Out-of-the-Box Setups

I don't know what it takes and I don't have a working copy of Jamroom right now to play with, but it sure would be nice if the base system would include a link to the home page in the menu. It took me a while of playing with the system before I figured out that you click on the logo to get back home. I don't think that is very intuitive. I recommend that a menu option for home be included with the basic setup.

I also failed to realize that the system comes requiring pictures to be attached to items or they don't display on the home page, like newest audio, newest profile, etc. Recommend the initial setup does not make this a requirement.

And how do I have a general forum like this one in my Jamroom site? Sure would be nice if the system came with it in the core. I didn't see a module for adding it on either. Just profile forums. I want one that all users can see and respond to. Same for blog. Like you get with a Ning network.

I'm hoping to have my new install of Jamroom set up and running very soon, tomorrow if I'm lucky. As I run into more things that I feel are troublesome, I will let you know. It's just feedback for whatever it is or isn't worth.
updated by @davej56: 05/06/15 08:33:24PM

There is no 'base setup' except for how you set it up. Each of the skin has a different setup depending on the purpose its intended for. If its a suggestion for a specific skin, which one? Clicking on the logo is pretty standard behavior to take you back to the top page. Yahoo uses it, google uses it, I think most sites have that convention.

The reason image requirements is a on by default. (you can disable it in the skin config) is that stuff without images make the site not look so nice.

This forum is the jrForum module.

"Profile Forum"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/networkmarket/62/profile-forum

Its on the profile 'the-jamroom-network'. So to have the same setup on your system, choose one profile to act as the system profile. Put it in its own quota and only let that quota have the forum module enabled.

Thanks very much for the feedback. Its always appreciated.

Just to add to what Michael said, remember that Jamroom is 'profile-centric' meaning that everything is owned by a profile, forums, songs, galleries, blogs, whatever. So assuming you perceive this forum as 'global', take a look at its URL - https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum - its owned by the 'The Jamroom Network' profile.
When you're set up with JR, create a profile called 'Forum', or 'Community', say, give it the forum module, then link to that forum as the 'global' forum.
hth


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Okay, I feel stupid. I guess I'll have to try the different skins to see what they do. I only used the default.

I hope you guys can put up with me while I try to get a handle on this.

Thanks for your responses.

The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Okay, the Pro Jam skin gave me the "Home" menu option that I wanted, and a whole lot more. If I could just figure out what goes into that big "Latest News" black hole, then I'm on my way.

Thanks to you guys, I have a general forum up and running. I do wish I could put it on the top line of the menu. Is there a way that I haven't found? And I wish mine showed a menu like the Jamroom site instead of a profile picture. What does that take?

All-in-all, the Jamroom hosting has been a huge improvement over Arvixe, and most everything is working. I'm having some little bumps like the buttons for all the profile options being blank in my "Dave" profile (e.g.; open "audio" and all the buttons are white blanks). And, when I use IE11, I have weird problems pop up that don't happen in Foxfire.

If my wife wasn't mad at me for all the time I'm spending with this, it would be great. Is there a jamroom lawyer module? I might need it!
updated by @davej56: 02/14/15 11:05:25AM

There are two things that I too had to figure out for quite a while at first, coming from Ning.
1)creating/editing top nav bar links
2)setting up a forums PROFILE to house my site's forum discussions (not group discussions).
(is there a section explaining for non-coders how/why to set up the forums profile?)

These two tasks/concepts I feel could be made more find-able or clearer for newcomers who are non-coders.

Ok the old HOME link issue again.... most of my network members are over 50...many are over 70. They look for a HOME link right where all the other main links are. Perhaps hard to believe, but as I've said before, half of them wouldn't even think to click on a logo. All these thousands of members are coming from ning sites which HAVE a default HOME/MAINpage link along the top bar. Remember too- ning 2.0 is not mobile responsive, so a ning2.0 'logo' is often a full width desktop banner background that doesn't shrink like modern logos, thus often folks don't even think of it as a 'logo' you can click on. I feel the JR ningja default should be that there is a HOME link spelled out there alongside the other main default links (and in addition to the clickable logo image)...and then the site owner can remove that "home" link if they choose, leaving only the logo to click on to get to the home page. But having it there out of the box would neatly remove one initial sticky obstacle to confused newly arrived ning-ers. The Ning bundle needs to be as familiar and non-challenging as possible when first set up. The main navigation links are the 'lifelines' to all the main areas of a site. To older people, anyway...goes along with looking for our eyeglasses when they are on top of our heads.

That said, it goes without saying that the goal is that we will all need to learn how to do most things for ourselves as we go along. Dave-- one of the FIRST things I set out to learn on my new JR site was how to make a new link in the top nav bar, and how to EDIT the links that are there, or delete one. You will need to be able to do this, as it's a basic but essential part of building and maintaining your own site.

