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The Forumotion Toolbar. about it and a few tips and tricks.

LGforumLGforum
Status : Working to restore AWC!

Posts : 2806
Join date : 2011-10-05
Age : 30
Location : UK
Thu 07 Feb 2013, 14:21
Hi, today I want to talk about the new tool bar that Forumotion has released and share a few things about it, positives and negatives.

First off, the toolbar is great. I mean notifications are good, it means I don't have to write any scripts for that sort of thing, for this reason I'll be using it on Avacweb. You may notice already I've styled it to look the same as the old toolbar we had on Avacweb, and made some good style improvements to it. Which will bring me to my first point, styling the toolbar.

Styling the Toolbar

The styling for the toolbar is in an inline [ic]<style>[/ic] tag... below our CSS stylesheet link. So if you wish to style the toolbar with any detail you'll need to do it in an announcement or widget in [ic]<style>[/ic] tags of your own. You'll also need to conform to the stupid selectors used. Yup some even look like this: [ic]#fa_menu:hover :visited, #fa_toolbar > #fa_right.notification > #fa_notifications[/ic] Razz However, once you've put your own stamp of design onto the toolbar, you can get a decent looking feature.

Space is wasted in our page supporting IE6, and IE7 with again silly CSS and CSS Expressions. This is essentially pointless, since a lot of their Javascript doesn't support these browsers.
If anyone needs any help acheiving any sort of style, then feel free to ask, it can be difficult.

Negatives of the toolbar

I mentioned the negatives regarding CSS above, the next thing to look at would be the Javascript side of things.

Do you sometimes add quite a big Javascript to your site and wonder? I hope this won't affect my site loading. Well you may as well throw that all out the window... since Forumotion have added an absolute TON of javascript to your page for this toolbar. The amount of Javascript has actually severely put me off having this bar, there's only one positive to the Javascript which I'll get to later which has persuaded me to keep it.

Here's the Javascript that has been added to your forum:
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/cookie/jquery.cookie.js - Yes javascript just for managin cookies lol
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/toolbar/FAToolbar.js - The javascript for the functionality of the toolbar
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/json/json2.js - Javascript for managing browsers who don't support JSON. Despite JSON usage already being built into the available jQuery built into our heads, and can be as simple falling back to using [ic]eval()[/ic] a function (although frowned upon) has been around in every browser for a very long time. So the actual reason for this JS eludes me.
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/printf/printf.js - A jquery plug in for managing formatted strings. Why they couldn't have just done this server side with PHP's native formatted printing functions, I don't know.
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/printf/printf.js
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/dotdotdot/jquery.dotdotdot-1.5.6.js - A jquery plug in for simply cutting text off that is too long and showing a '...' (ellipsis).
https://illiweb.com/rs3/45/frm/jquery/notif/FA.js - More javascript for handling the notifications.

So if you thought you had a lot of Javascript before... well now you certainly do anyway, and yes this will affect your load times, drastically on phpbb2 and PunBB.
Many of these plug-ins could be left out altogether.

Your live notifications also come to you via Javascript being repeated time after time, a request to a separate (presumably) Forumotion server, which most of the time takes a very long time to respond, doesn't respond, or gives a 403 error. You may see the loading of a 'f12.dnspro.org' often at the bottom of your browser, and even in your error console.

I'd put down another negative as the toolbar is the fact there's an abundance of useless stuff on there too.

The bar isn't even included within the source of the page. Its added dynamically with Javascript? Why?

So why did I keep it? (Though after writing this I'm considering changing my mind again)

Positives of the toolbar

The positives are I suppose, its a good feature. I mean, a lot of people saw Avacwebs toolbar and wanted one of their own. Well now you can.
The notifications are something long awaited by many, and whilst their served to us by overused AJAX to a seemingly slow server, it will certainly surely prove useful.

