XenZine Articles [Deleted]

[Krisx]

@Krisx if you use the route changer I mentioned, your categories should look like this:

So is this
xenzine.com/category/dogs.179
much better than this
xenzine.com/?category=dogs&id=179

Yes, this is the one I need:
xenzine.com/articles/dogs.179

and it would be nice to have
xenzine.com/articles/dogs/german-dogs/german-shepard.122

So what exactly do I have to change in the code (and htaccess ) to get that structure ?

 

[tenants]

Yes, this is the one I need:
xenzine.com/articles/dogs.179

and it would be nice to have
xenzine.com/articles/dogs/german-dogs/german-shepard.122

So what exactly do I have to change in the code (and htaccess ) to get that structure ?

how can you or the plugin tell this is a category list:
xenzine.com/articles/dogs.179

and at the same time, tell that this is an article:
xenzine.com/articles/myarticle.1

The code change I was talking about is a change to the plugin and it would result in this:

xenzine.com/xz-articles/myarticle.1
xenzine.com/xz-categories/dogs.179

which could then easily be changed to this using the core route filter:
xenzine.com/articles/myarticle.1
xenzine.com/categories/dogs.179

However, as it stand, you can currently set up this easily:
xenzine.com/articles/myarticle.1
xenzine.com/articles/?category=dogs&id=179

but for this to be possible:
xenzine.com/categories/dogs.179
It would require a small code change to the plugin

This is not possible: xenzine.com/articles/dogs.179 (where dogs is a categoey) since there is no way to tell category from article using that url

I don't want to force this: xenzine.com/articles/dogs.179/myarticle.1 since long urls are something I want to avoid (This may be preferable to some, but to others it will not)

Being able to use short urls is a huge preference, so I don't want to make changes that would move away from this:
xenzine.com/?tag=green
xenzine.com/?category=diy&id=147

But I could make the change for a separate route prefix for the categories so you can do this:
xenzine.com/categories/dogs.179 (that won't have any negative impact on short urls), and thinking about it, I can probably drop the id for categories, so this:
xenzine.com/categories/dogs

I've never spoke using so many URLs before, I hope the above isn't as confusing as I think I made it sound


Added to the ToDo list

 

[Morgain]

@tenants Mike could I interest you in OPTION on a Category: custom fields for the Article Content section?

For listings: a directory, index, sales display, adverts, bibliography, webliography.

So for example I make a set of Articles in this Category - Article 1 = A -C. Article 2 = D - F. Article 3 = G - L etc
Then I fill in a listing form and it displays in the Content area of the selected Article in this Category.
Additional listings display in the Content area too, as a grid.

The listing form has the fields I set eg. Name / Title/ Year/ Notes.

Listings are searchable across this Category as well as responding to standard general searches.

I had a developer interested in doing this as an addition to Xenzine (I didn't want to make the demand on you). But he has disappeared on me.
I am willing to pay.

 

[tenants]

I'm actually working on custom fields right now.

These custom fields will be category specific. By default, all categories will be selected, but you can turn off the custom fields for particular categories if you wish (so then they will/wont appear as a field when submitting an article for that particular category)

- Single string data will eventually be filterable / searchable

The custom fields will include:

• Custom drop down selection boxes
• Custom radio buttons
• Custom checkbox
• Custom multi select
• Custom text boxes
• Custom text areas
• And an new field Custom Tables (where you can add multiple rows of data - but this data can't be searchable/filterable)

- You can currently add them to tabs, or add multiple fields to one tab:
- I will also give options to add the fields to the bottom / top of the article

A quick example of a custom radio button from the submit area (the data is garbage, but I'm just throwing it together while I create it):



The custom radio button data (along with some other custom fields):



I'm still working on this area, the more I do , the more I realise I still have to do... this is a strange one. It doesn't look like there is much to it, but custom fields throw so many spanners in to the works and people expect to be able to do so much with them, so it's taking a little longer

 

[Morgain]

Mike you're a complete amazing GENIUS!
I completely understand that this can throw repercussions on other components - though not claiming I understand much how or why. But this is quite detailed and complex so yes I get that it is tough to integrate.

