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Question Previous/Next button

9 years 2 months ago #1 by pmanpman
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    • The way these buttons currently work is a little counterintuitive. You press "next" and it takes you to the next oldest post. This means that if I'm reading part 1 of a story and hit "next" instead of going to part 2, I go to whatever came before what I just read. So if I read part 1 of the Big Apple and Calamari, and hit "previous" it takes me to part 2. That really doesn't make any logical sense. Is it possible to reverse the way these buttons work?
    9 years 2 months ago #2 by Arcanist Lupus
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    • Or rename them as "older" and "newer"
    "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy." - Spider Robinson
    9 years 2 months ago #3 by Kristin Darken
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    • This is a good example of something that seems perfectly simple and logical that people suggest without understanding the reality of the situation.

    You see... we don't actually generate story pages with html. Or ANY of the pages you look at. Joomla generates them automatically based on what you tell it to load. It then uses PHP code and a template to create what is supposed to be in there dependent on what modules and such our site layout tells it to use.

    Which means... that I have nothing to do with the next/previous buttons that you find at the bottom of the stories. They are something that the Joomla code automatically generates at the end of any article... the extent of my power over it? I think there's an option somewhere in the configuration that lets me toggle them off. Maybe.

    To change these to something more appropriate like "Older/Newer" or even just to reverse their lables... I have to change the code. Ok... not a big deal really. I do know enough PHP to recode stuff... especially something as simple as changing a couple text strings. BUT... here's the kicker. Any change I make to code will be overwritten the next time I automatically update the site code. That means I either have to go back in and change that code again every time we update... or eventually, we stop updating the site to the newer version of the code.

    Sites that heavily customize do just that. They find a really stable, really secure version of the code and they just don't upgrade anymore... and they code whatever else they want into the site, diverging from the base system.

    Is it possible that one day we will be in the position where we're committed to providing THAT customized a level of service that we'll build our own extension/patch system to either maintain our tweaks or diverge from the base code? Yes, that could happen... if for some reason Whateley becomes a big enough deal that we can hire/maintain a full time IT person/staff. But at the moment? I'm not making any changes that require coding. I have little enough time for writing these days, even simple code projects make it that much more difficult for me to accomplish other things Whateley related that I'd much rather be doing. Like recruiting more authors. Or writing stories myself.
    Fate guard you and grant you a Light to brighten your Way.
    9 years 2 months ago #4 by pmanpman
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    • I thought that might have been a problem, sometimes labels like that are an option is a visual interface for the page, sometimes they aren't. If they aren't here, that's cool. I know how much hassle even changing a label can be sometimes.
    9 years 2 months ago #5 by Kristin Darken
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    • nope, sadly.

    there are some things i'd like to do along those lines that will basically involve creating duplicate modules of some existing things that I can then diverge from their original coding on... while any updates won't interfere with the module we actually use. And if a change does apply to that original module, I can learn from it and decide whether it needs to be built into our version. But that can take quite a bit of work. Certainly not something I'll do lightly. But there are 'some' things that we DO want the ability to do (including some alternate sorting methods for stories besides the original release dates) that are simply not possible given the way things were designed. So if we want it to happen, we HAVE to code it that way.

    But definitely not 'easy' projects.
    Fate guard you and grant you a Light to brighten your Way.
    9 years 2 months ago #6 by jmhyp
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    • It might be simpler to just put a comment on each story that contains links ("Next story published." "Next part of this story" "For more Ayla, try Ayla and the Magic Markers" etc.)

    Might be too late now that so many stories have been published and commented on. But that the simple way to deal with it.
    9 years 2 months ago - 9 years 2 months ago #7 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • Actually, the process at the moment has been concentrating only on getting the stories transfered (a not inconsiderable task).

    Once they are all transfer and we can stand back and look at the library as a whole and the systems and tools we have available to us, then we can start thinking about the next steps to make things more logical / easier for readers.

