Hi Ian and others,

This is really a question to see what the interest is and what Ian thinks?

I don't use editors on my site at all. However, I am very interested in the Editor Monitor plugin as this seems to have a lot of features that I would like to help to build the community on my site. What I would like is a User Monitor plugin. A lot of features in the Editor Monitor plugin would not be necessary but I would like to have a profile page for each user where they could edit their details, link to their reviews etc. and I would like to see the stats for the users, whos online, last login, number of logins etc. and maybe the reward system. I could just buy the Editor Monitor plugin and rewrite it for my own use, but I think that there may be quite a few people who would be interested in this? (I'd also like it to be a bit cheaper as I need fewer features ) I assume that it wouldn't take long for Ian to create this given all the development that has gone into the existing plugin and extra features could then easily be added to both plugins?

If no-one else wants this I'll just do it myself but I thought it would be worth asking. I know that there are plugins available for modifying user data but they don't seem to be as powerful as this one would be.

Final thought - I'm not really sure yet what Gossamer Community will involve but as far as I can tell it wont include this sort of thing?

Laura.

Hi Laura,

Editor Monitor in its existing form could very easily be tweaked to be a user monitor and/or offer users some of the features that EM gives editors.

I too (like many others) are waiting to see what G-Community has to offer, and what it will change. If you are interested (or anyone else) in a tweaked version of EM, the price would depend on how much work is involved, how many changes, and just how scaled down you want it. I am not sure that would be suitable for you, but certainly it seems what you are looking for pretty much exists already in EM.

If there is enough interest, and the features required are very similar to EM, then I could certainly make a "UserMonitor" plugin. I would suggest a good start would be a list of the features that EM currently has, that would not be needed/wanted in UserMonitor and a list of the features that would have to be added. I don't think I would go below the $45 mark for any plug-in though, as the support involved is very costly for me in terms of time. What you have suggested above sounds similar in features to the full EM however ($45), and I feel that by the time you added in some features which were specific to users, and not editors it would be worth the same amount anyways!

Anyone else interested (seriously) in a User Monitor plug-in? Please read EM features to get an idea of what is on offer.

Please if you are interested, let me know here or by pm, what version of links you are using, and whether or not its static or dynamic in setup (just for development planning).

Thanks!


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

The user rewards system would be an interesting thing, linked to the upgraded ratings/review system.

Maybe this is something we can hash out in terms of the Bead Exchange system I'm working on? Rather than a "feedback" system where people post pithy notes about transactions, something significantly more robust -- ?

A combination of other user ratings of the user, their posts, their ratings, etc. It gets sort of complicated, but it can be modularized in a way into a plugin, so it can have incremental development beyond other parts of the system.

I keep looking to amazon.com as the "standard" for what a ratings, review, wishlist, etc type system should be. They have pretty well created a means of tracking virtually everything across their site, and is impressive. It tells you where you've been, what you've done, what others have done, and where you should be going -- and At least for DVD's/Videos they have a pretty good track record for me ;)

This is a tad tangential, but thinking broader during the planning phase never hurts :) (too much, at least)


PUGDOG� Enterprises, Inc.

The best way to contact me is to NOT use Email.
Please leave a PM here.

Hi Ian,

Glad you're willing to take this on if there is enough interest.

I run a static directory but I would still like dynamic profile pages for the users. Hopefully this would enable the user's profile page to be shown after they log in for the first time - otherwise I assume that the static page would have to be built at a later time so it wouldn't be available? This should get people to at least bookmark this page on the site. I'd then like user to be able to edit their details.

This is my main requirement. Other than that I'd like any of the Editor Monitor features that you think would be useful! I'm thinking about introducing some sort of rewards system in the future so it would be good if that was there (since you've already done it). I'm sure that other requirements would become apparent as I started using the plugin (but hopefully I could help with these).

Thanks, Laura.

