Forum .LRN Q&A: Re: Moving threads in a forum

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9: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 12/09/03 10:28 PM
So has anyone here used a forum/bulletin-board system that not only allows for the moving of [sub]threads or posts but has a REALLY GREAT UI for the admin who does the moving?

This sounds like a very useful feature but UI might be a bit tricky and it would be great to have an exiting implementation to play with.

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10: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 9)
Posted by Martin Magerl on 12/10/03 01:57 AM
Hi Don,

I've implemented an UI a week ago and uploaded it as patch #383 this morning.
I'm sure, it's not a really great UI 😊 and I welcome any suggestions. Maybe, someone wants to have a look.

Important note:
Because of Bug #1254 I could not finish programming behavior according notifications, so this patch is only for testing purpose!

General info about implemenation:
I introduced a new variable "$move_id" (and $move_p) which will turn the existing forum-/message-views into a "move"-mode, so a user can search for a message where he wants to append the choosen one.
I think using the existing UI is the best way to avoid confusing a user (e.g. by another "extra-for-moving-UI").

Example for use-case:
  • Admin clicks on "Move" shown near "Edit", "Delete", etc.
  • Admin is shown thread overview to choose thread where he wants to append selected message (and its childs).
    He may click on "Insert message as new thread", if he don't want to append it anywhere.
  • If the admin chooses a thread, he will be presented all messages in this thread to choose a message where he wants to append the selected one by clicking on "append here" (This option is shown instead of "Edit", "Delete", etc. in "move"-mode).
Cancelation of moving a message brings the user back to message originally selected for moving. (possible any time).

Comments welcome!
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11: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 10)
Posted by Carl Robert Blesius on 12/10/03 04:01 AM
I really like the elegant way Martin has implemented the function on one of our testing servers. The only suggestion I had was to make the "move mode" more obvious (e.g. make the "append here" link red or bold). Might be nice if we had a general way of making it clear that we are in a "change/edit mode" (something similar to the form builder's red exception box).

I hope we can get the notifications bug out of the way so that it can be added to the toolkit after the user board has looked at it.

Carl

P.S. Great that you are "onboard" Bruce.

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12: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 10)
Posted by Martin Magerl on 12/10/03 12:57 PM
Hi,

in order to have a quick look I created a test-user.
Feel free to login and try out the move-option.
Comments are welcome!!!

Account data:
User: mailto:test@meyerhof.zbt.uni-heidelberg.de
Password: dotlrn
URL: http://meyerhof.zbt.uni-heidelberg.de:8002

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13: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 12)
Posted by Raad Al-Rawi on 12/10/03 01:28 PM
Martin

This is a nice feature for admins/moderators!!

Just a few thoughts:

The main issue is it is not obvious you are in the process of moving a post. A secondary issue is that once you clicked 'Move', it is not obvious which post you are moving.
Most other actions on forum posts display the post message at the top of the page, then what you are doing beneath it (e.g. reply, forward); but moving doesn't do this.

The ideal (just my opinion) would be to have the context bar at the top, saying something like "Moving Forum Post from [Forum Name]", then display the post message, then the appropriate step in the process underneath that (i.e. 1st step - pick the target thread, or choose new thread, 2nd step - pick position).

I'm guessing the solution you have implemented involves fairly minimal changes, and I'm aware that my ideal requires new pages, or at least a restructuring with fragments (list of forum threads, post message, thread posts).
It may be possible to effectively turn existing pages into fragments, and have a single 'move' page collate the fragments and drive the process.

Just some ideas of the top of my head - not necessarily the best place to find them :)

<Raad>

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14: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 12)
Posted by Martin Magerl on 12/10/03 10:55 PM
Hi,

unfortunately I've forgotten to involve a special query into the patch uploaded this morning. And testing this patch erased this query from my current installation, so "append here" did not work. I corrected this error, so you can continue/finish trying out the feature.

Thanks to Deirdre Kane and Dorothea Fischer-Hornung pointing me on this.

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16: Re: Moving threads in a forum (response to 13)
Posted by Martin Magerl on 12/11/03 12:58 AM
Hi Raad,

thanks for your great feedback.
Yes, being in moving "mode" should be more visible. I will add a move-mode-line in front of each page saying
"You're moving message no. MESSAGE_ID" or better "You're moving message no. X of thread XY", where X is the relativ number in the thread, because absolut no. message_id is not familiar to most users. Also a little sentence, which tells the user what to do would be nice.
In order to keep context bar working for navigation in various levels, i.e. to allow a user to switch between forum-, thread- or message-level, I would avoid presenting the mentioned move-mode-message in there.

Regarding showing the message, which should be moved:
Implementing that the original message is shown in front of the page would not be very time consuming, but I do not know, if it will be a little overhead, presenting the original message and then all other messages, where this message can be appended to, on one page. Sure, this makes sense when you forward or reply to a message, because you can (re-)read the message while writing your own comments on it.

Thanks for sharing your ideas of your head! Maybe, someone else will do the same, so we will find the best thoughts which will hopefully reach cvs head 😊

/Martin