For me the biggest positive is within the Javscript. The long overweight Javascript. In the head of your page, you'll find this:
[bspoiler]
Code:
[panda=js]var _userdata = new Object();
_userdata["session_logged_in"] = 1;
_userdata["username"] = "LGforum";
_userdata["user_id"] = 1;
_userdata["user_level"] = 1;
_userdata["user_lang"] = "en";
_userdata["activate_toolbar"] = 1;
_userdata["fix_toolbar"] = 0;
_userdata["notifications"] = 1;
      
var _lang = new Object();
_lang["Forumotion"] = "Forumotion";
_lang["Share"] = "Share";
_lang["Login"] = "Log in";
_lang["Register"] = "Register";
_lang["Welcome"] = "Welcome";
_lang["Notifications"] = "Notifications";
_lang["See_my_profile"] = "View my profile";
_lang["Edit_profile"] = "Edit my profile";
_lang["All_Topics"] = "All my Topics";
_lang["All_Messages"] = "All my Messages";
_lang["js_topics_followed"] = "My watched topics";
_lang["Admin_panel"] = "Administration Panel";
_lang["Logout"] = "Log out";
   
_lang["Notif_see_all"] = "See all the notifications";
_lang["Notif_priv_msg"] = "You have received a <a href=\"/privmsg?mode=read&amp;p=%(msg_id)s\">private message</a> from <a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a>";
_lang["Notif_report"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has created a <a href=\"/report\">message report</a>";
_lang["Notif_friend_req"] = "You have received a <a href=\"/profile?mode=editprofile&amp;page_profil=friendsfoes\">friend request</a> from <a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a>";
_lang["Notif_group_req"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has made a request to join the group <a href=\"/g%(group_id)d-%(group_url_name)s\">%(group_name)s</a>";
_lang["Notif_friend_con"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has just connect to the forum";
_lang["Notif_wall_msg"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has just written a message on <a href=\"/u%(self)dwall\">your wall</a>";
_lang["Notif_abuse"] = "<a href=\"/admin/index.forum?mode=active&amp;part=misc&amp;sub=support&amp;tid=69e9f444f7d0b56848780f9f9580218e\">An abuse</a> was reported";
_lang["Notif_topic_watch"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has written a message in <a href=\"/t%(topic_id)d-%(topic_name)s#%(post_id)d\">in a watched topic</a>";
_lang["Notif_topic_watch_p"] = "<a href=\"/u%(id)d\">%(name)s</a> has written a message in <a href=\"/t%(topic_id)dp%(start)d-%(topic_name)s#%(post_id)d\">in a watched topic</a>";
_lang["Notif_topic_watch_guest"] = "A guest has wrote a message in <a href=\"/t%(topic_id)d-%(topic_name)s#%(post_id)d\">a topic you watch</a>";
_lang["Notif_topic_watch_p_guest"] = "A guest has wrote a message in <a href=\"/t%(topic_id)dp%(start)d-%(topic_name)s#%(post_id)d\">a topic you watch</a>";
$(document).ready(Toolbar.init)
$(function() {$('.ellipsis').dotdotdot();});
[/bspoiler]

This javascript has an abundance of useful information which can be used for all sorts of features. Smile

Lets look at the first bit:
Code:
_userdata["session_logged_in"] = 1;
_userdata["username"] = "LGforum";
_userdata["user_id"] = 1;
_userdata["user_level"] = 1;
_userdata["user_lang"] = "en";
_userdata["activate_toolbar"] = 1;
_userdata["fix_toolbar"] = 0;
_userdata["notifications"] = 1;
This data will be very useful.
Need to check if the current user is logged in? [ic]if(_userdata.session_logged_in) { //they are logged in, do stuff for members only }[/ic]
Need to check or write the current user's name? [ic]$('#element').html('Hello ' + _userdata.username);[/ic] - The username will be "Anonymous" for guests.
Need to use the user id? [ic]$('#element').html('<a href="/u' + _userdata.user_id + '">Your profile</a>');[/ic] - The user_id is -1 for guests.
Need to run Javascript only for mods? [ic]if(_userdata.user_level > 0) { //mod or admin, do stuff }[/ic] - This user_level will be 0 for guests and members. 1 for admins and 2 for moderators.
The rest is pretty pointless, but those above will prove very handy. Its for this information, that I have chosen to use the Forumotion toolbar over my own.