Hi Pugdog,

Your plug-in writing skills are leaps beyond mine. I hope I could live up to the task! I am sure you could modify EM to make it whatever you wanted anyways.

I am going to modify Editor Monitor to be a base for UserMonitor, and then it could be added upon as desired. I am going to write a UserMonitor.tar release it, and then go from there.

At the moment I think UserMonitor would:

• Monitor who's online - same as EM, but no distinction between who is an editor or a user.
• Track log-ins in some manner or form - total, last so many date/times etc. So this could be built upon if you wish, or I would when I got round to it.
• A build/stats function like EM has, for generating user profile pages
• A user profile modification form - template base like EM
• Different information available to the profile page than the EM.... instead of categories they edit in, a list of the links they own, reviews they have written, and some basic stats about the user... all of which you can take out if it is not suitable for your setup.

That sounds like a nice start anyways.

I think a rate a user/user feedback would be a really nice addition also, and this is something I may put into EM as well. (Rate an editor).

I am also currently looking at editors/users being able to upload their picture (as you know).

Gosh I have some work to do!


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Pugdog:

Yes, I like the whole Amazon style of user involvement. I think anything more than we have now has got to be a plus though, and Amazon certainly is good motivation to be doing something.


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

UPDATE

It looks like I am re-designing this one from the ground up more than just tweaking EM. There is good reason for this, as there seems to be a few advantages. Also, I think User Monitor is going to be a little different to Editor Montior (as it should).

So far, your Users table is going to be extended by quite a few coloums (I hope this does not have any major problem on performance, but I suspect noone has 50,000 users, so I don't think you will notice anything).

UM_Bio - TEXT - Bio on user
UM_Address - CHAR 150 - Users address
UM_Status - CHAR 75 - Definable user status like in EM
UM_UserSince - Date when user was validated
UM_TotalLogins - INT
UM_LLA - last login date/time
UM_LLB - 2nd last login date/time
UM_LLC - 3rd last login date/time
UM_Notes - TEXT - custom notes
UM_Rewards - INT - same as for EM
UM_LastPaid - same as for EM
UM_AmountPaid - same as for EM
UM_CustomA - TEXT - whatever you want
UM_UserRating - INT - user feedback rating column for inclusion in future version
UM_SettingA - CHAR - this is for UM use only
UM_SettingB - CHAR - this is for UM use only

The users table already contains Email. Other information, such as the reviews a user has written, and links owned by a user, will be calculated by UM.

How much of this will be soaked up by future updates of Links, or an addon like G-Community is anyones guess... I just hope this is not all for nothing in any case. I'll plod in with it in the mean time, and hope to have version 1.0.0 ready soon. Same price as EM.

http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Hey Ian,

Just a thought but should the user rating be related to logins/reviews/ratings/submissions?

This would increase interactivity wouldn't you think?



Just a thought!

You mean as some kind of formula? Sure it could.

Open to ideas on how the forumula should go if this is the case... how about

(total logins + [sum(user's reviews ratings) * sum(user's link ratings)] / 10)

The column is an integer value (no decimals), kind of like a score value.


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

That looks good.

I am just looking at ways to limit Admin intervention (as I am always way too swamped to add more).

UPDATE

I have begun adding some stats which are particular to Users rather than Editors. Example:

Total Users: 1234
-Registered: 1000
-Not Validated: 233
-Adminstrators: 1

Total Rewards
Average Rewards
Maximum Rewads
all included like EM, but are of course a seperate rewards system.

Table Warnings:
Things like 'Users without Email'

Ownership:
-Links: 234
-Reviews: 3

Of course I am sure there will be more to come

http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

ARE ADMINISTRATORS TO GET A PROFILE PAGE?
I am assuming no.

http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Hi Ian,

I don't think that administrators need a profile page.

Looks like the plugin is moving on quite quickly. I'm looking forward to being able to use it.

Laura.

