LockedWhat would you like to see in version 1.9? (closed)

Update!

Thanks for all your suggestions and your time, and this topic is now closed.

I have chosen quite a few suggestions in this thread and will implement them in our version 1.9. I will have a detailed feature list available here by Friday.

Please understand that I will not add features that are either too resource intensive, require too much database space, or are too overly complicated to implement with pure ASP. Like I said in the new web site, I do not pretend to be everything for everyone. This application has to stay clean and useful to the public in general in order to scale well for busy forums. The balance among usability, feature, and performance is the key that makes ASPPlayground.NET stand out from the crowd.

Thanks again and I am sure that you will be happy with the final feature list.


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Hi everyone,

1.82.20 will be the last build for our 1.8x release. So, what would you like to see in our version 1.9 (will be out late September)?

Please push me as hard as possible. I want to make the 1.9 release as complete as possible for all of you. I' d also like to thank many of you who provide valueable suggestions to make this forum application the BEST in ASP.

Please note that we will not be supporting Mail List, Calendar, and Chat room in our ASP version. Those features will appear in our upcoming .NET software which will take advantage of several .NET specific features. Group based permission is also not suitable in ASP either (performance reasons).

I know many of you have suggested some features, but if you can, please post them here as well. I will have a detailed feature set out in mid-September.

Thank you all!

update - Just want to let you know that our version 1.9 will be using pseudo RC4 encryption for password stored in cookies. Admin will be able to specify a key for this encryption (in masterinclude.asp). This will provide a good balance between security and performance. The level of security will be based on the length and the character combination of your key. I really don' t see any more benefits to provide a higher level of security model in a forum application.

I really don' t see any more benefits to provide a higher level of security model in a forum application.

For the record, the reason I suggested that it' s important to secure those cookies is this: Many people use the same password EVERYWHERE on the Internet. If, for some reason, someone figures out a cross-site-scripting vulnerability in PGD, they could lift someone' s cookies, thereby getting that person' s login name and password. From there, if their profile is rich with info, they could get more information, and then they could try logging in as that user at, say, Amazon.Com. Wow, what a goldmine that would be!

Just for the record. I look forward to seeing what you do!

And I' ll recommend that all ASP-PGD users rotate their key every few weeks.

AS for features in 1.9:

• A " kit" of stored procedures (commented heavily, or at least described) that perform generic operations like " Show me the newest n posts" or " List the newest n users" -- stuff along those lines. Call it the " Site Integration Kit" or something to that effect; very handy to stuff ASP-PGD into an existing layout when we have a kit like this.
  
• I' d like to see session, authentication and user management modularized a bit more to make it easier to upgrade the forums if we' ve hacked your code into our own site. . One file that contains all user management and session management (including authentication/authorization) would be ideal, one file that has the dozen or so functions you require for ASP-PGD but that we could change easily (and in one place). Does my wording of this request make sense?
  
• An easier way to manage the style of the forums. Perhaps just call three CSS files -- One for all browsers, an additional one for IE5+ browsers, and a third for Mozilla-style browsers (NS6, Opera). I personally dislike using a web-based interface to customize the look and feel, I prefer to jump into the stylesheets. These CSS files should also be well commented. If you haven' t seen it alreayd, check out TopStyle (http://www.bradsoft.com); it' s the best CSS IDE ever.
  

That' s my wish list, Santa.

Samuel,

I' ll just repeat some of the features I have suggested before:

• " Simplified" Flat Style
  
• " Posts Revisions Tracking"
  
• " Time-Limit the ability to edit one' s own post"
  
• " Download permission determined by number of posts"
  
• " Hide from online user list" made optional for admin.
  

Samuel, first of all let me underline again what an excellent support service this is and how I appreciate the fact that you ask us to suggest as much as possible. Please, keep up with this superb job!

As to the featurs, these are those that I need most, but I' m quite confident I' ll be adding more of them as they come to my mind

• Customizable registration form. This is extremely important to me because the community I run is more like a club and it is one of my duties to do all that I can to be selective and avoid any kind of annoyance to current users. So, I tend to ask specific questions about users that allow me to understand who they are and reach them via phone or other means in case I need. Basically, our community is all but based on anonimity. So, I' d suggest to create a number of customizable fields in the registration form, and that those info are emailed to the admin together with the authorization/confirmation link.
  
