Hello James,

I had posted a few trouble shooting tips on your previous thread,
It seems our template CSS is clashing with easyblog themes,
for the stars and tool bar font please insert this in your custom CSS template.

body .ui-stars-star a, 

body .ui-stars-cancel a

{

    font-size: 0 !important;

}



#ezblog-menu .blog-navi .user-form form a

{

    font-size: inherit;

}

Thanks:)

What 'custom CSS template' are you referring to? The Joomla site CSS or some CSS related to EasyBlog? If the latter, where do I find it?

I think we should continue on this thread, as now we are definitely dealing with technical issues not just installation.

Referring back to your response on the other thread, many thanks for the image insertion idea in the description field for the blog. That works nicely.

You said: You can set public to be able to comment in your site in
backend -> easyblog -> ACL -> Public
and enable Post Comments to yes.

That I had already done before asking the question. It does not work. There is still no link for posting a comment, nor any functionality for doing so. This is critical. Please advise.

Thanks for the help, please keep it coming ;-)

James

Joomla template as in your site's template, its usually located in
JOOMLA/themes/yourtemplate/css/template.css
or you could just go to your template manager in your
backend -> template manager -> templates -> choose your template
paste it at the bottom so you could keep track of your changes.

Did you check in
backend -> easyblog -> settings -> comments -> generals
Allow non members to comment set to yes?
aslo set
backend -> easyblog -> ACL -> Guest
and enable Post Comments to yes.

It is abit hard on our side to know your current settings to guide you as we do not have your backend access,
hope you understand.

Yes, non-members is already set to yes. That is not the problem.

There is no user group listed called 'Guest.'

It should not be so difficult with regard to settings. However, I apparently have a complete system failure with regard to comments. I don't even know what this functionality is supposed to look like. Does this feature require some kind of special plug-in??

Ah, ha!

The problem with the comments seems to have stemmed from the fact that the only post was the one your system generated upon installation. I edited that post instead of creating a new one. Suspecting this might have something to do with the commenting problem, I created a new post and deleted the one EasyBlog created on installation.

That apparently has solved the problem! Hurray!

Please stay tuned to this post for further questions as they arise.

Thank you.

Hi James,

I'm glad that one of your issue is solved
The post that was auto generated had the comments switched off with in the post. You could set your individual post to display comment or not.

Thanks!

When you have moderation turned on for comments, all that does is send me an email that someone has posted a comment, so I can go look at it to see if it's okay? Please confirm, is that how it works?

When a 'Guest' goes to post a comment, the following text is provided:

"If you would like to register, please fill in the username and name field."

However, that is incorrect. The way I have it their email is also required. How can I change this text to read. "If you would like to register, please fill in the username,name and email fields." ?

I don't know why, but there was apparently a time lag before the CSS you provided for the star/numerals and the login button to take effect. They now seem to have solved both problems nicely, thank you. I see one must be logged in to use the stars. That's okay.

Please see the remaining questions above.

Hello James,

When you have moderation turned on for comments, all that does is send me an email that someone has posted a comment, so I can go look at it to see if it's okay? Please confirm, is that how it works?
>> Yes, EasyBlog will send an email to the SuperUser so that they can approve the comment.

When a 'Guest' goes to post a comment, the following text is provided:
"If you would like to register, please fill in the username and name field."
However, that is incorrect. The way I have it their email is also required. How can I change this text to read. "If you would like to register, please fill in the username,name and email fields." ?
>> Please go to the file

JOOMLA/language/en-GB/en-GB.com_easyblog.ini

and then change the codes in line 987

COM_EASYBLOG_FILL_IN_USERNAME_AND_FULLNAME_TO_REGISTER="If you would like to register, please fill in the username and name field"

I don't know why, but there was apparently a time lag before the CSS you provided for the star/numerals and the login button to take effect.
>> This is because the JavaScript responsible for this is still loading after the page is displayed.

I see one must be logged in to use the stars. That's okay.
>> This can be changed in backend -> EasyBlog -> Settings -> Workflow -> Rating

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Countless thanks, Adalene.

For the time being, I'm fresh out of problems thanks to all the great help here ;-))

Some of the wording and terms I come across in the backend remain mysterious. For instance, when I went to change the Workflow>Ratings to allow guests to rate, I found this: AUP for ratings. So what is 'AUP for ratings?'

Noobs could use a dictionary of EasyBlog terminology.

Hello James,

Sorry for the late reply as it's the weekends. AUP is actually another component in Joomla. Its fullname is Alpha User Points. The basic use of this is to award points to users We have integration with this component hence the settings in teh backend

Thanks!

Right, thanks. I'm less a noob with Joomla, but still no expert. I am floored with EasyBlog.

