[WIP/screenshots] FXTracker

[Arantor]

* Arantor waits to see if you choose to run the insanity gauntlet that is attachments

[NanoSector]

* Arantor waits to see if you choose to run the insanity gauntlet that is attachments

Perhaps, perhaps not

I've been thinking about doing them, but on the other hand I don't feel like it

Thanks The Craw

Oh, if I failed to mention this before, you can find the code on Github, I've just uploaded a new feature:
http://github.com/Yoshi2889/FXTracker

I have yet to update the demo site.

[Arantor]

There's two basic ways you can do attachments, firstly to do it entirely yourself and deal with the support issues that arise out of file permissions. Secondly you can do it by mashing up the existing attachments system as I did in SimpleDesk - very messy and possible to get it very wrong :/

[NanoSector]

There's two basic ways you can do attachments, firstly to do it entirely yourself and deal with the support issues that arise out of file permissions. Secondly you can do it by mashing up the existing attachments system as I did in SimpleDesk - very messy and possible to get it very wrong :/

Which way would you recommend?

[Arantor]

*shrug* I did it how I did it in SimpleDesk for the simple reason of limiting support issues, but as I discovered there are so many quirks to how SMF handles attachments that you really have to be careful about not breaking everything else.

Take a look at the SD install package, in the install-xml folder for the attachments.xml file whose sole responsibility is dealing with all the attachment related changes - and there are surprisingly many (mostly to prevent the admin panel from not removing them accidentally)

[NanoSector]

*shrug* I did it how I did it in SimpleDesk for the simple reason of limiting support issues, but as I discovered there are so many quirks to how SMF handles attachments that you really have to be careful about not breaking everything else.

Take a look at the SD install package, in the install-xml folder for the attachments.xml file whose sole responsibility is dealing with all the attachment related changes - and there are surprisingly many (mostly to prevent the admin panel from not removing them accidentally)

I'll take a look at it later tonight or tomorrow, thanks

* Yoshi2889 has a friggin' lot to learn

[Arantor]

I'll tell you something... two years ago when I sat down to approach it, I didn't realise just how much I had to learn - and that was after I'd been on the team and thought I knew everything I was going to learn about SMF.

Something else, SimpleDesk was one hell of a journey, I learned a great many things about SMF, some of which I suspect are known only to the people that originally wrote that code...

[The Craw]

Arantor, your great wealth of knowledge is much appreciated. Thank you for sharing what you've learned over the years, so that we might not make the same mistakes.

[NanoSector]

I'll tell you something... two years ago when I sat down to approach it, I didn't realise just how much I had to learn - and that was after I'd been on the team and thought I knew everything I was going to learn about SMF.

I want to learn stuff, that's why I asked you in the first place -- You have awesome knowledge!

Something else, SimpleDesk was one hell of a journey, I learned a great many things about SMF, some of which I suspect are known only to the people that originally wrote that code...

One of the things I'm writing FXTracker, although not learning as much as you did in SimpleDesk, I've learned a whole heck of things from what I have now, from PHP to HTML and CSS. And I've got to thank some people for that

[Arantor]

Eh, I already knew a lot of stuff by the time I came to write SimpleDesk, or I thought I did, haha. But when it came down to it, stuff like instantiating the editor component, dealing with attachments, and stuff like that that is so deep in the bowels of SMF that it's rarely touched, it was an interesting experience. But there's no substitute to *doing*.

Later on, the really weird stuff I did - extending the package manager to understand a new type of package, and extending the language editor to recognise SD's locations, that took me to a whole new place.

The one thing it showed me is that you can make it truly as complex and interesting as you want and there's no real limit other than imagination and the time to make it happen.

@The Craw: For the most part it's been a pleasure but it's why I get so frustrated at times, because I have all this knowledge and I feel like a lot of the time it's wasted because the details are things no-one ever needs or wants to know :/

[Trekkie101]

Hopefully by exposing more hooks SMF can become a bit easier to play with

Is there anything for attachements?

[Arantor]

No, there isn't. And it's more than just offering a hook to make that work, you'd have to extend the rest of the architecture, essentially to be aware of 'types of attachments', which then implies knowing that 'forum attachments' can be authenticated (for permissions) through <this stuff> and '<type> of attachments' can be authenticated through <that stuff>. It's pretty heady stuff.

[emanuele]

That is indeed a very nice piece of tracker!

[NanoSector]

That is indeed a very nice piece of tracker!

Ta, emanuele!

Arantor: Perhaps I should start writing a mod which actually works *with* SMF instead of *on* it, then, haha. Thanks for giving me the idea

[Arantor]

IIRC, the last version of SimpleDesk does as much as possible through hooks, as opposed to hacking up code, maybe there will be some sources of inspiration there

[NanoSector]

IIRC, the last version of SimpleDesk does as much as possible through hooks, as opposed to hacking up code, maybe there will be some sources of inspiration there

I'll be sure to check it out, sooner or later, when I've got more time on my hands

[Mstcool]

can you release it in beta stages?

[NanoSector]

can you release it in beta stages?

If you want it so badly you can grab it from GitHub..
The source code is updated there, and every basic feature except the admin panel works, so you will need to hack in a few projects yourself in the database and get rolling.

[Matthew K.]

One tiny UI suggestion I would have is to make the project description inside the windowbg's a smalltext class so it's a little bit smaller.

[NanoSector]

One tiny UI suggestion I would have is to make the project description inside the windowbg's a smalltext class so it's a little bit smaller.

Implemented in a moment, I think I'm going to like that, too