Forum Activity for @researchcooperative

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

Design and Skin Customization

I'm working with the Ningja skin...

I have noticed that after installing the Feeds module, an RSS button appears next to Group discussions. So I got the full feed URL for one of these and now I want put this into a profile-independent network activities page, if that is possible. I expect not.

I probably have to attach the RSS feed display to the network profile page, which is already crowded with other kinds of content.

As a first step I watched the video here...

www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/modules/277/feed-reader-and-rss-feeder

This went well but skipped the essential detail of how to open up the CSS code page and find the place to add the template code generated by the module. Where is that page?

Looking below the video we can find a screenshot of CSS code showing where to place the template code for the RSS, but I cannot see where to find the equivalent page of CSS code on my own site.

I really don't like the idea of having to operate on the guts of my system directly just to display an RSS feed on a page in my site.

I wonder if a "display RSS" button could be added to the widget system on Pages, to take care of the CSS work?

Getting the template code generated by the RSS feeds module is easy enough, but using that code is not.

Still, where is that page of CSS for inserting the RSS feed template? Others might want to know too...

Thanks
updated by @researchcooperative: 05/14/15 03:41:19PM

Is the Ningja Skin ok for Non-Ning networks?

Ning To Jamroom

So far so good. I have been adding test groups and discussions pre-migration.

There does not seem to be any basic problem setting up the site pre-migration.

My aim here is to learn how JR works, and then be in a better position to decide what to keep from my Ning network, if and when I do migrate from there.

I'll mark this thread as solved.

Thanks

How to use the text editor? It looks like WYSIWYG but does not behave that way

Using Jamroom


Is this something that can be done easily at the front end, and will it effect just the page and text box in use, or are you suggesting a site-wide override that requires code surgery in the back-end, so to speak?

Thanks (please give me the full diagnosis, even if I am likely to avoid treatment; others may benefit)

How to use the text editor? It looks like WYSIWYG but does not behave that way

Using Jamroom

When we create a Jamroom page, there is a yellow edit page button at bottom left. This lets us set up a page layout, and into each section we can drag and drop a 'widget', to add content. The widget then allows us to add text or other media. It opens with one field for a title, and one field for everything else (in the default set up). It has a text editor that looks like a WYSIWYG word processing editor, with buttons for font style, bold, italics, underlining and so on.

This is the widget and its text editor that I am trying to learn how to use. I don't know if it is called a tinyMCE editor... this is a term I have seen here in Jamroom for the first time. I should check to see if it is defined in the Glossary.

Thanks
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/01/15 09:09:16PM

How to use the text editor? It looks like WYSIWYG but does not behave that way

Using Jamroom

Thanks. Now I have the problem of a sticky title when editing a section of my page using the widget. When I delete the title, and try to save the result, it reappears and sticks, even when I refresh the page.

Do I have to go into ACP and clear all caches just to complete this action, or can I wait and expect the problem to resolve itself eventually?

How to use the text editor? It looks like WYSIWYG but does not behave that way

Using Jamroom

In my Ningja skin, Page making tool, (maybe other skins too?) the text editor looks like a WYSIWYG editor, with an option to look at the source code directly.

In the WYSIWYG I see the single-line spacing that I want, but when the text is saved, it gets converted to paragraph spacing on every line.

Maybe that is because I have chosen the 'paragraph' style rather than header style or preformatted style. I do not want every line to be a header in bold!

So I tried preformatted text, copy and pasted from MS word document. That worked as far as font size and style was concerned, but the lines were all spaced with paragraph spacing. How can I get the line spacing I want? And why is there no way to control font size other than using a range of header styles?

The other problem I have is that the text alignment tool doesn't seem to work. I can align a text in the WYSIWYG view, but after saving, it always reverts to hard left justified style. This also happens to inserted photos when I try to align them on a page with text.

What are the rules here? How can I use the text editor as an actual WYSIWYG editor?

Thanks

updated by @researchcooperative: 06/28/16 07:26:41AM

In "Latest Activity" what is automatically shown, and how can we control it?

Using Jamroom

I think at this point I will close the ticket, happy to know that what I am thinking of is possible.

Designing activity panels can be added to a list of fine-tunings that will be needed (albeit with outside help) when other aspects of the site I am building are sorted.

