It's not a feature request for W3T, but a feature request for Scream's website. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> Yet another vote for more, uh, full featured Resource Center.
What I'd like to see is something like what Gossamer Threads is running. A separate area of the site where users could link to their finished hacks on the forums or upload them directly and could also upload theme sets, new icons, etc. The one at GT (which is built on a modified version of Links2, of course) allows users to vote on the hacks listed, which isn't completely necessary, but does give you a way to see before you try adding the hack how neatly the instructions are laid out and how welll it's going to function when you are done.
It would have to have to be divided into sections by version, so as not to mess people up. But all in all it's not that hard a thing to implemement. Once it's set up, it would probably save Rick some mainenance time because he wouldn't have to manually update his resource center, and it would make life easier for me me me! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> There are all these great hacks and nifty additions popping up, and I'm not ready to implement many of them yet, and I'm afraid by the time I am ready, I won't be able to find them among all the conversation.
Another possibility would be to have a read-only board, as someone suggested, where Rick (or a moderator) links to the finished hacks from the other boards. But that would be more time consuming for Rick (or the board moderator) because it wouldn't allow the user to upload him or herself. And it would be harder to keep track of what hacks were for what version.
I think this is a great idea, and GT's Links 2 would be my suggestion as well as a tool. I've been using Links2 for about 6 months now, two slightly different versions (i.e. differently, but heavily modified) and it does a great job. You can easily find mods/hacks there, and I have found the rating option quite valuable - it gives some feedback about the usefullness and ease of implementation. Check it out at <A HREF="http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/resources/Links/Modifications/" target="_new">http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/resources/Links/Modifications/</A>
Good idea, Phoenix. Tell ya what, once I get 5.0.2 out and people don't mind waiting a little bit longer for the next release I'll spend a little time setting this up.
Same for me. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> Alex gave me the upload mod he uses for the resource center, so I can pass that on to you if you'd like. it's based on the exact same code you're using for the W3T uploads, just edited to run in Links... I think you wrote a good chunk of it. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> Anyway, if there's anything I can do... perty-ing up the templates or site_html.pl to match your site, fer instance... just let me know. That is, if you mean to use Links.
I still owe you one. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> Phoenix
I think Rick is in the THANKS file for Links2. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> His name's definitely in the code in places, and Alex is thanked back in W3T. Groovy, huh?
I love Links. I use it for half a dozen completely different things. It slices. It dices. It can cut through a tin can and still slice right through a tomato. It's the ultimate chameleon script. It can be almost anything. It can not, however, be a bulletin board system. And so I love W3T too. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />
Agreed, Links2 would be the best choice, I have done quite a lot of work on my two versions, and put in a very useful mod, the "Automatic Duplicate URL Checker", which virtually eliminates the problem of duplicate listings. You are right, it has many uses! Together, I'm sure we can get the Resources on their way! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> If help is wanted or needed, of course...
Hmm... that's a hard one. Thought I'd wait a while to answer and see if I could think of anything. I can only come up with 3 divisions... Icons, smilies, and themes (anything to do with just plain appearance) Add-ons (things that don't change the overall functionality, like my private messages to groups, Eileen's javascripts additions to the add and modify post scripts, Simon's user manual) and Hacks (things that actually change the behaviors of the main scripts)
I can't think of any other way to break it down. Anyone? And of course it would have to be broken down into versions inside of these categories, other than Themes.
I think that your categories are fine and you're right, version numbering has to be enforced (how about via a drop-down list). In addition, the files that need to be edited should have a field for themselves ... people sometimes fail to mention which files need to be hacked!
I also think that there should be some sort of indicator for Rick to fill in which would be used to let people know which future (and existing) official releases of WWWThreads the items are included in.
Simon Wolf, Webmaster, Access All Areas <A HREF="http://www.athree.com" target="_new">http://www.athree.com</A>
I would find life a lot easier when I'm upgrading if all the files in a new release kept their true datestamps instead of all being artificially brought into line. Then I could see at a glance which files I needed to edit in order to keep my own customizations in place.
Well it looks like I will be using Links, so if you can pass along the Upload mod that would save me alot of time. And I'd definitely like to have help with the templates/site_html.pl to look nice if ya want to, otherwise it will probably end up looking pretty basic cuz I stink at site design:(.
Well, there are two ways you can go - with or without templates. After starting with templates, I found them too slugish to edit, so I switched to non-templates, which means that the site_html.pl is the one that needs to be edited for site design. Depending on which way you want to go - others may have made better experiences with the templates - it would all depend on how you would want it to look, more like the w3t website, or more like this demo, what colors is concerned.
I emailed the files Alex gave me to you at scream@wcsoft.net. It includes his templates from the resource center, which I assume he just gave me for the sake of example so I'd know what to name my fields, and the modified version of add.cgi where the upload routine is located.
You do not suck at web site design. Someone once told you W3T was butt-ugly (I think that was the term) and you took it to heart. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> The site has never looked bad.
If you don't mind using Templates, I'm happy to muck around in them for you. I'd rather not mess with site_html.pl where I'm working remotely because I wouldn't be able to "test view" the pages it produces, and I'm addicted to looking at what my changes have wrought every 3 seconds or so when working on page layouts.... reasons why I could never do what you do. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
Good point about the templates, for this purpose they may be thus the best choice. I also agree that w3t isn't ugly - as a matter of fact, when I first saw w3t 4.0 (the "dark" version) I thought it had a touch of elegance which was one of the points that made me decide to purchase the license. I made mine look less dark though, with some more blue in it, but these things are always a matter of taste.
Are you intending the Resource Center to be located inside the Downloads section of the site where the themes and icons are now? Or would you want to set it up as a new main section?
Probably easier the first way because then you don't have to go back and edit all your other pages, but I just wanted to make sure.
Yeah, I'll have a link within the Download Area pointing to the Resource Center. I'll also have a link to the Resource Center on the main page as well.
Just a thought - I wish there could be a section "for members only" where more complicated hacks could be posted by publishing the finished files. Since Links2 puts each category into a seperate subdirectory, this should be possible, just need to place a copy there of your .htaccess file which you have in your download area for customers.
This will probably be the standard. Any uploads of hacks/customizations will be only available to registered users. Once a user buys a license they will always have access to this area, it won't be on a yearly basis or anything like that.
Now that the Resource Center is up, it would be nice if we could have a direct link to it from this forum, in the header or footer. As it is, it takes a bit of mousing around the site to get there.
It would also be nice if we could add a field to the database to hold a "samle image" or thumbnail for icons and themesets.
Sure 'nuff, if he wants to go through the trouble of adding a field name to the database for it. It would have to be a field that could hold a full URL to a graphic file. Then you just put in (assuming your field name is Image)
But can you do that with an if statement? It would be silly to show "Sample:" when there isn't one... especially in the other categories where samples would make no sense... Sorry about this question, since I use the non-template version I really am not sure if you can use an "if" for this with templates... just curious, since I don't have to set this up I don't need to know, but out of interest... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />
Yeah, that is that way if statements work in the templates. You use <%if FieldName%> and <%endif%> and then if there's any value whatsoever in the field, it will display... otherwise, it's just skipped. You can also use <%ifnot FieldName%> to display alternate text if there's no value in the field.
But what you can't do is something like <%if FieldName = "Whatever"%> so it's still quite limiting. Your options are to print the text or skip the text, but not decide what to print based on what the value of the field is. Still in all I've come up with some really powerful templates for Links. They work better than I'd expected them to at first.
Would also be nice to have in the Resource Center a secction for International Languages, where we could upload the newest translations. I have noticed several who have said they did not get their translations -as myself, into the updates, and this would probably be the best option. Also, we might have some special hacks to share for those who have other Default languages.
