Everything but the kitchen sink

Due to the fact that I decided to keep all blogrum posts out of my home page, and therefore out of my summary feeds, I've made a new full summary blog/feed for the psychotic few that actually want to be informed of all new posts on my blogs *and* my blogrums. If you're one of those psychotic few then you can now use http://innervisions.org.uk/everything/?tempskin=_atom or http://innervisions.org.uk/everything/?tempskin=_rss2.

At some point during a today that's a "today today" I might look into a way of allowing mix 'n' matching of all the 7 available feeds so that you can choose which of my blogs you want to follow. Today isn't that today though huh? ;)

¥

Extend your users profiles

This plugin adds a shiny new tab to your users profiles tab in admin and allows your users to have such delights as avatars, signatures, location. It also adds the ability for each user to enter their time offset from the server and set the date and time formats that they prefer to use, although that bit means you need to do a tad of skin work ;) These extra profile fields, and settings, can then be used to enhance your current skin and there's also the ability to display each/any users profile instead of that ugly "edit profile" page that you get in the stock evo skins. There's a setting to allow you to restrict the viewing of profiles to logged in members so that the spamming arses don't get access to any details like aim/msn/etc

You control what can or can't be done ;)

Admin settings

Allow Avatars

This one's pretty self explanatory, untick it and the ability to use avatars is removed

Guest Avatar

This needs to be the full url to an image to use for guests ( note : this one is not auto-resized, so make sure you upload an appropriate sized image ;) ). Leave this blank to disable guest avatars

Guests

This setting allows you to control if guests can view members profiles, it defaults to "no". Note : this only works if you have an appropriate _profile.disp.php, a sample one is included in teh download. If you don't have an appropriate one then the normal evo action of showing the "edit profile" is shown, which bars guests anyway ;)

Allow Signature

This is another self-explanatory one, untick it and signatures are disabled ;) Note : Signatures will be stripped of any html

Renderers

This is a list of plugin codes that you want to be used to render the signatures, one per line. The default is to use the smilies, bbcode, code highlighter and auto-p plugins, but you can add any that you like. Note : The bbcode plugin will use the post replacements not the comments, this is to enable you to allow urls and images and stuff without getting bitch slapped in your comments by spammers ;)

Timezone

This is the default offset ( in minutes ) from the servers current time, which is handily displayed in the notes field

Time format

This is the default time format to use, meander over top php.net for the various settings you can use

Date format

Uncannily this is the default date format to use, and once again you should hit the php.net link for available settings

Ohhh look, a shiny new tab to play with!

New Profile settings and how to use them in your skin

There's actually a couple of ways that you can call up the new settings in your skin. The individual methods are listed below. I'll ( try and ) explain the second method after them all ;)

Avatar

If enabled this will allow the users to select an avatar. They need to upload a file called avatar.jpg or avatar.gif or avatar.png or all 3 if they like to their user directory. The avatar will automatically be resized to 80px x 80px or summat. The user can choose any of the three images to use

Skin call ( default parameters shown ):

<?php
$Plugins->trigger_event( 'UserAvatar', array(
		'display' => true, // echo the results
		'block_start' => '<div class="userAvatar">', // html used before the <img> tag
		'block_end' => '</div>', // html used after the <img> tag
	);
?>

Signature

If enabled this allows users to slap in the signature of their choice. This will be rendered with the plugins that you slapped in the admin setting after any html has been stripped

Skin call ( default parameters shown ):

<?php
$Plugins->trigger_event( 'UserSignature', array(
		'display' => true, // echo the results
		'block_start' => '<div class="userSignature">', // html used before the signature
		'block_end' => '</div>', // html used after the signature
	);
?>

Location

This allows users to type in a witty location like at my bloody keyboard huh?. This is text only, any html will be stripped

Skin call ( default parameters shown ):

<?php
$Plugins->trigger_event( 'UserSignature', array(
		'display' => true, // echo the results
		'block_start' => '<div class="userLocation">', // html used before the location
		'block_end' => '</div>', // html used after the location
	);
?>

Timezone, Time format, Date format

This is exactly the same as the admin version and allows the user to see all dates and times in the format of their choice and in their local time. This one is a tad more complicated in your skin

Skin call ( default parameters shown ):

<?php
$Plugins->trigger_event( 'UserSignature', array(
		'block_start' => '<p class="userDateTime">',
		'block_end' => '</p>',
		'display' => true,
		'output_format' => '$date$ @ $time$', // $date$ && $time$ will be replaced with users preferred format for date and time
	);
?>

You also need to pass the date-time that you wish to convert.

