[concept] ShelfLife

[Bloc]

This is a concept project in which I started looking at ways to make SMF easier to read and use.

1) First off is combining messageindex/display views. Normally, when you are on messageindex, you see topis you might like to see some posts from - and likewise , when looking at a topic, you might like to see other topics as well. Combining the two have resulted in a "DisplayIndex", which show the topic as normal, but adds other topics and their latest replies on the side, in context with the topic you are looking at. Picture attached + poll idea + attachment view.

2.) Messageindex will still be present so to speak..so one idea is to combine it with popular topics on the whole forum, or it might be just in that board.

3) Profile combines the user info, the latest posts and the latest attachments. Also, a "profile comments" section is present. 

[Antes]

I see lots of different stuff from you but this is surely a new perspective, I think this is also HTML template not on SMF, not sure w/o source changes you can achieve this.

[Bloc]

Of course its not on SMF lol.

As I wrote in the post - its thoughts on how to break out of the normal forum way of working, foremost from a UI point of view. The only way of making this concept work, is either as a mod+theme or as a fork.

[Dzonny]

Looks sexy, if you ask me

[Antechinus]

It's an interesting idea, but the overall presentation looks a bit fragmented and off kilter to me. Sorta like it's a pile of bricks leaning to the right or something. I'm not sure this would make things easier to read and use in its current form. Detailing is nice though.

And everything in SMF requires sources edits anyway. Want to do a little bit of theming? Found a lovely little SMF presentation Easter egg that could easily be fixed. MWAHAHAHA! We hid that in Sources! You can't fix that in a theme.

[Bloc]

Hehe, true.

But that aside..theres a few things not really present in the pictures, but its of course responsive, so the left column moves on top as the width goes down/device density increase..and the far left menu will be a ontop push-down menu further down in width. The other thing is that the far left should stay fixed, the left column only scroll to *its* natural end, then stop scrolling..while the right scrolls as ususal. The top should also stay fixed at all times. that means a fair bit of CSS,HTML and even JS changes to make it work. But nothing I haven't already tried in one form or several already.

The reason for the 3 column layout take advantage of widescreens, while moving them to 2 and 1 column takes care of the rest. This is as opposed to BlogLife concept, which is a one-column only thing.

...so why bother with this, I hear - or might hear - you ask? Well, I took a good look at all major forum software out there today,what they are doing. *Very* few adresses multiple devices on the UI level, most start with desktop, then maybe make it a bit responsive, SMF 2.1 included. A couple, like Discourse, starts in the other end but IMHO isn't quite there yet. So this concept is a experiment to combine and merge multiple needs, possibly get rid of unnecessary clicks and engage users that now prefer FB forums, to go back to regular forums.(the ambitious goal).

But foremost its fun to challenge how forums work(the immediate goal)

[Antechinus]

Oh I totally get why to bother with it.

[Antechinus]

BTW, one thing that occurred to me is that really, if you want to do responsive, building the front end on a mobile first basis really is the way to go. The problem with doing it the other way is that you end up trying to shoehorn all sorts of crap into places it doesn't want to be. Attempts to make SMF responsive tend to suffer from this, from what I've seen (and played with myself).

If you start with a phone sized screen and go up the other way, I think the overall process would be smoother and the results probably better. Not that I have any great incentive to do this, since I never browse on a phone, but it makes sense in terms of code. I may have to try it, just for something different.

[Bloc]

BTW, one thing that occurred to me is that really, if you want to do responsive, building the front end on a mobile first basis really is the way to go. The problem with doing it the other way is that you end up trying to shoehorn all sorts of crap into places it doesn't want to be. Attempts to make SMF responsive tend to suffer from this, from what I've seen (and played with myself).

If you start with a phone sized screen and go up the other way, I think the overall process would be smoother and the results probably better. Not that I have any great incentive to do this, since I never browse on a phone, but it makes sense in terms of code. I may have to try it, just for something different.

Yes, it makes sense to start with mobile-first. But that is more important I think, when you are looking at making as few requests on resources as possible. Layout-wise it doesn't matter IMHO..as long as you construct the design such that it will always flow beneath each other/transform into menus...if it don't then you have a problem. Much of SMF 2.0 design is exactly like that IMO, hence this design use "columns" to separate things you normally would just merge into each other(or have one wide page with lots of smaller details).

