Usability tweaks

[xbytor2]

Is there a thread anywhere that contains usability tweaks for the new forum UI?

I've seen this Stylish flex-width tweak http://forums.adobe.com/thread/414809#1870916

and Ramón has mentioned liberal use of AdBlock Plus to remove clutter and whitespace.

Is there anything else that would help?

[Eric16]

Hi Dave,

Just wondering if maybe it might be easier to post it up on userscripts.org? Then any one who wants it can just click the Install button.

(Plus you are not fighting the Jive sw to get a clean copy posted!)

[Guest]

maybe eric. when i wrote the last one i didn't know about them so i just made a web page. good idea though... i'll put it there when i get home (can't from work).

[Guest]

ah, well. that was easy enough...

here it is:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/51334

[Ramón G Castañeda]

Thank you very much, dave!

It's working perfectly, even in cases where the plonked user has parentheses in parts of his user ID.

A most welcome relief!           

[Ramón G Castañeda]

Minor glitch:  if the original poster in a thread gets plonked, the whole thread gets plonked.

Convenient example:  the OP of this thread is obviously on my plonk list, the first and only reply is by Chris Cox, who is of course NOT plonked.  When the afplonkjive script kicks in, there's nothing left.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2035434#2035434

[Guest]

if the original poster in a thread gets plonked, the whole thread gets plonked.

yes, i tested and noticed that. didn't have time to fix it though (if there's a way). the way it works is it finds the childeren div's of the OP's post and hides em. turns out that ALL posts are childeren of the OP though. i'll have a look.

[Ramón G Castañeda]

dave, don't sweat it.  It's so minor as to be irrelevant.  Presumably one is not interested in any thread started by some klutz one has already plonked.

Thank you again for a MAJOR enhancement to the forums. 

[Guest]

no problem ramón!

[Eric16]

New GreaseMonkey script!

Adobe Forums: Search this forum only

This script hacks the Search Forum form to insert the current sub-forum Community ID as a hidden value. The result is that when you enter a search, it only returns results from the sub-forum you are currently viewing.

Based on this tip posted by phyllisj9 over in the InDesign General sub-forum

http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/dgarchives/designgeek76.php#search-forums

and the fact that I figured out how to find Community ID in all community/* and thread/* pages.

[Guest]

So how much is Jive paying you to do their job for them?  You should ask for $150 an hour I'd say.

Unfortunately I refuse to use hacks and scripts to fix this software crap so I will continue to simply post new messages if I need to research something, without attempting a search beforehand.  If Adobe doesn't like the extra threads in their forum database, they can fix searches.

[Eric16]

Well, when I saw that absolutely nothing changed from the beta test (at least nothing major), I knew that the only way to keep using it without going insane was to do a little hacking. Even I'm willing to admit the lack of progress has been startling, but then again, I'm currently trying to figure out how to disable the mess their programmers made of shift-scrollwheel in InDesign CS3/CS4, lol, so I suppose I should be used to it.

It is sort of amusing to see the Quark-like levels of hatred they're gradually building up from their userbase though. I suspect the fall will be just as hard for them eventually...

[Guest]

It's not fair that people are only posting tweaks for anything other than IE. My scripting expertise is rudimentary at best, but this seems to work.
If I nick Eric's code and package it a bit like this:

javascript:(function(){var allLinks,communityID,myString,mySplit,search_obj,form_obj;communityID="ERROR";allLinks=document.getElementsByTagName('link');for(var i=0;i<allLinks.length;++i){if(myString=allLinks.href.match(/community=[0-9]+/)){communityID=myString.toString();mySplit=communityID.split("=");communityID=mySplit[1];break;}}if(communityID!=="ERROR"){if(document.getElementById){if(document.getElementById('jive-userbar-search')){search_obj=document.getElementById('jive-userbar-search');form_obj=search_obj.getElementsByTagName('form')[0];form_obj.innerHTML='<input type="hidden" value="'+communityID+'" name="CommunityID"/>'+form_obj.innerHTML;}}}alert('Search is now confined to Forum '+communityID)})()

we can make it work for IE7 users. It probably won't work in IE6 because it's too long, but it might in IE4 and5. I don't know about IE8.

1. Copy that lot (from javascript: to )})() ).
2. Right-click on a blank bit of the page and select "Add to Favorites..."
3. For 'Name', put FixJiveSearch.
4. At 'Create in' select 'Links'. A folder called 'Links' should be there, but if it isn't, create a new folder.
5. If there is no 'Links' bar at the top of the IE window, right-click on a blank bit of toolbar and select 'Links'.
6. Find your newly-created Favourite (it will probably have an Adobe icon), right-click on it and select Properties.
7. The Properties sheet should open at the Web Document tab with the URL field highlighted. Hit Ctrl-V to paste what you copied earlier into this field.
8. (Optional) Click Change Icon and find an icon you like for the favourite.
9. Click OK to save and dismiss the Properties sheet.

Now, when you're viewing a forum page - discussions or messages - and you want to search that forum alone, just click the FixJiveSearch icon before putting your search term in the box. If we've done everything properly, you should get confirmation that search has been restricted to that forum.

This is a per-webpage solution, so as soon as you navigate away from the one you were viewing when you clicked the button, the functionality is lost. Just click it again next time you want to confine your search to the forum you're visiting.

If there are any IE7 users out there, would they care to check that this works?

Thanks, Eric (and Phyllis)!

Noel

EDIT: Despite my best efforts, there are a few extra spaces in the code that shouldn't be there; Jive doesn't like long lines, and it's got to be on one line to work. The forum code has inserted spaces so that they're at most 80 characters apart, so you'll have to paste into Notepad first and then delete the following five spaces:

After the first 'ERROR'; should come allLinks - no space between a and l

After community=[0-9] should be +/)) - no space between + and /

communityID=mySplit[1] - no space between m and y

In the second if(document.getElementById - no space in document

form_obj.innerHTML - no space between b and j

The other spaces can stand.

Then Ctrl-A Ctrl-C and continue from point 2. Sorry about that!

N

[Eric16]

Cool! I'm on a Mac so I can't do anything about IE from my end.

It is very nice of you to take the time to take on the challenge!

[Guest]

Here's the contents of the code box above as a text file. This might make it through the Jive mill unscathed, in which case you're good to go.

Noel

EDIT: looks like it made it intact. Enjoy! N