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Marcus avatar
Marcus
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# Posted on: 31-Jul-2005 11:08:20   

"Last Post By" - Excellent! smile

swallace wrote:

I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'! stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

Call me a "nit picker" but can I make a suggestion simple_smile I think the Started By would be much better in a column next to Last Post By. Even after I reloaded the stylesheet (which I only thought to do after I read this post flushed ), the number of posts that are displayed on a screen is reduced because of the extra Started By lines... which means extra scrolling to see information that was previously available without scrolling. The reason I mention this is that there is plenty of extra horizontal room for an additional column... stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

Tip about stylesheets... I discovered a little method to solve the problem of having to get users to manually update cached stylesheets, javascript etc. All you have to do is either:

  • include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name
  • or create a folder which is named as a version number which contains the new stylesheets, js files. Obviously the pages need to be updated to include the new version specific files, but users will never have the problem of seeing old stylesheets again... I actually wrote a small server control which I simple inlcude on each page that requires the stylesheet. The server control looks up the current version number from a config file and dynamically creates the stylesheet paths and filenames etc. I use the folder method which makes it really easy. If I ever make a change to the javascript or stylesheet files, I simply copy the folder to a new folder, rename it to the new version number and make my changes. Once I update the config file to use this new version, client browsers automatically load the new css and js files.

The only issue is that you loose source control versioning... but I think the cleaner user experience is more important. simple_smile

Otis avatar
Otis
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# Posted on: 31-Jul-2005 16:24:47   

swallace wrote:

I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'! stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

heh simple_smile Yeah probably, but it's a great addition I think. When I had it in I also thought that a feature I saw on another board, clicking on the last post date and go to that last post directly, would be a good feature, so I added that today as well! simple_smile

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
Otis avatar
Otis
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# Posted on: 31-Jul-2005 16:27:39   

Marcus wrote:

"Last Post By" - Excellent! smile

swallace wrote:

I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'! stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

Call me a "nit picker" but can I make a suggestion simple_smile I think the Started By would be much better in a column next to Last Post By. Even after I reloaded the stylesheet (which I only thought to do after I read this post flushed ), the number of posts that are displayed on a screen is reduced because of the extra Started By lines... which means extra scrolling to see information that was previously available without scrolling. The reason I mention this is that there is plenty of extra horizontal room for an additional column... stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

I toyed with that, but it ate away a lot of room frm the thread subjects, which then easily wrapped, and which looked ugly as well. I tried several variants, this one we liked the best as most clear. I understand it shows less threads in one go, though most of hte time the threads below the viewed threads aren't the newest ones anyway wink

Tip about stylesheets... I discovered a little method to solve the problem of having to get users to manually update cached stylesheets, javascript etc. All you have to do is either:

  • include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name
  • or create a folder which is named as a version number which contains the new stylesheets, js files.

Versionnumber, I'll check that out. The folder is a neat idea but not an option, as I then have to change all the pages.

Obviously the pages need to be updated to include the new version specific files, but users will never have the problem of seeing old stylesheets again... I actually wrote a small server control which I simple inlcude on each page that requires the stylesheet. The server control looks up the current version number from a config file and dynamically creates the stylesheet paths and filenames etc. I use the folder method which makes it really easy. If I ever make a change to the javascript or stylesheet files, I simply copy the folder to a new folder, rename it to the new version number and make my changes. Once I update the config file to use this new version, client browsers automatically load the new css and js files.

Clever! smile

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
Otis avatar
Otis
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# Posted on: 31-Jul-2005 16:35:26   

I can't find any info on version numbers in stylesheets, do you have an example?

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
Marcus avatar
Marcus
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# Posted on: 31-Jul-2005 16:50:47   

Otis wrote:

I can't find any info on version numbers in stylesheets, do you have an example?

I'm afraid its not as elegant as you are thinking simple_smile

When I said "include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name" I meant layout.css -> layout_v123.css

The new file is then different from the old file and the browser can't use the cached version.

You do have to change all the pages to reflect this which is why I built a control which reads a config file... simple_smile

Otis avatar
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# Posted on: 01-Aug-2005 09:48:42   

Marcus wrote:

Otis wrote:

I can't find any info on version numbers in stylesheets, do you have an example?

I'm afraid its not as elegant as you are thinking simple_smile

When I said "include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name" I meant layout.css -> layout_v123.css

The new file is then different from the old file and the browser can't use the cached version.

