User Essentials [Paid] [Deleted]

[Anthony Parsons]

Wow. TMS is cool. Syndol ... how did you add support for TMS in this addon ?

If you do your add-on template modifications using the TMS, then it will export them with the add-on.

When you install the add-on, if TMS is present it will write the template edits. If the TMS is not present, it skips over them and you have to manually edit templates.

The TMS actually reduces a serious amount of PHP coding in add ons when used, because you usually don't need to pass variables when editing a template directly, providing the variable is used in that template already... where if you hooked into the template you would need to write more PHP to do the job.

 

[Syndol]

Agreed, very impressive update. May I ask how the post edit history is implemented in the database?

A copy of the post is saved in another table.
I do not alter the xf_post table which means this add-on can easily be installed on large forums.

 

[Syndol]

FYI
Next version will include the ability to compare 2 post edits (or current post and one edit).
I was thinking of using a checkbox for this as illustrated in the image below unless someone has a better idea.
The link still opens the pre-edited post while the checkboxes and 'Compare' button will display the two posts.

 

[Arkshine]

Since you compare 2 things, would not it better to use radio button instead ?

Here a screenshot of another forum, it might inspirate you.
I don't have really a preference, your current way is fine too.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Agreed. Just told my friend to buy this.

Looks like he bought it

Being able to edit titles is sadly exciting for me.
It worked very well. Changing the Prefix for the thread was dead easy.

=== Very Small suggestion ===
Last edited by Digital doctor, A moment ago. Reason: Again, sorry, just testing the editing !
- I think I would right justify this, as it sort of "junks things up a bit" on the left justify. IMO.
- I think the right justify would keep the editing information available but would be less likely to interfere with the text of the posts.

 

[Arkshine]

There are 3 locations available for this message. See the options.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Maybe there should be a revert button, right on this screenshot, as most of the the time .... would people just be rolling back to a previous version ?

Checkmarks vs. Radio buttons - I think I prefer the checkmarks. Not sure why.

 

[Syndol]

Digital Doctor, since only Admins or Admins & Mods can view the edit history, I do not see what there is to report about.
The user log in the ACP tells you someone has edited their post.
As for comparing the posts, it will look the same as when viewing template differences with the TMS add-on.

 

[lasertits]

As far as post edit history is concerned, to avoid large db's or simply lots of edits being saved, would it be worth it to add an option for max # of post edit history entries to save? Anything older gets pruned as a new edit is saved (or afterward if this slows down the save process, or via a cron, whatever)

E.g.:
Max Post Edit History Entries: 10

Shows the OP, and then the 9 most recent edits, perhaps. As it sits it appears to keep all history regardless of how many edits the user does, even if it's semi-small changes that still exceed the min character change limit, it results in a near dupe of the post in the database. Having an option for max entries would at least give SOME boundaries as to how much data is retained with individual post edits. For most users I don't think they need to know every single edit, however the most recent 10 would be more than sufficient, I could be wrong though, but at any rate it would be an option and setting it to 0 would disable it. This could be rather useless though, I bet most users won't exceed 3 edits max.

I realize users could essentially make 10 bogus edits to hide anything before that if they were so inclined. Alternately I guess they could change their post 5 (or whatever setting your minimum character count is) characters at a time to avoid the history / edit log. Who would do this and why is beyond me.

Or, better yet...

Instead of saving entire posts, could it be possible to save only the post differences? I'm not sure how this would work on the backend or if it's even possible within reason, but essentially it would avoid near dupe posts in the db, and instead the "difference" would be its own content in its own column/row or whatever, rather than including the entire previous post in that new bit of data.

So in theory it would work similar to this mockup:

I go back and view the edit above this one (the most recent one):

The text outlined in blue is the content in the database for that new post edit. The end result are 2 rows (or whatever) with the following content:

Row 1: This is the OP.
Row 2: This is new text.

Instead of:

Row 1: This is the OP.
Row 2: This is the OP. This is new text.

If text is removed, that could also be displayed:

Row 1: This is the OP.
Row 2: OP.

End result when viewing the latest post edit: This is the [OP.]


Not sure if any of this is possible or how it would know what to dump in the db / where to place it in the original post (especially on large complex edits...), all of this is beyond me, I'm not a developer, these were just some quick thoughts without thinking too much about how (sorry!). This sort of makes me curious to find out how XenCarta stores its wiki page history, probably the same way you're doing it. Details would obviously need to be worked out, just throwing this out there. I have a feeling this post is rather useless, and instead just a wall of text.

I realize there's potential issues to either of these ideas, and I'm not sure how you'd work out those intricacies but at either rate perhaps this would be a start to a better idea (I'm pretty bad with ideas) / solution, perhaps not, perhaps the best way to do it is exactly how you have it - beats me! I really don't know what the most optimized / efficient / smart way to do it would be.

At any rate the addon is great, the post edit history is very useful. I'm just worried about the overall HD/DB use especially on a larger forum. I've got the Edit Post Log grace period set to 5 mins and edit post minimum characters set to 8 in attempts to reduce the # of post edits that get kept. I just hope post edits aren't very wasteful as time goes on. It may very well be much much lower than I suspect and I'm blabbering for nothing. I'll have to keep an eye on the user log for the next couple months.

Edit: Also just a quick thing I noticed:

Is it possible for the next version use a template conditional or similar to hide reason if there was nothing set? Rather than having it always show with N/A?

Edit2: Just a quick question, are edits made to others posts logged in the User log? or does it only log actions performed on the users content by the user creator? I edited someones post and though it appeared in the Last Edited by, it wasn't logged. Just curious.

