[ALPHA] NewTopic RequiresAdditionalFields 0.1.0b

[mad-manne]

O.K. ... Here are the answers I had promised:

--> hater

1.) Say I create a post and realize I forgot to enter something or entered something incorrectly. I noticed I cannot go back and edit that information. Unfortunately the world is not the perfect place this MOD wants it to be, and mistakes are made.

You *can* edit the information you have submitted although I am planning an option to disallow this after an answer has been given. At least I will show how many times the RAF have been edited on bottom of the table that displays this data when viewing!

2.) Not exactly sure how you're saving the selected information into the post table, but I would assume that if you went as far as assigning a numeric value (Up to 254 I believe you said) for different topic templates ... old template ID and what it consists of. Deleting or hard-editing of that template ID would of course result in lost data.

Not sure whether you have understood what templates are in this case. A template of RAF holds all the information about the fields(up to 30 !!), field-types, field-options,etc. that will be used in that template. Then you assign ONE template to the forum where you need it. So having up to 254 templates should be more than enough!!
I have decided to restrict the number of fields per template because I think it will make a *very* big amount of information that one will have to read / submit before getting to the heart of the matter. If someone feels, that 30 fields might not be enough, please don't forget that you *still* have the "normal" part of the post, where a user can write just about anything he wants.
Anyway ... both are artificial limitations that could be changed at the wink of an eye!

3.) Because your test account seems to have it's settings already hard-saved into that forum, I find it unfortunate that in the event I upgrade my hardware, I cannot edit that information via a new post in that same forum. Say 6 months ago I had WinME, and now I have WinXP and have another question. Because that info is stuck there, I can never edit it or ask a new question with correct info.

I think you misunderstood this feature ... You *can* start new threads with other data! The point is this: If you make a new post in a forum using a template of RAF that you have "used" before, it will just present you the data you used last time! You can then change this, and decide whether to remember your changes for the next time.
On the other hand .. if your questions points at the fact that in my test-board you see the SAME set of example-data for EVERY thread: this is just due to the fact that the MOD doesn't even save the information yet and thus there is nothing *real* to display! That's why you see the example-data to get an idea of how it will look like with "real" data

All together an awesome MOD that I can definately see being in high demand. Looks nicely thought out and seems to work quite quickly and without problem.

Thank you


Cheers,
Manfred.

[mad-manne]

... now i also want to be able to pull the post's data to display on another page in a more organised format than that of a forum ... can it be done?

Hi Silverhawk,
I have not yet decided on the final way to store the information. But I am pretty sure, that it will be in seperate fields. (I might have to save mutiple-answers that can come from multiple-select lists or checkboxes in an array though)

So the data will be available in a seperate table ... and thus it depends on the quality of my documentation and your coding-skills to pull that info to display it the way you want

Cheers,
Manfred

[mad-manne]

I get where you going with this now, sorry at the time i posted that my head was in the clouds from scritping for 24 hours stright.

Well my person opinion is that if someone changes the RAF, wether its one feild or the whole thing, the older post should stay the same, because of the fact that that post is based on that RAF's, and all the answer or other post on that thread are related to that particluar RAF's ... I know it seems like im taking both sides, but im just trying to give you a pro and con of discarding them, or keeping them...

Hope some of this helps.

Well yes Bob it helps

I have now decided to do it this way:
The data a user has submitted will always be kept, because it is always linked to the rest of the information that follows in that thread. I might think of an option though, where cou can decide *not* to display it any more?!

If a template of RAF has been changed containing new field(s) those will just be set to "n/a" when viewing the old threads where no data is available for the new field(s)

That's about it and I think it makes sense ?

Cheers,
Manfred.

[lord pip]

First let me say wow this is cool

I have some questions.

I am starting a magic the gathering website. Not a fan site but a play site.

I don't wanna have a 2 player window to play in, I wanna use the forum.

I was wondering if it was possible to make so that every post you hade to fill in the req feilds?

Also is BBCode allowed in the req feilds?

[Xiph3r]

this mod will be great when its finished i can see this would be a NEEDED mod for any support forum of any kind and the flexiblity to adapt to other kinds of forums

[DemonBob]

Hope some of this helps.

Well yes Bob it helps

Glad to know that my rambleings made sense to someone.

[Hater]

O.K. ... Here are the answers I had promised:

You *can* edit the information you have submitted although I am planning an option to disallow this after an answer has been given. At least I will show how many times the RAF have been edited on bottom of the table that displays this data when viewing!

For some reason when I hit edit on your demo forum, it didn't give me the template info to edit.. Perhaps I'll try it again, user error is 99% of all problems.

Not sure whether you have understood what templates are in this case. A template of RAF holds all the information about the fields(up to 30 !!), field-types, field-options,etc. that will be used in that template. Then you assign ONE template to the forum where you need it. So having up to 254 templates should be more than enough!!
I have decided to restrict the number of fields per template because I think it will make a *very* big amount of information that one will have to read / submit before getting to the heart of the matter. If someone feels, that 30 fields might not be enough, please don't forget that you *still* have the "normal" part of the post, where a user can write just about anything he wants.
Anyway ... both are artificial limitations that could be changed at the wink of an eye!