Two points.
Might I suggest the default setting is custom fields OFF - there are already a lot of variables so a) a new user has a lot to absorb, b) for a lot of usage the standard fields are quite adequate.

Could you keep the idea of searchable tables on the agenda?
This is what is needed for a directory, index, bibliog etc Without searchability they are limited use.
If this is out of the question please say, but I suspect it is possible for your genius, just rather demanding.

Best of all search this category only / search on table cell?
eg search for Author "Smith."

 

[tenants]

Might I suggest the default setting is custom fields OFF - there are already a lot of variables so a) a new user has a lot to absorb, b) for a lot of usage the standard fields are quite adequate.

By default custom fields will indeed be switched off. There will be an option in the options area to turn on custom fields.. this also has the advantage of saving 1 query for users that do not wish to user custom fields. On top of this, the options area is where users expect to configure the plugin, there will then be a link under the custom fields on/off option pointing to the area to customise your individual fields. I will add at least 1 example of each field type, so it's easier to understand

Could you keep the idea of searchable tables on the agenda?
This is what is needed for a directory, index, bibliog etc Without searchability they are limited use.
If this is out of the question please say, but I suspect it is possible for your genius, just rather demanding.

Searching single custom strings will be possible / optional, I'm not sure about "per category" yet, since I haven't started to implement the search functionality of custom fields (but "per category" is less likely)

 

[Morgain]

Searching single custom strings will be possible / optional, I'm not sure about "per category" yet, since I haven't stared to implement the search functionality of custom fields (but "per category" is less likely)

TRIPLE LIKE!
​

If you can think of a workaround pretty please ... searching on author Brown needs to bring up a neat set of books / journal articles by Brown - not instances of 'brown' in articles in other categories.

 

[tenants]

In that example, you would probably want to FILTER by AUTHOR "brown"

Rather like we have a FILTER for TAGS "green":
http://xenzine.com/?tag=green

- I don't believe the filter needs to be category specific to find the relevant articles
- Obviously searching for Author brown would require the dedicated search area for articles (rather than using the general search). That's not going in to the next build - (but I might consider adding searchable custom fields to the advance search for articles later)

Added to the To Do List (so I don't forget)

- 41b) Include searchable custom fields in the advance search options

 

[Digital Doctor]

Love XenZine.

Can you resize the Watch Category Tiles ?
For my taste, they seem too large (as big as the articles) and they are in too prominent a location (especially on my smartphone).


On my mobile, the Article list didn't even appear, as the screen was filled with The Home Improvement Watch tile.



First load on my smartphone was a bit slow, but worth it for the coolness of XenZine.



Small thing: Not sure if it is possible, but the Tabs (article, reviews, discussions) were short but wide, can they be twice as all ? and not as wide ?
(it might just be my iphone 4S, on iOS 5.x mind you).

 

[Morgain]

- 41b) Include searchable custom fields in the advance search options

1,000 kisses.

 

[tenants]

Love XenZine.

Can you resize the Watch Category Tiles ?
For my taste, they seem too large (as big as the articles) and they are in too prominent a location (especially on my smartphone).


On my mobile, the Article list didn't even appear, as the screen was filled with The Home Improvement Watch tile.

It's on the to do list, but not easily at the moment

36) set size of the elements in the Categories, Editor Picks and other places

First load on my smartphone was a bit slow, but worth it for the coolness of XenZine.

There are a few things going on here, the first is that the animated image on that page is over 1 meg in size, another is that a lot of retina ready images have been added, so much of the time is spent downloading the images. The actual speed from queries / script downloading is far less, so that example isn't great (due to the testing applied to it), I might change the images on the example site to give a better representation

The other thing is that the page animates after the images have loaded, this is not necessary and makes it feel slower than it should. I'll make changes to this once I make changes to underlying masonry script I'm using

Small thing: Not sure if it is possible, but the Tabs (article, reviews, discussions) were short but wide, can they be twice as all ? and not as wide ?
(it might just be my iphone 4S, on iOS 5.x mind you).

