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[ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Mentions Droppy v0.1.0
Introduction
We know mentions require quick interaction, and the current ElkArte page may be annoying to many.
Well, this is a first attempt at making it easier to use and more similar to what many of you are already used.
The mentions menu becomes an AJAX-ively loaded dropdown that will display the 5 most recent mentions you have received (I hope :P), when the dropdown is opened, it will also mark those mentions as read.

Future development:
  • Allow the user to chose if mark the mentions as read or not when opening the popup

Known issues:
  • Realised while I was writing this, when the droppy is opened the second time it may not destroy the first one opened, failing to show some stuff. Will fix soon-ish

License
o This ElkArte Addon is subject to the terms of the BSD "3-clause" license. You can obtain a copy of the License at http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

Repository / Download



Change log

  • 0.1.0 - Initial release
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Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #1 –

Nice one, thanks. But wouldn't it be easier for unexperienced users not to move already noticed mentions from the mentions default start page to "all mentions", but keep it there on the start page? Maybe new mentions formatted with bold text or a little "new" icon to see which are new and which are not, and click on "mark as read" changes them to not bold anymore? Just my two cents.  :-[

Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #2 –

Dunno, at the moment I'm merely copying the two forum software that I think have more buzz around them: XenForo and IPB.
Well, sort of because they act a little differently on what the show (XF removes completely the alerts, while IPB keep them and continue to show them), but the act consistently on what they do: mark the alerts as read once the little dropdown is pulled.

To be honest, I'm not sure what the best behaviour actually is myself, so I'm open to suggestions.
From the past, I remember Antechinus was annoyed by the number up there and by the fact that to mark the mentions as read you have to click one by one (and on a "high traffic" forums that could really be annoying, and some quicker way to toggle them should exist).
That said, yes, I like to keep them unread the same way I keep personal messages as unread because I use them as a reminder. But I'm weird, so I do not count.
I was thinking to make the "mark as read when dropdown" a personal option (as I wrote it in the original post), that should cover pretty much any situation.

There could be another option: add a new status "highlight", that could be used to... highlight a particular mention you are interested in it and make that view the default, for example.

Opinions and ideas are welcome as usual! ;D
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Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #3 –

Quote from: emanuele – From the past, I remember Antechinus was annoyed by the number up there...

I am annoyed that there is sometimes a "2", but I have no two new mentions, only old already read ones. A few hours ago the number changed to "3". This happened when I marked one of them as "unread". After a browser window refresh the number switched back to "2". :o

Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #4 –

Keep the mention system as simple and informative as possible. It's new to nearly every member of my forum and yes, we like this stuff, but it must be easy to learn and to handle. I think it's not a bad idea to show the number in the menu only if you have new mentions, and not show it anymore if you visited the mention center. Just like notifications with a smartphone.

Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #5 –

Quote from: Jorin – I am annoyed that there is sometimes a "2", but I have no two new mentions, only old already read ones. A few hours ago the number changed to "3". This happened when I marked one of them as "unread". After a browser window refresh the number switched back to "2". :o
That looks again like a bug...
Does it happen only here or at your site as well?

ETA: actually there was a bug that I forgot to fix, now the code is up and running here and the fix is here.
Last Edit: June 25, 2014, 12:06:53 pm by emanuele
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Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #7 –

If we do not use this, we still get normal type of mentions, right ?

Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #8 –

Yep @meetdilip.

That's just something "in addition".
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Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #9 –

Reviving for a moment this because I was thinking of throwing it into 1.1.
What I would change at the moment is:
1) when the dropdown appears mentions are not marked as read,
2) a little "mark as read" and a "delete" next to each one should be available,
3) the default page of the mentions area would become the "show all".
If I'm not wrong, that's exactly what @Jorin suggested above.
I completely changed my mind. lol

I would also consider, instead of using the "show all" as default page, to have an additional status between "new" and "read", that would show mentions in the mentions area, but not in the dropdown (so that there is no need to explicitly mark them as read to make them disappear from the droppy).
So:
"new" shown both in droppy and mentions area
 "this new level" show only in mentions area
* "read" show mentions only in "show all"
And the level is toggled from "new" to "this new level" when the droppy is opened.
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Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #10 –

I don't get it. Must see it in action.  :D
 

Re: [ADDON] Mentions Droppy

Reply #11 –

A version for 1.1 /  7.4 for anyone that needs such