[Bloc]

- Added 2 more items to first post:

2.) Messageindex will still be present so to speak..so one idea is to combine it with popular topics on the whole forum, or it might be just in that board.

3) Profile combines the user info, the latest posts and the latest attachments. Also, a "profile comments" section is present.

   

[Dragooon]

I actually tried implementing something like this, it was a ****** to implement and I kinda gave up. Might be easier with 2.1/3.0 though.

[Bloc]

What did you have trouble with? The CSS?

[Antechinus]

Yes, it makes sense to start with mobile-first. But that is more important I think, when you are looking at making as few requests on resources as possible. Layout-wise it doesn't matter IMHO..as long as you construct the design such that it will always flow beneath each other/transform into menus...if it don't then you have a problem. Much of SMF 2.0 design is exactly like that IMO, hence this design use "columns" to separate things you normally would just merge into each other(or have one wide page with lots of smaller details).

Yup, it's the flowing layout thing I was referring to. SMF 2.0.x is pre-responsive in concept and markup. It's from the days when God meant data to be in lotsa little boxes and those boxes were supposed to know their place. And stay there, all their lives. The whole thinking behind it is about as responsive as a brick, and that influences the markup, which in turns influences driving you bonkers when you try to do something with it. Easier to just throw the lot out.

( Incidentally, when looking at trad forum markup and presentation I was always reminded of that song about "Little boxes on a hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes on a hillside, little boxes all the same.... )

[Antechinus]

- Added 2 more items to first post:

2.) Messageindex will still be present so to speak..so one idea is to combine it with popular topics on the whole forum, or it might be just in that board.

3) Profile combines the user info, the latest posts and the latest attachments. Also, a "profile comments" section is present.

   

This is all getting very portalish. Pulling in stuff from all over the place.

[Dragooon]

What did you have trouble with? The CSS?

No from the source side, like actually implementing into SMF. I got most of it working though with a few changes. Plus JS becomes fairly complex in this situation.

[Bloc]

- Added 2 more items to first post:

2.) Messageindex will still be present so to speak..so one idea is to combine it with popular topics on the whole forum, or it might be just in that board.

3) Profile combines the user info, the latest posts and the latest attachments. Also, a "profile comments" section is present.

   

This is all getting very portalish. Pulling in stuff from all over the place.

well..yes. But not randomly. I tried to think "what would I need to look for in this particular page". Might be very subjective haha.

[Bloc]

What did you have trouble with? The CSS?

No from the source side, like actually implementing into SMF. I got most of it working though with a few changes. Plus JS becomes fairly complex in this situation.

That will be rather invasive of course..probably better off making a dedicated Source file for it, where not ALL the things from Display.php are copied, to make room for the second fetching of topics in same board.

When you look at the design its simpler - and for a good reason. Things like events and online users would not be included, along with optimizations made where it can be made. The absolute worst is just tacking on your own queries  without doing anything with the existing ones. In a way it would mean to rethink the display page abit...but then again its things already constructed in messageindex, so my plan would be to marry the two and make it a separate one.

I have dabbled with the SMF hooks to interfere with fetching the display page, but as you know there are fewer of them in SMF 2.0. My best option have been to place a single test inside Display.php and then fetch DisplayAlternative, jumping out of Display.php, when the test is true.

[Dragooon]

What did you have trouble with? The CSS?

No from the source side, like actually implementing into SMF. I got most of it working though with a few changes. Plus JS becomes fairly complex in this situation.

That will be rather invasive of course..probably better off making a dedicated Source file for it, where not ALL the things from Display.php are copied, to make room for the second fetching of topics in same board.

When you look at the design its simpler - and for a good reason. Things like events and online users would not be included, along with optimizations made where it can be made. The absolute worst is just tacking on your own queries  without doing anything with the existing ones. In a way it would mean to rethink the display page abit...but then again its things already constructed in messageindex, so my plan would be to marry the two and make it a separate one.

I have dabbled with the SMF hooks to interfere with fetching the display page, but as you know there are fewer of them in SMF 2.0. My best option have been to place a single test inside Display.php and then fetch DisplayAlternative, jumping out of Display.php, when the test is true.

I'd rather not do this within 2.0 at all, 2.1 maybe but this sounds like much better suited for 3.0 (if we ever reach there).