Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

Designing a profile form for profiles in Quota X, and a different form for profiles in Quota Y

Using Jamroom


1. Thanks. Please say more about this.

Which modules can do this, how is it done, and who would or could be using the forms?

2. Another matter occurs to me:

Would it be possible to show all fields for "profile create" and "profile settings" on the same page, with a a column and check box alongside showing which fields are in create only, which in settings only, and which are in both, and then allowing us to control where each field appears by checking one or both boxes.

3. At the moment, it is not clear to me how to make a "profile settings" field that also appears as a "profile create" field so that it can be updated by the profile owner.

My understanding is that the 'profile create' fields cannot be modified by a new member when he or she returns to the site after logging out. Is this correct?

I do not see an "add to create form" checkbox that has been mentioned in a previous discussion of forms (/using-the-form-designer-tool-many-questions).

Back then it was suggested I need to create new Aparana modules in order generate profile forms that are specific to specific quotas. That is far beyond my capacity as a non-coding administrator.

4. I will keep playing with this, but setting up and displaying profile forms (each with many fields) does seem unnecessarily difficult/non-intuitive for such a key function of any member-based network that might be created using JR.

How do I access my Jamroom server in order to conduct SFTP download?

Jamroom Hosting

Thanks!

I must have been given that URL when I first signed up for the hosting. Everything has been running very smoothly from the start, so I had no occasion to use it.

Have now recorded the hosting address in a logical location.

Designing a profile form for profiles in Quota X, and a different form for profiles in Quota Y

Using Jamroom

Further background... in the site I am trying to build, I really need different profile forms for each quota. The function of each quota is different, so the profiles I or members make in each quota must also be different.

If all form fields for all quotas have to be in the same form designer list, then it may become difficult to handle them all. There is no WYSIWYG style of setting up the form, or a Site Builder page designer for setting up the form.

Making a super-easy design system for different profile forms in different quotas might greatly expand the usability and potential user-base of Jamroom.

For me this is critical, as I cannot ask people to join my network until I have worked out a way of designing profile forms that are easy for my members to use and update and display.

Thinking about the future, would it be possible for the creation of each quota to automatically trigger the generation of a new profile form design panel or module linked specifically to that quota, as a basic feature of JR?

How do I access my Jamroom server in order to conduct SFTP download?

Jamroom Hosting

Recently I found the following instructions for SFTP download, but where do these instructions apply?

I can find nothing related in my profile page at Jamroom.net, nor at my admin profile in my network hosted on a Jamroom server. I cannot find the "Hosting" tab that is mentioned here.

******

Accessing the SFTP Username and Password

The Username and Password that you will use to connect to your server are found in the Server Settings section:

- When viewing your Profile click on "Hosting"

- Click on the "My Jamroom Servers" tab

- Select "Server Dashboard" for the server you want to connect to

- Click on the "Server Settings" button in the server header.

The Username and Password will be found to the right of the "SFTP Login" area.

updated by @researchcooperative: 04/30/16 05:42:01AM

Designing a profile form for profiles in Quota X, and a different form for profiles in Quota Y

Using Jamroom

Which module controls the form designer? The form modules that I see in ACP list seem to be different beasts.

In the form designer the columns are headed: Order, Label, Name, Type etc.

I thought the name was actually the name of a tpl file.

Ok, got that wrong.

The modules I see under the "Form" heading in ACP are:

Chained select
Editor Embedded Media
Editor Image Upload
Simple Custom Forms

Do these have anything to do with Form Designer?

When I do a search on 'form designer' in the ACP search box, I get: 'No results found to match your search'.

Is cloning the form designer repeatedly for different quotas easy to do?

Aside: What will then happen when there are updates from JR? Presumably each clone will have to be manually updated, by comparison with the JR version, leading to ongoing maintenance costs for the site. Perhaps I should not worry about this. Maybe such work is less time consuming that it sounds.
updated by @researchcooperative: 01/30/16 06:32:18AM

Designing a profile form for profiles in Quota X, and a different form for profiles in Quota Y

Using Jamroom

1. If my understanding is correct, from any profile anywhere, we can click into the generic form designer and design fields that will then be listed with a .tpl label.

2. Where in the system should that .tpl file name be taken to then build a form (i.e. a compiled set of fields) that is specific to profiles in Quota X?

3. Can we then repeat the process, and design another form that is specific to profiles in Quota Y?

4. Can the fields we create for these different forms be displayed separately in different sections of the form designer? Or should we say, use the first 10 lines for fields in one form, and then the next 10 lines for fields in a different form? The field name could also include the destination quota name, to clearly assign the fields for the forms of different quotas.