You do have to change all the pages to reflect this which is why I built a control which reads a config file... simple_smile

oooh! ok simple_smile That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well. simple_smile

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
Marcus avatar
Marcus
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# Posted on: 01-Aug-2005 10:12:06   

Otis wrote:

That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well. simple_smile

Search and replace???

Find: "<link href="stylesheets/layout.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"

Replace: "<link href="stylesheets/layout_<%=VersionHelper.StyleSheet%>.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

Where you create a class VersionHelper with a property StyleSheet which simply returns a style sheet version number...

[Edit: you might also want to fully qualify the VersionHelper class since you don't want to have to include a <@ Imports> statement...

simple_smile

alexdresko
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# Posted on: 01-Aug-2005 15:34:00   

Freakin great!

Also, CTRL + F5 does the hard refresh, not SHIFT+F5 (At least in IE).

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# Posted on: 01-Aug-2005 16:22:41   

alexdresko wrote:

Freakin great!

Also, CTRL + F5 does the hard refresh, not SHIFT+F5 (At least in IE).

Thanks, I was wondering about that...

Otis avatar
Otis
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# Posted on: 01-Aug-2005 21:44:56   

Marcus wrote:

Otis wrote:

That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well. simple_smile

Search and replace???

Find: "<link href="stylesheets/layout.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"

Replace: "<link href="stylesheets/layout_<%=VersionHelper.StyleSheet%>.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"

Where you create a class VersionHelper with a property StyleSheet which simply returns a style sheet version number...

Edit: you might also want to fully qualify the VersionHelper class since you don't want to have to include a <@ Imports> statement...

simple_smile

Sounds good indeed simple_smile I've to store this in the list of things to do for the forum. It is not very well componentized at the moment. I didn't think of solving it this way. Clever! (and probably "well... duh!" for asp.net guru's but I'm not that skilled in asp.net wink )

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
netclectic avatar
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# Posted on: 02-Aug-2005 10:32:55   

Nice!

Been away for the weekend, just noticed the changes.

Can i make a couple of suggestions...

  1. maybe make the 'Started by: ' text smaller to amke the post title clearer and easier to read.

  2. add a link in the 'Last Post by' column to direct you to the last post.

Marcus avatar
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# Posted on: 02-Aug-2005 10:50:37   

netclectic wrote:

  1. maybe make the 'Started by: ' text smaller to amke the post title clearer and easier to read.

You need to update your stylesheet.. I had this same issue. (see above)

Otis avatar
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# Posted on: 02-Aug-2005 11:11:24   

netclectic wrote:

Nice!

Been away for the weekend, just noticed the changes.

Can i make a couple of suggestions...

  1. maybe make the 'Started by: ' text smaller to amke the post title clearer and easier to read.

see marcus' reply simple_smile

  1. add a link in the 'Last Post by' column to direct you to the last post.

Click the date in last post made on simple_smile It will bring you to the last post made simple_smile

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
netclectic avatar
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# Posted on: 02-Aug-2005 12:12:22   

Doh!

It was early, i hadn't had my full quota of caffeine flushed

Marcus avatar
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# Posted on: 12-Aug-2005 18:28:35   

Any chance you could automatically bookmark threads that I post in? Maybe this could be an option in my profile. "Automatically Bookmark Threads On Post" smile

Otis avatar
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# Posted on: 13-Aug-2005 10:56:04   

Marcus wrote:

Any chance you could automatically bookmark threads that I post in? Maybe this could be an option in my profile. "Automatically Bookmark Threads On Post" smile

Yeah, profile, something I really need to add so users can set some preferences simple_smile . It's on my forum todolist. Though first 1.0.2005.1 code. simple_smile

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro
Marcus avatar
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# Posted on: 01-May-2006 14:12:02   

Frans - I came across this site the other day while looking for RSS Feed Icons: http://feedicons.com/

It might be of interest to you for this forum at some point.

Marcus

Marcus avatar
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# Posted on: 27-Jul-2006 10:39:21   

Frans,

I tend to look at this forum from the http://www.llblgen.com/tinyforum/ActiveThreads.aspx page... and I always have to scroll down to find recent threads. Is there any chance you could change the sort order to display most recent at the top of the page?

Marcus

Otis avatar
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# Posted on: 27-Jul-2006 11:28:44   

It will be updated to a better mechanism indeed, as it's now one big list of threads, from all forums you've access to, which is perhaps not what you need/want.

Frans Bouma | Lead developer LLBLGen Pro