 

[Wulfspider]

Love the post history update! Keep up the terrific work Syndol.

Would it be possible to add conversation searching and an option to save a new conversation as a draft instead of sending?

 

[MagnusB]

I just noticed this addon, and it might save me some grief. However, username changes, as far as I can see, there is no time option for that? I would really love to see that, cause that is the most important thing for me if I am to allow username changes. If I allow 5 user name changes, and the user decide to change username once a week, it will be hard to keep track of him / her.

 

[Syndol]

As far as post edit history is concerned, to avoid large db's or simply lots of edits being saved...

Wow after two cups of coffee and a cigarette break (even though I don’t smoke ) I have finally finished reading the post.

Saving just the changes to a post rather than the whole post means that a list of edit instructions on how to reconstruct the message must be saved which would probably be just as long (if not longer) than the message itself. Therefore, I will not be implementing this.

As for deleting edits that are older than X days, that could easily be done via a cron job but not sure how wise that is. Let’s say you have an old post which was edited only once. Now after X days the history gets deleted, but a day later someone complains the message is offensive to them. You now no longer know who edited and what the message looked like before. This defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Just a quick question, are edits made to others posts logged in the User log?

Edits made by the post author are logged in the User Log. Edits by anyone else are logged in the Moderator Log (as XenForo has always done).

However, username changes, as far as I can see, there is no time option for that?... If I allow 5 user name changes, and the user decide to change username once a week, it will be hard to keep track of him / her.

Not sure how a time option is going to solve your problem. If you set it to a week, what is stopping the member from changing their name 5 times during that time period?

 

[MagnusB]

Not sure how a time option is going to solve your problem. If you set it to a week, what is stopping the member from changing their name 5 times during that time period?

Sorry, should have been more clear. I want to set an interval between changes. E.g. you can change user name every 3rd month, up to five times.

 

[Syndol]

I think that would change the feature into a "fun" gimmick rather than what I see is the true purpose of it which is to allow someone to change their name due to a spelling mistake or if they no longer wish to have their real name displayed. This was never meant to be a way to continuously change a username.

 

[MagnusB]

I think that would change the feature into a "fun" gimmick rather than what I see is the true purpose of it which is to allow someone to change their name due to a spelling mistake or if they no longer wish to have their real name displayed. This was never meant to be a way to continuously change a username.

I don't think it is a gimmick, but a way to prevent users creating new accounts because they want a new username. Either way, the mod looks real good without that option, so I might just get it anyway

 

[lasertits]

As for deleting edits that are older than X days, that could easily be done via a cron job but not sure how wise that is. Let’s say you have an old post which was edited only once. Now after X days the history gets deleted, but a day later someone complains the message is offensive to them. You now no longer know who edited and what the message looked like before. This defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Haha, yeah sorry for that wall of text, I'm not too great at explaining things in a short & concise manner. As for deleting edits ordeal, I was more so thinking it would only delete edits that were older than the most recent X, X being whatever value the board owner set. It wouldn't be time based, just value based. If I set it to 5, the addon would only save the most recent 5 edits (and perhaps the OP?).

So for example if I had a post and I edited it 5 times, all 5 edits would show. However if I edited it again, making it 6 total, the very first edit I made would then be truncated (or it would be truncated via a cron later on), and it would show OP + most recent 5 edits, or no OP if that's problematic. I'm just presuming people would want the OP always available since people could abuse this and edit their post more than 5 times, hiding their OP/first edit or whatever they wanted to hide really. At least with a static OP you have an idea of what the post was before any edits.

Again not sure how helpful / useful this would be in practice. I don't think most people edit their post more than 3 times as I said, on average. Some posts get a lot of edits, if someone is holding a contest lets say and they edit their post every time they add a new user to the list of participants, this could easily amount to 10+ edits. If I had my max post history edits to save set to 5... then most of those edits would be truncated, even as he continued to edit it to add more users.

Haven't put much thought into the idea, not sure what downfalls it could have that I'm neglecting, but it's the only thing I could really think of off the bat that could give some control over how much data can be saved. I might need to just monitor my user log for the next couple months as I said before I make any serious suggestions. I'm throwing this out there without knowing too much about how the current setup is actually going to behave for my situation / forum.

 

[Syndol]

Again not sure how helpful / useful this would be in practice. I don't think most people edit their post more than 3 times as I said, on average. Some posts get a lot of edits, if someone is holding a contest lets say and they edit their post every time they add a new user to the list of participants, this could easily amount to 10+ edits. If I had my max post history edits to save set to 5... then most of those edits would be truncated, even as he continued to edit it to add more users.

I see your point about a post that is constantly updated and thus probably very long. As for the average post, I don't think it is a big deal.
How many posts do you have on your forum that are long and get updated on a regular basis?

Not sure how to tackle this or if it is even worth it. Perhaps simply set a user permission that allows for an unlimited grace period on a per forum basis.
That way editing of posts on those forums, by that user group, will not log the edit.

 

[MagnusB]

I just come to think of one thing. For username changes, you can allow or disallow using previous usernames. Does any of these free up the username for new registrations?

 

[Syndol]

Does any of these free up the username for new registrations?

Yes by default for both XenForo and the add-on.
If you set it to prevent the use of previous names, then new registrations and username changes via this add-on, will not be able to select that name.
Only the person who previously held that name will be able to reselect that name.
This does not apply to username changes or user creations via the Admin Control Panel.

 

[MagnusB]

Nice, thank you.