Maybe one day it will be possible to do this in a drag and drop manner with Sitebuilder, or a new module called Activity Reporter.

In "Latest Activity" what is automatically shown, and how can we control it?

Using Jamroom

My JR robot would be all A and no I.

All it needs to do is simulate sign-up, login and log out, and make allowable posts of text, images, etc. over a pre-determined period of time, at the request of Admin. only.

But at the same time, we don't want this to morph into a free-roaming spambot..

I'll aim to find actual people to act as test users, when I understand the system better, and have a basic framework ready.

@strumelia "Latest Activity" is the Timeline that follows each user profile, and appears on their profile page.

I have just posted in the forum of a profile that I follow (a "Translating" profile, where my translating group and translating forums are located). The quota I have created for this kind of functional profile has only Groups and Forums. No Timeline, Blog, or other unrelated functions.

When I land on the top page for this functional profile, I can see a tab for Groups and a tab for Forum.

When I click on the Forum tab, I see new menu starting with Forum, under which the Forum categories I created are listed. In one of these I recently posted a new topic. Alongside the Forum tab, there are also tabs for Newest posts, My posts, Settings, Categories, and Your settings.

My new post is listed there under "My posts".

That's OK in itself. When I visit a forum that I am following, it will be useful to have my own topic posts placed under their own tab so I can review them easily.

But my new post does not appear on my own profile page anywhere, just as you are finding with your profile pages.

It seems that Group discussions have higher status in the JR system and can be followed from afar, and if Activity Timeline is activated for your profile, then odd things like following other profiles, or adding a blog post, will show as Latest Activity.

Forum activities can only be seen by going to each forum concerned, so new visitors to a site are not going to see a quick preview on the top page.

There is no obvious way to control what goes into Activity Timeline.

The Global Config for this module only cares about the number of characters that can be used for a manual activity update. The automatic settings seem to be hardwired (for those of us who lack coding skills).

It seems to me that the most economical way to design the user-centered timeline would be to have it pull in ALL activity (from group discussions, new posts, blog posts, following actions, public replies to posts, and so on, and then to provide a global configuration control that allows the timeline to be configured according to the purpose of each Quota (profile category).

The alternative, which could also be useful as a second option, would to have a separate panel for every kind of activity (Group discussion, new forum posts, new forum replies, etc.) and then allow these to be switched on and off and positioned on the page.

It would be nice to have a Global Configuration that includes layout options for the activities that Admin wants to appear on each profile page.

For each network, different kinds of activity may be most significant, and the network creator may wish to highlight some kinds of activity, and let other kinds of activity have less visibility.

Not being able to pull all or selected kinds of activity, from all users (members), into a single (non-profile) Page window, seems odd. We are often advised to highlight member activities, on the landing page or home page of an online community, in order to attract new members.

In "Latest Activity" what is automatically shown, and how can we control it?

Using Jamroom

Part of my problem is that I am working with a shell network, without enough test users putting in content (apart from myself with anohter email account), so it is hard to see how certain parts of the system will work.

To this end, I wonder if a 'Jamroom robot" test user could be invented to be employed when setting up networks (but not to goose new users into mindless conversations).

I can see problems with my own suggestion, but maybe they could be forestalled. Just a thought.

Thanks

In "Latest Activity" what is automatically shown, and how can we control it?

Using Jamroom

This note relates to a profile established with a quota that has Forums and Groups assigned to it.

When "Activity Timeline" module is made inactive for this quota, the profile created with this quota still shows a "Latest Activity" panel.

So it seems that the "Latest Activity" panel is not related to the "Activity Timeline" module (which might therefore be better called the "User Timeline") ("Timelines" by definition record historical events aka activities).

If a group is part of the profile, and has had a discussion posted, then a "Latest Discussions" panel also appears. i.e. If there is no discussion, then no panel appears.

In contrast, whether or not there have been forum posts, the "Latest Activity" panel is displayed and stays blank. Maybe that panel has nothing to with the Forums.

If so, then what activities should we expect to see in the "Latest Activity" panel, and is there any simple way to control what appears in the panel?

If "Recent Discussions" can be displayed for activity in a Group, why don't we see "Recent Forum Discussions" for activity in a Forum?

Thanks.
updated by @researchcooperative: 04/29/15 07:18:14PM