The next bit is a language object. These are used for changing the toolbar into different languages (I imagine this is done automatically for you to your board language), this sort of set up is used so many piece of the same Javascript do not need to be written. A simple example would be this:
English: [ic]alert('Hello Mr LGforum');[/ic] - French: [ic]alert('Bonjour, Monsieur LGforum');[/ic] - two seperate codes for 2 different languages.
However if you did this: [ic]var greeting = 'Hello, Mr LGforum'; alert(greeting);[/ic] - 1 code and the user can change the greeting to whatever they want. (You've seen something sort of similar with AWC translation)

So you can use this to change the wording of the toolbar. For example you want to change the bit which says 'View my topics' to 'Visit your threads', you simply put this in an announcement or widget (or even the right place in the template for punbb boards) [ic]<script>_lang["All_Topics"] = 'Visit your threads';</script>[/ic]

You can even use this little trick to insert HTML into the bar, like images and all sorts. For example, you could change the 'Log Out' words into an image of choice just by changing [ic]_lang["Logout"][/ic] to the HTML of an image, or little icons in front of all the options.

The next chunk is the same thing, however these are formatted to include dynamic data. Should you need help or an explanation of how this formatting works take a read here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.sprintf.php
Editing these will allow you to change how the notifications look and work. After a while, i'll see if I can add avatars to the avacweb ones.


So that's about all you need to know regarding the toolbar right now until I've played around with it for a little longer. If I find any more interesting factors regarding I'll be sure to share them.
avatarjock2007
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 25
Join date : 2012-11-10
Age : 38
Location : uk
Thu 07 Feb 2013, 19:22
thanks for the info,

i looked here and seen the tool bar, got the standard "new" 1 and i think its horrid lol , i suck at styling stuff so i just took it off, maby some 1 will do some themes for it thats dnt look so horrible lol
RukiafanRukiafan
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 533
Join date : 2012-07-20
Thu 07 Feb 2013, 23:23
I heard that you are NOT allowed to remove the forumotion link on the toolbar, at least acording to Leeloo, Sanket, and Kirk at the english help forum. Neutral
NeymarNeymar
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 301
Join date : 2012-03-11
Location : Glasgow, Scotland
Thu 07 Feb 2013, 23:24
Rukiafan wrote:[quotelink="http://www.avacweb.com/t899-the-forumotion-toolbar-about-it-and-a-few-tips-and-tricks#8698"]I heard that you are NOT allowed to remove the forumotion link on the toolbar, at least acording to Leeloo, Sanket, and Kirk at the english help forum. Neutral

No one knows yet. It's pretty strange.
LGforumLGforum
Status : Working to restore AWC!

Posts : 2806
Join date : 2011-10-05
Age : 30
Location : UK
Thu 07 Feb 2013, 23:34
Neymar brought this up with me, and I'll just say my first thoughts when I heard this:
The small image in the toolbar isn't even a legal copyright, it's an icon and has no baring on the creators or owners of the code. It does nothing to specify about ownership, usage or modification, it is simply an aesthetic icon.

The JavaScript they use is pre-written Jquery plug ins that they can not put their own copyrights in.
The JavaScript they wrote themselves, has failed to include any copyrights within them.

It's very strange that they've decided to stick something on this feature and nothing else. They wrote the ticker themselves and the image resizer yet we see no Forumption stamp on that.
RukiafanRukiafan
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 533
Join date : 2012-07-20
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 01:52
SLgrey also says removal of the image is a ToS violation. Neutral
DomDom
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 513
Join date : 2011-12-24
Location : USA
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 02:18
We are still awaiting the final word. I've asked Leeloo to confirm this.
ShadowShadow
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 232
Join date : 2011-11-09
Location : Serbia
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 15:43
is it possible to make popup login into the toolbar ?
LGforumLGforum
Status : Working to restore AWC!

