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#1 2010-02-07 22:01:54

gomedia
Plugin Author
Registered: 2008-06-01
Posts: 1,373

Improve Files help

This is not really a feature idea, but more of a usability improvement suggestion.

The help buttons for:

  1. “File upload” in main Files tab
  2. “Replace file” in edit file tab

Bring up the same help message:

File Upload

Use this form to upload files or images to your server.

Use the Textile code to render graphics within articles, the Textpattern code to place graphics on your page templates, or XHTML code to place the graphics elsewhere.

It would be a bit more friendly to have them tailored specifically for file operations – it’s a bit confusing to talk about graphics in these situations.

Also, the “File replace” help should really explain what it does: i.e. replace the contents of the file, without changing the file name.

Adi

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#2 2010-02-07 22:45:04

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

gomedia wrote:

The help buttons for: “File upload” in main Files tab / “Replace file” in edit file tab Bring up the same help message

Yeah, it’s also the same message for Image Upload, and perhaps a few others. The reason? The upload_form() function has been passed a generic pophelp reference in all cases so it always picks the same entry from the RPC server. That should probably be altered — it’s been done properly in the Image Replace help link. Will tend to that. If you spot any more, please shout.


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#3 2010-02-07 22:55:31

gomedia
Plugin Author
Registered: 2008-06-01
Posts: 1,373

Re: Improve Files help

Copy & paste from the other post!

You can tell this the first time I’ve had to replace a file … & I got a teeny bit confused!

Bloke wrote:

Will tend to that. If you spot any more, please shout.

Stef, you’re a gentleman.

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#4 2010-02-07 23:09:45

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

Two new entries made in preparation:

OK? Any improvements on the text you can think of?

The next step is to alter the pophelp links in the core. Not sure if we can reliably alter the help text for the existing upload because it’ll be in use in all the places on prior versions of TXP. But if it can be tweaked slightly so it still makes sense on older versions, I’ll do it. Why does it make reference to that XHTML stuff? Weird…


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#5 2010-02-07 23:31:45

gomedia
Plugin Author
Registered: 2008-06-01
Posts: 1,373

Re: Improve Files help

Bloke wrote:

Two new entries made in preparation:

Might I suggest for the “Replace file” help:

Uploading a file here will replace the contents of the existing file on the server but will keep the file name the same as it was before. The download count and other information associated with the file remain unaffected.

WRT the Upload image help – I’m confused (again). Surely the original image file wouldn’t exist in the “images” directory unless you physically put it there? If you upload it directly into the database from a local folder on your PC/Mac, only the numbered version is present.

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#6 2010-02-07 23:42:29

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

gomedia wrote:

Might I suggest…

Done, thanks.

WRT the Upload image help – I’m confused (again).

OK, yeah, ambiguous use of terminology, sorry. Is this any better:

Upload graphics to your server.

Upon upload to the images directory, the filename of your original image will be kept only internally in Textpattern’s database; the image file itself will be renamed to a sequential number + file extension.

For example, if you upload a file called rabbit.jpg, it might become 42.jpg on your server (thumbnail: 42t.jpg), though you may still reference it in your Pages/Forms/Articles by using <txp:image name="rabbit.jpg" /> if you wish

Or, do you think people will care that their images will be renamed for them to NN.jpg? If you don’t think it’s important I can ditch all that text and just leave the 1st sentence.

Last edited by Bloke (2010-02-08 00:16:34)


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#7 2010-02-07 23:59:05

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

I’ve also created one more entry, for those times when you reassign a file to one that is Missing:

When you upload a file in place of one that is labelled ‘Missing’, your chosen file is uploaded to the server and linked to the original file information in the database. This means the file name of the original file will remain, as will all other associated information such as download count and category. The file size will, however, reflect the new file.

Does that about cover it or can you think of clarity improvements in this case too? It’s getting late here and my English language chip is starting to show signs of where :-p

Last edited by Bloke (2010-02-08 00:05:33)


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#8 2010-02-08 00:13:56

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

and done


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

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#9 2010-02-08 00:15:18

gomedia
Plugin Author
Registered: 2008-06-01
Posts: 1,373

Re: Improve Files help

Looks good, though if you’re going to talk about the name attribute then you should really mention the image id attribute as well. Perhaps tag usage should be best left elsewhere anyway and leave out the 2nd sentence.

Never experienced a “missing” image … very interesting!

Thanks,

Adi

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#10 2010-02-08 00:17:51

Bloke
Developer
From: Leeds, UK
Registered: 2006-01-29
Posts: 11,454
Website GitHub

Re: Improve Files help

gomedia wrote:

Perhaps tag usage should be best left elsewhere anyway and leave out the 2nd sentence.

Oki doke. Axed.


The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.

Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp

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#11 2010-02-08 08:09:34

candyman
Member
From: Italy
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 684

Re: Improve Files help

I’ve changed my images directory in immagini. Is there a way to automatically update the relative popup info? Not so important but I’d like to know.

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#12 2010-02-08 09:37:55

redbot
Plugin Author
Registered: 2006-02-14
Posts: 1,410

Re: Improve Files help

Hi,
I hope this is not too off-topic: would it be possible to give a different id to “file upload” and “file replace” inputs (at the moment it is the same “#file-upload”)?

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