    Don't be afraid to make suggestions, just know that we may be talking months before we even get around to the point that suggestions can start to be implemented, and at the moment I believe most of that sort of work has to be done by an extremely busy Kristin, with maybe one or two others helping.
    Last Edit: 9 years 2 months ago by Phoenix Spiritus.
    9 years 2 months ago - 9 years 2 months ago #8 by rubberjohn
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    • I'm not sure if this is the right thread to mention this but it does seem related to something I've noticed over the last few weeks.

    When downloading a story or thread page (such as a fan-fic) from the forum originally the file name was:- The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name but recently it has become:- The Crystal Hall - The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name where name represents the story or thread title. This duplication of the site name seems a little redundant and where I'm updating a page when a new chapter is added leads to a duplicate file on my hard drive unless I catch it before saving.

    It is always possible, of course, that for some reason my own computer is adding the duplicate heading but I was wondering if there had been a change in how the files were labelled on-site which lead to this effect.

    John.
    Last Edit: 9 years 2 months ago by rubberjohn. Reason: missed phrase
    9 years 2 months ago #9 by pmanpman
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    • rubberjohn wrote: I'm not sure if this is the right thread to mention this but it does seem related to something I've noticed over the last few weeks.

    When downloading a story or thread page (such as a fan-fic) from the forum originally the file name was:- The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name but recently it has become:- The Crystal Hall - The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name where name represents the story or thread title. This duplication of the site name seems a little redundant and where I'm updating a page when a new chapter is added leads to a duplicate file on my hard drive unless I catch it before saving.

    It is always possible, of course, that for some reason my own computer is adding the duplicate heading but I was wondering if there had been a change in how the files were labelled on-site which lead to this effect.

    John.


    I'm pretty sure that's something weird happening on your end. I'm not experiencing the same behaviour.
    9 years 2 months ago #10 by Malady
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    • rubberjohn wrote: I'm not sure if this is the right thread to mention this but it does seem related to something I've noticed over the last few weeks.

    When downloading a story or thread page (such as a fan-fic) from the forum originally the file name was:- The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name but recently it has become:- The Crystal Hall - The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name where name represents the story or thread title. This duplication of the site name seems a little redundant and where I'm updating a page when a new chapter is added leads to a duplicate file on my hard drive unless I catch it before saving.

    It is always possible, of course, that for some reason my own computer is adding the duplicate heading but I was wondering if there had been a change in how the files were labelled on-site which lead to this effect.

    John.


    On Firefox 43.0.4, seeing the "The Crystal Hall" doubling as well. ... Somehow, the Article Pages are getting "The Crystal Hall" in their titles, which I think were lacking before, and which I like, as then I don't have to add that personally, to differentiate.

    Also seems to happen on Chrome 48.0.2564.97.
    Archives: Rubberjohn's Fanfic + CrystalHall + Mittfh's Wordcount Spreadsheet

    My Patreon. But, support the Crystal Hall 1st?
    9 years 2 months ago #11 by Naldru
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    • Is this a standard Joomla layout? If so, perhaps if you described the source of the layout, somebody might be able to give suggestions. One possibility might be to place the stories and blog pages in different categories.
    9 years 2 months ago #12 by Malady
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    • rubberjohn wrote: I'm not sure if this is the right thread to mention this but it does seem related to something I've noticed over the last few weeks.

    When downloading a story or thread page (such as a fan-fic) from the forum originally the file name was:- The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name but recently it has become:- The Crystal Hall - The Crystal Hall - TOPIC name where name represents the story or thread title. This duplication of the site name seems a little redundant and where I'm updating a page when a new chapter is added leads to a duplicate file on my hard drive unless I catch it before saving.

    It is always possible, of course, that for some reason my own computer is adding the duplicate heading but I was wondering if there had been a change in how the files were labelled on-site which lead to this effect.

    John.


    The doubling's gone now, I think, or is it just me?
    Archives: Rubberjohn's Fanfic + CrystalHall + Mittfh's Wordcount Spreadsheet

    My Patreon. But, support the Crystal Hall 1st?
    9 years 2 months ago #13 by rubberjohn
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    • Looking Good to me now. Whatever was causing the double heading seems to have stopped for now. Thanks to whichever technical gnome had a rummage in the works to fix it.

    John.
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