So, my first few tasks I took upon to learn in JR were: creating/editing top bar links, tweaking colors/fonts/appearance on my main page, and creating a 'forum profile' which would 'own' the forum discussions on the site (and creating a link to it in my top bar links).
Once that forum profile is set up and working with your forum discussions, next you can search for threads here concerning HIDING the 'forum profile''s personal info and member picture when members are using the forums..so it doesn't seem like a 'member/profile'. (which I think is what you are asking about too?). And of course you'll have learned how to add a link at top to your "Forums". Then you can investigate how to add a block section on your home page showing latest forum discussions. Each of these are separate little projects in themselves- make a list and work through them one at a time. You will learn a lot from each task, and you can ask questions when you get stumped.

..There is a second option for forums for your site- a separate true forum platform (php?) that runs linked into your jamroom But I don't know much about that.
This forum we are posting in is the former type- as a 'forum profile' that owns the forum categories and discussions. That's what I did for my own site too.

Hope there is something in all this babble of mine that helps in some way. =8-*


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Well thank you there Strumelia! I found it in the skin notes how to get the latest news block to hold a picture, so that problem is solved. I'll have to look for the other items as you have indicated. Thanks again.

Some of the bigger skins that designers have put a lot of features into come with "Notes". You can find the notes for the projam skin on the page you use to activate it:

ACP -> SKINS -> PROJAM -> INFO -> "Click to View Skin Notes"

That will have the info you need to fix that black hole.

Hey Michael, thanks but I found that. I copied and pasted it into a Word document, and printed it out. I have that working now.

My next adventure is trying to figure out how to get the General Forum link onto the top line. I'll work on that soon. However, I invited a couple hundred people to join yesterday, and I didn't get any takers. Looks like my big challenge right now is to find members for the site. I think the site offers a whole lot to songwriters, but I have to find them and convince them of that. It may be a great site now, but that means nothing without a membership! Dang, this isn't as easy as I hoped.

I got my first member! I hope it's only the beginning!

In the skin menu editor, is there a category for the main or top-level menu? The drop down list doesn't come preloaded like silly old me thinks it should. Is there a list somewhere?

Every skin is different. You mentioned ProJam. The demo system to compare against is here:
http://demo.jamroom.net/jrProJamLight/


The 'skin menu editor' found at:
YOUR-SITE.com/core/skin_menu

does not control the menus that show for the skin. That controls the menu that drops down under your username from within the skin.

The menu items that run left to right on the projam skin
HOME | ARTIST | MUSIC | VIDEOS | GALLERIES | GIGS/EVENTS | BLOGS .....

are found in the TEMPLATES tab for that skin in the header_menu_desktop.tpl file. so
ACP -> SKINS -> PROJAM -> TEMPLATES -> header_menu_desktop.tpl

It uses a system of nested un-ordered lists. Its a bit intricate in there if you're un-familiar with working with code.

What are you trying to move? Where would you like to move it to?

Michael,

I never saw this response from you. Thanks for answering the question, but I think I'll leave it alone. If you can do it, that would be great.

I have "General Forum" and "FAQ" showing up on the users menu. I would like them in the top menu if you could please do that.

A little feedback from users:

1. It would be great if there was a field for posting lyrics and credits when you upload an audio file. Reverbnation allows you to post your lyrics with your songs. Be nice if Jamroom did.

2. It would also be nice if you could upload files when you respond to forum posts. Songwriters send files back-and-forth to each other, with updates to the music. As it stands, updates have to be posted to new topics, so you can't continue on the same thread.

3. I hope Paul is making progress with why songs don't show the number of plays or order right in the Top 10 using the Projam Light skin. Don't know if that's a skin problem, or deeper, but it would be nice if it were fixed.

Thanks for listening!

Dave

You can do this by going to the audio create/modify screen and clicking the Form Designer button at the top right. Then just add in the fields you want, ie. audio_lyrics and audio_credits. Then go to the ACP > Media > Audio > Templates and you'll want to add the new variables to your item_detail.tpl where you would like them to show. The variables would look like this:



You can modify the post, after it has been posted, and add a file that way.


This has been fixed in the latest ProJam skins.

Hope this helps!


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Douglas Hackney
Jamroom Team - Designer/Developer/Support
FAQ-Docs-Help Videos

Thank you Douglas for your help.

I was able to add the fields like you said, but two problems. When you try to do an update on the song, the fields don't show. When you bring the song up to play it, the fields don't show. How do I fix these issues?