Hi Laura, thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, I got a burst of plug-in energy this afternoon


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

UPDATE

The User Profile Pages, like Editor Monitor are generated from the Statistics menu. I am not sure how this is going to go, or how long it will take to generate all the profile pages if you have 10,000 users... but think of it as generating details pages on links when you do a build to get a rough idea. Yes, dynamic users are going to have to click a button to update the user profile pages - for now anyways (just like EM).

The User Profile Pages are turning out to be quite comprehensive as there are a LOT of tags available for placing into your user profile template. Here are some:

<%UM_Editor%> - user's login name
<%UM_Status%> - user status
<%UM_Since%> - date user joined and was validated
<%UM_Sites%> - a hyperlinked list of all the users links (link titles) - url not revealed
<%UM_Reviews%> - a hyperlinked list of all the users reviews (subject titles) - goes to review page
<%UM_Address%> - user's address
<%UM_Email%> - user's email
<%UM_Bio%> - user bio
<%UM_Rating%> - score based on formula of various users ratings, votes, logins etc
<%UM_Notes%> - notes
<%UM_CustomA%> - custom field for whatever you like
<%UM_LLA%> - last login date/time (yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss)
<%UM_LLB%> - 2nd last login date/time (yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss)
<%UM_LLC%> - 3rd last login date/time (yyyy-mm-dd hh-mm-ss)
<%UM_Logins%> - total logins

You have the choice to use any or all of these tags, depending on what your needs are. As you can see I have been busy! I estimate version 1.0.0 is about 40% done!

http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Awww, there's always drawbacks to us dynamic users =P but anyway nice thoughts so far, good work!

UPDATE & CORRECTION

The <%UM_Editor%> tag above should read <%UM_User%>.

I am now about 75% done. There seems to be a lot of time to be had on testing and finding bugs, so I am thinking of releasing version 1.0.0 as soon as I can test whatever I can from this end. The positive thing is that I managed to correct one dynamic directory bug for EM whilst working on UM.

---

ALSO, USER WEB PAGES ON YOUR SITE?

It became apparant to me while adding the CustomA tag andn column to UM, that one could theoritically have users build their own web pages in a crude sense, and leave them for display on your site!!

You simply offer them the CustomA tag as part of their profile update form (a mod to what I will be releasing), and then display this tag as a web page with your banners, advertising etc! Just an idea for another possible *future* use of this plug-in!

---

http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Ian,

Just a suggestion...for the login information tracking, you could simply use the Sessions table (unless people clear that table on a regular basis), then you could create a Login_Track table that would track all the login stuff you were planning on adding to the Users table and use the COUNT function rather than incremeting a column within the user table.

Example schema:

Links_Login_Tracking



Then you can reference the UserID as a FK to the Users table in your script.

Just a suggestion...since with your schema, you are only tracking to three logins.

Using M<->M connections as much as possible allows for future growth of applications/systems.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

Hi Thanks for the input!

I have actually been toying with the idea of this since I first put out Editor Monitor. I still don't have a full grasp, or confidence in using the fk's. I am going to implement a better tracking system in a future version of both of these plug-ins, now that the monitoring side of it is coming along nicely.


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins

Hi Ian

I don't want to spoil the fun, but personally I am hesitating to develop anything related to the user side of Links SQL at the moment. With Community coming along (soon), it might all turn out to be not necessary/duplicate/in the wrong direction/whatever.

Just a thought maybe worth considering. Don't let it stop you.

Ivan
-----
Iyengar Yoga Resources / GT Plugins

Yeah, I fully apppreciate what you are saying... what to do though?

We don't know when it will be out, or even really what it will contain. I just decided to press on... I will have this ready to go in a day or two. Who knows, maybe this plugin will have something to offer tha community doesnt, or bridge the gap of time while people wait. Or, maybe community is just around the corner and will be the answer to what everyone is waiting for??

I have suggested that there should be some feedback from GT to developers of plug-ins for reasons just like this. Do I develop, or not? What is the life of a plug-in that you make? and so on....




http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins