Posted by Kim on May 23, 2014, 1:02pm
See, wasn't that quick and painless? Thanks for your patience during the update!Patch notes for today's update to groups:
- Rewrote the code that handles adding/editing/deleting/re-ordering group widgets, with the intent of making it more flexible and useful for new widgets, future widgets, and the new editing layout.
- Speaking of the editing layout: Sidebars have been moved to their own section of the group administrative interface.
- This allows both main-page widgets and sidebar widgets to have a little more space on the page, so you can better see what the heck you're doing.
- Lays the groundwork for being able to edit the sidebars of auto-generated group pages like those of the forums, calendar or members page.
- Added the "universal" sidebar section for widgets. Widgets placed in this section will appear on EVERY page of the group.
- Cap for universal sidebar is 5 widgets (meaning that with universal widgets + page-specific widgets you can reach 10 sidebar widgets per page).
- Page-specific widgets will always appear beneath the universal sidebar widgets.
- Added better support for adding group widgets via touch screen devices -- this will be especially obvious when placing new sidebar widgets.
- Added support for swapping widgets back and forth between sidebar and main page content area, despite now being located on separate UI pages.
- REMOVED group layout options for toolbar and navigation menu to output in sidebar rather than in the header. I received a large number of bug reports from group members who thought that the groups they joined were broken because the toolbar/nav menu was not in the first place that they looked. The confusions this caused for people has convinced me that consistency is a greater virtue than customization in group user interfaces, so that people can re-use what they have learned elsewhere. Trust me, it's a good thing when people aren't frustrated when trying to participate in your groups!
- Fixed: When double clicking or tapping to add a widget, you should now be properly scrolled to where that widget appeared on the page rather than to the bottom of the screen.
- Fixed: Widgets per page was supposed to be capped at 10. It now is.
- Fixed: Widgets per sidebar was supposed to be capped at 5. It now is.
- Fixed: Addressed the bug wherein sometimes after adding a widget to a page, after a reload the widget had mysteriously moved to the bottom of the page rather than saving in correct position.
- Fixed: Addressed the bug wherein, under rare circumstances, trying to delete one group widget would delete the one above it instead.
- Fixed: Delete confirmation window sometimes not displaying in Google Chrome.
- Broke: Goodness knows what, but there's always something! Please submit a bug report if you find something askew.
Comments
Although I might normally agree, making the user interfaces of the RPR as easy to pick up and get started with is a major goal for me. I have refined the various pages, nav menus and etc. of the main site many times as I get more data about how people use things and where the stumbling blocks are. To some extent the user-base is trained on the idea that stuff here is supposed to be easy to find, understand and use -- so I can see how breaking that expectation by having two places for one feature to live, that swaps pretty much arbitrarily, is a breach of that trust.
I've gotten a few frantic messages from group owners who feel that their group layout now looks wrong because the content area width has changed because the toolbar and menu are no longer in the sidebar, and therefore they don't have a sidebar. For those that had designed with sidebar-width in mind, try putting one or more widgets into the "universal" sidebar area. This will put a sidebar back on every page of your group, and fix your width issues.
I've gotten a few frantic messages from group owners who feel that their group layout now looks wrong because the content area width has changed because the toolbar and menu are no longer in the sidebar, and therefore they don't have a sidebar. For those that had designed with sidebar-width in mind, try putting one or more widgets into the "universal" sidebar area. This will put a sidebar back on every page of your group, and fix your width issues.
OMNOMNOM.
While seeing options removed usually makes me freak, knowing that it's for a good reason is at least somewhat comforting, though people should really explore stuff more before whining about it being a "bug"
While seeing options removed usually makes me freak, knowing that it's for a good reason is at least somewhat comforting, though people should really explore stuff more before whining about it being a "bug"
Virus
May 23, 2014
5:38pm