// for $Item use :
		'localdatetime' => $Item->get( 'datecreated' );
// for comments use
		'localdatetime' => $Comment->get( 'date' );

An alternative method

An alternative method is to use the skintag call and pass it multiple parameters at the same time. It looks a tad more complicated but it really isn't that bad ;) Rather than repeat what's in the plugin code I'll just copy + paste it here and then try and explain it :p

	/**
	 * This is gonna be a doozy to write :p
	 * Displays all the various bits and bobs from the users profile
	 * Triggers event AMProfileSkinTag() to allow other plugins to hook in ;)
	 *
	 * @param array $params
	 * 	avatar 		- html output $avatar$ replaced with <img> tag for users avatar
	 * 	joined 		- html output $date$ && $time$ replaced with date/time user registered, display in current users preferred format and time offset
	 * 	location 	- html output $location$ replaced with users location
	 * 	name 			- html output $name$ replaced with users name ( replaces 'profile' if no linked profile )
	 * 	posts 		- html output $posts$ replaced with total posts and comments by user
	 * 	profile 	- html output $profile$ replaced with profile link
	 * 	signature - html output $signature$ replaced by users signature
	 * 	website 	- html output $website$ replaced by website url, $name$ replaced with users preferred name
	 * 	no_guests - html output displayed when telling guests to piss off
	 * 	profile_display - boolean are we displaying the profile
	 * 	ouput_format - html output
	 * 		replacement vars
	 * 			$avatar$ - replaced with avatar html if set
	 * 			$joined$ - replaced with joined html if set
	 * 			$location$ - replaced with location html if set
	 * 			$posts$ - replaced with posts html if set
	 * 			$profile$ - replaced with profile html if set
	 * 			$signature$ - replaced with signature html if set
	 * 			$website$ - replaced with website html if set
	 *
	 */
	function SkinTag( $params )
	{
		$params = array_merge( array(
				'signature' => '<p class="userSignature">$signature$</p>',
				'profile' => '<p class="userProfile">$profile$</p>',
				'name' => '<p class="userName">$name$</p>',
				'avatar' => '<p class="userAvatar">$avatar$</p>',
				'datetime' => '<p class="userDateTime">$date$ @ $time$</p>',
				'location' => '<p class="userLocation">$location$</p>',
				'joined' => '<p class="userJoined">$date$</p>',
				'posts' => '<p class="userPosts">$posts$</p>',
				'website' => '<p class="userWebsite"><a href="$website$" title=" '.sprintf( $this->T_( 'visit %s\'s website' ), '$name$' ).' ">'.get_icon( 'www', 'imgtag' ).'</a></p>',
				'no_guests' => $this->T_( 'You need to be a registered member to view profiles' ),
				'profile_display' => false,
				'output_format' => '',
			), $params );

Looks simple huh ? :roll: The main value is the output format, this is where you get to choose what's spat out and in which order. Continuing in my copy + paste fashion this is how it's called for the comments on my blog :

