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Topic: Message index sorting options are a mess. (Read 9996 times) previous topic - next topic
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Message index sorting options are a mess.

As I suppose everyone noticed. Particularly bad with hover menus (I'd call it unusable, in practical terms). Just ugly with click menus. @todo
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #1 –

Out of curiosity, what exactly is so broken? ???
It doesn't seem to me so different from any other hover menu...

Did you force the refresh to get rid of the old css?
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #2 –

Have cleared cache now. Forgot that. Ok, current problems are:

Styling is off. Needs to get rid of the wrong background around the sorting options so it just fits with the rest. Really I think we should change that icon too, since no matter how often I look at it it simply has no discernable meaning to me.

Font size and line height for the header bar should not be inherited into the drop menu, IMHO. It's too much for that purpose.

Drop menu content just looks wrong. There's no visual connection between it and the top level, in terms of how the text is arranged.

Quite honestly, I think there are too many options as well, but that one is debatable.

Target should be bigger, again IMHO. At the moment it's not quite clear what will trigger the drop menu to open.

Should have similar drop menu indicators to the rest of the drop menus.

Menu jumps around if the mouse goes off it while it's open. This is an easy one to fix (it's to do with Superfish classes not being applied).

Drop menu width is not adequate when "Last post by" is selected. Breaks to an extra line. This may also cause problems wth some of the other options in other languages (I have no idea what Swahili for "Started by" is).

Markup is invalid. You can't have a ul inside an h2.

There's another minor bug not directly related to the sorting options, in that now that the bar that used to hold them has been removed, the border between the board description and the other content is wrong.

Quite honestly, I'm not sure moving it up to that header bar is an advantage. I'm half inclined to think that the previous location was better (may change my mind on that).

Also, I think it would be better if the text said "Sorting options" instead of "Sort by", since at the moment there's no obvious indication that there are more options available.

But yeah, apart from all that it's perfect. :D
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #3 –

Quote from: Antechinus – Styling is off. Needs to get rid of the wrong background around the sorting options so it just fits with the rest. Really I think we should change that icon too, since no matter how often I look at it it simply has no discernable meaning to me.
Background should be tweaked, the icon for me works.
QuoteFont size and line height for the header bar should not be inherited into the drop menu, IMHO. It's too much for that purpose.
Agree, seems like that could be made a bit tighter, now it has a chance to be off screen
QuoteDrop menu content just looks wrong. There's no visual connection between it and the top level, in terms of how the text is arranged.
Not sure what that means :P
QuoteQuite honestly, I think there are too many options as well, but that one is debatable.
Thats why its in a drop menu :D
QuoteTarget should be bigger, again IMHO. At the moment it's not quite clear what will trigger the drop menu to open.
Seems like its the entire text box, just like any other menu text, what am I missing?
QuoteShould have similar drop menu indicators to the rest of the drop menus.
Seems so
QuoteMenu jumps around if the mouse goes off it while it's open. This is an easy one to fix (it's to do with Superfish classes not being applied).
Noticed that at one point, seemed the drop down box size jumped around a bit, now I can't get it to do that.
QuoteQuite honestly, I'm not sure moving it up to that header bar is an advantage. I'm half inclined to think that the previous location was better (may change my mind on that).
I like having it consolidated vs table headers in this case, makes it stand out more that you have sort options.  Many members don't know you have click points to sort by columns and reverse it

Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #4 –

Quote from: Spuds –
QuoteDrop menu content just looks wrong. There's no visual connection between it and the top level, in terms of how the text is arranged.
Not sure what that means :P
Means it's all disjointed. The eye has to jump around and figure out where stuff is. Doesn't just flow.


Quote
QuoteQuite honestly, I think there are too many options as well, but that one is debatable.
Thats why its in a drop menu :D
Sure, but for instance, it was agreed earlier that to save clutter we should drop the display of topic views (and ditch the back end stuff for the too, preferably) since it's useless information that will rapidly bloat out to a very large number, thereby chewing lotsa space. If we're going to do that, having a sort by view option doesn't make sense to me.


Quote
QuoteTarget should be bigger, again IMHO. At the moment it's not quite clear what will trigger the drop menu to open.
Seems like its the entire text box, just like any other menu text, what am I missing?
When using click menus, it's only the "last post" anchor itself that is active.


