Okay, I'm going to try and do at least some of this work myself, but I'm going to need some support here to make it a reality.
I am using PMXBlog version 1.1. {I already tried their support website some time ago, it was a disaster--that is not an option.}
I am going to start with each problem or thing that needs to be fixed, and go through it one, by one. I will supply any code pages and files that you need to troubleshoot it; just ask.
Special thanks to anyone and everyone who provides helpful support or makes any effort to help.
First problem:
Members are having this problem after they create their blog:
Lainaa
There is no write an article selection, just a big red thing that says 'blog not active'
How do I make it so blogs are immediately active upon a member starting/creating it?
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Groovystar - kesäkuu 28, 2013, 02:51:50 IP
I am using PMXBlog version 1.1. {I already tried their support website some time ago, it was a disaster--that is not an option.}
Why then you use this mod if all so bad?
Lainaa
Members are having this problem after they create their blog:
Lainaa
There is no write an article selection, just a big red thing that says 'blog not active'
How do I make it so blogs are immediately active upon a member starting/creating it?
If a Member create a new Blog, he is automatically redirected to the settings page and I think it's not a big problem to take a click on the Checkbox
Enable the Blog .. ???
I have no problem using the mod, but the support did not help me on the support site, so I am here.
Hundreds of my members aren't catching on to the need to activate the blog because it's not what they are used to on other blog sites. Regardless of whether it's easy or not, {which it is, so I agree with you there} that's not the point--it is not intuitive, so it's a catching point that I need to fix. I cater to my members and if they are getting "stuck" commonly on a particular function or feature then I consider it my job to straighten it out. Currently, people are creating threads repeatedly in our help area confused as to how to use the blogs, and this is the first sticking point I am going to get changed. I've already decided that I want the blogs to be activated automatically upon creation. If you can help me with that, I would be most grateful. Thank you :)
Feline if you can't respond in a manner which is not easy to understand......
The pmx blogs can be confusing at first Groovy at at all.
As for the support on their forum, that I am unable to mention due to my position here.
:)
Going to try and clarify things so they don't lead into arguments or misinterpretations on here because I've had that problem here in the past over several years.
I don't want to bring that support forum or any other forum into this. I'll just say that I did not and cannot receive the support that I need there so here I am on this forum. I have a large task ahead of me in getting these blogs into shape for mass usage. My site has over 100,000 members and we get around 70,000 posts a day, and we are currently having a large influx of teenaged members, many of which are eager to start a blog on my site.
Most of the issues that I will bring onto this forum for help with are things that will not come up on a smaller forum. I am managing my site as a large forum/social network hybrid and we have many issues that come up due to us being so massive.
Some may take the approach of, "You should just explain to them what they need to do if they are confused," most people who get confused or stuck don't bother to take the trouble to ask, they just give up {so there's a possibly lost member}, one, and two, those who do ask amount to a large amount of people in spite of this on a gigantic website, and keeping up with that alone would require a task force. We use our help forum instead to identify where members are getting stuck, and then alter the code of the site's features to address it. Since so many members are getting stuck on this problem of blog activation, this is the first step. I don't ask why they get stuck--that they are getting stuck indicates it's a problem area. I go from there.
I hope this helps clarify.
Just to give a bit more context: I changed the code so that the "enable blog" checkbox is already marked the moment they visit the "create a blog" page.
What the actually have to do is: change the blog name if they want and click save.
Now I understand that this may be too much for someone (I wonder how they have been able to register! :P Sorry.).
Enable the blog automatically shouldn't be much of a trouble (I haven't looked into the code much and I did it quite a bit of time ago, so I don't remember exactly), though this step seems to be the minimum (i.e. give a name to the blog) to me... no? Or this is not a priority of your users and they just want "something"? (Asking because it seems your users like to personalize quite a bit they space, so seems a bit strange that they waste this opportunity. ;))
Maybe what you want is just a bigger (or more evident) "save" button? Or a page slightly different with less options to begin with? Though it may be more difficult later to edit those parameters (or just give an "advanced" option to show more fields?).
Throwing out random stuff after a boring reading.
I apologise that my post was long-winded. :P It was. I just wanted to get all of it said so that people understand why I come here asking for help with getting seemingly senseless things done. To someone who has never run a large site before, they will probably have no idea of the issues involved, so a lot of what I post up saying is a big problem will see, to them, like a tiny one that's solved by simply going in and doing it for the member or answering a question etc. On a small forum, yes that usually solves it. Not on my site. :P It's a whole other beast.
