By Torgrim Sandvoll on Tuesday, 07 July 2015
Replies 13
Likes 0
Views 0.9K
Votes 0
Hi,

I have EasySocial, EasyDiscuss and EasyBlog installed on my community site.

1. When going to my profile, I have an App section - with a Browse link.
a.) Is it possible to remove this Browse links for users? As admin I would like to set and control which apps the users have access to (same for all users).
b). I find my Blog app in this section. But when clicking the Blog app, it lists all my Blog articles, without images (just placeholders), and (this is the most important part...) there is no button to post a new Blog??? To do this I must choose Dashboard > Blog, which is very counter-intuitive... Please fix this for future version of EasySocial. See attached image (Profile - Blog - View).

2. Profile > Discussions > View. My own Group discussions does not show up. Guess this is a problem with users not in group should not be able to see these, but if I or the viewer is member of group we should be able to see group discussions in Profile > Discussions.

3. How do I remove the "Application" item in Account drop-down menu??? Why is it there??? The account drop-down have far too many items... When I click my name/account button I would like to get directed to my profile, not shown an endless drop-down menu. All those items should be on my profile page, not in a drop-down menu?

4. Profile > Apps > About - View. View is there no "Edit my profile" button?

I think there is some UIX problems here (or maybe I am confusing this).

My thinking when entering the community (EasySocial) pages on my site is two choices, Dashboard (where I can view all relevant community actions, and post quick updates myself), and My profile pages, where I can update my settings, view and post blogs, update my statuses, find my groups, friends, etc.

So Dashboard (Home) should be the place to view all actions, see upcoming events, and access and find different parts of the community (like new groups, new events, interesting discussions, etc.).

And My Profile should be for personal stuff (where I can find and view things about myself, my groups, my blog articles, my settings, etc.).

It seems like there is no logic in this with EasySocial. Too many items. Too confusing for new users. Too many choices.

Example: Dashboard view
Groups section. Lists my groups. Ok! But no button or link to find new groups???
Apps section. This section actully has a button/link to find new apps??? Why, here in Dashboard view? Is there a way to remove the App section from Dashbiard view? Why is it here??? Should this not be on your personal pages, My Profile?

Dashboard = Discover whats happening in community. Acitivities, events, groups... and also quick updates.

My Profile = Update my personal things/settings. Find and update my friends, groups, blogs, etc.
Hello Torgrim,

Kindly please find the response to your inquiries below:


1. When going to my profile, I have an App section - with a Browse link.
a.) Is it possible to remove this Browse links for users? As admin I would like to set and control which apps the users have access to (same for all users).

This can be removed from the theme file located in /components/com_easysocial/themes/wireframe/profile/default.php


<?php if ($user->isViewer()) { ?>
<a class="pull-right fd-small" href="<?php echo FRoute::apps();?>">
<i class="icon-es-add"></i> <?php echo JText::_('COM_EASYSOCIAL_BROWSE'); ?>
</a>
<?php } ?>



b). I find my Blog app in this section. But when clicking the Blog app, it lists all my Blog articles, without images (just placeholders), and (this is the most important part...) there is no button to post a new Blog??? To do this I must choose Dashboard > Blog, which is very counter-intuitive... Please fix this for future version of EasySocial. See attached image (Profile - Blog - View).

Please download the latest blog app from http://stackideas.com/apps/item/5-blog . With this new app, you can create your blog posts from the stream directly.


2. Profile > Discussions > View. My own Group discussions does not show up. Guess this is a problem with users not in group should not be able to see these, but if I or the viewer is member of group we should be able to see group discussions in Profile > Discussions.

The discussions that you see on the profile are from EasyDiscuss and not from group discussions. They are actually separate discussions altogether.


3. How do I remove the "Application" item in Account drop-down menu??? Why is it there??? The account drop-down have far too many items... When I click my name/account button I would like to get directed to my profile, not shown an endless drop-down menu. All those items should be on my profile page, not in a drop-down menu?

In terms of UX, placing these items on the profile page is even more confusing as you need to get back to your profile each time you want to access part of the extension. Placing them on the dropdown allows users to quickly access different areas of EasySocial. If you want to remove "Applications" from the dropdown, edit the file /components/com_easysocial/themes/wireframe/toolbar/default.profile.php and at line 116 remove the codes below:


<li>
<a href="<?php echo FRoute::apps();?>">
<?php echo JText::_('COM_EASYSOCIAL_TOOLBAR_APPS');?>
</a>
</li>



4. Profile > Apps > About - View. View is there no "Edit my profile" button?

The edit profile button is available on the cover area.


I think there is some UIX problems here (or maybe I am confusing this).

My thinking when entering the community (EasySocial) pages on my site is two choices, Dashboard (where I can view all relevant community actions, and post quick updates myself), and My profile pages, where I can update my settings, view and post blogs, update my statuses, find my groups, friends, etc.

So Dashboard (Home) should be the place to view all actions, see upcoming events, and access and find different parts of the community (like new groups, new events, interesting discussions, etc.).

And My Profile should be for personal stuff (where I can find and view things about myself, my groups, my blog articles, my settings, etc.).

It seems like there is no logic in this with EasySocial. Too many items. Too confusing for new users. Too many choices.

