Under testing

[Adonis]

At the moment i'm testing several new things which may be added to the shoutbox service this week if all goes well:

• - Wordwrap: Until now, the wordwrap setting was set at "17" which means that words are being cut after the 17th character to prevent messing up the shoutbox layout. This was done while writing the shout to the database. However this was not a very wise decision because then it can never be changed. I have (on our test site) added a new option to the admin panel, which allows the shoutbox owner to set this value him/herself, thus allowing the words to be cut at a userdefined position.
• - URLs: A while ago i added a [link] url [/link] UBBC code to exclude links from the wordwrapper. I am now successfully testing a way that the script automatically encloses the url between these UBBC tags. It will also append "http://" if that protocol is not present. Also, it also appends the protocol in url's entered in the website field, so that the url is always valid.

Testing of these features/changes is almost complete and if all goes well, it will be uploaded to the shoutbox service this week. 

[Foxman]

That would be very cool, *happy face*

[Chimp]

lol nice

[Adonis]

I'm currently testing two new features:

• - Semi Unique ID : With this feature, all shouts will have a semi-unique ID attached to it. This ID is unique for the ip address the shout was post with. This way, shoutbox visitors will know if someone is using multiple names to post with, or if someone is posting under someone elses name. Ofcourse this is not fool-proof, because if the IP address of a user changes, then the semi unique ID will change accordingly. However, it is a way to be more sure about who's posting what. The semi unique ID can not be changed back into an IP address, so the anonimity of the user is still protected.
• - User deletable shouts : With this feature, users will be able to delete their own shouts. This feature is time-limited, which means that a user has X amount of seconds after posting to delete the shouts, or else it will become permanent. This amount can be set in the admin panel.

These features are still under testing/development and will be applied once it is bug-proof

[allyours]

I'm currently testing two new features:

• - Semi Unique ID : With this feature, all shouts will have a semi-unique ID attached to it. This ID is unique for the ip address the shout was post with. This way, shoutbox visitors will know if someone is using multiple names to post with, or if someone is posting under someone elses name. Ofcourse this is not fool-proof, because if the IP address of a user changes, then the semi unique ID will change accordingly. However, it is a way to be more sure about who's posting what. The semi unique ID can not be changed back into an IP address, so the anonimity of the user is still protected.

These features are still under testing/development and will be applied once it is bug-proof

I've a little concern about this. If I understand this correctly, it will expose others posting with different names to all viewing the shoutbox? I have some staff members that post with different names announcements and games. Sometimes they might use a name like "GAMES" make a post and sticky it. I do like the security idea behind this concept but am a bit concerned for the reasons I have mentioned.

[Adonis]

I was not going to apply the "ID" feature in Stciky Shouts because only the webmaster (or someone knowing his password) can create sticky's. The identity of the webmaster is unquestioned, so not much need for unique ID's there.

However, if someone is posting "normal" shouts using different names, then this will be known through the ID. I will be making it an option in the admin panel, so the webmaster will have his/her own choice in enabling or disabling it for the whole shoutbox.

[allyours]

Too cool But, we normally make the post then go to the admin and make a sticky. Will it be OK this way or should such posts be made initially in the CP?

Oh, and the new ideas and concepts I think are great.

[Adonis]

You can only make stickies in the admin panel, so until they are stickied... the ID will be visible. Ofcourse you will be free to disable the ID feature from the admin panel.

I am now also making/testing the following:

• - Modify shouts : This is a similar feature as the Delete Post feature. During a specific time after posting a shout, users will be able to modify their shout.
• - Timezone offset : For webmasters who are in timezones other than the one where our server is located.
• - Webmaster delete shouts : I am not sure if i'll implement this feature. It depends on security. With this option, webmasters will be able to delete shouts without having to go to the adminpanel.

[allyours]

Webmaster Delete Shouts:
Maybe a simple character like ~ in the lower right corner of each shout that when clicked prompts the owner for a password for authorization to delete that shout?

If I might make an additional request for a feature.

Feature Request:
The ability to close the shoutbox for posts and be prompted for a password to make the shout.


The purpose:
From time to time we need to close our box but would still like to allow staff to make posts for announcements and functions.

We recently had a change in our chat software and placed the shoutbox in "Pause Mode". We had to make a mega message in the area to display what the purpose of the pause mode was.

[Adonis]

Webmaster Delete Shouts:
Maybe a simple character like ~ in the lower right corner of each shout that when clicked prompts the owner for a password for authorization to delete that shout?

I plan on doing this the same way as my new shout delete function, where users only have to press the "X" infront of their shout in order to delete it. Same for webmasters, no password is required, only that the IP address you add to the webmaster panel is the same as the IP who tries to delete the shout. So basically, only the IP which is added to the webmaster panel, would be able to delete all shouts from the shoutbox screen. I'm testing now to see how secure it is.

Feature Request:
The ability to close the shoutbox for posts and be prompted for a password to make the shout.

I'll think about that one There's no ETA yet regarding these new functions... they need to work 100% before i release them.

[Adonis]

Status of testing development :

Shoutbox features:

• Semi Unique ID's - Done
• User Deletable shouts - Done
• User Modify Shouts -  Done
• New Post Icon - Done (this shows an icon for new shouts)
• New Post Icon tooltip info - Done (This shows how long ago a shout was posted)
• Error / Success messages - Done for the most part (This shows error / success messages when deleting, modifying shouts)

Admin panel features:

• Deletion/Modify time limit - Done (Limits the time a shout can be modified/deleted by a user)
• Time Zone Offset - Done, but still need to *try* to find out if the old shouts can be converted as well.
• Repost time limit- Done (This new feature sets a timeout period after posting a new shout, to prevent spamming)
• Show unique ID -  Done (This new feature allows for disabling the Semi unique ID feature)
• New Post Icon limit - Done (This limits the duration for showing the New Post Icon)
• Pagination for viewing shouts - Done (This feature finally brings pagination to the admin panel when you view shouts there. For now, it will only be there but will be implemented in other locations as well)
• Multiple Delete - Done (This is in the view shouts pagination, and allows for selecting shouts to be deleted, which will then be deleted in one go... as opposed to how it is now when the list of shouts are being loaded every time you delete one.

I think these will be all the improvements i'll do before releasing it. Otherwise i'd have to postpone the new features every time i decide on developing a new feature. So once i'm done with the list above, i'll release it. I can't set an exact date though, but since most of the items are in status "Done", it won't be long now. There are more improvements trhat i didnt mention above, but those are mostly coding / efficiency stuff which is not finished yet.

The other feature requests will be looked at/handled after this release

I will also have to take a close look at the access logs, because the admin panel seems to have become unacceptably slow, which i think is caused by the access counters (shows, in teh admin panel,  how many visitors you had). I don't see yet how to rework, optimize it... so there's a chance i have to wipe the visitor count again soon and work on a solution to make this part a lot better. There are around 3 million rows in there, which may be a bit too much. I'm open to suggestions for that