Posts : 2806
Join date : 2011-10-05
Age : 30
Location : UK
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 20:27
Since Forumption has made the silly decision to make it against the terms of service to hide their silly logo in their navbar, I likely won't be using it.

I also imagine this decision will anger a lot of you and will also put you off using it.

For this reason, I'll be sharing a toolbar of my own, similar to avacwebs, with notification centre, status updater, stylish log in and more. It will be available to all those who choose not to conform to Forumotions absolutely silly rules.
avatarjock2007
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Fri 08 Feb 2013, 20:48
[quote="LGforum"][quotelink="http://www.avacweb.com/t899-the-forumotion-toolbar-about-it-and-a-few-tips-and-tricks#8759"]Since Forumption has made the silly decision to make it against the terms of service to hide their silly logo in their navbar, I likely won't be using it.
awsum freeking news, i h8 the new bar FM made, like most of there shit i personnaly think it sucks , cnt wait for your better 1
avatarjock2007
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Join date : 2012-11-10
Age : 38
Location : uk
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 20:54
i just had a quick read on the support site about this, and it freeking stupid that u can remove ads for a fee yet the toolbar isnt part of the ads? fooking crazy lol


lightningterrorlightningterror
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Posts : 102
Join date : 2012-11-02
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 21:25
The only thing good about their toolbar is the notifications.Gonna stick with the old toolbar.
Mr.EasybbMr.Easybb
Status : Love this site, that's why I'm back each day again... lol Samantha's co-owner now. Well deserved!

Posts : 1587
Join date : 2013-01-04
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 21:30
I agree with lightningTerror! The notification system is nice, and I am going to work on something that will make it to have tabs to switch between Friends Noti, Message Notis, and Topic Notis, as well as back to All.
RukiafanRukiafan
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Join date : 2012-07-20
Fri 08 Feb 2013, 21:51
@LGforum Will the codes you discovered from the official toolbar still be useful information for you to create future codes, even without using it yourself?
Robi.Robi.
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Sat 09 Feb 2013, 10:23
I don't like the new update ,but the trick is very good.
lightningterrorlightningterror
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Thu 14 Feb 2013, 02:42
Any news about the custom toolbar?
AlexanderAlexander
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Join date : 2012-08-03
Age : 30
Location : Suzhou, China
Fri 15 Feb 2013, 14:27
Thanks for sharing LG.

I'll be much awaiting your own userbar.

Currently, Forumotion demands we leave their link inside. Therefore I've had to disable it because it just looks spammy as is actually. There's already enough FM links and ads. It's not really my site anymore when it has FM stamped all over it.

I recently tried changing the link and when I did someone immediately started filing copyright complaints and threatening to file litigation complaints. If FM is going to be like this about it, where in return of using their bar you basically have to add another FM ad, then I simply won't be using their little tool. I'm keeping watch on this thread, hoping that they allow it soon. But I'm not going to wait on them in the meantime.

I'll be using your's when it's released. It'll be much better anyway.

I agree with you very strongly that FM's rules about this are ridiculous so far. They best change it or it'll just be a pretty unused tool. I do not agree to adding another advertisement on my site in exchange for their bar. I know there are other ways to do it and I will. Honestly, with the FM link on it...it just looks like some crappy browser toolbar. I want a nice member bar. Not a toolbar.



Edit : Oh, and please make a version of the toolbar that works like here, where it's at the bottom and integrates with AVC.
NeymarNeymar
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Posts : 301
Join date : 2012-03-11
Location : Glasgow, Scotland
Sun 24 Feb 2013, 20:58
Just a little post here, with the type of thing that you can do with the nice bit of information which is provided along with the toolbar.

An example would be, if you didn't want to display the toolbar for guests. This bit of javascript means the toolbar will only be displayed for members.

