Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

Is it possible to automatically display all profiles in a gallery?

Using Jamroom

Thanks. Yes, that was a ramble. I put a suggestion for "advanced search" in the suggestions box, and Brian posted a quick answer there which I will have to explore.

At Ning, for a long time, I was pushing for better/more usable search functions as well. In the very early days their indexing was unreliable. That doesn't seem to be an issue with JR.

I introduced Jamroom today to a young researcher, Japanese, who has been helping street muscians in West Africa produce their own music videos. He was very interested.

Advanced-search pages for finding other network members

Suggestions

At present, the default search on all profiles only uses an index of profile names (in the Ningja skin at least). If we do not already know a person, for example, we cannot discover them through a shared interest, or other quality.

Users, i.e. account holders, are likely to be real-life people or companies, while the profiles they create for various purposes in a Jamroom network are also of interest, though perhaps more specialised n their purpose.

Assuming that users have been able to publish a primary user profile with a searchable set of description fields, and assuming that each other profile owned by that user has its own set of description fields, then it should be possible to design drag and drop tools to implement an advanced search system dedicated to searching for other users and all their profiles in a network.

This could become a popular, social activity on the network. People-watching is a large part of what people like to do in many social situations. The more easily we can explore and learn about other people in a network, the more effectively we can learn to select profiles that we want to follow. Otherwise, the tendency will be to make selections from among just the most visible, recently-joined users and their profiles at the top of a page of profile photos.

It is more fun to be able to search specifically on something like location, or occupation, or interests, and then find all users and/or profiles that match.

The first step will be setting up forms for users and profiles that are displayed publically. With the sign-up data added to establish a first profile, and with data added for other profiles attached to each user, an advanced search page would be a powerful tool for finding other people.

It might also be good to be able to toggle between a search on all profiles, or a search on just the user sign-up profiles (this latter could be designed to show what other profiles are attached to a particular user, regardless of whether or not they match a search term).

Making advanced-search pages very easy to implement, by non-coding administrators/site owners, would be helpful for most social networks.
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/06/15 10:05:04PM

Adding an RSS feed from my own site into an activity page on my own site

Design and Skin Customization

Ok, so now I have watched the entire video course,

https://www.udemy.com/start-your-own-online-community

and there is a section there that is evidently trying to introduce RSS feeds for new users. However, again, at the critical point, there is a gap in the explanation.

Now, let us say I am adding an RSS feed from another site to my site. I watch the video. I have carefuly noted how the feed name becomes part of the template code that is generated by the RSS feed module.

Then our guide says "I've already put that code into the top template of the Elastic Skin". Then updates the skin, resets the caches, and shows a page where the feed is now displayed under a tag cloud.

Great, but how do I find the "top" template of my skin? I might not know what to do when I get there, but it won't be easy to learn if I cannot find it.

When I look at my Ningja skin, and go to the template list, I do not see anything called "top". When I do a search on the support forums here, the phrase "top template" does not show up.

What is the top template?

Of course, if I quit my job and start learning CSS and HTML and Smarty and do the full course I might at some stage learn what the top template is, but maybe I do not need to do all that just to install an RSS feed. It must be simple to do, and the video was attempting to make it simple, but... but... sorry. I am stuck.

I understand that I was just watching an intro video that is not attempting to be a guide to the template system... but there may be a better way to make a bridge between the simple introduction, and the nuts and bolts explanation needed to show us how to actually do the thing.

This could be a statement like... "Here it gets a little complicated, so please see Part X of Video Y or Section w of Documentation z for details".
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/06/15 07:04:13AM

Using the form designer tool - many questions

Design and Skin Customization

Thanks,

I wonder if (eventually) the JR forms and templates could be automatically linked, so that setting up a form simultaneously sets up the display, on the assumption that most forms are designed with display in mind.

Display could be the default option, with options then added to not display (if the form is not wanted for display purposes) and to control the manner of display.

That's a product suggestion I suppose, so no need to reply here...

