XenPorta v1.4.5 BETA TEST!

[masterchief]

Revert your customizations.

how to do that?

I would like to delete them and start over.. there is no facility to delete layouts

UPDATE - problem resolved, turned OFF global index setting, recentslider will only appear at the portal. WHEW! lol

 

[3rd AnGle]

Hi Jaxel,

Is there any possibility to show the thread description in the recent thread module so that it sort of becomes an article module?

 

[masterchief]

Need to get down the naming of forum and thread layouts.. not getting it with full friendly URLs

forum index: http://localhost/xenforo/forum/
thread index: http://localhost/xenforo/forums/main-forum.2/
message thread: http://localhost/xenforo/threads/first-post.1/

addon not acting the way I expected .. have no idea what to expect with usage of layouts.

 

[Europhoric]

Is it possible to remove the "promote_icon" feature in the Recent News block? I would like all the images that are embeded in the post to appear as they do (and in the same position) as the post when previewed in the treads view. At the moment, the very first image/attachment in the post is moved to the top right of the post in the portal.

I tried modifying the the EWRporta_Block_RecentNews template and removing the code in question, but all it did was cause the first image/attachment to not appear in the portal view.

Is there a way to disable this so that the content is identical in both the portal and thread view?

Edit: Found my answer burried here.

 

[Xarcell]

I want to release this... but I'm afraid of the changes in XenForo 1.1 =P

I think you should wait, and maybe work on it a little more if you have ideas to add more things. If your done expanding it, then go ahead and release it.

 

[Xarcell]

I figured I'd test this.

So I'm trying to understand how this is setup, and what everything is.

So currently, I enabled a custom layout for a thread, but there are no blocks? Even though it shows 8 blocks installed, none appear on the custom layouts. Not even in the "disabled" section. Is that a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

NVM, they appeared after saving and then edit. However, if I go to "Layout: Article", no blocks appear, not even in the disabled section.

Also, what is an article? Must one have xenCarta installed for that?

 

[Europhoric]

Also, what is an article? Must one have xenCarta installed for that?

Probably referring to the actual thread content.

 

[Xarcell]

Probably referring to the actual thread content.

Then I don't understand how it works. How do I make a thread an article?

 

[Europhoric]

Then I don't understand how it works. How do I make a thread an article?

You misunderstood me. The thread is already defined as the article. Thread <=> Article.

There are 2 layouts, the portal and article layout. In the "Globalized Custom Layouts" options you can chose to use the default forum layouts or the ones you specify under "XenPorta Grids".

In the portal itself you see the "portal" layout, but then when you click on any given post, it takes you to the "article layout" of that post.

I hope that clarifies things. It really helps to just play with the options to see how it all works.

 

[Europhoric]

I have 2 feature requests:

1. Default Thread Promotion Settings: At the moment, we are forced into a default layout in the portal with an avatar/image being used as the 'promotion icon'. I personally don't find this feature useful due to the fact that viewing the article in the portal differs from the article layout. (i.e. In the article layout, the first image won't be displayed as a promoted icon any more). So at the moment, to get around this feature, I am forced to 'promote' each thread manually after posting to disable the promotion icon. It seems like a very huge hassle in its current incarnation. I really don't want to mettle through the code and find where it's set to use the promotion by default and change it to be disabled by default.

So I think this would be a good solution:
a) Ability to change the default promotion settings in the "Recent News" module settings for all threads.
b) Auto-Promotion of all threads. (I don't understand what this feature is for in the first place, but it seems like the only way for me to get rid of this promotion icon is to promote every post manually -- what am I missing?)
c) Ability to specify an image for promotion (already available) -- but having it NOT appear in the article view. (Just as it appears in the portal view now)

2. Read more tag: Right now the problem I have is that some posts are longer than others, and it feels clumsy to define a global 'cut off' for every post when I would like the ability to sometimes truncate a post manually at a certain point. Similarly to Wordpress, it would be very useful to include a [read_more] type of tag that would overwrite the default truncation settings. This exists as [prebreak]

3. Stickied threads reflected in portal view: (I personally don't care about this, but would make sense for future versions) If I stick a post in the forum where I am fetching posts from for the RecentNews block, it would be nice for the posts to appear at the top in the portal view.

 

[Europhoric]

Bug: When using the [prebreak] tag in my post, it doesn't actually display the rest of the post. It literally cuts it off in both the portal AND article/thread view regardless of which layout I chose (default or not). When I hit edit, the rest of the post appears, but in the actual thread itself, the rest of the content disappears after the tag..

Bug2: After importing Countdown timer, it shows up but does not actually countdown. It remains at 0 regardless of what date you enter. (Even after disabling caching) Started working by itself after a while for some reason...

Bug3: Added a "Customized Layout" called "forum". Then when I press "delete" to remove it, it gives me an error. "The requested page could not be found."

 

[masterchief]

removing layouts and blocks.. there is no facility to do so other than go into database and remove table entries
please advise

 

[masterchief]

Bug3: Added a "Customized Layout" called "forum". Then when I press "delete" to remove it, it gives me an error. "The requested page could not be found."

when I hover over the red X in the layout listing, ''Émpty Block Cache" message appears. there is no facility to remove any layout.
the Controls tab only allows me to export the layout.

 

[Europhoric]

Bug4: When activiating then "Layouts Article" in Globalized Custom Layouts under Xenporta Option, it fails to show attachments. In the portal view, the attachment shows up as an image, but in the article/thread view it simply appears as a text link such as "View Attachment #".

Bug5: Related to RecentSlider and RecentAccordion, they both show the words "{IMG}" and "{ATTACH}" in the summary, this should be parsed out. (not curly brackets)

 

[Jaxel]

I'm changing the customize layout form a bit to make it easier to understand...



