Questions on EasySocial Backend Settings
By Neel on Wednesday, 30 July 2014
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I checked out your backend demo for EasySocial. I couldnt explore the settings tab so I have a few questions:

1) Is it possible to limit the number of characters users can type in their wall? (like the character limit in twitter).

2) Does ES search have a plugin for Joomla's search component so the Easysocial's users, profile, albums, etc.. can be searched from Joomla com_search?

3) With the apps in user profiles, can admin set the default applications for user profiles and disable the option for users from changing apps settings?

4) Can admin put a restriction on external links shared in profiles? As in, (a) disable the option for sharing external links in wall or (b) perhaps set reputation requirement based on user points, or registration date, etc.. before they can share links?

5) In front-end, with the drop-down menus that shows when a user clicks on the toolbar avatar at the top-left when logged in (that shows Preferences, edit profile, etc..), are we able to add more menu items to these lists, such as forum settings, etc..? How does it work?

6) If there are any moderation required, such as group approval needed, registration approval, etc.., can admin receive email notifications?
Hello Neel,

Thank you for your interest in EasySocial! Please find the response to your inquiries below:


1) Is it possible to limit the number of characters users can type in their wall? (like the character limit in twitter).

I am sorry but unfortunately this is not possible currently


2) Does ES search have a plugin for Joomla's search component so the Easysocial's users, profile, albums, etc.. can be searched from Joomla com_search?

Yes, we do have finder plugins for this. In fact, if you are using the toolbar search / suggestion on EasySocial's toolbar, it relays the search query to Joomla's Finder search.


3) With the apps in user profiles, can admin set the default applications for user profiles and disable the option for users from changing apps settings?

Yes, this is possible


4) Can admin put a restriction on external links shared in profiles? As in, (a) disable the option for sharing external links in wall or (b) perhaps set reputation requirement based on user points, or registration date, etc.. before they can share links?

I am sorry but unfortunately this is not possible currently


5) In front-end, with the drop-down menus that shows when a user clicks on the toolbar avatar at the top-left when logged in (that shows Preferences, edit profile, etc..), are we able to add more menu items to these lists, such as forum settings, etc..? How does it work?

Unfortunately you can't add them through the back end of EasySocial but you can always edit the theme files to add additional links of course


6) If there are any moderation required, such as group approval needed, registration approval, etc.., can admin receive email notifications?

Yes, when a new group is created and if the group is pending moderation, the admin would then be notified
Mark
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Wednesday, 30 July 2014 10:33
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Thank you Mark for your response.

"1) Is it possible to limit the number of characters users can type in their wall? (like the character limit in twitter).
I am sorry but unfortunately this is not possible currently"

With the above, is it possible to add a hack to it so I can implement this restriction on my site? Would you be able to help me add this restriction to EasySocial if its possible?

And, am I able to disable some features completely that I dont want in my site like Events, Groups, etc..? Similarly am I also able to disable Wall posts if I dont want them on my site?

Although I do like EasySocial, I dont want a full blown Social Network in my site. I only want to use some elements of ES and thats why I am trying to see how much can I customise it since ES comes with far too many features that might be too much for my site users.

Thanks for your reply.
Neel
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Wednesday, 30 July 2014 16:34
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Hello Neel,

I am sorry for the delay of this reply, got a little carried away with the internal development. Kindly please find the response to your inquiries below:


With the above, is it possible to add a hack to it so I can implement this restriction on my site? Would you be able to help me add this restriction to EasySocial if its possible?

I could quickly add some hacks for you but it wouldn't have a "counter" for this though. If the user submits a message that is too long, the system will then return an error message.


And, am I able to disable some features completely that I dont want in my site like Events, Groups, etc..? Similarly am I also able to disable Wall posts if I dont want them on my site?

Yes, you can actually disable these if you want.


Although I do like EasySocial, I dont want a full blown Social Network in my site. I only want to use some elements of ES and thats why I am trying to see how much can I customise it since ES comes with far too many features that might be too much for my site users.