Code:
[panda=js]$(document).ready(function(){
if(!_userdata.session_logged_in) { document.getElementById('fa_toolbar').style.display="none"; }
});

What that basically does...

if(_userdata.session_logged_in) means if the user is logged in.
if(!_userdata.session_logged_in) means if the user is not logged in basically. So if the user is not logged in, get the toolbar element with the ID 'fa_toolbar' and change the style property to display="none";. In CSS, that would be:

Code:
[panda=css]#fa_toolbar {
  display: none;
}

If you're learning (like me Razz) I'd recommend have a play around with some of these things. It certainly helps. Smile
RukiafanRukiafan
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 533
Join date : 2012-07-20
Thu 07 Mar 2013, 20:15
Even with the visitor message notification none of my members can even find the section in the profiles. :facepalm:
LGforumLGforum
Status : Working to restore AWC!

Posts : 2806
Join date : 2011-10-05
Age : 30
Location : UK
Tue 02 Jul 2013, 15:49
[post]/t899-the-forumotion-toolbar-about-it-and-a-few-tips-and-tricks#8759[/post]

I hope to hold true to this post. I have recently created a Top Bar for another forum which I believe to be the most advanced I've seen on Forumotion so far; with the ability to add numerous applications with a lot of flexibility and functionality. Users can customize the applications that they have on the top bar, making it a personal top bar for every user. It has a Status Updater, a stylish log in, notification system, friend request system and so much more. I might be sharing this with everyone, but recently I've felt there is no point as nobody realises the work that goes into these things. We'll see how I feel when I complete the project with the other forum.
bob77707bob77707
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Tue 02 Jul 2013, 19:12
LGforum wrote:[quotelink="http://www.avacweb.com/t899p15-the-forumotion-toolbar-about-it-and-a-few-tips-and-tricks#13473"]I've felt there is no point as nobody realises the work that goes into these things.

It's true. Most people just grab codes and go. I am finally figuring out how to do some very simple things myself and am realizing just how much time and effort must go into these big projects. Thank you so much for all the time you have put into these codes and for all the help you provide everyone.
DesignersSocietyDesignersSociety
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Join date : 2013-05-30
Age : 28
Mon 28 Oct 2013, 19:15
I want to add a View My Profile link to the Login Widget on my portal using the information given here. When I tried to use $('#element').html('<a href="/u' + _userdata.user_id + '">Your profile</a>');
It didn't work for me... Now 'm not great with javascript so I was wondering if someone could help me find a way to create a link for going to the users own profile? Now I also want to add this in the Dropdown Menu of my site as well so it is really important to me.
Also is there a way to get the number of notifications to display on the login widget too?
Thanks-
Mr.EasybbMr.Easybb
Status : Love this site, that's why I'm back each day again... lol Samantha's co-owner now. Well deserved!

Posts : 1587
Join date : 2013-01-04
Mon 28 Oct 2013, 20:08
Reason why, is because the toolbar data hasn't loaded. You'll need to make a loop to test this out

Code:
[panda=js]var timer;
var dataReady = false;
if(!_userdata && dataReady === false){
timer=setInterval(function() {
  if(_userdata){
  dataReady = true;
  clearInterval(timer);
   
  $('#element').html('<a href="/u' + _userdata.user_id + '">Your profile</a>');
 } else {
 dataReady=false;
}
},500);
}

DesignersSocietyDesignersSociety
Status : No status yet...

Posts : 175
Join date : 2013-05-30
Age : 28
Mon 28 Oct 2013, 21:04
So wait where do I place this because when I tried to place it where i want it, it doesn't appear? Could you give like a full code so I can add any html and javascript where I need to?
LGforumLGforum
Status : Working to restore AWC!

Posts : 2806
Join date : 2011-10-05
Age : 30
Location : UK
Mon 28 Oct 2013, 22:11
The data is available but the toolbar hasn't executed. As long as you put your code in a Dom ready function and in an announcement box or something (that way it is called after the Toolbar.init method) it should he fine.
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