Cheers, P.

Using the form designer tool - many questions

Design and Skin Customization


Visitor to your site cannot modify your information (say a page you created in page creator). When adding a custom form field to a form you can choose who you want it to be displayed to in the groups field. It's important to understand that form designer is just for the form - it does not control what data is DISPLAYED on a item detail page - that is controlled by the skin and templates.

I don't want non-member visitors to modify information displayed, I just want them to see it. How exactly do I control where the form data is displayed for public view? I understand now that this will involve templates listed in the ACP for each module, but tampering with those (and knowing which ones to tamper with) seems to quickly get complicated.

The example shown in Documentation (using video genres) jumps into this process without any preamble to explain what is happening and why.



It's dynamic - it will update if you change it.

Does this mean that there can be only one form design per module, and all quotas must use that one design? This is awkward, because the modules are being used for different purposes in different quotas.

To have a different profile form, for example, for profiles in different quotas, do we need to clone the profile module in its entirety, and then assign each cloned module with its distinct profile form to each quota?


Thanks again.
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/04/15 05:55:25PM

Using the form designer tool - many questions

Design and Skin Customization

A documentation video with the above title is shown here: https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/getting-started/1275/using-the-form-designer

BUT... the form designer tool appears at multiple locations in a network, according to which modules are being used. Each location has its own URL (the list below is just for the modules that I am working with).

In each case, when we modify an existing field in a form, or create a new field, we can go to the bottom of the form designer page and (it seems) choose which areas of our network the created or updated form will apply to, namely:

- user categories ('groups' such as master admin, normal user, power user, etc.), and
- quotas (profile categories defined by the modules allocated to them).

Many matters remain unclear to me:

(1) What is the relationship between the create and update form design page - in each module that labels the form design pages in this way?

(2) Should we always work with the Form Designer Create Form, and then tick a box that says "Add To Update Form"?

(3) Is the result different if we make changes in the Update Form and tick the box for "Add to Create Form"? What happens if the Create and Update Forms are not exact mirrors of each other? Are there situations where they should not be mirrors of each other?

(4) The "Add to Update Form" checkbox seems to exist only when the two form panels in a module are "Create" and "Update"? In other modules, this option does not appear when we create a new field in our form. What is the relationship between the alternative form design pages in those modules?

(5) In each module, how do we tell the form to display itself when a user has filled in the form? It seems like these forms are only visible in Admin. mode or to the profile owner when they are being created or filled in. I want all profile owners to have their profile information displayed by default, and visible to any visitor from the internet. When I am logged out, I do not see any profile pages that display the form created with the profile module.

(6) When a new member signs up, how can they create a public profile page that is displayed by default, and that follows the standard format of a form designed and provided by Admin?

I do not want every member designing their own public profile form, or being forced to learn how to use jr code etc., in order to make their profile details public.

(7) Once a particular user's profile has been created with a profile description based on a particular form, will future updates of that form apply to the existing profile? (Keeping all the existing information in so far as the fields for that information have not been deleted).

(8) In the profile module, I can design a form and select "display groups" from the bottom of the Form Designer page, but I cannot see what effect this selection has. Regardless of the groups and quotas selected, and logged in as Admin., I see the same profile form attached to all profiles in all quotas.

If each form is tied to a particular module, and that module is used in multiple quotas, is it actually possible to design a different form for each quota?

(9) Once a particular form design has been applied to a module, and to all the quotas where that module is used, will that design be fixed (unchangeable) in each existing quota, or will it be updated across all existing quotas?

Or to ask the same question in a different way, how can each quota have its own particular set of forms, when it is using modules that are also allocated to other quotas?

(10) Can operation of the form designer tool be explained in every context where it automatically appears after installing all the modules? The only introduction I can find is the example at the top of this page, and this only shows the tool being used for a video module.

The following list shows all the places where I would like to know how to use the form designer tool.

Thanks.