I don't need the coding details, I just need to know how to ask someone else to design forms for the profiles in different quotas.

I can see, more or less, how to design individual fields, and can see that each field can be designed to be displayed to selected user groups, but I have no overview of how a particular set of fields can be compiled into a form that is specific for profiles in a specific quota.

3. I would also like members to see the same form (i.e same set of fields) when they first create their profile, and again when they return to update the profile. How is this achieved, in general terms?
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/08/16 07:50:30AM

After skin or module updates by the original developer, what happens to customizations?

Design and Skin Customization

Thanks - this makes some sense to me, and should make even more sense to CSS competent readers.

What I gather is that the templates system for both the skin and the modules is a way of making changes that will persist despite updates. Generally speaking.

That is, the custom templates in use will remain the templates in use unless one reverts to the defaults, which will be whatever is current in the latest update of a skin or module (if we always update when new updates appear).

If an update concerns an area of code that the custom template has replaced, then it may be desirable to update the custom template, using the methods you describe.

This now seems a little less scary than I was imagining. Please correct me if I have misunderstood the reply.

I'll look at the links you have given.

Which module controls the form used to create and display profile data?

Using Jamroom

In the modules listed under "Forms" in ACP I cannot find anything that obviously corresponds to the form that I see when click on the settings button for my profile.

It seems that everything related to the form in the profiles is controlled through the form embedded in the profile. Or is there some other place where I can design the forms used for profiles?

Are the modules listed under "Forms" basically tools that allow us to modify specific parts of forms that are embedded by default in other modules?
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/16/16 08:15:57AM

After skin or module updates by the original developer, what happens to customizations?

Design and Skin Customization

@michael

At the start of this thread, I asked what happens to customizations after updates to skins and modules.

Another way to ask this question is to ask what kinds of customizations affect just the skin, what kinds affect just a module, and what kinds affect both?

Coming to this from the outside of the outside, I really do not know the answers. I don't even know how to ask the question properly. I have no overview or previous experience that can tell me.

From the answers so far, above, I gather that updates to a skin can wipe out customizations, but I don't know if this applies to all customizations.

For example, if we design a new profile form with form designer, does that represent a change to a skin, or is it something that new skin updates will recognise and keep?

If we design a new profile form with form designer, but then do some coding so that it only applies to a particular quota, and not all quotas, does that represent a change to a skin, a module, or both, or neither? And if it does change either or both, will it get wiped when there are updates?

Do we have to clone all modules as well skins, to be safe, and then manually transfer code changes in updated skins and modules using comparison tools? Does this mean that the costs of maintaining a JR site will gradually increase as we customise further and further?

I need some kind of overview so that I can know whether my requests to a developer or CSS code guy are possible and reasonable, or possible but problematic, or just not possible.

I might ask for something that seems simple to me, but which is technically difficult or leads to greater problems.

The person employed might also not have oversight on the matter, as he has not worked with Jamroom before (not many developers/coders have).
updated by @researchcooperative: 01/14/16 05:50:14AM

Comment documentation and questions

Using Jamroom

Just now I followed the Help link from my Comments module to the Documentation.

It would be good if the overview in this Documentation could tell us more.

At present we are told that "stuff that can be commented on gets a box underneath it" and a screenshot shows an example of the box.

The screenshot is OK, but the first thing we need to know, as an overview, is what stuff can be commented on?!

The settings for comments can be found by choosing the Comments module in ACP, and then choosing the Quota Config tab, and then selecting a Quota that needs configuration. [This might be a good instruction to include in the Documentation, even if the principle is common to all modules]

When we do that, what options can we expect?

Just now I played with this in the context of a profile and quota which has Groups enabled.

When Comments are allowed in the quota settings, at the level of Profile and also at the level of "Item detail" then the boxes for comments seem to appear at multiple levels:

1. On the profile top page (at bottom)
2. On the Group top page (at bottom)
3. On each Discussion page inside the Group, under the discussion title and description box.

This last position is where the comment and comment reply system is most commonly needed, to establish a discussion thread.

What "Item details" in the various existing modules can have Comments enabled? i.e. Can the Documentation include an overall list of features where comments can be switched on or off, with the current modules for groups, audio, video etc.

The present Documentation tells developers how they can add comments to items in modules that are being newly built. It does not tell us which features in existing, off-the-shelf modules already have a tick box for switching Comments on or off.

Regarding the Comments for Groups, is it possible, without special or new coding, to switch comments OFF for the top page of a Group, but ON the for discussions inside that group?

It would be nice to have this level of control when we set up our quotas.

Thanks
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/10/16 10:52:55PM