Example: Dashboard view
Groups section. Lists my groups. Ok! But no button or link to find new groups???
Apps section. This section actully has a button/link to find new apps??? Why, here in Dashboard view? Is there a way to remove the App section from Dashbiard view? Why is it here??? Should this not be on your personal pages, My Profile?

Dashboard = Discover whats happening in community. Acitivities, events, groups... and also quick updates.

My Profile = Update my personal things/settings. Find and update my friends, groups, blogs, etc.

What you see on the dashboard now is basically your "home" or places where you manage your items. What you see on your profile is basically what others would see. It's as simple as that

These are just based on your opinions and everyone has a different opinion / take on this. If you want us to modify the workflow simply because you feel it makes sense to you, someone else is going to come up with a different take altogether and tell us the same opinion that your workflow doesn't make sense


P/S: It's much appreciated that you split your super lengthy post into smaller threads as this would allow us to follow up on your issues easily since we have several moderators working on the forums.
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 00:38
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Torgrim Sandvoll wrote:

Is there a way to remove the App section from Dashbiard view?


I started a thread on this. Someone else wanted to hide the browse app ability as well. It's not because we want to give our users less freedom, but rather we want to have the intended site apps installed by default, hence making it not very useful to install more apps (if at all useful in the scenario of all the extra apps being unpublished).
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 02:23
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Noted Josh, will add this as a configuration option in the next release.
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 02:39
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Thank you for your thorough answer Mark. Very much appreciated! (You guys rock when it comes to answering support questions!!)

And sorry for the long question, I will split it up next time.

The app section is very confusing, so hope for a future version where we as admins can set which apps the users should have access to, and no browse-link or install extra apps for users.

Regarding the Blog app: http://stackideas.com/apps/item/5-blog
I downloaded this, but it would not install through the Extension Manager. Should I upload it to my site? Which folder should I put it?
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 16:21
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Hey Torgrim,

Thanks for getting back to me on this and thank you for understanding You need to install the app via EasySocial's Applications section instead
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 18:27
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Thank you for this Mark. I think I have done this for my site yesterday, and I get the same errors today (after installing once more) as noted above.

1. When viewing another users Profile > Blog, no images (only placeholders and alt tag) is shown. (see attachment above)
2. When viewing My profile > Blog, it just lists my blog posts, and there is no "Post new" button, as there is in Dashboard view.

I hope you see the lack of logic here.
In My Profile view, there are buttons/links for Creating new events, and new groups. But no way to make new blog?

Sorry that I do not see the logic behind your UIX.
To me it sounds much more userfriendly to have a Home where I can see and discover all community activities (News = All by default), and if I clicked Blogs I would see all the latest posted blogs from community, and if I clicked Groups I could search and discover the community groups, and if I clicked Discussions I could see all the latest discussions posted in community. Home/Dashboard = Discover community/Whats happening.

My Profile is where I edit my personal details, find my (personal) blog posts and my posted discussions, and create new events, groups and blogs.

Going to My Profile to create new group, and going to Dashboard to create new blog makes no sense to me. It should be both places, or one, not different places.
·
Wednesday, 08 July 2015 19:01
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
When you are viewing your blogs on the dashboard, you can see the "Post New" button since you are basically within the "dashboard" area. The blogs on the profile area simply displays a list of blog posts you have created on the site.

If you want to see a list of blog posts contributed by everyone on the site, you do so by accessing EasyBlog and not viewing it in EasySocial. Also, if you actually filter items by "Blog" for the stream, you can then view a list of "activities related to the blog"

The reason we added the "Create Group" link on the profile is because someone suggested that we add them on the profile. Initially we never had any intentions of displaying "action" links on the profile page.
·
Thursday, 09 July 2015 11:56
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Thank you for your answer Mark. I guess we will never agree on how the EasySocial UIX should work, and as you say there are probably different views on this for every EasySocial admin.

I must say though, that I completely disagree with your intentions of "actions" links (good thing they got in there by the user).
Profile page should be where you find and create YOUR groups, same with events, blogs, etc. Dashboard/home is not for creating things, its for discovering things, its where you see what has happened since you last logged in, find new friends and new groups. Find and join interesting events, see recent blogs and updates from community.

But I think we have discussed this too much by now! (I will code this - my way!)

But can you please help with my most pressing matter, the error I mentioned in my first post?
Why is not the images showing up on Profile > Blog? (This seems like an error with my install) (See attached "Profile - Blog - View.pdf" from first post in this thread)
·
Thursday, 09 July 2015 18:46
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Thanks for updating me on this. Yeah, I guess we have a different opinion on this altogether, hence we created the voices area at http://stackideas.com/voices/easysocial

As for the issues with the image of the blog on the profile, can you try to download the attached file and upload it into /media/com_easysocial/apps/user/blog/themes/default/profile/
·
Friday, 10 July 2015 00:08
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Thanks!
·
Friday, 10 July 2015 21:05
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
You're welcome.
·
Friday, 10 July 2015 22:56
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Mark wrote:

Noted Josh, will add this as a configuration option in the next release.


I'm curious where the option is?
·
Tuesday, 14 July 2015 01:42
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
Opps, looks like i added it on 1.4 I will port this back to 1.3 branch and push it on 1.3.30
·
Tuesday, 14 July 2015 01:49
·
0 Likes
·
0 Votes
·
0 Comments
·
View Full Post