Forum update
"Last Post By" - Excellent! 
swallace wrote:
I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'!
Call me a "nit picker" but can I make a suggestion 
I think the Started By would be much better in a column next to Last Post By. Even after I reloaded the stylesheet (which I only thought to do after I read this post 
), the number of posts that are displayed on a screen is reduced because of the extra Started By lines... which means extra scrolling to see information that was previously available without scrolling. The reason I mention this is that there is plenty of extra horizontal room for an additional column...
Tip about stylesheets... I discovered a little method to solve the problem of having to get users to manually update cached stylesheets, javascript etc. All you have to do is either:
- include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name
- or create a folder which is named as a version number which contains the new stylesheets, js files. Obviously the pages need to be updated to include the new version specific files, but users will never have the problem of seeing old stylesheets again... I actually wrote a small server control which I simple inlcude on each page that requires the stylesheet. The server control looks up the current version number from a config file and dynamically creates the stylesheet paths and filenames etc. I use the folder method which makes it really easy. If I ever make a change to the javascript or stylesheet files, I simply copy the folder to a new folder, rename it to the new version number and make my changes. Once I update the config file to use this new version, client browsers automatically load the new css and js files.
The only issue is that you loose source control versioning... but I think the cleaner user experience is more important.
swallace wrote:
I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'!
heh Yeah probably, but it's a great addition I think. When I had it in I also thought that a feature I saw on another board, clicking on the last post date and go to that last post directly, would be a good feature, so I added that today as well!
Marcus wrote:
"Last Post By" - Excellent!
swallace wrote:
I like the new look. Cleaner, easier to read. I suspect, however, as hard as you work and as quick as you are to give support, the 'last post by' field will always say 'Otis'!
Call me a "nit picker" but can I make a suggestion
I toyed with that, but it ate away a lot of room frm the thread subjects, which then easily wrapped, and which looked ugly as well. I tried several variants, this one we liked the best as most clear. I understand it shows less threads in one go, though most of hte time the threads below the viewed threads aren't the newest ones anyway 
Tip about stylesheets... I discovered a little method to solve the problem of having to get users to manually update cached stylesheets, javascript etc. All you have to do is either:
- include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name
- or create a folder which is named as a version number which contains the new stylesheets, js files.
Versionnumber, I'll check that out. The folder is a neat idea but not an option, as I then have to change all the pages.
Obviously the pages need to be updated to include the new version specific files, but users will never have the problem of seeing old stylesheets again... I actually wrote a small server control which I simple inlcude on each page that requires the stylesheet. The server control looks up the current version number from a config file and dynamically creates the stylesheet paths and filenames etc. I use the folder method which makes it really easy. If I ever make a change to the javascript or stylesheet files, I simply copy the folder to a new folder, rename it to the new version number and make my changes. Once I update the config file to use this new version, client browsers automatically load the new css and js files.
Clever!
Otis wrote:
I can't find any info on version numbers in stylesheets, do you have an example?
I'm afraid its not as elegant as you are thinking
When I said "include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name" I meant layout.css -> layout_v123.css
The new file is then different from the old file and the browser can't use the cached version.
You do have to change all the pages to reflect this which is why I built a control which reads a config file...
Marcus wrote:
Otis wrote:
I can't find any info on version numbers in stylesheets, do you have an example?
I'm afraid its not as elegant as you are thinking
When I said "include a version number in the stylesheet or js file name" I meant layout.css -> layout_v123.css
The new file is then different from the old file and the browser can't use the cached version.
You do have to change all the pages to reflect this which is why I built a control which reads a config file...
oooh! ok
That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well.
Otis wrote:
That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well.
Search and replace???
Find: "<link href="stylesheets/layout.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"
Replace: "<link href="stylesheets/layout_<%=VersionHelper.StyleSheet%>.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
Where you create a class VersionHelper with a property StyleSheet which simply returns a style sheet version number...
[Edit: you might also want to fully qualify the VersionHelper class since you don't want to have to include a <@ Imports> statement...
Joined: 08-Jun-2004
Marcus wrote:
Otis wrote:
That's also a lot of work, as I have to change all pages then as well.
Search and replace???
Find: "<link href="stylesheets/layout.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"
Replace: "<link href="stylesheets/layout_<%=VersionHelper.StyleSheet%>.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">"
Where you create a class VersionHelper with a property StyleSheet which simply returns a style sheet version number...
Edit: you might also want to fully qualify the VersionHelper class since you don't want to have to include a <@ Imports> statement...
Sounds good indeed I've to store this in the list of things to do for the forum. It is not very well componentized at the moment. I didn't think of solving it this way. Clever! (and probably "well... duh!" for asp.net guru's but I'm not that skilled in asp.net )
netclectic wrote:
Nice!
Been away for the weekend, just noticed the changes.
Can i make a couple of suggestions...
- maybe make the 'Started by: ' text smaller to amke the post title clearer and easier to read.
see marcus' reply
- add a link in the 'Last Post by' column to direct you to the last post.
Click the date in last post made on It will bring you to the last post made
Doh!
It was early, i hadn't had my full quota of caffeine
Any chance you could automatically bookmark threads that I post in? Maybe this could be an option in my profile. "Automatically Bookmark Threads On Post"
Marcus wrote:
Any chance you could automatically bookmark threads that I post in? Maybe this could be an option in my profile. "Automatically Bookmark Threads On Post"
Yeah, profile, something I really need to add so users can set some preferences . It's on my forum todolist. Though first 1.0.2005.1 code.