I appreciate the work-around of posting, then modifying, then being able to upload. I just wish there was a simple upload option in the first place instead of having to teach your members how to work around it.

I have the latest Projam Light skin, but my top 10 list is not working right. See songpress.net.

Also, another user request, and I think a good one. We would like to see comments to be editable. Can I put an edit button on comments?

When you go to the Form Designer, there is a drop down selection at the top right that allows you to create a field for both the create and modify forms. Make sure you've added the same fields to both forms.


Sorry, that is how it works for Jamroom. I'm not 100% sure why, Brian would have to explain that one for you.


Can you email us your admin login, and FTP login if your not hosting with us, so I can take a look at your templates?


I think this has been brought up in another thread, or maybe a support ticket, but I don't know what has been decided on it yet... as of right now, there is now way to add an edit button to a comment. You can however edit comments in the ACP > Users > User Comments > Tools > Datastore Browser.


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Douglas Hackney
Jamroom Team - Designer/Developer/Support
FAQ-Docs-Help Videos

Douglas, I have 5 moderators for my site. I don't really want them having FULL admin access to all backend settings (just to avoid unfortunate mistakes)...so they are set as "Profile admins". They have already asked me if they'll be able to moderate/edit members' comments if needed. I'm hoping they will be able to do this without being full Admins.


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Okay, I got the lyrics and credits fields on both the audio create and update forms, but I tried to put the variables in the item_detail.tpl, and I ended up with a blank screen. I tried them in a couple places with the same result. I'm not a programmer, so I guess I can't do this. So now I have the fields there, but they won't display anyway. Argh.

Sorry that Jamroom works that way on forum posts. I would really like it to accept uploads on replies, without the work around.

I think users should be able to edit their comments. I know I would like that ability just as a user.

You'll need to show us the code you used or we can't help fix it. Put it inside a [ code ] (code in here) [ /code ] block to paste it here to the forums. see the BBCODE HELP button just underneath this comment box for more details.

Uploading to the forum is done that way so you can add posts to the forum directly. The upload functionality isn't available in skins, just forms. It is an area that is tagged to be looked at later on. Its lower priority as there are a few other things that need to be done first.

Editing comments is another thing that's on the TODO list.

I just tried to enter the variables that Douglas told me to, above. {item.audio_lyrics} and {item.audio_credits} I've already got a user using the new fields. I hope I can get them to display with the songs.

I'm glad to hear that uploads in replies on the forum and editing comments are on the list to be done. I look forward to having those capabilities.

G'day everyone,

So this has been a concern for me too. My site is a political/news discussion forum. The forum is the heart of the site. We presently keep the top 20 discussions on the front page, and use the tabs as a way of referencing the discussions by topic. You can see my site here: http://www.thenewstalkers.com. My group does not adapt well. So I really need those above capabilities. Everything else on the page is flexible. And just like Dave, I need to be able to edit comments and even edit member articles. Is this possible here?

I've deactivated the new fields until I can figure out how to make them display with the songs. But, I haven't heard back on here, and I'm thinking it's going to take more code for that than just entering a couple of variables. I sure wish you would make the lyrics and credits fields standard like in Reverbnation. People wouldn't have to use them, but a lot of people who write their own songs and audio monolog would.
updated by @davej56: 03/02/15 09:52:44AM

Basically, if you want to show your custom fields in the audio detail page you just add {$item.audio_lyrics} and {$item.audio_credits} (assuming they are the correct field names) to the jrAudio item_detail.tpl template, where you want the values to show. So, using the current template as an example, at lines 37 and 53 add this code -



--
Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Thanks Paul, I'll give it a shot tonight when I get home!

I was finally able to replicate your issues on my dev site, the problem is you don't have the jrCharts module activated. I put a check into the latest ProJam templates to not show the charts if the module was not active. It is in the Marketplace now.

Hope this helps!


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Douglas Hackney
Jamroom Team - Designer/Developer/Support
FAQ-Docs-Help Videos

Well Paul, thank you. I have the lyrics and credits displaying now. However, the lyrics are all run together. How can I show the format that the member posts with? Am I asking a lot with this?

Douglas. Wasn't sure what you meant by charts not activated, but I found "Advanced Charts" in the Marketplace and installed it. Now it works. Thank you.

Try doing the lyrics like this - {$item.audio_lyrics|jrCore_format_string:$item.profile_quota_id} - it should sort out all the formatting for you.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Paul, Do I replace the code you gave me before with this? Or add it somehow?