EasySocial is extensible in the sense where you have 100% source code of the product and you can actually customize it however you want if you are proficient in PHP / HTML Look at it this way, if you are paying someone to write your "niche extension", how much would it cost? :P Here, you are only paying $99 for 6 months of updates and support too! The best of all, it already has most of the basic functionality that you need
Mark
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Wednesday, 30 July 2014 22:06
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Thank you Mark.

I could quickly add some hacks for you but it wouldn't have a "counter" for this though. If the user submits a message that is too long, the system will then return an error message.

That will be really helpful. With the counter, wouldnt I be able to add that with a bit of jquery?

"EasySocial is extensible in the sense where you have 100% source code of the product and you can actually customize it however you want if you are proficient in PHP / HTML Look at it this way, if you are paying someone to write your "niche extension", how much would it cost? :P Here, you are only paying $99 for 6 months of updates and support too! The best of all, it already has most of the basic functionality that you need"

You are right. It does have a lot of cool functionalities and I like that it can be nicely customised and use what we need. Thanks for your reassurance on that. However I am concerned if I will be loading too many resources (like the total js, css and other assets in the package) for unused features too if I am only going to be using some of the features that this extension has to offer.
Neel
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Thursday, 31 July 2014 02:19
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Hello Neel,

You can actually "calculate" the character count but it's a little tricky because what you see there is not actually a textarea. It's just a div that is editable because we actually insert rich data like mentions, in that area.
Mark
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Thursday, 31 July 2014 02:22
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Aha... Makes sense. Thank you once again Mark. Have a good night.
Neel
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Thursday, 31 July 2014 02:39
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You are most welcome
Mark
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Thursday, 31 July 2014 10:56
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Hi Mark,

I have had a lot to work out for the past few days on how ES would benefit my site. Although it has great features, some of its features can affect participation in other parts of my site. One of the big one will be the wall posts. Since you are able to help me with a hack to restrict the number of characters users can type in wall posts, it does help out a bit. However, without a counter, it can become quite annoying to users. I understand you mentioned that it will be a bit complicated to get the counter to work. But I was wondering if you or someone from your development team able to create a custom hack for this so it also shows the counter for the character restriction? This is very important to me and is one of the big factor that will help me make my decision on ES. I understand that you and your team are extremely busy with the development of this components itself and I completely understand even if you charge for my custom request. A hard coded hack should be good enough for me and I dont really need a backend settings for this. Are you able to help me with this counter as well please if I purchase ES?
Neel
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Sunday, 03 August 2014 16:31
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Hello Neel,

I am really sorry but unfortunately I don't think we'll be able to cook up a quick hack for this as it is much more complex than it seems
Mark
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Sunday, 03 August 2014 22:30
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Thanks Mark. Its a shame its not possible to add the counter. How about this - is it possible to disable the 'Share' button when user goes over the character limit on wall posts? In other words, the 'Share' (submit) button is only clickable when the wall post is within the character limit. Will that be possible or is that complicated too?

Based on what I have gathered so far, I think these are my only options for this:

1) With your help, add a hack to it to limit the characters but without a counter which will show an error when user submit posts over the limit.

2) Disable the wall posts completely.

3) Disable the Share button if character count is exceeded (if its possible to add that).

I apologise if you feel that I am annoying with all these questions. Its important for me to work out how I am gonna integrate ES into my site. Thanks for your support Mark.
Neel
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Tuesday, 05 August 2014 22:59
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Hello Neel,

The problem here is not about displaying the counter The issue here is more about the rich text that is within the share area. The share textarea will include a rich media and unfortunately the calculation would not be accurate. I am really sorry but unfortunately I don't think this is possible as of now.
Mark
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Tuesday, 05 August 2014 23:13
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Right.. now I understand. Thank you so much Mark for patiently answering my questions. I appreciate that.. I'll work something out. You've been great. Cheers!
Neel
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Wednesday, 06 August 2014 02:14
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You are most welcome Neel
Mark
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Wednesday, 06 August 2014 15:43
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