May 2005

[IPB 2.1] Tweaking the UI

May 31, 2005

I’ve revisited the "inline topic editing"; the feature that allows one to edit the topic’s title when viewing them as a list in a forum. Currently, one has to double click on the topic’s table cell to activate the edit function. This is rather unfriendly. I had considered adding an "inline edit" icon somewhere but [...]

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Puttin’ it all together

May 27, 2005

I’ve just about finished the new template editing interface albeit with a few rough corners and bugs to iron out. I think this is a good mix of javascript techniques; both traditional and AJAX. The Ajax is used to generate a list of "suggested" matches when searching for templates. When you click the "go" button [...]

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Ajax not required!

May 26, 2005

Ajax is probably the most used and most misunderstood buzzword at the moment. Ever since Google threw together their map and google suggest service web developers have been trying to jump on the band-wagon and throw Ajax at everything that moves. Hey, so I’m on the band-wagon but at least I know when to stop! [...]

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Ajax Inline Post Editing

May 25, 2005

When I first started added the ajax (XMLHttpRequest) functions to allow one to edit topic titles I thought about creating an interface to allow one to edit posts inline. I rolled it around in my head for a while and decided that it probably wasn’t needed and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t throwing [...]

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Backstage at the BBC

May 16, 2005

The BBC have always managed to get their websites "right". They invest heavily into their websites and their sites are regularly mentioned when good design and good content management are discussed. Now, the BBC are inviting fellow web developers backstage.backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC’s new developer network, providing content feeds for anyone to build with.  Alternatively, [...]

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Tomorrow is just an advert for today

May 10, 2005

Sorry about the blog title. That phrase has been rattling around in my head for a few days and I had to exorcise it. Moving on…. I’ve coined a phrase: RSS-Link (Lindy prefers RSSync which he came up with) which applies to a technique which is now possible with IPB 2.1. I’ve set up an [...]

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Safari 2.0 WYSI-WONT

May 6, 2005

As you probably know, I’m a MacTard, so I was pretty pleased when my copy of Tiger arrived this morning. (OK, I’m not that much of a MacTard that I had it on pre-order for 18 months). After much "oooh" and "aaaah" at the new Mail client, the new Dashboard and the new "Spotlight" search [...]

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Really Sexy Syndication

May 5, 2005

I’ve finished the basics of the "RSS" import system and I’m quietly pleased with the implementation. You simply choose an RSS feed, tell IPB which forum to post them into and let it do the rest. It stores the "guid" of each imported RSS item (or if there isn’t a guid, the RSS title) so [...]

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New Features? My RSS!

May 4, 2005

Another day, another feature completed for IPB 2.1. My attention has been turned to the RSS manager; specifically the RSS export manager. It allows you to set up your own streams using your own criteria and these will be selectable to the viewer via a "Syndication" link (and most likely via HTML link refs in [...]

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My Assistant

May 3, 2005

I’ve spent the last few days refining some of the ‘Ajax’ features in IPB 2.1. We’ve had some great and productive feedback from our customers on the new features and this feedback has motivated the change. Ajax capable folks now get a floating ‘div’ MyAssistant that’s draggable instead of a new pop up window. This [...]

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