v1.33 Feature Requests

Hi Jerry,

1) So if it's a "Header Bar" (not html or blank line) and it was called "My Fields" then instead of --- header bar --- it would show --- My Fields ---, is that right?

2) The upload list field should expand in height to show all the uploads up to a maximum of 600 pixels high. This should show about 12-13 uploads. How high would you like it to be able to be? And how many uploads do you have?

If we made it as high as needed to show all the uploads you still wouldn't be able to drag much further because you'd be limited by your screen height. You can experiment with different max heights by setting this line in /cmsAdmin/lib/menus/default/edit_functions.js

var maxHeight = 600;

Let me know what you think.

Hi Dave,

Re: The Header Bar:

Yes, that's right. And could the HTML separator have a "given" name that would show in the admin modify section editor field list as well? (Right now all it says is "HTML".)

Re: Uploads:

Users can now expand the number of records displayed per page to 100 by a pull down choice, and at least in FireFox 3, they can drag a record past the screen boundary. (with a little nudging)

That's kind of the functionality that I'm suggesting for the upload box.

I don't know how many uploads a gallery might have, some galleries that I've created, ultimately have scores of uploads.

You've mentioned the change that I could make in the code as an admin before, but some of my client's would like some flexibility themselves.

Unless a user is going to be working on a group of uploads, I would suspect that most would prefer the upload box to be small and for it to expand only when necessary.

Hope that clarifies.

Does anyone else want to weigh in on these ideas, since I'm sure that once begun it will take some work to implement this type of change?

I think it should reflect a consensus of our opinions.

Best,

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

I'll put these on the feature list for an upcoming release.

We've had a few requests about the height of the uploads box. The trick is coming up with something that will work for most people.

What if we had an option where it could be either up to 600px high, or as high as needed to show all the uploads? And then we could maybe auto-expand it on focus. I'll do some research on what's practical there.

Whatever's reasonable, as long as there's a minimum of screen real estate taken up when not working on the images.

The focus idea sounds good and it will fit in with the approach you were talking about for other stuff.

Best,

Jerry

I second the request for the separator bar field re-naming function.

While we're talking wish-list:

1 - I've often wished to be able to rename the List View column headers. They currently, and logically, re-use the field labels. However, it would be nice to be able to rename or shorten field names just in this view.

i.e. Hidden field could be given the full "Hidden" label on the Editor but in the List View that column might say "Hide" to save space. This gets more pronounced if you're using checkboxes as special function flags in your site. The list just shows a 1 or a 0 but the longer fieldname often forces the column to take up a lot of room on the page.

2 - Picking Nits here: Would also be nice to have a style class associated with each column in the List View. These might have a generic prefix such as "viewCol_" and then append the fieldname. This would allow us to style, highlight, center, fade, etc. the shown data. i.e.: Again with the Hidden col, it might have a class name of .viewCol_hidden which we could hang styles on.

3 - Continuing the theme: Would also be nice to have a standard external style sheet for the Admin areas. Am currently restyling as needed, but I need to keep careful notes to re-apply these styles after each update to CMSB. If there were a persistent external CSS file which was always referenced by the admin pages, we could maintain that without concern to most updates.

4 - Would love to have dates in the List View honour the controls in the Editor. i.e. I often use date fields without the time elements. If the time elements are not important to the site managers, then they probably don't need to see them in the list view either. I would think that a date element (including LastUpdatedDate, Un/Publish, etc.) could support an optional PHP-style date masking syntax. I would think that would be easy enough to push over to the list views. I may be wrong of course since I'm just guessing.

Sorry to take up so much room, but wish lists get me all excited! ;-)

J.

I second this request...

3 - Continuing the theme: Would also be nice to have a standard external style sheet for the Admin areas. Am currently restyling as needed, but I need to keep careful notes to re-apply these styles after each update to CMSB. If there were a persistent external CSS file which was always referenced by the admin pages, we could maintain that without concern to most updates.

Jayme,

Great feedback, I've made a note of it. One of our upcoming releases is planned to be a complete UI redesign on the backend. You can help review that if you like and make sure it has all the CSS features you want.

Are you on the beta tester email list yet? If not, just email me directly at dave@interactivetools.com and I can add you.

LOL! Okay, I guess I really should sign up for beta trials.
J.