For some odd reason, I can't get a 'Read More' placed in the body of the post to show within the post. This is a real problem. http://nineinchbride.com/author-blog-commentary.html The first two have the 'Read More' placed, the rest do not... but please note: I have manually placed a text link called 'read more..." that leads to the single article page with the comment entry form etc. I should not have to do this, right?

And then, regardless whether or not there is a 'Read More' placed, there is a 'Continue Reading' link in all posts even though the whole thing is there.

Finally, I am driven to use the 'Read More' because without using this, the social share features do not show up. Is there a way to make them show up when the whole post/article is shown (no 'read more' used) ??? For now at least, if there were a way to do that, I would not care about the failure of 'Read More' to appear as text within the article.

Am I making sense? Are these defects in the design of this otherwise fantastic application?

Hello James,

There is a settings to truncate your front page blog, go to backend -> component -> easyblog -> settings -> layout -> general
screenshot ->http://screencast.com/t/IoDhByGRy6cf
You could use the count by character or paragraph and show read more only when necessary. This is to remove the Continue reading when the whole article is showing and not truncated.

Hope that hepls, Thanks:)

Kairul, thanks. I have to rework the html because I am copying and pasting these blog posts from the author's Google+ site, and what a mess the code is--there are no <p> tags!! so I have to add them to get the truncation features to work. But, yes, they do work.

The problem for me is the ellipsis ... is just NOT ENOUGH to tell the reader to look down below for the 'Continue reading" link. This may come under 'feature request,' but really, ... is all you give the reader? I can solve this by manually inserting a [read more...] text link, but EasyBlog needs to rethink this functionality.

Is there no way to set where/whether video or image or 'other media' appear for each post individually, instead of the general setting for all posts in the truncation dialog?

Hello James,

Again thanks for the feedback on the Read More issue. We will check this out. As for the other media, unfortunately if you use truncation then there is only a general setting for this. We do not have any individual post settings

Thanks!

Is there a way to make the social share feature/icons show up when the whole post/article is shown, that is, when there is no 'read more' break used in the post? The reader has no reason to click on the title of the post if the post is short, and so will never see the social icons.

Hello James,

Unfortunately easyblog doesn't work like what you just explain, what you could do is to disable each twitter, facebook, google and etc on the front page where the blog is listed. You could do this at: backend -> component -> easyblog -> settings -> social Integration -> social tabs and disable 'Enable Likes on front page'.
Screenshot --> http://screencast.com/t/cNu07dDiuzM

Hope that helps,
Thanks:)

Why would I want to 'disable' that on front page?? I want them to appear on front page as well as back page.

Hello Jemes,

What I meant by disabling the front page is just the blog listing page but it will appear in the individual page when you click on the post. I hope that is what you are looking for because we do not have the feature like you proposed easier.

Thanks:)

Here is another BIG question:

It seems that in order to make a comment, the visitor MUST complete the fields, even though they are NOT REQUIRED -- is that right? In a test post, I have all requirements set to "NO" but still I had to enter something into the registration fields.

On the back end, I could find where the comment was waiting for moderation, but I could not find any record of the guest's registration information. This information is available somewhere, isn't it?? Or is it only kept if the registration fields are REQUIRED? Where do I find this info on the persons who register?

Hello James,

All registered user in your site will appear in the blogger section in the back end
backend -> component -> easyblog -> blogger
screenshot --> http://screencast.com/t/yHmtgnh3W

The users here are the same as the users registered in your Joomla, take note that if a user is deleted here it will also be deleted in Joomla users. To allow non-members to comment you will need to set in
backend -> component -> easyblog -> settings -> comments
and allow non-members to comment.
screenshot --> http://screencast.com/t/W3TpYEHtmGx2

Thanks:)

This is not happening as you describe. If I "register" to make a test comment, that is, I fill out the username, name and email fields as someone new (not web manager) and submit my comment, and this test comment is approved, then on the back end I see the comment listed under "Comments," and if I open the comment I can see the registration info (username, name, email), but that registrant does NOT appear listed under "Bloggers" at all.

Is this a defect with EasyBlog, or what is the problem? Also, my EasyBlog interface is different from what is shown in your screenshots. Attached is what my component -> easyblog -> blogger screen looks like. If you would like to "register" with a test comment, I can send you a screenshot of this again. You will see, you are not shown under "Bloggers" as "registered."

Also I have a message on the back end Home: "You are using an older version 3.9.14976 of EasyBlog."

Finally, when I open a post to view a comment, the page takes forever to finish loading. I have a message "waiting for Facebook api" which takes forever to stop. What is going on? Can I disable this so it does not bother with this Facebook api, whatever that is??

Hello James,

Sorry for the late reply. For one you are on Joomla 2.5. Our screenshot are from Joomla 3.0. That is why it looks different.

As for the registration, your user will need to be eligible to post a blog before it will be listen in the blogger list. You can set which user group is allowed to post blog in the backend -> EasyBlog -> ACL.

