The smileys page brings a nice somewhat animated touch to our forum but it's a bit clumsy to get to. Would it be possible to add a smiley menu next to the message section of the reply?

Just trying to improve an already great layout.

Bob

quote:

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Originally posted by SniperBob:
Greg,

The smileys page brings a nice somewhat animated touch to our forum but it's a bit clumsy to get to. Would it be possible to add a smiley menu next to the message section of the reply?

Just trying to improve an already great layout.

Bob

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tinkerin:
You mean like the smilies legend link that is just below the Your Reply: that I'm seeing while typing this reply?

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Not really but somewhat of a variant of this.

My suggestion would put all the smileys of the forum available at the right side of "Your Reply" message box with a slider, giving the user access without having another window pop-up. I think having the smileys selectable rather than Text Typed or cut and paste would be a bit cleaner looking and more functional as well.

I understand what your talking about, although putting all the Smilies on the side of the message text window would cause the message window to be reduced dramatically in size. To do this would affect not only the Post Reply page, but the New Topic, Edit, and Reply w/quote window pages as well. This modification should only need to be applied to the postings.cgi script, which handles all four of the above mentioned features.

Perhaps it would be better to include them beneath the message text box. Possibly between the table cell that says: *If HTML and/or UBB Code are enabled, this means you can use HTML and/or UBB Code in your message. and the Submit & Clear Fields buttons.

I could try one of two ways to put them there. One would be an INLINE window frame, which would produce a scrollable window of a predetermined height and width. However, this is an exclusive Internet Explorer browser feature. This does not work in some older versions of Netscape. The other way is to hard-link them directly into the script and you would have to scroll down on the main Reply page.

I have to play around with the postings.cgi script and see if I can do this. It might be possible, if I dig around for the coding, to place a link that would toggle the proposed Smilie window on and off. This way if someone did not want to see all the Smilies listed on the same page, the page would load quicker as it wouldn't have to load all the Smilie graphics when the page opened.

Would it be possible to make the smiley insertion selectable rather than typed?

My initial suggested location was due to the blank area at the right of the "Your reply" box but if put beneath as you suggested would work as well.

Have a Happy New Year and thanks for all the hard work on the forum.

I've found a modification that includes the ability to simply click on the Smilie and have the code inserted into the message text box.

However, this is quite an extensive modification and it adds 20 new features to the post/reply message text box. I've installed it on my alternate test board and everything seems to work fine. I have to now try and edit this modification (hopefully without corrupting the code) to include only some of these features on this board.

Here is a screen shot of the message text box with all the features included. There are red numbers (1 through 20) that will correspond to a legend below the screen shot image.

Legend
20) I'm starting off with this number because this is the main toggle switch for these features. There are 5 radio buttons next to Mode: which will do several things.
Off Mode - simply turns this feature off and the message text box would look like it normally does.
Help Mode - Pops up an alert box and explains what each button does.
Prompt Mode - Opens up a "JavaScript" type box where you enter the text you want to alter with some of these features. For example, using this would enclose the text in the appropriate tags and enter it into the text message box automatically.
Inline Mode - Simply inserts the UBB Code tags into the message text box.
Advanced Mode - Would open a window (similar to Prompt) and show you what your text would look like before inserting it into the message text box.

1) Lets the user select 1 of 16 fonts to be used in the post.
2) Lets the user select the font size (-2 through 6) of the text in the post.
3) Lets the user select 1 of 15 font colors for the text in the post.
These three font features (font face, font size, and font color) will be removed from the modification. The current font face is set to "Verdana,Arial". Both of which are easy to read and easy on the eyes. It is also consistent with the font of the entire site. The font size is also "standardized" across the site. If the font is too small for some, holding the "control" button down while moving the scroll wheel on your mouse will change the font size in your browser. You could also click on the FILE menu and then TEXT SIZE, and select from LARGEST, LARGER, MEDIUM, SMALLER, and SMALLEST (Internet Explorer). The MEDIUM text size is usually the default setting. The black text is probably the most easiest on the eyes with the given alternating background colors.

4) Opens a small window allowing the user to upload an image to the server.
This feature would simplify things over the upload setup that is currently in place. While this feature limits images to 20Kb's, that could be increased to the current 300Kb size. Upon completion of the upload, the full URL of the image within the UBB Image tags would be displayed (within the upload window). Simply copy and paste the entire text string into the message text box.

5) Opens the UBB Code explanation page in a new window.
This could either stay or be removed. There is already a link to the UBB Code explanation page to the left of the message text box. The cosmetics layout of the buttons, once some of the features are removed, will determine if this UBB Code button stays or not.

6) Adds the BOLD tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
7) Adds the ITALIC tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
8) Adds the UNDERLINE tags (new) into the message text box (Inline Mode).
9) Adds the CENTER tags (new) into the message text box (Inline Mode).
10) Adds the URL tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
Buttons 6, 7, and 10 (bold, italic, and URL) are handy to have and will be included in the final modification. Buttons 8 and 9 (underline and center) are two new ways to accent/highlight specific text on the board and will also be included.