Yeah--Emanuele, I know you did a little bit of work on the blogs some weeks back, but they're still getting stuck on this and nearly all the blogs created {if you go to the blogs area and see} lie unactivated. It may seem intuitive to you and me and many others who are involved in designing blogs and sites etc. but to the members it just isn't; most of them have never encountered a blog that's set up like this and requires "activation" so they don't know to look for it, and if they do look around they are lost in a sea of buttons and features, many of which they also are unfamiliar with. Those of us familiar with the site or any site learn to "not see" the stuff they already know and know they don't need at the moment, but to someone new and unhabituated with the site that visual information is still "switched on," and the result is confusion.
Thus why they get lost at seemingly simple steps. It's like walking into a grocery store you've never been in and unable to find what you need right off.
So, I'm just saying that it isn't about "wow these people just don't know what they're doing with web design," it's that the blogs are part of a larger site and on each site they get added to, that site is different so the blogs may need different things tweaked depending on what site they are on.
Our help den is first rate at troubleshooting this stuff. I love all our confused members ^_^
****
Now, onto the actual coding. Thanks for posting here. You said you weren't coming back till tuesday and would be working on other things so I decided to try and take this into my own hands while you did. {I'd report any code changes to you before I did em, and after I did em if they were really tiny.}
The problem is that something is causing most of the members to get stuck on the blog-activation process. They are looking for where to start posting an article, and they can't find it so they give up, and the blog remains unused and unactivated.
Here's what they are saying:
Lainaa
But I have been really excited to start up my blog and I can't seem to figure out where to go to make my article. HOW DO BLOGS WORK?...There is no write an article selection, just a big red thing that says 'blog not active'
They are seeing "Blog not active," it has big red letters that draw their eyes to that area but no immediate course of action for them there, so they get stuck; what I think would be best would be that once they are at this point in creation, it should be automatically active and this step should be skipped altogether so they can just get immediately to writing their first article. That's what they seem to expect to be able to do--they expect to immediately see a "write an article" section.
Would this be easy to just switch on? I was thinking it would be like changing a number or something in the code. :P
Thank you again so much for posting.
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Groovystar - kesäkuu 29, 2013, 09:51:11 AP
Now, onto the actual coding. Thanks for posting here. You said you weren't coming back till tuesday and would be working on other things so I decided to try and take this into my own hands while you did. {I'd report any code changes to you before I did em, and after I did em if they were really tiny.}
That's why I added "Throwing out random stuff after a boring reading" and not actually wrote code. ;)
And if you can solve that by yourself I wouldn't have problems, on the contrary, I would be glad! (I'm always happy when people learn new things ;))
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Groovystar - kesäkuu 29, 2013, 09:51:11 AP
They are seeing "Blog not active," it has big red letters that draw their eyes to that area but no immediate course of action for them there, so they get stuck; what I think would be best would be that once they are at this point in creation, it should be automatically active and this step should be skipped altogether so they can just get immediately to writing their first article. That's what they seem to expect to be able to do--they expect to immediately see a "write an article" section.
Yep, I got that.
What I was wondering is if it wouldn't be enough to "hide" the "blog not active" (a bit of css should do the trick) and rename "save" to "start blogging" or "write your first article" or something similar and maybe reduce the number of options on the page to just the title of the blog and...dunno nothing else? (Rework a form is usually easy with a bit of js, skip a step may be easy, but it may also be an hassle depending on the code behind and at the moment I don't remember the code, just that when I made the "enable blog" box checked I had to fight a bit with the code.)
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Groovystar - kesäkuu 29, 2013, 09:51:11 AP
Would this be easy to just switch on? I was thinking it would be like changing a number or something in the code. :P
As far as I remember, no it's not that easy, but again I can't remember the details. ;)
It might be enough *if* writing a first article is the only thing that the blog being inactive prevents them from doing on it. If they want to do something else instead, like set up its theme, change its name, whatever, it might not work. I think it'd be best to just have the whole thing switched on upon creation without requiring a second "activation" step.
If the "Write a new article" button is in a different place than the Activate Blog button is, moreover, they'll get confused when they go to write their second article, as the controls won't be where they were. :P
I'm trying to learn, it's just...slow going. :) I am at the point where I can copy code given to me and paste it where needed, and alter small things like CSS classes and numbers, that is about it.
