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Topic titles in posts view.
http://manager.themasoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6245		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Wurstmu [ September 21st, 2015, 6:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Topic titles in posts view.
Hello,

I have an issue with the naming of the topics in topic view and selecting the right topic for edits.

There are forums where you can't give the post a title - only if you start a thread. For such posts it seems that TM takes the first line as the title in posts view. This leads to ambiguous or sometimes senseless titles in TM.

Is there any way to change this behaviour? It would be good being able to fetch the topic title in such cases or even to edit the title in TM manually - or both ;-) Another help would be being able to enter multiple filter criteria.

I'm not dealing with many posts in TM yet but it already gets me clicking around searching for the right entry because I need to look at the post text to identify which post I have selected - another bad thing is that I have to scroll all the way up then because TM always shows the bottom of the post where I often cannot see what post I just opened ...

Any ideas what to do about it?

Wurstmu
Author:  Freddy [ September 22nd, 2015, 6:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Hi,

just wondering, what's the reason behind using the "POSTS" tab in the first place?

From my experience I barely used it.

There is also a search button above posts list where you can search / filter including message text (and subject at the same time if needed). Maybe you missed it.
Author:  Wurstmu [ September 22nd, 2015, 9:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Oh thanks, I really didn't get that. I also saw that it can search "filtered posts" - great, that leads to a hit when combined and actually solves my problem!

I'd like to make this a low priority request then:

Filter input field is all the way down, search button all the way up - both are to be used for one search task in many cases when I use it.

Possible solutions you might consider:

1.) Ability to enter multiple search criteria / wildcards / regex in filter view so that a user wouldn't have to use two parts of the interface that aren't close to each other. (Well, sounds like a bit of programing work, maybe not the best option)

2.) Moving (or copying) the search button down near the filter input field. (This seems easier to implement and at least on my screen there should be enough room to do it. Copying the button might be the better choice for other users might get confused with moving buttons around and actually breaking your consistent interface concept - yes, I see that!)

Wurstmu
Author:  Freddy [ September 22nd, 2015, 3:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Wurstmu wrote:
2.) Moving (or copying) the search button down near the filter input field. (This seems easier to implement and at least on my screen there should be enough room to do it. Copying the button might be the better choice for other users might get confused with moving buttons around and actually breaking your consistent interface concept - yes, I see that!)


I was thinking of this when making it.

I didn't do it like this because:
* The search / filter field at the bottom would be quite small (especially for people with lower resolutions).
* Some people would think you must press the button after entering something in the search / filter field. Which would lead to more confusion.

Added it to top because actions for posts are basically there.

I might make a keyboard shortcut for it. That's probably the best I could offer right now.
Author:  Wurstmu [ September 22nd, 2015, 5:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Quote:
I might make a keyboard shortcut for it. That's probably the best I could offer right now.

Agreed, would at least help me a lot! Thanks for considering it.

Wurstmu
Author:  Wurstmu [ October 14th, 2015, 10:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Nevertheless: would you please consider an option to fetch thread title instead of first topic line for posts where no post title was specified? I have these very often and they really are a pain in the eye when browsing through the list.

See attachment.

Well, not a top priority request, but it would improve look and feel a lot. Not to mention that this view is almost completely useless for forums that don't allow to specify post titles if you reply a lot to existing topics.

Wurstmu

Attachments:
ClutteredView.PNG
ClutteredView.PNG [ 16.18 KiB | Viewed 6285 times ]
Author:  Freddy [ October 14th, 2015, 2:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
From your screenshot, the covered part, is that subject or anything close to subject?

Would it better if I just removed BBCode?

Maybe you should consider including subject in first line of message text when posting? It would help SEO as well and people would find your posts easier.
Author:  Wurstmu [ October 14th, 2015, 2:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
The first line is the subject in BB-tags indeed! Bad thing is that it is cut off in the list view so the BB-Code takes away space that would actually help me to identify the post more easily - so your suggestion is a good solution for my templates. I would get along nicely with removing tags from the first line when creating list items from post bodies.

Your suggestion is also better than mine because if you just take the thread title any answer in the thread would look the same in list view; the list would look nicer but it would still be of no use :-)

I'd be grateful if your suggested improvement would find its way into TM at some time.

Wurstmu
Author:  Freddy [ October 14th, 2015, 2:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Could you PM me at least one forum with logins details where you have posts this way (without subject)?

Just for testing subject preview (won't be doing any edits).
Author:  Freddy [ October 15th, 2015, 2:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
1.15
* Improved subject preview when normal subject is empty by removing not needed BBCode from first line of message text. Only affects new fetched posts. If wanted for old you will need to re-fetch them by removing the user and adding it again.
Author:  Wurstmu [ October 15th, 2015, 2:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view.
Stunning! Looking forward to next alpha / beta release. :-)

Wurstmu
Author:  Wurstmu [ October 17th, 2015, 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view
Just tested - works as intended, many thanks!

I see the URL-Tag isn't stripped but this isn't important for me as they are only at the beginning of bump posts and I might delete those from TM anyway.

Freddy wrote:
Only affects new fetched posts. If wanted for old you will need to re-fetch them by removing the user and adding it again.

This is getting more an more painful as my database grows. When testing I saw that quite a lot of my older posts seem to be too old to be fetched in some forums so I have only the choice between leaving the interface cluttered or losing ability to edit older posts. I'd really like not having to chose - but I suppose this would require changes in the base design of TM, so I guess it'll remain only a good wish.

For now I found another solution than the one you suggested: also a small edit will make TM "refresh" the list display. So I guess I'll just have to find something that needs to be edited ;-)

Wurstmu
Author:  Freddy [ October 17th, 2015, 1:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Topic titles in posts view.
Actually message must be at least two lines, only then BBCode will be removed. I kinda doubt there is any need for single line messages to even be in themaManager, those are usually pointless replies which can be removed.

Anyway, improved to affect single line posts as well for 1.15 final.

Yeah, after any edit the subject preview also is updated.

I'm planning to add something for re-fetching existing posts (without removing the user) which would help here as well.
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