I think that one is a custom preference and can be changed within your own template css (one person might prefer the tabs bigger, the other smaller, so I try to avoid changes that might have a negative impact on current users)

 

[Digital Doctor]

Is there a category list ?
I can't see one in the Demo.

A category cloud at the top would be better for me.
The easiest way to subscribe to a category, might be on the Category page ,
ie. For Home Improvement ...
http://xenzine.com/?category=home-improvement&id=14
shouldn't the [Watch] button be on that page ?

With lots of Categories, randomly picking 3 categories to easily watch seems awkward.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Major Kudos for such a great editor.
Wikipedia should hire you.
Today.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Cool.

Good idea.

Love the Summary toggle ! Very useful.



The Responsiveness of XenZine on the desktop is great.

One problem with this addon is it looks and feels so modern ... it makes Xenforo look drab, especially the default skin !

 

[tenants]

Is there a category list ?
I can't see one in the Demo.

Many of the nav options have been hidden on the demo
But it's still there:
http://xenzine.com/articles/category-list

The category list is an area I need to re-focus on again soon, it could look much much better and @erich37 has been giving me some great ideas to how it could look


These are the options in the ACP to hide things like that:

A category cloud at the top would be better for me.
The easiest way to subscribe to a category, might be on the Category page ,
ie. For Home Improvement ...
http://xenzine.com/?category=home-improvement&id=14
shouldn't the [Watch] button be on that page ?

That's a very good design point, the user would have to press back to watch the category they are currently looking at... that't not good

What do you mean by a "category cloud". We could simply solve this design issue by adding a prominent "Watch This Category" button somewhere

If you are referring to clouds, as these animate tag cloud things... well some people hate them, some people love them, and I am of the opinion of doing as much as we can with the core / 1 significant script and not adding too many scripts to one page (which is one of the reason I'll be changing the base script soon to include both masonry and carousal with one base script instead of 2).

 

[tenants]

Major Kudos for such a great editor.
Wikipedia should hire you.
Today.

It's had a love/hate response so far... but what it should be is familiar, at least to those users who are frequent article publishers on some of the more popular article directories

xEnZine




Sadly Ezine is looking outdated, and many of the article directories that seem to be up and coming are more "Image" orientated, so this is the approach I've taken too, but yet trying to keep some of the familiar old ways

 

[Digital Doctor]

What do you mean by a "category cloud"

Just a list of categories.
Maybe you can put a list of categories in a sidebar via [bd] Widget Framework ?

Another small thing: I might but a few [Rate Article] links on the article page itself.

 

[Dakis]

Just purchased. I'm getting an error when I try to copy paste a rather large article I've got:

The following error occurred:

Mysqli statement execute error : Incorrect string value: '\xCE\xBC\xCE\xB5 \xCE...' for column 'body' at row 1
Zend_Db_Statement_Mysqli->_execute() in Zend/Db/Statement.php at line 317
Zend_Db_Statement->execute() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 479
Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 632
Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->update() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1628
XenForo_DataWriter->_update() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1597
XenForo_DataWriter->_save() in XenForo/DataWriter.php at line 1393
XenForo_DataWriter->save() in XenZine/Model/Article.php at line 1202
XenZine_Model_Article->save() in XenZine/ControllerPublic/Article.php at line 1689
XenZine_ControllerPublic_Article->actionBodySaveInline() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 337
XenForo_FrontController->dispatch() in XenForo/FrontController.php at line 134
XenForo_FrontController->run() in /home/travelst/public_html/community/index.php at line 13

 

[tenants]

How big an article are we talking? can you reproduce it here:
xenzine.com
(so I can look into it and fix it)

 

[Dakis]

Pretty huge.

Yep I'll try tomorrow thanks.