SimplePortal
Development => Feature Requests => Topic started by: sharks on December 22, 2010, 11:35:10 AM
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Hello dear SimplePortal lovers and devevelopers!
I have a suggestion to make to improve the shoutbox in SimplePortal 2.3.3 so that it would work in SMF 1.1.12 as well as SMF 2.0 RC4.
Could you please add a button to change the font color of text in the shoutbox and also make the actual clicked smileys appear inside the shoutbox as images, instead of just the text character representations.
Will the smiley suggestion above cause the forum to be slower or use more server resources via increased usage of JavaScript? If yes, then definitely add the option to disable that feature for those who are on shared servers.
Also, i would like to report some bugs in the shoutbox's layout, where the text bar is fixed in length and hence does not fill the entire width of the screen, if the shoutbox is set as top block, especially noticeable for widescreen users. The shoutbox's text bar is fixed in length and also the "shout" button is so far away on the right, but it should be situated on the immediate right of the shoutbox's text bar instead of being aligned on the right-most corner of the shoutbox. My screen is LCD wide-screen 22" so the small "shout" button is so far on the right. It is almost not noticed. The shout button is essential as sometimes when you press enter button on the keyboard, the message is lost, so you must press the shout button for the message to appear in the shoutbox.
And i installed SP 2.3.3 on a fresh SMF 1.1.12 with default theme and shoutbox block set to display inside forum only: When i click on the shoutbox smiley found within the shoutbox, i select an emoticon from the list and when i press the Shout button, i get this in the shoutbox:
forum.com/Smileys/default/kiss.gif" alt="Kiss" border="0" />
There are no emoticons displayed but only error codes like above for all emoticons that i tried to display via the shoutbox. However, i tried this on my live forum and it worked, so it's really a random error that happens for whatever unknown reason.
I highly believe that implementing the suggestions/fixes will make the shoutbox better, more intuitive and even more useful.
And i would like to ask, what does the setting Cache do in the shoutbox? It appears to be enabled by default. What is its importance? Won't it make my server/forum slow with time? Need the Cache be flushed regularly and how to do that? You should add a "?" next to it with a pop-up info window to explain users like me who might not know what that settings does or not.
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I also have another great idea for the shoutbox. Please add the option to enable text to appear by default in the shoutbox's text bar, such that when clicked to start typing, that default text disappears.
For example, the default text in the shoutbox could be set to italic and pale grey, and the text itself should be customizable, like: "Welcome to our Shoutbox! Please type in here and press the "Shout" button to enter the chat".
Then, when a member clicks on the text area within the text bar to type, that default text will automatically clear up and the user can then use the shoutbox normally.