<?php
$Plugins->call_by_code( 'am_profiles', array(
		'obj' => $Comment, // change this to $Item for posts or $current_User for profiles
		'profile' => '<span class="profileLink">$profile$</span>',
		'name' => '<span class="userName">$name$</span>',
		'avatar' => '$avatar$',
		'posts' => '<p class="postCount">Posts : $posts$</p>',
		'joined' => '<p class="userJoined">Joined : $date$</p>',
		'location' => '<div class="userLocation">Location : $location$</div>',
		'output_format' => '$profile$'."\n"
					.'$avatar$'."\n"
					.'$posts$'."\n"
					.'$joined$'."\n"
					.'$location$'."\n"
	) );
	?>

and finally, displaying profiles

Displaying profiles is pretty similar to the code I pasted above. The main difference is that you want all fields and you pass on an extra parameter to tell the plugin that it's displaying the profile as opposed to just showing the users fancy new settings. When you do that the plugin will automatically trigger any other plugins that have the right hooks ;) Rather than re-pasting the sample profile pages code ( which is included in the zip ), you can see it here ( Sample _profile.disp.php ). You can just drop that page into your skins folder and it'll work

Did I mention hooks for other plugins?

To enable other plugin developers to add their own profiles stuff this plugin adds a few new hooks. To use them you need to inform the core that you can react to them with the following :

	function GetExtraEvents()
	{
		return array(
			'AMProfileTabAction' => 'AdminTabAction() when on our profile tab',
			'AMProfileTabPayload' => 'AdminTabPayload() when on our profile tab',
			'AMProfileSkinTag' => 'Triggered when our SkinTag() is called',
			 );
	}

The events should be pretty self explanatory and are passed the following parameters :

		$Plugins->trigger_event( 'AMProfileTabAction', array(
					'AMProfileUrl' => $this->url,
					'user_ID' => $user,
			) );

		$Plugins->trigger_event( 'AMProfileTabPayload', array(
							'AMProfileUrl' => $this->url,
							'Form' => & $Form,
							'user_ID' => $user,
				) );

		$Plugins->trigger_event( 'AMProfileSkinTag', array(
					'AMProfileUrl' => $this->url,
					'output_format' => $params['output_format'],
					'user_ID' => $user,
		) );

So, now that you've read all that, go download the plugin ( am_profiles.zip ) and enjoy your shiny new tab ;)

¥

It's like a forum, but it's a blog

Finally, I've mostly integrated the old blogrum code with InnerVisions .... I've even started a tutorial on how to add a blogrum to your own b₂evolution blog .... don't get excited though, it's nowhere near finished and I'm not in any great rush ;). There's still a fair amount of work to do with it before it's anywhere near the end result I have in mind, and the skins a tad shagged in IE6, but I'll be re-skinning it as soon as I've got all the code working and testing, so either put up with it or switch to a browser that it does work in ;)

I've decided that I can't be arsed importing all the current blogrums posts/comments/users, it's more hassle than it's worth so I'll just leave the current version where it is and shut down the ability to post/comment there. I also haven't redone the ability to create a new post from the frontend, I'll work on that when I get more free time. For the moment it's only linked in my drop down menus as I'd need to redo the header graphic to add it to the menu buttons, and I'm liable to go for a whole new skin if I have to go to that effort anyway ;)

Anyway, feel free to have a play, and let me know if you find any bugs/quirks ;)

¥

And I didn't even change the skin!

Well I finally got round to upgrading InnerVisions to the latest version of b₂evolution, mainly because it was getting a tad of a ballache developing plugins on my test blog and then constantly having to redo the zip files, something which is automated via my credits page for installed plugins. This is just stage one of the upgrade though, the next step is to integrate my blogrum with the rest of the InnerVisions network. Once again this is going to involve merging two different evo installs complete with all the users, posts, comments and groups ... not made any easier by the fact that the two installs share some users as well .... ah well, it'll be worth it when it's finished .... at least, that's what I keep telling myself ;)

One of the plugins that I'm currently playing with allows you to customise your dashboard to suit your own tastes, it even allows you to add widgets to your dashboard, be warned though, not all widgets play nice on all dashboard tabs .... you can easily tell, they normally barf out with fatal errors ... if they do then just remove them from your dashboard huh? Another cool feature is the ability to drag 'n' drop the widgets into the order that you want instead of the normal "click arrow" ..... "wait" ..... "click arrow" .... you get the picture. If anyone's interested in it then you can read a smidge more on the blogrums ( Experimental : Playing with admin ), don't bother downloading the linked zip though, it's already out of date, you can grab the latest version from here ( AM Deluxe Dashboard ). I will be making a more detailed post about it once it's nearer to a release version ;)

