Custom Form Mod

[fasterthanyours]

I think it is, however documentation blows on this thing.

In theory this form should be able to do anything, however, good ideas sometimes don't get done...?

[Fireguy15]

I am using rc1 and the appropriate mod for rc1,

When I tried to install the package I got:

Table 'website_forum.cf_forms' doesn't exist
File: /home/website/public_html/forum/Packages/temp/install.php
Line: 45

This was immediately after clicking on "install now"

Any ideas??

[Fireguy15]

I had the table in my database but had to delete it and another cf table and it loaded properly!

[Garou]

fasterthanyours, I did get your pm and responded. I agree that better documentation is needed and it is on my to do list. Most of what I know came from combing through this thread as well as my own trial and error early on.

I think this thing got much bigger then LHVWB had intended or really has time for with all his other projects, Simple Portal alone has to be eating up a huge chunk of his time. Not to mention all the other things life outside the net throws at us. That is why I offered to help out where I can.

As far as as this or any mod or even program being able to do anything... Well that's a mighty tall order there my friend and I'm pretty sure it will never be able to get me a date a Hollywood superstar. LOL

yus786, that is an excellent idea and similar ones have been brought up before here. Alas it is beyond what this thing can do at the moment. Ive got it on my to do list but its going to take some time and lots of work. It could be as simple as adding a new function or it might take an entire re-write of the mod.

Fireguy15, that isn't normal but it has happened before, I saw it yesterday and I believe that there was fix for it but for the life of me I cant remember where. I think it was early on. I figured it was something like that. Did you have this mod installed at some point before and removed it?

[Fireguy15]

I had tried to install an older version but it failed and at the time I had no idea how to get all traces out of my database.

[Smoky "Rider" Blue]

so its working for you fireguy? 

[fasterthanyours]

LOL Yeah well potential is there.  If I had some patients with it I could probably figure it out for you.

I DLed the SMFBuyPro for Mono the other day.  OMG that thing is wicked!  So much code.

[Garou]

do you have any new information when you are going to release the new version of this mod so the bug with the

Code Select Expand

[img]http://http://urlofapicture[/img]  disappears?^^

I'm using smf 1.1.x and this mod is so great! I use it for a lot of different purposes! =)

I figured this one out this morning. You have to enter parse_bbc in the Extra Type Parameters field for this to work right.

Example...
Title: image
Text: Please enter the link to your image here.   
Type: Text Box (String)
Extra Type Parameters: parse_bbc

Then in the Form Output: you would enter

Code Select Expand

[img]{image}[/img]

Images will post from the form to your forum this way, no changes to the mod necessary. 

[fasterthanyours]

I was kind of thinking that was it too.

[Garou]

I started working up a tutorial/help file this morning and was thinking of every possible way this can be used when I remembered olifa's question and the answer was right there in my face when I hit the ? icon next to Extra Type Parameters.

Which reminds me LHVWB did put some good information in those help files but he wrote most of it from a coders perspective. In technical writing classes they stressed that you have to write everything from a layman's perspective so I'm going to try and do that with the help files as well as a tutorial Ill post here once I'm done.

[fasterthanyours]

Garou,

I think you hit the nail on the head.  The "instructions" are there, but not real clear.

[PerryM]

I've slugged it out with 75+ modules now - eventually got them running with help from their forums.

In this case I can't figure out how to get to a CP or anything - I've spent 30 minutes screwing around with this and I must report that this module really is a waste of time.

I love the concept of it but this module needs to mature a lot more before wasting my time.

I salute the author for trying to bring this module forward but you need to spend a lot more time making this intuitive before bringing it to our attention.  This is a total waste of time and I have no patience to try making this work.

Sad.

I suggest you remove this module before you destroy your own reputation here - its that bad.

[Garou]

Ill admit it can be a bit rough if you don't have a clue about what your doing.

With most mods you get to know a bit more if you read the threads associated with them. This one if fairly small and well worth the read. Especially the last half of the thread. Most issues people have come across have been addressed here recently. Also if you ask nicely you might find people willing to help you. It works much better then throwing a child's tantrum. 

It might also be helpful if we knew what version you were running. But lets see here on the page that you downloaded the mod from, You did read that didn't you, Its right here
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1279 in case you forgot where. It says...

Settings are found in the Admin panel:
For SMF 1.1.x: "Features and Options" section -> "Custom Forms" tab.
For SMF 2 RC1: "Configuration" drop down menu -> 'Modifications' -> 'Custom Form' Tab.

Now if you have any more problems there's the little ? icons that will tell you more, feel free to ask here politely, or better yet read through this message thread, most everything has been covered. Then again, who knows, if you waste enough time with this mod you just might find something new. Best of luck to you PerryM.

[PerryM]

Ill admit it can be a bit rough if you don't have a clue about what your doing.

