Ultimate Shoutbox

[zach21uk]

Hi There,

Just installed the shoutbox the other day, i have almost got it how i want it but theres something i cant quite figure out.

I currently have the shoout box near the top of the forums, and am trying to get a box around it or something as it looks a bit out of place atm, but each time i try to add a box or a cell around the shoutbox, i get parse errors.

obviously i am doing something rong, and to be honest this isnt really my area of expertise, so if someone could help it would be appreciated.

http://gqfleet.net/smfforums - - there are the forums

Code Select Expand

                // Show the menu here, according to the menu sub template.
echo '<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 20px; background-image: url(' . $settings['images_url'] . '/pod/pod-midbar.gif);" ><tr>';
echo '<td><img src="' . $settings['images_url'] . '/pod/pod-leftbar.gif" alt="gfx" style="margin: 0px 0;" border="0" /></td>';
echo '<td><a href="#" onclick="shrinkHeader(!current_header); return false;"><img id="upshrink" src="', $settings['images_url'], '/', empty($options['collapse_header']) ? 'upshrink.gif' : 'upshrink2.gif', '" alt="*" title="', $txt['upshrink_description'], '" style="margin: 0px 0;" border="0" /></a><img id="upshrinkTemp" src="', $settings['images_url'], '/blank-upshrink.gif" alt="" style="margin: 0px 0;" /></td>';
                template_menu();
echo '</td></tr></table>';
smfshout();
        // The main content should go here.  A table is used because IE 6 just can't handle a div.
        echo '
        <table style="margin-top: 4px;" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr>';
         echo '<td align="left" id="bodyarea" style="padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px;">';
}


thats basically where i have the shoutbox inserted in the coding, tho i have been considering moving it to underneath the news box.....

if someone could tell me how to add a box or cell etc around the shoutbox it would be much appreciated.

i did read through several pags of this thread before i posted this, but no-one seems to have asked this question.

hope to hear from someone soon,
kind regards
zach21uk

bump

[Col]

Hi,

Can someone please explain why I get this when I try shouting?

Whoops, looks like you forgot to fill in one of the Shoutbox fields. Please try again.

Thanks.

[Col]

Hi,

Can someone please explain why I get this when I try shouting?

Whoops, looks like you forgot to fill in one of the Shoutbox fields. Please try again.

Thanks.

I've sorted this out. For some reason this only happens when I'm logged in with primary account. Such a silly thing wasted a lot of time for me!

Might be an idea to mention this with the first post.

[Col]

Is there any way to have 'View All' as an input button. I'd like to move next to the Shout button, but you can't use URLs for an input button. What's the easiest solution, anyone?

[Col]

Hi,

How do I go about calling the shouts separately from the the inputs underneath?

I'm trying to place the shoutbox in the header, but want just the shouts showing when the header is collapsed.

Anyone?

Thanks.

[Col]

Anyone,

How do I go about calling shouts and inputs separately?

Thanks.

[tophe]

Since I can't install any mods through the packet manager (SAFE MODE), I had to do it manually.
Good explanation in the .mod file until I came to step 5

Instructions:
1. Upload shoutdb.php into your board directory and run it (be sure to delete it afterwards).
2. Install from this mod file manually or using boardmod
3. Upload shout.php into your sources dir.
4. Upload deleteshout.gif to your $themedir/images directory
5. Anywhere in your template call the function smfshout() to show the shoutbox
6. Go into the Feature Settings page and choose the appropriate settings
7. Type in a message and click Shout!

What does step 5 mean?
How do I do it?
And what do I do with the file shout.template.php and shoutPdb.php, that was in the archive?
There is no information on those.

Where is the Features Settings window?

All the other steps is done, but I can't get any further.. Help please...

[tophe]

sigh...

I'm using the default theme..
No matter what I use.. None of the code snippets work.
I get parse error, and when I don't get that error the box will not show.

[Col]

To be frank, although this forum software looks great, and I'm sure it's far more powerful than any of the others, it suffers from very poor documentation. This software has to appeal to those with little software knowledge, but willing to give it a go with proper instructions, as well as coders.

What you need, I think, is to place the following in your template. I make no gaurentee, as it's only what I've picked up from scratching around.

You'll have to decide where to place this in your template, depending where you want the shoutbox to appear.

Code Select Expand

<table>
<tr>
<td>
', smfshout(), '
</td>
</tr>
</table>


Now that didn't work for me, until I found I needed an echo statement too, so it should be be like this, I think:

Code Select Expand


echo '
<table>
<tr>
<td>
', smfshout(), '
</td>
</tr>
</table>'


That seems to work for me on my test board, but it could well be technically wrong. Maybe I'm being a bit hard on this place, but it does seem a bit chiquey for what should be a popularist activity.