Profile module

/profile/form_designer/m=jrProfile/v=create

/profile/form_designer/m=jrProfile/v=settings


Forum module

/forum/form_designer/m=jrForum/v=create

/forum/form_designer/m=jrForum/v=update


Groups module

/group/form_designer/m=jrGroup/v=create

/group/form_designer/m=jrGroup/v=update


Group Discussion module

/group_discuss/form_designer/m=jrGroupDiscuss/v=create

/group_discuss/form_designer/m=jrGroupDiscuss/v=update


Group Page module

/group_page/form_designer/m=jrGroupPage/v=create

/group_page/form_designer/m=jrGroupPage/v=update


Pages module

/page/form_designer/m=jrPage/v=create

/page/form_designer/m=jrPage/v=update


User module

/user/form_designer/m=jrUser/v=signup

/user/form_designer/m=jrUser/v=account
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/11/15 05:27:33AM

Adding an RSS feed from my own site into an activity page on my own site

Design and Skin Customization

Thanks. I'll go to the basic course videos next, then explore/push buttons from there.

Adding an RSS feed from my own site into an activity page on my own site

Design and Skin Customization

Nope. Looked at both ways indicated, rss feeds and jrCore_list, and it would take me year of Sundays to get comfortable with either (speaking subjectively).

In Ning, in places where we might want to add the feed, like beneath a group discussion panel, we could just paste in the URL, add a title, and that was that. Two steps, no back end, no code. The feed would appear on the page, as a source of information related to the theme of the group concerned.

Jamroom is sort of half-way towards the kind of generic meta-design framework that allows network designers to concentrate on the network layout and functions, without needing to deal with code. I think Jamroom is inherently more powerful, in itself, and as an open source project, but 99% of people who might have a social purpose and idea for a social network will not have the time or skill to learn the coding system.

For a specialist in jrCode, it is very simple I am sure, and therein lies my hope... that I can afford to pay someone to customise the system after it is clear (to me):

(a) what kind of general structure is needed and can be made, and
(b) that users of the network do not also face a steep learning curve (from a ground zero base of coding experience) in order to enjoy the network functions.

Even on my current Ning network, the slightest increase in steps required to set up a profile page, or find and use forums, can have a huge impact on the rate at which new members join the network. The old Ning system itself is not fully optimised, but is better than other social networks that I have seen. Unfortunately, Mode Media, as they now call themselves, have dropped the ball with development of Ning 3.

I am like a referree standing in a field, hardly knowing the rules of the original game, and now the game has changed, and I am still in the field, and I am expected to blow the whistle to start the next game.

I feel a little exposed out here.

However, it's my own choice to be in the field.

I am trying to reinvent the game (of scientific communication). I can see the goal, but getting players to head in that direction has been eluding me already for about 14 years...

Thanks, P.

(postscript... now looking at the course movies, this will take a Saturday)
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/03/15 07:36:46AM

Adding an RSS feed from my own site into an activity page on my own site

Design and Skin Customization

Dear Michael,

I will look at the links you suggest. Thanks.

Here is the instruction that gives me jitters... a screenshot that appears to be from somewhere deep in the system code. If it is necessary to go there, it would be good to make the route more obvious...

Thanks.


screenshot of the template alterations needed to show the RSS feed.
- See more at: http://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/modules/277/feed-reader-and-rss-feeder%20#sthash.I76hFqSs.78DD0k0w.dpuf

Adding an RSS feed from my own site into an activity page on my own site

Design and Skin Customization

Hmmm... I tried adding it as html code on this page:

http://publishsciencenet.jamroomhosting.com/activities

and this clearly does not work. The template code is just reproduced as a line of text.

The instructions page says to put it here:

/skins/(YOUR SKIN)/jrAudio_item_rss.tpl

but when I go to my skin control page, I don't see any way to do this:

http://publishsciencenet.jamroomhosting.com/core/skin_admin/templates/skin=jrNingja

The instructions are assuming knowledge I don't have...

Sorry.
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/02/15 03:58:23PM