The chances are that this upgrade has screwed summat up somewhere, so if you find anything funky then just let me know .... assuming that the funkiness isn't to do with my anti-spam measures, in which case you might find yourself accidentally banned for a couple of hours ...... guess you'd need to grab me on the forums or my blogrum. When I get chance I'll be removing most of my current anti-spam stuff and replacing it with my Irish Captcha as it's pretty good at telling humans from bots without any hoops for the humans to jump through ;) ... the bright side is that my comment form should actually be able to remember visitors names for them after that :p

¥

External links are a pane

I decided to have a play around with my skins external links code, which uses javascript to add an onclick event to any links with class="ext", and a plugin I've had lying around for a fair smidge which does something similar for all/any external links by looking at the href for the link in question. The end result is a shiny new plugin which will add a graphic to every external link on your blog, clicking the graphic opens the link in a fancy little overlay which I stole from our photozoom plugin. I also threw in a few settings so that you can change the text that's added and add any domains that you class as internal links, although the plugin will auto generate an entry for each unique blog url on your system so you probably won't need to add any.

If you fancy having a play with this then you'll need to download 2 plugins as I've decided to separate the fancy javascript screen stuff into it's own plugin as I'm starting to use it in a couple of plugins and it's easier to have a dependency and maintain one codebase. You can download the external links plugin here ( am_externallinks.zip ) and the javascript helper plugin which it needs here ( am_jshelper.zip ), upload them both, install the js helper plugin and then install the external links plugin. That's pretty much it, now all your external links will have a crap looking arrow graphic which, when clicked, will open your link in a cool overlay. Your links will also have the class amExternalLink added to them so that you can style them as you wish. The arrow <img> tag will also have the same classname applied so you can change the graphic to suit your skin.

As always if you find any bugs or it melts your blog then just let me know ;)

¥

Does your admin look bloated?

A totally minimalistic admin area

NOTE : The chances are that none of this works in IE, so if you use IE you may as well skip the rest of this post ..... or read it and then go get a better browser ... whichever rocks your boat

So, I was playing around with the admin area to see what could be done using js, as it's required for the admin area to function anyway, and css. The main idea was to hide all of the clutter that's not used for the majority of posts, or only used briefly during the whole posting process, whilst also leaving it accessible for the moments that you do need it. When I say "clutter" I pretty much mean everything except the textarea that you type in and the post title. Toolbars - gone, advanced properties - gone, categories - gone, post status - gone, you get the picture ;)

Hovering over the toolbars makes them visible. You can also pin them open by clicking

All of this is done from a plugin which hooks into a couple of the admin events and then unleashes a bit of javascript to play around with classnames and id's and onclick events and stuff. The rest is handled by a simple bit of css ...... so simple in fact that IE can't understand it ...... nothing new there then huh? ..... anyway, the end result is that pretty much everything in admin is collapsed or hidden until you hover over or click stuff. The toolbars will show on hover, or you can click the text to pin them open if you're going to be using them a lot for a particular post.

The whole of the right column is hidden until you need it, which allows for a much bigger posting screen

The whole of the right column is reduced to a lil tab handily marked "OPTIONS". Hovering over the tab brings the right column back so you can play with your categories, visibility and renderers and things. This allows the post textarea et el to be expanded to fill the width of the screen which, for me, makes posting far far easier ...... combine that with Afwas's plugin ( [2.4] Resize Admin Textarea plugin ) and you can pretty much fill your screen with just the post area ...... cool huh?

Finally a thanks to John for his constructive criticism and suggestions about the plugin ..... and for allowing me to scare the shit out of him when most of his admin area disappeared ..... I suppose I should have warned him first :roll:

Don't worry, it's all still there ;)

Anyway, if you fancy having a play with this plugin, and you're using a decent browser, then you can download it here ( am_tidyadmin.zip ). If you find any bugs or flaws or stuff ( apart from "it doesn't work in IE", and variations of the same tune ) then just let me know.

¥