7 suggestions to improve TxP

lee · 2006-01-11 09:36:36

Built in tags to build a decent photo gallery with prev next links etc. It should be easy for clients to make a gallery by simply creating an image category and adding/removing photos. There are some plugins to do this kind of thing but they don’t allow for clients to make a gallery it has to be done by the developer.

A built in way of browsing/uploading/adding an image to an article while on the article page. Clients find the current way of adding an image to an article confusing and messy – which it is. For example asking clients to hover over links to get image id’s for inclusion on an article page makes txp look unfinished and diffcult to use.

Provide mini thumbs of all images uploaded. We only get file names of images that don’t have thumb nails, which makes locating images very diffcult when you have more than a couple of images. I means you have to click on each link to see what the image is.

I think it’s time to put a hold on things like adding support for other databases etc, and start to build in some new user friendly functionality, clearer screens and work flows for the average website owner (not coder).

The ability to hide any admin links that are not needed by the web site owner to run the site. For instance some links in the advanced options on the article page never get used, the second category box is sometimes not needed – site owners just don’t need to see or be confused buy this clutter – they want it simple simple.

Label the main input boxes on the article page. Excerpt is labeled so the others should be. A client should be able to look at the article page and figure out what to do immediatly, as it is they have to guess. Simple Article Title and Article Content labels wouldn’t hurt.

Make it easy to link from one article to another. Have you ever tried to explain to a first time site owner how to do this, they think you’re mad when they see all the steps involved and they never remember it.

Jeremie · 2006-01-11 11:40:05

As a heavy user of TXP, some comments on this:

lee wrote:
Built in tags to build a decent photo gallery with prev next links etc. It should be easy for clients to make a gallery by simply creating an image category and adding/removing photos. There are some plugins to do this kind of thing but they don’t allow for clients to make a gallery it has to be done by the developer.

Textpattern is not a gallerey software, and I doubt it would be one day. So a request would perhaps be “add x, y and z to improve flexibility”, and thus permiting to do what you want.

One common example/request along this these days is to be able to display article image (raw, thumbnail, etc. as usual) of next/prev/related articles.

A built in way of browsing/uploading/adding an image to an article while on the article page. Clients find the current way of adding an image to an article confusing and messy – which it is. For example asking clients to hover over links to get image id’s for inclusion on an article page makes txp look unfinished and diffcult to use.

Agreed. upm_image_popper does this almost perfectly, and imo it should be made into the core. And extended to all ressources (others articles, links and files).

Provide mini thumbs of all images uploaded. We only get file names of images that don’t have thumb nails, which makes locating images very diffcult when you have more than a couple of images. I means you have to click on each link to see what the image is.

Not exactly this, but a new revision since 4.0.3 remember your thumbnail preferences (height, width, crop or not) and when you upload a new image a thumbnail is automaticaly generated with these options. Quite useful.

I think it’s time to put a hold on things like adding support for other databases etc, and start to build in some new user friendly functionality, clearer screens and work flows for the average website owner (not coder).

Well, I do personnaly agree (but not with your tone/language, see multiple Zem’s posts on the subject, TXP is open source software, if you want something done, do it yourself). But several others don’t, and think [insert-last-sql-thingy-here]_SQL is needed. Even if I strongly disagree (supporting multiple SQL software is support the lesser common features of all of them, and – as seen on others software, PunBB for example – slow bug fixing and slow new features) I can understand their point of view.

The ability to hide any admin links that are not needed by the web site owner to run the site. For instance some links in the advanced options on the article page never get used, the second category box is sometimes not needed – site owners just don’t need to see or be confused buy this clutter – they want it simple simple.

A common request. I don’t think it’s that important, but it could be nice. Imho, there are more important things to do. But again, diy.

Label the main input boxes on the article page. Excerpt is labeled so the others should be. A client should be able to look at the article page and figure out what to do immediatly, as it is they have to guess. Simple Article Title and Article Content labels wouldn’t hurt.

I would go further. Use clever CSS and/or AJAX to provide easy and immediate contextual help to everything.

Make it easy to link from one article to another. Have you ever tried to explain to a first time site owner how to do this, they think you’re mad when they see all the steps involved and they never remember it.

See above.

squaredeye · 2006-01-11 13:19:11

Lee,
Two other options, other than DIY:

One: if you’re not a coder (like I’m not), then you can participate in thematic or conceptual markups that help the dev team work through code more quickly and spend less time doing the nitty gritty work of hashing out an idea. See example

Two: if you want to work on rounding people up who have the same concerns or ideas, and who have enough invested interest in working with Textpattern to see it improve, you can develop a healthy ransom for any developer or plugin writer to begin work on some of those projects.

