A Request For Dolphin 7 Beta 2 testers...

... which wil be out shortly.

In addition to bug reports, I'd like to see more discussions about parts of Dolphin 7 that don't seem quite right to you.  What I mean by by "don't seem quite right", is this:

Any feature that does not seem to have a logical flow when using it.

User interfaces that seem a little clumsy, or hard to figure out.

Things that you believe you should have control over in Admin, but don't

Features that seem over done.... more is not always better.

Features that need to be more robust.

Anything ......


I know that there will be things we can identify, that need some refinement.  As we find them, perhaps we can start a separate thread for each of them and discuss ways to improve those features.  If we come up with some good plans, it would be my pleasure to harp without end to Boonex until they cave in and do it.  Or..... we can all make one loud harping sound in complete unison.  It will be glorious!

One of the things that has come up already are requests for more payment settings.  A comprehensive list of payment processors is here.

Good call. We'd appreciate such reports.

I have my test domain already clean up for version 2 to test it again. 
But I'am more a visualizer then programmer :)

Excellent.... A visualizer... or two... is exactly what is needed.

yep, but I can't test because a memory error wil not let me load the index  lololol  only admin section is working..

Thanks a tip from master to rise the memory limit in php.ini the site is working. So I got testing now. :)

Interesting.  Nobody sees anything wrong?

I think the admin menu should also have the ability to control the size of Video / Audio / files to upload. There should also be a control on the types of files that can be uploaded. This is just my personal opinion.

I started another thread about this but I'll post it here as well.

I've noticed that a member cannot upload a pic from their computer to a forum or blog post. Sometimes adding pics from your computer as an attachment to a post is wanted. The only thing allowed is hotlinking from a URL. It's like here in this forum. I can hotlink a url image but not attach an image from my computer. The ability to do that would be nice.

That is unless I'm missing the attachment link up there somewhere...

We have set up our own test site and are discovering bugs (or simply ergonomic issues) daily.

Additionally we were simply interested in getting people to test the site (both from the standpoint of us supporting D7 as a hosting provider and finding bugs for Boonex) however our Blog entry to get Beta testers was, I guess, perceived as advertising of sorts and removed.  We were not particularly interested in having our current D6 users test out the new software, but were more interested in having experienced Dolphineers ( A term gratefully borrowed from the "Dragon Riders of Pern" series of books) come and evaluate and test our installation.

I just feel that the more Beta sites that are operational and are being used by people the better off D7 will be.  I don't think that it is fair for me to have a pseudo-live Beta site and then not be able to transfer it into operation for my existing customers and their clients.

Just a thought.... perhaps we could start a thread where anyone who has a Beta up and running could post their URL for testing purposes... would be fair to all and would let people test a variety of installations.

Perhaps I could start a Blog where people can list their Beta installations.  I guess I'll propose it to Andrew and see what he thinks.

Bring back in ver 7 the option in ver 6 to allow a double row of menu tabs instead of having items under the + tab.

This was covered in the past in admin/advanced settings:

Number of items per line in top menu. 0 - no breaking

I like your idea :)

One control i think a admin should have would be a site on/offline mode.
Dolphin is unique in such a way.
phpfox has a good example of that.

When a admin takes site offline only admin can browse the site.
Just a suggestion ;)

Hi,

Another request that I have received from the users of my website is on the Profile Comments section and I sort of think its would be a nice to have. Its like this

At present when a user 'ABC' clicks on the reply link to a comment on his profile the comment gets posted in his own profile. I think it would be a good idea that the reply be posted on the profile of the person who originally left the comment on the profile of 'ABC'.

If this idea was not clear please let me know and I will try to explain. I know that this is a beta testing forum and not a place to request for functionality.

Thank

Palz

What you ask would create a lot of confusion.  Comments, and replies to comments need to be in the same place.

Hi houstonlively,

i sort of agree with you but it so happens that people leave comments in others profile and when the member looks at his message he clicks on the "reply" link and leaves a message. But now how does the original person come to know that the message has been replied to. Well i am still wondering how to handle this.

Thanks

Palz

Simple, consider this:

1.  All replies to a comment should be left and appear on the page that they are replying to.  This makes it flow more like a conversation, much simpler for all to follow.

2.  Notifications can be set up so that when you leave a comment and it is replied to, you recieve a notification of the reply in your e-mail.

3.  The notification that the comment was replied to can be made on the members account page also.

Agreed.  That is a must if you are g oing to make changes without risking database errors and possible corruption.  I added this to track as a task.  Ticket # 834.  We'll see when it gets added.

MD, you are correct.  Notification would be the only way to handle this.... as long as there's an admin option to turn it off.  Most comments on any social networking sites are just that... a driveby comment, and don't really turn into any sort of discussion.

With that said, what might be a really cool feature, is if every member profile had a 'Discussions' feature, that was an instance of Orca forum just like in events or groups. Members could start threads with privacy settings, to limit the discussions to friends, family, etc...  The member would, of course, need moderation privileges on their 'Discussions'.  This would give members a way to discuss things that they ordinarily would not in a public forum.

Hi houstonlively,

I agree with you idea. it would be really good to have such a section. At present the members tend to loose track of a discussion since they start it in profile comments of different users and then forget or simply get lazy going to those profiiles to reply to the comments.

Email notifications are one of the most important, and neglected parts of Dolphin- critical for building a community.  Orca, in my opinion, is nearly useless because it lacks this feature.  Most people do not have time to check and re-check if someone has commented on one of their threads, and it is the reason most sites don't have successful forums.   I have been involved in a blog discussion on an obscure topic for almost two years.  Every time someone posts a comment I get an email alert and it has been an interesting and valuable discussion, even though it is going in slow motion.   I would NEVER go back and check this thread if it weren't for the email alerts.   For smaller communities - as they all are when they start - this is absolutely essential.   I haven't had time to test this in D7B yet but I hope they have paid good attention to the alerts.

-

Rob

Suggestion about Audio / Video Upload Section

Another area which I think needs some work is the Uploading of Video / Audio. Its good to see the options to upload (flash, regular etc). Lets say I am using the Regular method to upload. I show the path to the system and click on the upload button. I can see the the round object moving which tells me that the process is on to upload the file.

When the upload is complete the pop up opens asking for the detailed information about the video / audio. when you hit the save button its Done - but the site does not provide any information that the file has been successfully uploaded. It is confusing because due the timing of the cron job to convert the file - the file does not appear immediately on the video section hence confusing the member if the file has been uploaded or not. i guess a message box should be displayed immediately afte upload process is complete.

Palz