Most forums are run by non-coders, and lack of instructions drives us crazy!

[[Unknown]]

The mod is lacking documentation, not the forum software (while it needs more documentation, it's not as lacking as you make it sound.)  I don't see any Microsoft guides for "how to install Adobe Photoshop".

-[Unknown]

[Col]

My criticism is meant constructively.

Why would Microsoft supply a guide for installing Photoshop? - Or is that your point? If so, I don't get it?

It seems that all the mods I've looked at so far are lacking documentation of any meaningful kind. Often essential information is missing for the newbie. It often seems that mods are written for other modders; that's how it appears to the outsider.

Although I can see this is far more powerful than YaBB, it is also far more complicated. It's a very steep learning curve, and some basic guide of how the software works and is structured would help a lot. I've looked at some of the guides, and they don't really give a feel for the SMF.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sticking with it, as it promises too much to walk away from it.

[[Unknown]]

Why would Microsoft supply a guide for installing Photoshop? - Or is that your point? If so, I don't get it?

That is exactly my point.  Microsoft = Simple Machines, Photoshop = the shoutbox.  As much as it's used with Windows, it isn't part of Windows nor is it distributed by Microsoft.  It is third party, in that sense.

While the package manager could use some more documentation, I personally feel many mods could use more documentation specific to them.  Just by looking at some of these mods, I have no idea how they work.  I've had to go into the code... and I shouldn't have to.  I agree with you there.

Anything not specific to any particular mod, yes, should be better documented.  And there are problems there, yes.... but the ones you're talking about are SPECIFIC to a THIRD PARTY product.  You're asking us to write documentation for Photoshop.

-[Unknown]

[Col]

Unknown, I think we are speaking at cross purposes a little. I'm not saying thay SMF is responsible for the documentation for the mods, although it would, of course, be in your interests to enocurage greater effort from the mod writers with documentation for their mods.

I have already noted that there is documentaion for the unmodded forum, but I think we are both agreed it needs to be improved upon. I also accept that it's a big job, almost as big as the job of creating the software itself by the looks of things.

I might even offer my services of writing some docs; that's when I understand things myself though! I imagine SMF2 will be out by then!

[Amacythe]

Documentation... I'm working on it... I'm trying...

* Amacythe sighs

[Col]

Aye, I'm not knocking anyone, honest. It's just meant as input and comment.

[Col]

Hi,

How do I go about calling the shouts separately from the the inputs underneath?

I'm trying to place the shoutbox in the header, but want just the shouts showing when the header is collapsed.

Anyone?

Thanks.

Hi, can anyone help with this?

I've decided to just go with the shoutbox at the side of the forum for now, but I still need to call the shouts separately.

What I'd like to do is place the actual shouts in an iframe, and have that auto refresh. What would be really cool is if I can have this auto refresh at the end/beginning of each scroll cycle. If I use a timed refresh, it will keep interupting scrolls in progress.

When I've had a shoutbox in the past, it got used heavily within my forum, so a refresh like this would be very useful. I think it's a feature that might well appeal to many!

Thanks.

[Griffen]

Hey...

www.knifey.branzone.com/forums/index.php

I installed the mod but cant find out where the shoutbox is...

The option is in the features and options, i just cant find the box itself.

Help would be appreciated.

[Col]

Look at my reply a few posts before: reply 288. I cannot promise it's technically correct, but it works for me.

[edchapman]

On page eight of this thread there is a post on how to add it to the left, not the same as the right... but if you know html you should know how to move it around

I did that just as it says... It's  not working. Anyone know what I can do to get the shout box to show up in a table just to the right or left of the forum?
I do not know how to add the table or where to add it.

[Griffen]

Ok, Im still not getting this..

I add:

Code Select Expand

echo '
<table>
<tr>
<td>
', smfshout(), '
</td>
</tr>
</table>'

^^ That to where??

EDIT:

Ok, so i add it to the index.template.php in the themes folder (the default theme..which is Helios for my forum).

Now when i tried to add it somewhere i got the error:

Template Parse Error!
There was a problem loading the /Themes/HeliosRed/index.template.php template or language file. Please check the syntax and try again - remember, single quotes (') often have to be escaped with a slash (\). To see more specific error information from PHP, try accessing the file directly.

You may want to try to refresh this page or use the default theme.

I'm so lost here.  Which part of the index.template.php should i add the code to?

Another Edit:

http://www.knifey.branzone.com/Griffen/Help.txt [nofollow]

Someone want to tell me where I would add in the code?  That txt document is my index.template.php if you didnt guess.