As far as I remember (but I'm far from the site (yeah, I know it's not far, but I don't have the passwords here so it *is* far :P), so I can't check) from the "blog" menu you first have "create your blog" with the activation page, while after you have finished the activation (yes, I know, let's analyse what we have a piece at a time), the menu entry becomes "write an article"... but I may be terribly wrong. :P
I believe so {I actually forget too, I'll have to get in there and log in and start testing} what files would need to be addressed for this? And once they clicked the button, if this mod went through would it then bring them directly to the article's writing page?
As I said I don't have the code handy and I can't answer that question at the current moment.
Oh, okay. Sorry :(
For you or anyone else who might be able to, which files would you need to see? I can post them up here if you need me to.
What surprised me a bit ...
If you know anything and everything can better better why now there are no corresponding modification of you?
And .. why not bring her a your ideas? PmxBlog is available on Github and everyone who is interested CAN bring his ideas.
Rather than complain rather appropriate program code would be better ...
Not everyone understands code.
I certainly don't.
The same can be said of Github.
@feline> You're asking a bit much.
I've already explained in long-winded posts on here why I need the modifications. I'm sorry if you can't grasp the concepts, I tried. Please go back and re-read them, and post here what you don't understand and I'll try and simplify it for you.
Thank you for the help. So adding that "blogcont" line at the bottom now makes it so the blog is already activated upon creation?
/me thinks someone has posted in the wrong topic... :P
hehe .. @emanuele .. thats right .. not the point for my post :laugh: .. removed
AutoEnable Blog on Creation:
Open the files /Themes/default/PmxBlogSettings.template.php in a editor (like notepad++)
find on line 128:
<input class="check" name="blogenabled" type="checkbox" value="1"', isBlogEnabled() ? ' checked="checked"': '', ' />
replace with:
<input class="check" name="blogenabled" type="checkbox" value="1"', isBlogEnabled() || empty($context['PmxBlog']['blogexist']) ? ' checked="checked"': '', ' />
Now the blog is enabled if you click on Save
Thank you so much! :) I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.
People still complaining that their blogs are not activated.
It needs to function so that they don't have to hit Save for it to be activated. They are getting stuck on this. Help needed.
Thanks!
Sorry, but your peoples are a little bit splendid ...
ANY Page on where you have to put in Informations must active SAVED.
Lainaus käyttäjältä: Groovystar - heinäkuu 10, 2013, 08:56:02 AP
People still complaining that their blogs are not activated.
It needs to function so that they don't have to hit Save for it to be activated. They are getting stuck on this. Help needed.
Thanks!
PmxBlogSettiings.php
Find
'blogenabled' => 0,Replace with
'blogenabled' => 1,
*lol* .. with this, you can't never disable any blog :P
Bad idea ...
To Feline: I treat my members as my customers, to be catered to, regardless of what kinds of difficulties they have using my site, if they are commonly having a difficulty then I can either address it, and make things easier for them, or not address it, and potentially lose their interest and they leave the site altogether, or at least use it less.
I lose members? That's my loss. I make the site easier and less frustrating for them? That's my gain--and theirs too.
Besides which, the intelligence of my members has nothing to do with my requests here. I'm not asking for opinions on my member base, I'm asking for help with the blogs. I appreciate your help you have given so far, but please--I ask again that you be polite.
...I agree that making blogs unable to be closed would be bad--players on my site do need to be able to shut them down if and when they wish to.
Thank you again to everyone trying to help here.
@feline> Welcome to my ignore list.
...I see this situation is struggling to move forward. Would it help if I attached any related files with this code? If so just let me know which ones.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=506709.msg3573894#msg3573894 -- just four posts up. Have you tried it?
Lainaus käyttäjältä: live627 - heinäkuu 12, 2013, 05:22:41 IP
@feline> Welcome to my ignore list.
oh what glory ... thsnk you :laugh:
Special thanks for everyone on here who contributed to this.
The blogs do appear to be starting up correctly.
Now, onto the next step...
This is going to involve the Ultimate Profile ability of members to dress their profiles in a custom skin they make, using CSS code. I want them to be able to do the exact same thing for their blogs. If you need me to I can provide any files or info you ask for, to the best of my ability.
The blogs are not working at all. I need some help here. I do not know how to fix it.
They keep getting a database error when they click on Create a blog. Here
http://warriorcatsrpg.com/index.php?topic=1204895.msg50753067#new
and
http://warriorcatsrpg.com/index.php?topic=1215719.new#new