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Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
TWO CRITICAL QUESTIONS
I’m ready to submit a patch for a bunch of commenting bugs, but before I do I need to answer two critical questions:
(1) At what point should a user’s request to remember or forget be acted upon? When the user hits the preview button, or only once the user submits the final comment?
[TXP currently only does this upon preview, but I propose only doing this upon submit. It seems to me that if I go to post a comment (preview) but stop short of doing so (don’t submit), I’m rejecting all of my inputs rather than rejecting all but one input—-that one being the remember/forget checkbox.]
(2) When should TXP default to remembering? Only on the user’s first comment submission (or first preview), or every single time so that the user has to uncheck the box on every submission to prevent remembering?
[TXP currently does the latter, defaulting to remember every single time, but I propose keeping track of the user’s remember-preference in a cookie and only default to remembering on the user’s first visit to the site.]
My patch includes my proposed behavior, but since this would be changing TXP’s current behavior, I need some sort of approval before submitting it.
REMEMBER-ONLY CHECKBOX STATUS
I have implemented a remember-only checkbox on my new web site (bugfeathers.com), but I plan to add this feature to the crockery rather than to the 4.0 branch.
FINAL BUG REPORT
Also, a while ago I posted a more detailed listing of the comment bugs and oddities to the dev list, which I repost here:
(1) BUG: If the client is remembering user data (shows an unchecked Forget) and the user checks the Forget box, the subsequent preview still shows an unchecked Forget, even though submitting the preview results in forgetting.
(2) BUG: If in Preview the users change the name/email/url and the client is remembering (unchecked Forget), the new name/email/url gets correctly posted, but it isn’t remembered.
(3) BUG: If in Preview you change the Remember/Forget checkbox and then hit submit, the comment posts, but the checkbox change has no effect.
(4) ODDITY: TXP can’t distinguish between someone who has never before been to the site and someone who has been to the site but previously elected to forget their user information. In both cases, the user’s next visit to the site is greeted with a checked Remember box. This seems like an undue burden on people who never want their information remembered.
(5) ODDITY: If the newly entered name/email/web (at least one) differs from what’s already found in cookies, TXP remembers the information even if the user checked the Forget box. It seems to me that if multiple people are using the same browser, the default ought to be forget user information — but I’d rather always just heed the checkbox.
BTW, I now believe this last oddity is just an artifact of trying to deal with not having a cookie to track the remember-preference, rather than an intentional feature. So my patch eliminates it.
Last edited by jtlapp (2006-04-03 07:29:46)
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Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
(1) At what point should a user’s request to remember or forget be acted upon? When the user hits the preview button, or only once the user submits the final comment?
I think for saving information, “only after submit” would be ok. however “forgetting” should be possible without having to submit a comment.
(2) When should TXP default to remembering? Only on the user’s first comment submission
I think that’s fine.
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Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
Sencer wrote:
“forgetting” should be possible without having to submit a comment.
That’s a good idea. Better to be conservative about saving user information.
FYI, I’m using the policy that if there is a Remember checkbox on a previous page, then the next page also has a Remember checkbox, regardless of whether the user changed its value (which is properly shown); and likewise for the Forget checkbox. I think this minimizes user confusion. Better to switch between checkbox types between posts than from one preview to the next, me thinks.
But this leads me to two more questions…
TWO MORE QUESTIONS
(3) When a first-time visitor unchecks the checked-by-default Remember checkbox and hits Preview but never submits the comment, should this be recorded as don’t-ever-remember, or should the user’s next visit be greeted with the same default checked Remember?
I think this should be an exception and the don’t-remember preference should only be recorded on a Preview if it’s undoing a previous election to remember (committed only upon posting, per the newly proposed behavior).
(4) When the user elects to forget (or for first-time visitors, not to remember), should subsequent comment forms display a checked Forget or an unchecked Remember? (Note: This does not apply when previewing the comment during which the election is made, per the above FYI policy.)
My patch currently shows an unchecked Remember, but I’m ambivalent about this, since I’m not using Remember/Forget checkbox-switching on my site.
CURRENT CHECKBOXES
TxP currently displays the following checkboxes:
Unchecked Forget — When remembering as a result of having elected to remember on a previous comment.
Checked Remember — When forgetting and prior to users’ first comment.
PROPOSED CHECKBOXES
Unchecked Forget — When remembering as a result of having elected to remember on a previously posted comment.
Checked Forget — When the user checks the Forget checkbox prior to hitting Preview (i.e. when the user elected to remember on a previously posted comment and this time around the user elects to forget and hits Preview).
Unchecked Remember — When forgetting as a result of having elected to forget on a previously comment (whether or not the comment was posted), and when a new user unchecks the Remember checkbox prior to hitting Preview.
Checked Remember — Prior to the user’s first comment, and when the user checks the Remember checkbox prior to hitting Preview (i.e. when the user had elected to forget on a previously posted comment but this time around elects to remember and hits Preview).
I find it all very confusing, which is why I much prefer just having a Remember checkbox and not also a Forget checkbox. It also explains why it’s been so hard to get the code working and my head wrapped around it.
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Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
The patch has one drawback: old-time users of a TxP site will go to add another comment and discover that instead of having an unchecked Forget, as they’re used to, they’ll have a checked Remember. But once they post another comment, it’ll revert back to the unchecked Forget from then on.
This is because the patch decides whether the user has been there before based on just the txp_remember cookie, which hasn’t previously existed.
I could add auto-detection for the other txp cookies, but this just complicates code that is already too complicated, and I figure for the sake of clarity and minizing bugs, users can live with it.
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Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
I have recently posted <a href=“http://forum.textpattern.com/viewtopic.php?id=15458”>this</a> in the featured ideas forum. Basically I believe that the default behaviour of comments should be NOT to remember unless the remember checkbox is checked.
I believe this to be a safer method to non web savvy users who surf the net through public computers.
Yiannis
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#18 2006-08-11 02:24:43
- DRTProxy
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- Registered: 2006-08-11
- Posts: 3
Re: [issue] Remember/forget forgets but remembers
The proposed check boxes are nice.
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