11) Adds the FLASH tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
The FLASH tags would be removed from the modifications. There is no need to embed a flash file directly into the thread. A link to a specific flash file could be posted in the thread and treated as any other hyperlink.

12) Adds the EMAIL tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
13) Adds the IMAGE tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
Buttons 12 and 13 (email and image) are handy to have and will be included in the final modification.

14) Adds the SOUND tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
The SOUND tags would also be removed from the modification. There is no need to embed a sound file directly into the thread. As with the flash file, a link to a specific sound file could be posted in the thread and treated as any other hyperlink.

15) Adds the CODE tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
16) Adds the QUOTE tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
Buttons 15 and 16 (code and quote) are handy to have and will be included in the final modification.

17) Adds the LIST tags into the message text box (Inline Mode).
While the LIST feature is already included in the UBB Code, this button makes it a lot easier to create a list using either bullets, numbers, or letters.

18) Opens a window displaying the Smilies. Clicking the Smilie adds the Smilie code in the message text box (Inline Mode).
This is the primary reason for this whole modification, the other features are just perks. Basically, a new window opens, you click on the Smilie, and that Smile code is inserted into the message text box. This new window would need some minor cosmetic (layout) editing but that shouldn't be difficult.

19) Opens a window and allows you to type your message, translate it to another language, and insert it into the message text box.
This feature will be removed from the modification for two reasons. First, when this modification was first introduced, the translation services were free. Now that web site is a paid premium service and you have to create and open an account with them. Secondly, The Reload Bench is located in the U.S.A. It's written in the English language and it will remain that way, although there have been some posts written in the Southern English language (which is also acceptable). No disrespect to any foreign language speaking visitors is intended.

Sam

quote:

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Originally posted by Sam:
Greg,
It's spelled Southron.

Sam

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You know, I typed it out that way, but the spell check corrected it.....Go figure...

Paul,
I tried to find a spell check modification. The Google Toolbar is probably the best solution to that.

Thanks again for all the hard work!

Due to the complexity of this modification, there may be times that you will encounter a 500 Internal Server Error. This means I forgot something or messed up the modification. One extra and/or missing character such as ; or { and BOOM, a 500 Internal Server Error. It's pretty easy to do with several thousand lines of code on some of these scripts. However, I have several mugs of standing by and there is the ultimate safeguard; the backup files! (for when all else fails)

You do not have to contact me as I'll be at this until the modification is complete, or I give up and restore the board to the original configuration.

*** IMPORTANT ***
I would strongly suggest to type your posts/replies out in an alternate program such as NotePad, WordPad, MS Word, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. If you encounter a 500 Internal Server Error while trying to make a post and hit your browser's BACK button, there is a very good chance that whatever message you typed out in the message field box will be GONE!!!

I used to just hit TAB 5 times and I could type my message now I have to hit tab 15 times. I'll live through it somehow.
Really hate changes in routine.

Sam

Hitting the TAB key 5 times doesn't sound that bad. Yet, before I go out and start tapping away 15 times on the TAB key, I would use the mouse. You know, that little oval shaped thing, usually attached to your computer with a wire (unless you got one of those newfangled high tech gizmos that uses Infra Red), has two buttons and sometimes a little wheel. Yeah, that thing. Dust it off and click on it once.

I got a different idea about "Point & Click"

Sam

quote:

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Originally posted by Sam:
I got a different idea about "Point & Click"

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I have that very same idea when it comes to adding modifications that don't go 100% smoothly. Such as the two that were brought to my attention today...

With the latest update with the Smilies, and some other new features, there have been some minor glitches.

The drunk smilie () was displayed by typing out : drunk : (without spaces)

One of the original big grin smilies () was displayed by typing out :D

The new modification doesn't care if a upper of lower case letter d is used. It would read the :D in the : drunk : smilie code and display this runk, ultimately disregarding the remainder of that code as plain text (runk:)

So instead of trying to figure out which part of the subroutine did this it was easier to change the smilie code. From now on if you want to include this image in your post, the new code for it is :intox:. I've already changed the code on the script and on the Smilies Page

I also corrected the glitch in the Edit Post. When editing your post for the second time or more the raw HTML would show up in the message text field box. Now it no longer shows up and after you make the edit all you'll see on the post is something similar to this:
[Edited 2 times. Last edit by MemberName on DateStamp at TimeStamp]

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Test edit on edited script with NC v4.7

Test edit2 on edited script with NC v4.7

Test edit3 on edited script with IE v6

Test edit4 on edited script with Firefox v0.8

Test edit5 on edited script with Opera v7.5

Test edit6 on edited script with Netscape v7.1

WOW, what a great job. I really like the look!!!

and functionality...

Absolutely fantastic......Did I say I liked i

Bob

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