Software feature request
 

I guess this should be addressed to whoever makes the vbforum software but i'm sure you can pass it along.

I love the quick reply...its quick. But if you want to quote someone, you either have to click the link and wait for the page to load or manually quote them. the quote button should be a script thing where when you click it, it auto puts the quote stuff in the quick reply box in the bottom. that would save you a lot of bandwidth. do you see what i mean or am i not clear?


also, the smilies link should be somewhere near the quick reply box as well.

Great idea.. I use the quick reply unless I need to quote someone.

The only problem is that would DOUBLE the size of every topic page as there would have to be a script with the entire text plus quote tags for every post.

couldn't you simply write a script so that when the quote button is pushed it extracts the text of the post with that id and puts it in the quick reply box? I haven't done any php scripting, but it seems possible

PHP is parsed on the server side. For an application like this, it would have to be done on the client side, so you'd need Javascript or something similar. For the page to be accessible for users who have scripting disabled, you'd have to have two copies of each post -- one rendered in HTML, the other existing in a Javascript array (or something similar). That would greatly increase the size of each page.

yeah, forgot about the server side thing. couldnt you make a php script that checked if the user used javascript or not and generate a page depending on that, so the size would be the same? the php script might be a little slower but I dont know..

It might be possible, but that's a pretty monstrous task, involving a near-total rewrite of the way pages are rendered, unfortunately. That's the type of thing I'd leave up to the guys at vBulletin. I personally don't know off the top of my head how to remotely determine if a user has Javascript enabled or not. I'd rather wait 6-7 seconds for the page to load than spend several days miring through all that code. :)

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It's easily possible yes.. however it would not save any bandwidth and would cause regular topics to take twice as long to load, as eash post would need to be in the HTML twice (once to appear on scree, and once as part of the script).

Hmm.. come to think of it.. there MAY be another way. If each post were assigned a name.. hmm.. it could look something like:

Then there could be a quick-quote button next to the quote button and it could do a js something like:

Since the main forum is in PHP naming each post something like post01 post02, etc would be quite easy.. espically since there are only 25 posts per static page.

Just some random brainstorming thoughts..

That's pretty much what I was thinking too:

<hr>

<div id="venusiansanidiot">This is my post.

It has multiple lines.</div>

<textarea id="imjustkiddingbutnotreally" rows="5" cols="50"></textarea>
<a onClick="imjustkiddingbutnotreally.value = '-quote-' + venusiansanidiot.innerHTML.replace(/<BR>/g,'\n') + '-/quote-';" ***********="this.style.cursor = 'hand';">Click to Quote my above post</a>

das

P.S. It becomes infinitely easier if you're doing it from the master and not trying to demo it from within a post. :)

wow. not just a couch potato ;) :up:

It's not going to work now that you've quoted it and reused my id names. -ohbfrank- ;)

Anyway, you'd have to tweak it for cross-browser (I didn't test it past IE), but it really wouldn't be hard. Just id all the posts (which if it isn't already done, should be anyway), write a conversion function (so you don't have to double the data), and add a button.

das

<i>Edit: Fine, I'll change my names. It works again.</i>

Here's a quick example of how this COULD work and without doubling up the file size.

http://pixyjunket.digitalcrap.net/test.html

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth PixyJunket •<HR SIZE=1>Here's a quick example of how this COULD work and without doubling up the file size.

http://pixyjunket.digitalcrap.net/test.html <HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

vB parses text and replaces cr/lfs with brs and smilies with imgs (among other things), so you'll also need a translation function. I can't demonstrate that from within a post for that very reason, but I used an inline regexp replace to give an idea of how it would work.

das

Hey, Pixy, that button at the bottom of your page didn't work as expected. :(

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Groucho •<HR SIZE=1>Hey, Pixy, that button at the bottom of your page didn't work as expected. :( <HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

You may need updated drivers. Try here:

http://www.onzin.nl/fufme/index.shtml.htm

das

Personal Attack in that post!!
;)
Dave

Yeah.. depending on just how many smilies are being used on the forum that alone could add extra size to any page.. plus, you'd have to do something to remove quotes before quoting or else you end up with double-triple quoted stuff like above.

<BLOCKQUOTE> • Quoth Dave99 •<HR SIZE=1>Personal Attack in that post!!
;)
Dave <HR SIZE=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good catch! :D

das

pretty cool
now, can you make allow for multiple quotes into the quick reply?
:D

so any word from the higher ups?

You'll either need to contact vBulletin, or someone here would need to write a hack for the software.

what about the link to smilies in quick reply?


or better yet, clickable smilies

...and i think vBulletin would be a lot more receptive to suggestions from a client than from an end user

Showing my brilliance for not checking this earlier... :) but an instantiation of the vBulletin 3.0 beta I have available for test includes a quote option in 'Quick Reply', so presumably this could be made available when the final version of the software is released and DVD Talk upgrades.

It does work differently than what's described here, though -- click on an icon in a post, and it takes you down to the Quick Reply box at the bottom of the page. There's a "Quote Message in Reply?" checkbox, and if checked, it'll automatically fill in the message when your posted message appears. It differs in that you don't actually see the message you're quoting in the Quick Reply box (unless I'm overlooking an obvious option), and if the checkbox is selected, the entire source post is quoted, not just a selected portion. What I mean is, if you want to quote a single line from a lengthy post, you'll still have to use the intermediate reply page.

The new quick reply has a toolbar with clickable vBCode elements, but to get a similar bar for smileys, it looks like you still have to hit the intermediate reply page.

BTW, I meant the generic "you" when I said "you", not necessarily you specifically. Bad habit. It would depend on whether or not Geoff and other vBulletin users want this functionality, and if a hack writer or the vBulletin developers are interested in implementing it.

cool. any idea when the full version rolls out?