As for Europhoric's concerns...

An "Article" is a thread that appears on the Recent News block. A thread can appear on the recent news block by either being in the predefined recent news forum, or having been manually promoted by a moderator/admin.

1. I'll add an option to disable thread icons by default. However, I can not add options to re-arrange the hierarchy of the icon system. Right now the hierarchy is MEDIO > ATTACH > IMG, and it will remain that way.
2. I also don't understand what you mean by "auto-promotion". Any threads in the recent news forum(s) are automatically auto-promoted with the default settings.
3. As well, the ability to specify an image for the promotion icon, without it appearing in the article post is already in. All you need to do is attach the image to the post, and then when you promote it, mark it as the promote icon. Attachments are already hidden on article posts, so unless you manually put it into the post with the ATTACH bbcode, it won't appear. If it's appearing for you, then you embedded it yourself.
4. Stickied posts being reflected on the portal will NOT be included.

As for your bugs...

1. The [prebreak] bug you posted is NOT a bug, its working exactly as it should. You are just not using it correctly. Its not [prebreak]... its [prebreak][/prebreak]. You forgot the end tag! Basically, the way it works is as follows:
   

   this part of the article will appear on the portal and the thread.
   [prebreak]this part will ONLY display on the portal, with a link to the thread[/prebreak]
   this part will appear on the thread only, and truncated off the portal summary

   See? Its simple. Because you did not include the closing [/prebreak], you ****ed up your post.
2. ....
3. By "delete", are you talking about the red X on the layout list? If thats not working... yes, that is a valid bug and I have fixed it for the full release. If you need to delete the layout for now, click on the layout itself and use the delete layout button on it's edit page... that delete link is working fine.
4. Yes, I discovered this bug myself on my website... fixed it the other day for the full release.
5. The summary is XenForo's summary system. That has nothing to do with this portal.

removing layouts and blocks.. there is no facility to do so other than go into database and remove table entries
please advise

This is wrong. There are methods to both delete layouts and uninstall blocks.

 

[Xarcell]

I don't know if this is intended or not. When I first install xenPorta, there are no blocks showing up for the article layout, or any custom layout when created. However, after you save a blank layout(like the article layout), then blocks appear in the disabled section so that they can be enabled and used.

 

[Xarcell]

I wanna sling some suggestions your way.

1.| Can the admin section be condensed? There should be one category with options, blocks, and layouts. All block options(list/install) in the blocks section, and all layouts options(list/install) in layouts.

2.| Using the term article is confusing, because it is not an article. Should be called topic, post, discussion, or content. Or even better, it shouldn't be "Portal" & "Article". It should be "Home" & "Forum".

3.| How about an option to "clone" a layout? This would save time when you want a near identical layout for another area of the site? Huge time saver.

4.| Confirmation that settings have been saved is needed? A minor thing, but a peace of mind for those with slow connections.

5.| Option for members to collapse/expand blocks. Admin option per block to allow/disallow blocks to be collapsed by members.

6.| Option to "clone" a block. This would save time when want to make a near identical block. An example would be perhaps I have 2 facebook pages, so that would be 2 separate id's. So I could clone it, and change the id & perhaps the title and place it into a layout. Another example would be recent news, perhaps I want to oraganize the news into 2 separate blocks. This would be faster than exporting, changing, importing.

Just suggestions, please don't flame me for them. XenPorta is a solid portal.

I also have a question. How do we create custom blocks? I know the structure has changed and I thought I read that documentation on how to do so will not be written.

 

[Europhoric]

I also don't understand what you mean by "auto-promotion". Any threads in the recent news forum(s) are automatically auto-promoted with the default settings.

I don't understand what the promotion system is intended for? When I promote a thread, nothing seems to happen to it? The only benefit I saw was the ability to remove the promotion icon (which is all I wanted). Now that you are including this as a default option, I will have what I need. I suggested "auto-promotion" as a work-around for my promotion icon problem, because I didn't want that to appear by default and it would be tedious to promote every post manually each time just to remove the default promotion icon.

The [prebreak] bug you posted is NOT a bug, its working exactly as it should. You are just not using it correctly. Its not [prebreak]... its [prebreak][/prebreak].

Ok I understand now. But I don't understand the usefulness of this? I would like to see a single [read_more] tag instead. Where you can view the entire post in the article view, but have a truncated version in the portal. Otherwise it seems like I have 2 versions of the post which isn't useful to the reader at all. They would need to read the first part on the portal first, and then switch to the article view to read the second part? The only compromise would be to copy and paste the post twice, once it's in the truncated version, and another as a full version for the article. This seems like a hassle.

Maybe there should be a toggle to allow an option to have the ability to display the entire post in article view as well? That seems more useful for our needs.

In any case, I'm very happy with the portal overall. I can't wait to get my hands on the latest version. Do you have an ETA on the release? We are looking to launch ASAP.

 

[Xarcell]

@ Europhoric, if I understand correctly... Say you have a thread that is NOT in your categories selected to show up in your recent news block, you can make it appear there using the the "promote" thread. For example, I have articles I write in category A, all of them are set to show up in the recent news module on homepage. However, every once in awhile, a member will write an interesting article in category B. Since I think it's such an awesome article, I promote it to the recent news block on my homepage.

 

[Europhoric]

@ Europhoric, if I understand correctly... Say you have a thread that is NOT in your categories selected to show up in your recent news block, you can make it appear there using the the "promote" thread. For example, I have articles I write in category A, all of them are set to show up in the recent news module on homepage. However, every once in awhile, a member will write an interesting article in category B. Since I think it's such an awesome article, I promote it to the recent news block on my homepage.

Ah ok, that explains it. Thank you.