Topic: Recent posts and poll bug

[Deckard]

I am using smf 1.1.9.
I was thinking of moving to SP 2.2.2 and I made some tests.



When you have a topic name too long or a poll question too long the text is outside the block.

Any way to fix that?

Best regards,
Pablo.

[Nathaniel]

Try replacing all occurances of the code below (for your SPortal1-1.php file):

Code: [Select]

'subject' => $row['subject'],With this code:

Code: [Select]

'subject' => substr($row['subject'], 0, 20),
You can change the '20' as required, that number is the limit on the number of characters that will be shown for the poll/topic subjects/names. So names like "happyhappyhappyhappyhappy" will be cut down to "happyhappyhappyhappy".

[Deckard]

Thanks for the reply but I think that should be handled by the block.
Same happens with images.

In tinyportal all the block content (text and images) is re sized according to the block size.
I think it would be a nice feature for SimplePortal because user should not edit code for this stuff.
So if the text is too long it should show text + "..." when it is too long. Also having a "new" image when the post has not been read.

On the left of this website you have a Recent Post block that it is working fine.
Why not the block included in the installation of SP 2.2.2 has the same behaviour?
I think that it should be the default block.

Because I have seen a lot of posts when user has to edit some code. All this kind of modifications should be included in new versions to make it easier for users.

Best regards,
Pablo.

[Nathaniel]

I agree that block content should be resized as well as possible by SimplePortal. That was just a quick way of resolving the issue so that you can fix it before the devs have a look at it (exam time makes this longer).

As far as I am aware, there have been no custom edits to our SimplePortal templates to stop overflow of elements occuring. So we are using the default SimplePortal templates, We aren't purposefully keeping any bugfixes from our public releases.

Its possible that our theme - urban, has some css that works better with SP than the default theme. That is a bug which the developers will have to have a look into, when they can.

In relation to admin having to perform edits to customize their site, the developers do try to make SimplePortal as easy as possible to use. But, Please remember that with so many sites using SimplePortal, different admin will have different tastes. The smaller features/aspects of SimplePortal are decided by the developers, it appears that when the templates were rewritten for those blocks that they removed the 'new' images. That isn't necessarily a bug, having it there or not is a matter of preference. If an admin wants their site to look exactly how they want, then they will at least need to learn how ask for customization help and be able to perform simple edits. That is my opinion, feel free to disagree.

I hope I have answered your questions, currently the developers are doing exams/etc, so they aren't particularly active.

[Deckard]

Thanks for your reply Nathaniel.
I think that Simpleportal is great product. That's way I want to move from Tinyportal to SP but I found some issues testing my site.
One of them was that blocks don't handle the content width of text or images to fit the block.

IMHO the product must provide admins capabilities to customize the website however it must be easy to use for any user in a simple way.

I know that you can get some standard behaviour for some blocks editing code and there are support for that at forum but users have to search at forum and find the code to implement.

For instance: the recent posts block.
To get a block supporting long names and showing a "new" image I need to edit the block code.
In TP you just add the block and configure it.
In SP you can get the same result but you need an extra step.
I guess users should not modify code because it is an expected behaviour for this kind of block.

Another example: the board news block. I had to find at forum to get the code to support showing posts from multiple boards (not one, not all).

So if hundreds of users want to use the block they have to make the same changes over and over again.

Instead of that why not add that common features requested for users to code blocks or components of SP?

This way you improve your product and give to users simple tools ready to use.

Best regards,
Pablo.

[Eliana Tamerin]

There are many features that users have suggested that have made their way into SP releases. We don't release new features in patches, which is why you aren't seeing any of these issues, which have all cropped up since development was frozen on 2.2. It's entirely possible that some of the examples you're citing may be included in the next version of SP.

Your message has been heard and we're aware of it. It's easy to say that this or that should be default features, it's quite another thing to code it and make it work with the rest in a way that retains the simple flavor. My advice is patience, present your ideas and then let the devs take it from there. You might be surprised at what you find in future versions.

[Deckard]

It's easy to say that this or that should be default features, it's quite another thing to code it and make it work with the rest in a way that retains the simple flavor. My advice is patience, present your ideas and then let the devs take it from there. You might be surprised at what you find in future versions.

I know it is not easy for developers because they work but it is just my opinion based on my experience with other CMS/portal mods from a user point of view.

I think it was a positive critic/suggestion to improve the product which I consider very good.

Thank you very much.

Pablo.

[[SiNaN]]

Well, it is a very rare case that someone posts a 40+ chars title without spaces. If that happens here, I'll just edit the post.

We can't really add truncation to every content displayed on the portal. It would be a server killer.