="username" in that template - am I looking in the wrong place?)
 
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Razasharp said:
A few more questions...

Still on thread-bit; is it possible to check for the following,

That the thread:

  1. contains new posts (I guess so as such threads show up bold here)
  2. is a 'hot' thread?
  3. is a locked thread?
  4. is a thread the person viewing the page has replied in?
The functionality is there, but is is something we can easily call/check in the template? If so I could use that and hack up my own thread icons lol


(@Brogan please also don't forget post 11 - I can't find class="username" in that template - am I looking in the wrong place?)
Click to expand...

1. Yes
2. No
3. Yes
4. I do not understand :P

It should be fairly easy for the "Yes" ones, it's already that :)
 
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Thanks.

With regards to hot threads, can we test for the post count of each thread? Perhaps something like:

Code: 
if thread.posts > 50
# show hot icon
end

(Sorry about using Ruby code I'll have to brush up on my PHP at some point!)
 
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