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pugdog
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Apr 14, 2005, 11:06 AM

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Ultra_Comment	Can't Post

I sort of lost where I had put this, but here is an update:

1) I've attached the Admin/Validate system, it seems to work. Not as hard as I thought.
2) I've got it working, pretty much, but there are still bugs between the templates and code, since I did a lot of modification, and pre-readiness for further modifications for expanded use of this.
3) With luck, I should have a beta (not pre-beta) out in a few days. As always, I hope my beta's are pre-release ready and just need some fixing up on things I hadn't thought about.

Features:

Purpose: To allow comments to be attached to a link (or any other table with a unique primary key).

How is this different from reviews? Well... in some ways, it's not. In other ways, comments are usually critiques, dissenting opinions, or other use. A Rating/Review is usually more of a valuation of what the Link/data was useful or not.

Ratings and Reviews usually don't have comments, but a comment can have a rating and a review separate from the original article.

1) This release the table attaches to the Links table, using the Link.ID field as Comment_Link_ID. Future releases, you'll be able to define your table, and the key field, so you can attach this to any other table.

2) I've left the 1-5 ratings and Helpful-yes/no features enabled for comments. (I hope to offer 1-n arbitrary scaling)

3) Users can be limited to ONE comment per Link, and they may or may not be able to edit them (the x-hour window is not enabled yet).

4) Unlimited comments can be attached to each link, but as of now, only a registered user can edit/modify multiple comments.

5) "guest" users can leave comments, if enabled.

6) Comments can be flagged admin_validate, so the admin has to approve each comment before it's visible. I have not separated this out to allow registered users comments to be auto-validated (but it could be based on some criteria).

7) Guest users can enter a password, but this is still buggy at this point. Should be fixed up by the next release.

8) Admin can set max_num comments for any link. When that limit is reached, comments can either be closed, or rolled so that the oldest falls off when a new one is left.

9) Admin can set max_chars and min_chars for a comment to prevent soap boxes and "me too" posts.

10) Users can be allowed to leave multiple commnents, edit comments (in a time window), and forced to log in.

11) Comments can be displayed by Post_Date or modified date.

12) comments can be flagged as new for n-days

13) comments can be set per page, and a per-page max to prevent huge overhead. At some point, users will be able to overrid this and set their own per-page up to per_page_max.

There are some other features, but a lot is not properly hooked up, so it works, but features will go "live" in subsequent versions.

14) Users can list and edit their own comments (if allowed) (full user management is not enabled yet, so they can only edit their comments on the current link)

15) Oh, more.

But I wanted to post what the delay was -- I've been hooking up other features to not have to release any pre-betas. This release should be stable enough to run on a live site, and any updates should just "slide over" the existing installation.

rholmin
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Apr 17, 2005, 11:03 PM

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Re: [pugdog] Ultra_Comment [In reply to]	Can't Post

Is there a demo available for this? It looks like something I could use.

Thx Laugh

pugdog
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Apr 18, 2005, 7:54 AM

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Re: [rholmin] Ultra_Comment [In reply to]	Can't Post

Not yet, but I'm working on it. I fixed a few bugs that should let me fix up the last few routines, and get something released very, very soon.

Still trying to swat the last few bugs and attach a few things I forgot :{ I found out I somehow dis-connected the "edit" feature in the templates.

Also, I'm changing a few core templates to allow functionality with comments and reviews, and eventually the "advanced rating" system. Mostly the link.html and detailed.html There are probably going to be seveal detail pages -- detail_comments.html, detail_reviews.html and detail_ratings.html that are loaded from the main detailed.html that just gives you the options of loading the other data, or to list 1...5 comments and/or reviews and ratings. (Those bells are not in this release though, as of yet, though.)

I'm putting a little extra time into this, as this is going to actually be the "core" of the blogger program in some ways.

A blog is being able to attach a comment to a "top" tree, then allow others to interact with it.

In reality a blog is just a CMS with some features enabled to make it somewhat slightly interactive.

When I'm done, the _last_ thing I'm going to work on is the publication/blogroll system, since there are new technologies for spam prevention and such coming out that it's probably better to deal with from the get go, rather than back code. *AND* I'm not so sure all that public display is a *good* thing. Mass-mailing is not the best way to advertise or expose a targeted or niche product.

But that is later on :)

pugdog
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Apr 20, 2005, 9:26 AM

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Re: [pugdog] Ultra_Comment [In reply to]	Can't Post

I've got almost everything connected. (I dis-connected the "edit/modify" somehow, and still haven't manged to reconnect it properly :( ).

New: You can lists posts by a user, list all a users posts, or list all users who posted to a link (and show # of comments if multi-comment is enabled).

Because I broke up the input methods, and require a do= parameter (rather than trying to guess what to do), and explicitly pass all input to the subroutines, there is a lot of extra functionality, _and_ new functionality is as simple as writing a method/routine (this is *not* a real object, but eventually going to be one). You won't get "bitten" or find something really weird going on. Comment & Review share a load of feautures in common, so I really just have to figure out a topology for the module area for these routines. But, that's wandering :)

The next release of the code should be generalized, where you define your table, and primary key, and the comments will attach to that column. It's up to you to do all the other work, in the templates to display it (it only comes with Link.ID functionality out of the box).

The rating/review system is not connected, that is the next block. That is already a plugin, and I need to modify it to hook onto the Link.ID field, _AND_ the Comment_ID field out of the box. (I will try to hook it up to the built-in review field as well, but GT does things a bit differently, and I don't want to rearrange their code for compatibility.)

This is key to the blogger, and the first release of the blogger will be similar to a Home Page community. Users can set up a blog, under their username, and they get access to a "home page" which they can customize with their own HTML/CSS They have access to certain tags, which allow them to put data in different places. They can enter a "Post" which is akin to a new thread, or they can "comment" on their own posts, and it's added to the list. I *really* don't want non-logged in access, so this requires a user to log on to comment, review, vote, rate, or otherwise interact with the system other than just "read".

Essentially, they have a private message board, with an attached "comment" system. Categories should be easy to implement, and we already have file upload and image upload/modification plugin which can be adapted to deal with specific users.

There is a bunch of stuff going on in spam reduction, so the first incarnation of the blogger, due shortly after the first release of the Ultra_Comments plugin, will not include any of the automated announcement features. It's primarily designed to allow your users to set up their own little information resources, or even "niches" from your own site (if you have DVD's or CD's, or Books, etc, you can use a couple of plugins to allow users to set up their own little book stores, or shelves, or libraries from your larger one).

(See, I do come back to older projects -- MyFavLInks/WishList -- it just takes time to write all the related/support modules <groan>)

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