But as Jeremie so aptly mentioned, open source happens because the people who write it, need it. Often, but not always, its a misconception that open source is done to beat “the man” :). We’ll have to find other ways of doing that, eh?

Peace

zem · 2006-01-11 23:09:09

One: if you’re not a coder (like I’m not), then you can participate in thematic or conceptual markups that help the dev team work through code more quickly and spend less time doing the nitty gritty work of hashing out an idea.

You don’t have to be a coder to do that: photoshop mockups of screens, documentation, etc. Even just a clear, carefully worded description of the feature can help. (To take the image gallery suggestion as an example: what exactly would the tags be? What attributes would they need? How would they behave in unusual circumstances, like when there is no image to display?)

lee · 2006-01-11 23:55:47

So if I write a clear, carefully worded description of the features for image gallery tags are the devs going to work with me and implements it?

zem · 2006-01-12 01:25:07

Maybe, maybe not. We work on the things we need, and the things we get paid to do, same as everyone else.

This is open source. Things get built a little piece at a time by contributions from lots of different people. Start the ball rolling, and maybe someone will pick it up.

Boogenstein · 2006-01-12 02:47:57

1 – Give your clients a copy of Photostack, or something similar, it will make their life easier without overcomplicating Textpattern.

2 – Wholeheartedly agree. This would have saved me a couple of weeks worth of emails to a client on the otherside of the Country with a Textpattern based commerce site needing images for each product/article.

3 – As per Jeremie.

4 – No opinion!

5 – With you on this one. It is possible to do exactly what you want using a couple of plugins though. rss_admin_show_adv_opts puts the whole lot of options on view and then using waz_admin_hide_fields you can choose which to show for the end user. It works for me anyway!

6 – Some basic titles wouldn’t hurt, I must admit.

7 – As per #2 although this might be better handled by a plugin, upm_article_popper maybe? (It doesn’t exixt, before anyone tries to find it!)

lee · 2006-01-12 10:18:02

Maybe, maybe not. We work on the things we need, and the things we get paid to do, same as everyone else. This is open source. Things get built a little piece at a time by contributions from lots of different people. Start the ball rolling, and maybe someone will pick it up.

How about this then Zem:

<code><txp:album name=“friends”/></code> where friends is the name of the image category with the album images in. The tag should display one image at a time with a prev and next links to navigate between images and the number of images in the album should be shown (for example: prev|1 of 10|next). If the image category has no images a message should be presented saying so. I think that’s about as simple as it can get, clients could easily set up an album without the need of a dev.

zem · 2006-01-12 22:51:50

A single tag that does everything? I think you’d get a lot of requests to break this up into multiple tags for each of the page elements (image, navigation, count, etc), so that the layout can be controlled. The image gallery tags that are already built into txp are widely ignored for this reason.

There are several album plugins around, what are they missing that makes a core feature necessary?

lee · 2006-01-12 22:58:01

A single tag that does everything?

Yes. What I’m suggesting is something that jo blogs the non tech website owner can put in an article and create a simple album from the images he put in an image category. Your right people will ask for more, but this tag isn’t for them – it’s for the website owner who just wants a simple to put up album.

Casses and id’s can be added to allow styling.

Last edited by lee (2006-01-12 22:59:36)

Jeremie · 2006-01-12 23:09:50

Well, non-tech have already a hard time creating a website with TXP, since it require at least basic html/Css skills.

And if you understand the difference between a, div and dl for example, you certainly can understand and use Textpattern’s tags (well, most of them anyway).

zem · 2006-01-12 23:14:32

I think Jeremie is right. The current gallery tags are close to what you’re suggesting, and they seem to suit no one: too simple and inflexible for designers, yet still too complex for non-tech users (who are likely to struggle even with a single tag, since they have to know where to put it, and what to do when it doesn’t work).

A better solution, I think, would be a ready made page template (gallery_default or whatever) that contains the gallery code. That way all that’s required is setting up a section to use that page. You can easily do this for your clients now.

Last edited by zem (2006-01-12 23:27:01)

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#1 2006-01-11 09:36:36

7 suggestions to improve TxP

#2 2006-01-11 11:40:05

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#3 2006-01-11 13:19:11

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#4 2006-01-11 23:09:09

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#5 2006-01-11 23:55:47

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#6 2006-01-12 01:25:07

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#7 2006-01-12 02:47:57

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#8 2006-01-12 10:18:02

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#9 2006-01-12 22:51:50

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#10 2006-01-12 22:58:01

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#11 2006-01-12 23:09:50

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

#12 2006-01-12 23:14:32

Re: 7 suggestions to improve TxP

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