Also from your screenshot, I saw that you have assigned all the user groups to your users. It is not recommended to do that. If your user is a Super User then please just stick to that instead of assigning that user to the Public group as well. Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Okay, Adelene, thanks.

When I open a post to view a comment, the page takes forever to finish loading. I have a message "waiting for Facebook api" which takes forever to stop. What is going on with that? Can I disable this so it does not bother with this Facebook api, whatever that is??

I think you can see this "waiting for facebook" problem for yourself if you register and post a test comment, I'm not sure. Anyway, it is a big problem...

Finally, it seems no matter what a visitor must fill in the user name, name and email fields even if they fill it in with gibberish. Since I will be moderating all comments, is there a way to disable these form fields from appearing altogether and allowing anyone to make a comment without any kind of registering? Also, in the opposite case, even if I make registration required before commenting, what is to stop someone from entering gibberish for their email address? Does EasyBlog check for valid email format at least?

Hello James,

Sorry for the late reply as it's a holiday here.
It is not compulsory for users to register all, just the name is required as to identify comments with the name on the side, u could hide the other fields with CSS.

Could you pleas tell me where do i find the error on facebook api, I had posted my comments with out encountering it.

screenshoot --> http://screencast.com/t/xQMUMhknLz

Thanks

The facebook api problem is not an "error" like an error message. The browser shows it is still loading this facebook api. In the firefox browser there is a swirling circle which keeps going and going and going until it turns into an x showing that the page is loaded, and there is a message in the lower left corner of the browser saying that it is trying to reach this "api." It takes quite a long time to finish. I do not know what this problem looks like in a different browser, but I assume it is there because it is a request being made by the system for this api and it is monstrously s l o w to happen.

I do not care much for facebook, and certainly not enough to endure or force my users to endure their slow responses to this "api" request. It would be better to disable it.

I just did a test comment again. Here in New York City it is 5:00 in the morning and web traffic is at its lowest all day and this facebook.api loading message did not appear in the lower left and the endless swirling/loading did not appear. I will try again later when web traffic is heavy. But yesterday, I made multiple tests throughout the afternoon and every time this very annoying message appeared along with the even more annoying page still loading swirl in Firefox.

As for hiding the other fields with CSS, how would that be done? There should be something in the interface for that. Obviously, if you can enter gibberish, there should be a way to de-select having the field appear at all.

Are you saying, if entry in these fields IS REQUIRED, you could still enter gibberish there, including the email address?? There is no test to see if the email address is valid in form and the domain is valid? Please advise.

Hello James,

As it is not required, no further checking is done for the emails and the rest, there will be checking for invalid email when registering a new members. Name is unfortunately required for identification to identify between commentators, it would be confusing for readers if conversation were to happened in the comments.

To remove using CSS please incert this with in your custom template,

#esusername {

    display: none !important;

}



#url {

    display: none !important;

}



#esemail {

    display: none !important;

}

hope that helps,
Thanks:)

Thank you.

I'm a little confused about your statement: "there will be checking for invalid email when registering a new members." Are you saying there is a difference between completing the "registration" form which is accessed by clicking "register" (from the lock icon) and "registering" to post a comment? Are you saying the fields are ALWAYS REQUIRED when filling the "registration form" but can be set to required/not required when registering to post a comment and that even if set to REQUIRED there is no validation of the email address when posting a comment?

Please clarify. I would make the email required when posting a comment if that is the only way to have this field validated for correct email, but would not bother if there is no validation there whether required or not.

Also, if there is email validation when using the stand alone "registration form" what is being validated? Is it just the format someone@somewhere.com, or is the domain also checked?

Finally, regarding the buttons showing, when I select text to show the text appears white and invisible. Is there a way to correct that??

Thanks.

Are you saying there is a difference between completing the "registration" form which is accessed by clicking "register" (from the lock icon) and "registering" to post a comment? Are you saying the fields are ALWAYS REQUIRED when filling the "registration form" but can be set to required/not required when registering to post a comment and that even if set to REQUIRED there is no validation of the email address when posting a comment?

Email velidation is only done on registering a new member where by it will filter non email strings like this
screenshot --> http://screencast.com/t/z9QCzptwUcCo

Even valid email, notification will be sent to the registrar email to activate it and prof that it is a legit email address.
screenshot --> http://screencast.com/t/XDUWoteI

By commenting, email validation is not done and up to the users to input. To prevent this only allow registered user to give comments on the post.

Thanks:)

Finally, regarding the buttons showing on the toolbar (where the lock icon is shown), when I select TEXTT to show the text appears white and invisible. Is there a way to correct that??

Hello James,

Could you show me a screenshot of it? To change the theme's style you would have to use CSS hacks and past it in the template. I could do it for you but I will need to know the location of the issue on your site.

Thanks:)