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Questions and comments
1) Considering the number of requests across the different versions of Links to modify 'title_linked' to show '>' (>) as the separator instead of ':', it would be nice if that separator were added as one of the User Language options, especially considering the default "Home" is already included in that area. After looping through the for() section, if($complete) requires 5 chop()'s of $output to remove " >" from the end instead of the usual 2 chop()'s for " :". Probably other ways of doing the same thing, but I figured it best to stick with the current approach and just tailor it.

2) Similarly, 'category_clean' requires similar customizing of sub build_title_unlinked.

3) It seems that the .def file settings are not carried forward correctly for any custom-added 1.1x fields. For example, I had an isFeatured field with the following settings in Links.def:

isFeatured => ['20', 'INT', '1', '1', '1', '0', '1|0', '0']

That got imported into 2.0.5 as:

'pos' => '21',
'type' => 'INT',
'regex' => '1|0',
'not_null' => '1',
'size' => '1',
'form_type' => 'TEXT',
'form_size' => '1'

which simply shows a blank text box with no default value in the search/add/edit/delete/validate forms. Based on other examples, it appears the following entries:

'regex' => '1|0',
'size' => '1',
'form_type' => 'TEXT',
'form_size' => '1'

should be changed to:

'values' => [
'0',
'1'
],
'default' => '0',
'form_type' => 'SELECT'

4) Is there any way to make changes to the .def files other than downloading the most current version, changing them, then re-uploading? I haven't found any such options hidden away in the admin panel, but seeing as how the program has pretty much tripled in size since my last experience with it... :)

5) The text boxes are much too small for my taste on the search/add/edit/delete/validate forms. Is there a variable somewhere that can be set to adjust this? I'm guessing it's in one of the templates (*hopefully* global), but I haven't uncovered it yet.

6) How does LinkOwner differ from Contact_Name and Contact_Email? All 1.1x imported records set the LinkOwner the same as Contact_Email, which seems a bit redundant. Is LinkOwner considered a unique username that may or may not be the same as a full name and unique email address? Also, when adding a link through the admin panel, "admin" is the default LinkOwner setting. Is there any way to get a popup or dropdown list of possible LinkOwner's in case you want to add a link under someone else's name?

7) I have the cool page set to show the top 30, but i can't tell what exactly it is choosing to include... It shows 30 links, but only one of them is actually in the top 30. The database entries in the Links table have the isPopular setting of true top 30 correctly set to Yes. Ok, now this is really strange. I just went back to the cool page and checked, and now it is showing the true top 30! I can't think of anything I might have done that could have changed this... I added my isFeatured and Priority fields at the end of the add_system_fields string and submitted it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't touch anything else. I also changed 'SQL Hostname' to an updated hostname setting, but that shouldn't have affected anything. Has anyone else seen something this bizarre happen??

8) Another item I've always hoped would either get built in or be made a bit more flexible for such changes (as the method of so doing has changed from Links 2 to Links SQL 1.1x to Links SQL 2.x) is the top rated page and its display. I prefer to add an additional column to the top ratings/votes tables to show the # of Hits for each link, which requires changing the HTML in sub build_rating in Build.pm ($top_votes and $top_rated). For added things like showing a 'rate it' link to rate any of the resources on the top rated page, I had to play around with things until I found the right terminology: href="$CFG->{db_cgi_url}/rate.cgi?ID=${$link}{'ID'}"

Dan
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Re: [Dan Kaplan] Questions and comments In reply to
Hi Dan,

Sorry about the late reply, and thanks for the feedback. I'll look at making the title linked a language option.

4. Yes, goto Database->Links->Properties and you can edit the contents there.

5. Yes, same place as above. =)

6. LinkOwner refers to the owner of the link and is the person who can log in and modify it from the user side. Contact Name and Email are used in mass mailing as it may not be the same person. There is no drop down, you must type in the owner.

7. Perhaps a cached page?

8. This can be done now with loops. Have a look at the template, you want to do something like:

<%loop top_rated_loop%>
<tr>
<td><%Title%></td>
<td><%Votes%></td>
<td>...</td>
</tr>
<%endloop%>

Hope that helps!

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] Questions and comments In reply to
Hi Alex,

Thanks for the reply.

4) Aha! :) I didn't see the Properties option at the bottom of the dropdown box. I thought that section of the admin area was just a direct replacement of the old style add/view/edit/delete links...

I'm having a bit of a problem updating the aforementioned isFeatured field, though. When I set it up just like isChanged and the other built in SELECT fields (type=enum, index=none, column values=0,1 (on separate lines, no comma), not null=yes, default=0, form display=isFeatured, form type=select, form size=0, file save method=hashed), I get the following error:

<<For radio, checkbox and select forms, you must specify the names and the values in the two textarea boxes one per line. The names are what is stored in the database, and the values is what is displayed in the browser.>>

However, the only textarea boxes I can think of that it might refer to are Form Names and Form Values, and they say, "Only for checkbox, multi-select or radio forms." No mention of regular select forms...

If those values are supposed to be filled in, what would one put there for an admin-only db field? There wouldn't be any name/value pairs that I can think of.

5) I take it you have to go through each field and edit the form sizes individually? I suppose it could be worse, but it sure would be nice to have a single variable control all of them...

7) It's possible, but it seems unlikely. All my testing has been in dynamic mode (page.cgi), which I would think wouldn't be overly succeptible to caching.

8) Hey, that's pretty cool!! :) Looks like I may have to read through the user manual I just downloaded...

I thought of one other item: I think this may be something I added in on my own in 1.1x, but I'm not positive. Anyway, when going through the Link Status section, it helps a lot if clicking on the title and modify hyperlinks opens the page in a new window (I prefer target="_blank" over "_new" for this purpose, as it's nice to be able to work on tracking down multiple bad links if one is loading slowly). Having it open in the same window can be especially frustrating if it happens to be a page full of poorly constructed frames. It's one of those super simple hacks to add in, but inproportionately annoying to not have.

Thanks,
Dan