  
• Ability to read all PM of all users by the Admin. I suggest that this is optional and that a disclaimer is presented to users when they use PM if this option is enabled, so that their privacy is somewhat preserved. Unfortunately, this is needed in those country where the admin can be hold legally responsible for the content of the forum, which requires some of us admins to check periodically that no (C) material or links (or worse) are shared among users, for instance.
  
  
• I know you said it would negatively impact performance for big forums, but since you asked to push you hard , maybe it could be optional (explaining that, if enabled, such an option would decrement the forum performances) for smaller communities: ability to save font, font color, font size for message editing, for each user.
  
  
• Again, I know you said it could cause a dramatic overload for a mail server, but again, for small communities, it could be optional to add the message body in subscription notification emails
  
  

That' s all for now. Samuel thanks again for your efforts in making this the best forum sw ever. I think it already is, honestly .

Here' s another one...

Whenever the " reply" button is clicked for a particular post, get the selection text and include that as a quoted section in the reply. In other words, end-users would drag-select a block of text, then click reply; that text will be stored and then output in the message body of the new message window with quote elements around it.

Thank you very much! I will do my best adding as many of them as possible => I always want performance first, features second.

To Dustin, I don' t quite get what you meant by " drop selected text in the browser window" .

If I select some text in your message, then click " reply" , copy that text to a JS variable. On the pop-up used to enter a message, check to see if that variable contains any text -- if so, output it to the message text window surrounded by the [ quote][ /quote] elements and refocus on the subject (or whatever you' re going to setfocus to). Make sense?

Keep up the GREAT work, Samuel. ASP-PGD is a killer app and you' re always making it better!

thanks Dustin. Yes it definitely makes sense. But I am suspecting that this will be a feature that only users with IE 5 and up can use it. However, it can still benefit 85% of the users, so I will do it.

Ok, one more thing I' ve been considering for a while, but I don' t know exactly how it can be implemented: what about a Photo Gallery? I guess several communities would benefit from this.

We can already upload pictures, so maybe we just need one more type of post (I mean, besides Regular posts, polls, faq): photo gallery. One should be able to upload a number of pictures in one post, and thumbnails would be generated automagically . By clicking on each of them, afull size version should be loaded in a different window. Somewhere, a description would be perfect. This is a rough idea, but maybe you' ll like it.

I know there are already few photo gallery sw around, but the only good ones I could find are in php, so maybe this is a great opportunity for ASPPlayground to include such a feature.

Ok, that " guest" was me. Sorry. . To many pcs, too few cookies...

Photo Gallery means dependency. To auto generate thumbnails you will need to have direct system file access => binary dll. It is not that I don' t want to have this feature, but really, it is not ideal for a standalone ASP application (ASP.NET will be fine for this purpose).

I don' t know how many of you do have a specialized JPEG resizing component, but this is really beyond the capability of this application. without this resizing capability, gallery will only kill your bandwidth/performance.

Anyway, I will think about this.

I forgot:

• Option to add a line saying " reply to %sendername%" at the beginning of each message in flat style. Since I created this message, for instance, by clicking on the reply icon of my own previous post, it would have this as its first line
  
  ..................
  Reply to Taym.
  
  I forgot:
  [...]
  
  

ORIGINAL: Samuel
feature, but really, it is not ideal for a standalone ASP application (ASP.NET will be fine for this purpose).

I understand .

ORIGINAL: Taym

ORIGINAL: Samuel
feature, but really, it is not ideal for a standalone ASP application (ASP.NET will be fine for this purpose).

I understand .

by the way, since we have the capability to upload/embed picture in posts, the forum should serve as a gallery without problem. The only thing that is missing is the resizing capability.

The ability to ban / allow individuals to upload files. :)

ORIGINAL: Samuel
by the way, since we have the capability to upload/embed picture in posts, the forum should serve as a gallery without problem. The only thing that is missing is the resizing capability.

Samuel, yes, you' re right. As a matter of fact I am now using a section of the forum as a photo gallery, and even now it works quite well
Thanks

More suggestions

• Automatically converting " :)" and " :-)" into (maybe optional would be better). I.e. without the use of square brackets.
  
  
• Some of my users reported that with Opera and Mozilla/NS6 smileys are always put at the end of the line instead of the current cursor position. Is it a bug? Is it possible to fix that?
  
  

Thank you!

Hi Taym,

Yes, it is possible to convert avatars just by modifying the pgdcode.js in the js directory. The PGDCode is very flexible so I guess you can do it yourself (instead of me putting the conversion as a standard). Some of my clients reported that they don' t want to have auto conversion for things that aren' t in the bracket. Making it optional will require another db call and it is not a good idea just for this purpose. If you need assistance on this, let me know and I can write the new pgdcode.js for you.

And it is not a bug (smiley always added to the end) for the NN and the Opera browsers. Those browsers just can' t handle cursor position and that' s why all the PGDCodes + smileys won' t work as in IE.

Thanks

ORIGINAL: Samuel

Hi Taym,

Yes, it is possible to convert avatars just by modifying the pgdcode.js in the js directory. The PGDCode is very flexible so I guess you can do it yourself (instead

Done! Thank you Samuel.

Id like to see the option of " lock/pin/faq" available as checkboxes in a new post / reply window (for admins / mods view only) so these functions can be performed immediately

ORIGINAL: FuseWerx

AS for features in 1.9:

• A " kit" of stored procedures (commented heavily, or at least described) that perform generic operations like " Show me the newest n posts" or " List the newest n users" -- stuff along those lines. Call it the " Site Integration Kit" or something to that effect; very handy to stuff ASP-PGD into an existing layout when we have a kit like this.
  
• I' d like to see session, authentication and user management modularized a bit more to make it easier to upgrade the forums if we' ve hacked your code into our own site. . One file that contains all user management and session management (including authentication/authorization) would be ideal, one file that has the dozen or so functions you require for ASP-PGD but that we could change easily (and in one place). Does my wording of this request make sense?
  
• An easier way to manage the style of the forums. Perhaps just call three CSS files -- One for all browsers, an additional one for IE5+ browsers, and a third for Mozilla-style browsers (NS6, Opera). I personally dislike using a web-based interface to customize the look and feel, I prefer to jump into the stylesheets. These CSS files should also be well commented. If you haven' t seen it alreayd, check out TopStyle (http://www.bradsoft.com); it' s the best CSS IDE ever.
  

That' s my wish list, Santa.

Wow ... I would like to second these features. I would also really like to be able to integrate the software into the layout of my site.

... and here is my addition to the list:
suggestion for Private Messages

How about a switchable view in your profile that shows :

a) Last 10 posts (as now) OR
b) last 10 threads you started

OK, here is a strange one

I got a interesting request from one of the members of my community. Basically, he asked me if there was a way to save the content of the forum on a CD and keep it for future reference.
So, I thought that there already is a function that creates a simple html file: printable version. Do you think it would be useful to have some function for the admin that creates, in any dir, a number of simple html files containing each one of the topics of the forum, and a centralized index.htm to access them all? This would allow to create cds such as " forum - 2002 - all topics discussed in one cd" . If I am not mistaken, this should be easily doable. Several members of my community were enthusiastic about the idea when I talked to them, so I guess this could be a quite popular feature. None of the forum I' ve seen so far has anything like that...

ORIGINAL: Taym

OK, here is a strange one

I got a interesting request from one of the members of my community. Basically, he asked me if there was a way to save the content of the forum on a CD and keep it for future reference.

It is actually pretty easy to do. Just use a program like teleport and you will be able to download all the files to your hard drive for future reference. If we are going to create a cache for these pages, they will not have any of the validation and securtiy logic available in the file (as they are just html), and it will make your private forum content viewable to all your members and guests (since it is just HTML).

Samuel,

Another quick request:

what about a link on each post to send a PM to the author of the post, rather than having to go into his/her profile and only then send the msg? Or maybe there' s I way and I didn' t find it?

Thank you

ORIGINAL: Taym

what about a link on each post to send a PM to the author of the post, rather than having to go into his/her profile and only then send the msg? Or maybe there' s I way and I didn' t find it?

Thank you

Yes, I will add this in the next version. In the mean time, you can add a quick link yourself:

<a href=" pmsend.asp?toMemID=<%= mem %>" onclick=" return powin(this.href)" ><img src=" image/pm.gif" border=0 align=" absmiddle" alt=" <%= memListPM %>" ></a>

Replacement of the " email" icon function so that clicking on the link will activate a web based email form, not a client based email :-)

We have had one instance that I believe is related to someone leaching emails from our pages, even with ascii encoding.
I have since removed all reference to private email addresses.

I would prefer that the link be visible (for those that choose) to activate an ID=xxx window for email.

The use of this would be limited, so it shouldnt stress the email server and would provide further forum integration and security

Here' s another one:

Somewhere in the user profile or in the user list, visible only to admins, I' d like to see his/her

browser / browser version
language
SO

Thank you!