With most mods you get to know a bit more if you read the threads associated with them. This one if fairly small and well worth the read. Especially the last half of the thread. Most issues people have come across have been addressed here recently. Also if you ask nicely you might find people willing to help you. It works much better then throwing a child's tantrum. 

It might also be helpful if we knew what version you were running. But lets see here on the page that you downloaded the mod from, You did read that didn't you, Its right here
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1279 in case you forgot where. It says...

Settings are found in the Admin panel:
For SMF 1.1.x: "Features and Options" section -> "Custom Forms" tab.
For SMF 2 RC1: "Configuration" drop down menu -> 'Modifications' -> 'Custom Form' Tab.

Now if you have any more problems there's the little ? icons that will tell you more, feel free to ask here politely, or better yet read through this message thread, most everything has been covered. Then again, who knows, if you waste enough time with this mod you just might find something new. Best of luck to you PerryM.

Instead of throwing out insults you would do better if you just did some documentation and you would get high praises.

Check my posts and you will see that I've complemented folks who do add value to smf.  Waste time belittling your users and this will just get worse.

Fix the documentation!  It's just as important as the code - not just an afterthought!

[Garou]

LOL Obviously you didn't read my post or the documentation. There is documentation, I even told you where its at in my last post. You just aren't reading it or understanding it. In either case I and the other user's are here to help you, just please be more constructive in your post rather then trashing the mod outright.

This was a good mod when it was written and its a good mod now. It provides a feature that is very useful and we have many happy users. Myself included, as I was just a user of it myself till just a few days ago. If it wasn't a good mod I wouldn't have volunteered my services to work on it.

None the less you come in here grandstanding on your high horse, claiming its a waste of time and demanding that we remove the mod because you cant figure it out. You sir are entitled to your opinion, however if you came in here asking questions the smart way, you would have been given a much more polite answer.

Now if you've read this thread you know that the author regrettably hasn't had the time to make the improvements he'd like and I just a few days ago signed on to help him out with at least keeping it updated and making some of the improvements at least the ones that I can. I even mentioned that I will update the documentation as it can be unclear to a person that isn't a programmer, at times. It is however there if care to look, again I told your where to find it.

Now if you still want to waste your time with this, as you say, immature mod, I will be happy to help you, as long as you act in a mature manner. If you can not then maybe it would be best that you wait till the mod matures a little more to your liking.

[PerryM]

Ok, I'm on vacation and normally I'd be on to the next project but I'll slug it thru this.

The first thing I do with a smf mod is to install it, un-installed it, and install it again - getting ready for a new version.

I can install this mod and un-install it but when I try to install it again I get this error:

Table 'm4inform_smf.cf_forms' doesn't exist
File: /home/m4inform/public_html/smf/Packages/temp/install.php
Line: 45

So this would be error #1 I'm reporting...

(This would flunk my criterion to proceed further but I'll slug it out)

P.S.

Used mySQL admin and deleted that record and tried to re-install with this error:

Table 'm4inform_smf.cf_fields' doesn't exist
File: /home/m4inform/public_html/smf/Packages/temp/install.php
Line: 90

This is error #2 I'm reporting.

I'll delete this record too and re-install...

[PerryM]

Ok, made it thru the re-install.

Nowhere did I see ANY link to a simple Readme.txt or something else.

So this will be Suggestion #1 - add a simple readme.txt file after or during the install.

[PerryM]

Suggestion #2:
During the install inform the user that they need to visit Admin>Configuration>Modification>Custom Forms

And supply information:

Form View Page Permissions help is:

This setting allows you to restrict the membergroups that can see the list of the forms which they can access (At "index.php?action=form"). Note that even if they can see they list, they cannot see or use any forms which they do not have the permissions for.

I'm confused as to what this says so suggestion #2 is to rewrite the help for this field.

I don't know whether to highlight a group or not.  I'm going to guess I should highlight Regular Members – but this is just a guess.

[PerryM]

Suggestion #3:
What is Board ID "0 invalid Board", Permissions "Admin"?
Did I make a mistake already?
I don't know the purpose of the invalid record but it irritates me right off the bat.
So my suggestion is to get rid of it or name it something that doesn't look like I've made a mistake before even starting to add a new form.  I'm going to guess that this is an error and delete it.  Wish me luck...

Oops silly me you can't delete it.  So I guess I keep the error - just a guess.

[PerryM]

Suggestion #4:
I'm trying to add a new form and the mod wants to know what forum it is to be applied to.  It wants a number I guess and when I go to the forum I want to add the form I see:

wwww.mywebsite.com/smf/index.php?board=1.0

But my suggestion is to have a pop up list of forms and I get to select which one I want – it just looks more classy and prevents users from putting in 1.0 and getting squirrely results.

I'd  bet that a pretty URL mod could change that to even a name for the SEO - but that's a guess.  If it does there is no number to type in.