I think what I'm saying is that should a moderator decide to change the format of a forum, requiring a different template in the same forum, that the forum would retain the old templates on a per post basis (like I believe you said) and would not require the older posts to be formatted to the new template... Thus meaning each post points to a template number referring to the information stored inside that post, then when the format changes, old posts are untouched as the new format has a different template value.

I think you misunderstood this feature ... You *can* start new threads with other data! The point is this: If you make a new post in a forum using a template of RAF that you have "used" before, it will just present you the data you used last time! You can then change this, and decide whether to remember your changes for the next time.
On the other hand .. if your questions points at the fact that in my test-board you see the SAME set of example-data for EVERY thread: this is just due to the fact that the MOD doesn't even save the information yet and thus there is nothing *real* to display! That's why you see the example-data to get an idea of how it will look like with "real" data

If the information doesn't save, then that is exactly the problem. The information it was saving was not what I was entering, and I figured it was because someone else had already entered that information first, thus not allowing me to resubmit with different information. I understand now and that answers many of my questions.

Thank you

You're very welcome..

[mad-manne]

O.K. ... Here are the answers I had promised:

You *can* edit the information you have submitted although I am planning an option to disallow this after an answer has been given. At least I will show how many times the RAF have been edited on bottom of the table that displays this data when viewing!

For some reason when I hit edit on your demo forum, it didn't give me the template info to edit.. Perhaps I'll try it again, user error is 99% of all problems.

Ooops, sorry for that one ...
I should better have written: You *will be able* to edit, as i doesn't work yet! I thought that discussion about this point was whether it was supposed to work or not, but not what the demo-forum can actually do!

So once again: Right now you can *not* edit the RAF-data when editing your initial posting. But it *will* work when development moves on!

Cheers,
Manfred.

[mad-manne]

I was wondering if it was possible to make so that every post you hade to fill in the req feilds?

Also is BBCode allowed in the req feilds?

Hi lord pip,
the possibilty to require the additional fields in *every* post, instead of just requiring it when opening a thread/topic has been discussed further up this thread ... and I decided *not* to implement this in a version 1.0.0 !

It might even be dropped totally, but right now I just don't know

Also BBCode will *not* be allowed, because the MOD is intended to collect "structured" data, and therefor i cannot see the neccesity for BBCode

Anyway I hope that you might still consider using this MOD once that it is finished. 8)

Cheers,
Manfred.

[Silverhawk060]

... now i also want to be able to pull the post's data to display on another page in a more organised format than that of a forum ... can it be done?

Hi Silverhawk,
I have not yet decided on the final way to store the information. But I am pretty sure, that it will be in seperate fields. (I might have to save mutiple-answers that can come from multiple-select lists or checkboxes in an array though)

So the data will be available in a seperate table ... and thus it depends on the quality of my documentation and your coding-skills to pull that info to display it the way you want

Cheers,
Manfred

just what i needed to hear *is waiting for a beta*

[mad-manne]

hey everyone "on" this topic 8O ,
I've just come back to say that I had a lot of work to do the last days.

Today I'll jump back into development and hopefully we'll all see progress soon.

Until now, most of my code *only* handles what is necessary when posting / viewing topics. This will be the first and most important part that I want to get finished. Once that I feel this is stable enough, I would like to start ALPHA-testing.

As none of the rest of the MOD would be finished at that time, I would have to create the necessary tables and data that make the templates of RAF for every ALPHA-tester. I could then send dumps to everyone involved. This also makes clear that this will *only* be possible for a small group of people.

Also I would advise everyone interested in ALPHA-testing to generate an extra forum on their board where only a special group of experienced users can post, as they would not be "scared" when errors would occur.

If YOU want to be in the ALPHA-team please contact me via PM and describe the board you run, and what purpose you would like to use my MOD for. I will accept a max. of 10 ALPHA-testers, and I assume that anyone asking for this is experienced enough to install MODs, configure his board, handle backups to keep his board stable and knows how to import & export data using phpmyadmin!

Anyway, no need to hurry because it will take at least another 2 weeks before I'll be ready for that step.

Cheers,
Manfred.

[Xiph3r]

sounds good, cant wait til its beta keep up the good work

[Silverhawk060]

*bump*

[mad-manne]

I'm sorry, but I have been really busy the last 2 weeks. But I have not forgotten my MOD!
It will take some more days to get my other projects sorted, but I promise to be back to develop this to get ready to be released.

So all I ask, is everyone to be patient

Sorry again for the delay, but I also have to make a living(have a wife and a 5 year old daughter!) and can only invest my spare time into this project!

Cheers,
Manfred.

[steveorg]

Hey mad-manne. How much are you getting paid for this? Did I hear you say, "nothing"? We know you'll get it done when you can. I for one appreciate the effort.