Actually, I just changed the field types from textarea to editor, and that seems to have done it. But I would like to try your new code too. Maybe that will put the text into a scrollable box?

updated by @davej56: 03/03/15 02:51:00AM

Replace {$item.audio_lyrics} with {$item.audio_lyrics|jrCore_format_string:$item.profile_quota_id}

See these docs:
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/development/1437/jrcore-format-string


--
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Education, learning resources, TEL, AR/VR/MR, CC licensed content, panoramas, interactive narrative, sectional modules (like jrDocs), lunch at Uni of Bristol. Get in touch if you share my current interests or can suggest better :)

hth


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Thank you Paul! I think what I have now will work well enough for me. We'll see if any users have anything to say.

Got another request for you guys. How about the ability to edit timeline entries? I think we should be able to edit any entry that we make. There's nothing like hitting the "Update" button, then noticing a typo or thinking of something else you want to say.

Its always better to ask for new stuff in specificly titled threads. This on "Out of the Box" setups is not the location we'd go looking for feature requests when we have nothing to do. Better in a new thread:
"Ability to edit timeline entries".

I love marking threads as SOLVED so when things are on topic and I can do it and mark it SOLVED i get a sense of satisfaction.

--edit--
suggestion is noted though, thanks
updated by @michael: 03/09/15 03:45:25PM

Just went to check this out and discovered the functionality is already there. Just needed a button.

The only thing is it will only work for timeline entries that have been entered via the textbox, not for timeline entries that are auto-generated like when you add an audio file and it posts to the timeline.

Which makes sense.

That's perfect! Thanks Michael!

I just want to share a message I received from one of my new users:

"Good morning! Yes, the site is very well laid out, simple to use, and you have given us as artists so much room to post and. Share our stuff! Truly feel you hav a great platform and website in place. I would like to share some potential resources that might be of help in these early stages. Its a resource that has several thousand Independent bands, soloists, acts of all genres, ages, backgrounds, and also at different stages of their existence. They are from all over the world and some have gained exposure on the web and some are just starting out. I'm curiosity as to how you are marketing Songpress? Long term goals? Do you need any marketing or sales support? I know that this is a big question that requires more information. The bottom line is, I think you have a better forum for musicians and artists to share and post to than any I have seen. I am somewhat connected as an amature with some segments of the industry. You may have it all covered as well and that's great too. No worries either way. I'm continuing to share my stuff here as time permits and I thank you for your hard work work and efforts! Thanks again, Rick"

Well that sounds really good


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

You guys obviously deserve the credit.

What would you guys think about maybe adding some kind of a link in each profile for sending a private message? Or is there one that I'm missing? Right now, I'm finding sending someone a private message to be a bit of a hassle, and it's not in your face like it is when you visit a profile in Facebook. Just a thought.

I would love to see a Chat added to the system. My 2 cents again.

How to do that is covered in this thread:

"How to add a contact link to the profile?"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/forum/installation-and-configuration/25983/how-to-add-a-contact-link-to-the-profile

I just realized something that really surprises me. One of my members made some really nice comments about the site on their timeline. I went to say thank you, but there's no ability to comment or reply on timeline entries. This seems very basic to me that we should be able to do that. Am I missing something?

The twitterish way to do it would be to 'share this' which would add their post to your timeline. Or send a message with their name in it:

"hi there @whoever , thanks for the great post you made about us!"
That will show up in their MENTIONS section of their timeline.

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On activity timeline posts that were actually written, not just an update of something you will see 'comments:0' if you click on that you can go leave a comment on the activity post.
updated by @michael: 04/02/15 02:48:35AM

Thanks Michael. I tried the clicking on "comments:0" and that works. However, I would like to see the timeline a bit more like Facebook, where we get a reply option if we just go to the timeline comment. The method you provided isn't intuitive for the users. Just my 2 cents.

I notice that nobody ever responded to my comment about adding Chat. It sure would be nice if that module was to be added. I see members on my site all the time now, and I would like to just say hello that way. I really don't want to add a third party chat to my system. Is there any possibility that Jamroom will be adding chat?

It helps us out a bunch if forum threads have the title of the question in them. That way users searching later can see that the title matches what they ask and see its marked 'solved' so know they can get an answer.

When threads go on and on with many questions, nobody tends to re-read them looking for answers. So if possible would you put new questions in threads so other users can find them.

We might build a chat module, but its not high priority because one already exists that works provided by cometchat. Higher priority than things that already exist is stuff that doesn't exist yet.

So if you need chat, then go with cometchat. Ask Strumelia about it, I she's got it installed.

Yep, I bought their premium level (self-hosted version, and includes mobile apps and added support) and it's now working fine in my JR site. I'm not live yet but my moderators and I tested it. CC instructions are a bit rough, but Soaring helped by telling me WHICH template you are supposed to add their footer code to (your skin "meta.tpl"...like who would know that and why do they just say "add the code to your template" ?)


--
...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015