Quote
QuoteMenu jumps around if the mouse goes off it while it's open. This is an easy one to fix (it's to do with Superfish classes not being applied).
Noticed that at one point, seemed the drop down box size jumped around a bit, now I can't get it to do that.
Still does it for me. The trick is that you have to declare the Superfish classes for positioning off hover too. That stops it.
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #5 –

QuoteMeans it's all disjointed. The eye has to jump around and figure out where stuff is. Doesn't just flow.
I'm sure you are right, but I'd need to see the proper way to even know ... If I could make things look good, I would :D

QuoteSure, but for instance, it was agreed earlier that to save clutter we should drop the display of topic views (and ditch the back end stuff for the too, preferably) since it's useless information that will rapidly bloat out to a very large number, thereby chewing lotsa space. If we're going to do that, having a sort by view option doesn't make sense to me.
Well it was discussed, has been in lots of places, but I don't ever recall agreement ... is that even possible lol ... some folks like it, some don't, its likely an incorrect value due to how it can get bumped, but some folks use it and want it .... personally I like seeing it shrug

QuoteWhen using click menus, it's only the "last post" anchor itself that is active.
Ah click menus ... did not check that, will do

QuoteStill does it for me. The trick is that you have to declare the Superfish classes for positioning off hover too. That stops it.
/me hopes you find some time to make some needed tweaks :D

Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #6 –

Quote from: Spuds – Well it was discussed, has been in lots of places, but I don't ever recall agreement ... is that even possible lol ... some folks like it, some don't, its likely an incorrect value due to how it can get bumped, but some folks use it and want it .... personally I like seeing it shrug
I seem to recall that some people were in agreement. I don't expect everyone on the web to agree. :D

I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing it break the layout when it grows to an insanely large number that has zero relevance. ;)

You may like seeing it, but is it actually any use to you? We could include all sorts of things that some people like seeing (anyone for mood bobels?) but I'm not sure we should.
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #7 –

Quote from: Antechinus – Quite honestly, I think there are too many options as well, but that one is debatable.
I tend to agree... O_O OMG I agree with Ant... the world is ending. :P
Seriously, yes there are a bit of options.
At the moment the dropdown is build using all the possible sorting options available (that is one more than the previous visible sorting options because "first post" was hidden, I did that just because it's easier (i.e. loop through the array and be done with it) but it may be tweaked, it may even be an option if we want).
Anyway, "first post" and "view" are good candidates to be dropped. O:-)

Quote from: Antechinus – Menu jumps around if the mouse goes off it while it's open. This is an easy one to fix (it's to do with Superfish classes not being applied).
Yep, I know about that one (I think I mentioned it somewhere).
It's probably because I tried to reuse other classes instead of add a new one (the problem should be that all the other drop are left aligned and when hovering left is set to 0, while in that case I had to force an left: auto and right: 0.
...strange, now it works correctly...

Quote from: Antechinus – Markup is invalid. You can't have a ul inside an h2.
How annoying is that spec!! You can do almost anything and you cannot put an ul into an h2... >_> :P

Quote from: Antechinus – There's another minor bug not directly related to the sorting options, in that now that the bar that used to hold them has been removed, the border between the board description and the other content is wrong.
 emanuele forgot an empty li there...ooops...

Quote from: Antechinus – Quite honestly, I'm not sure moving it up to that header bar is an advantage. I'm half inclined to think that the previous location was better (may change my mind on that).
I'm not sure either.
I put it there just because have an entire line only for a rather small piece of text seemed odd.
I was considering put it into the box of the board description, but I was too lazy at the time to try. :P

Quote from: Antechinus – But yeah, apart from all that it's perfect. :D
At least it's not completely broken, it just need a bit of love. :P
Last Edit: September 11, 2013, 08:32:56 am by emanuele
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #8 –

QuoteI'm sure you'll enjoy seeing it break the layout when it grows to an insanely large number that has zero relevance. ;)
If yer layout can't handle a number over 6 digits, maybe it should be more robust  :P I'll make sure you can have one billion views, a billion I say !

Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #9 –

Quote from: emanuele –
Quote from: Antechinus – Menu jumps around if the mouse goes off it while it's open. This is an easy one to fix (it's to do with Superfish classes not being applied).
Yep, I know about that one (I think I mentioned it somewhere).
It's probably because I tried to reuse other classes instead of add a new one (the problem should be that all the other drop are left aligned and when hovering left is set to 0, while in that case I had to force an left: auto and right: 0.
...strange, now it works correctly...
Should be fine with existing classes. It's really just like the quickbuttons droppy.

It's still jumping sideways for me, but I know what the probem is since I had to figure it out ages ago for the main menu, etc.

Quote
Quote from: Antechinus – Markup is invalid. You can't have a ul inside an h2.
How annoying is that spec!! You can do almost anything and you cannot put an ul into an h2... >_> :P
Easy to get around it. Since the header bar is by class rather than by tag, we can just use the basic li as the styled wrapper and cut the h2 back so it only holds the board name. Then the sorting stuffz ul can just sit inside the main li.

Quote from: Spuds –
QuoteI'm sure you'll enjoy seeing it break the layout when it grows to an insanely large number that has zero relevance. ;)
If yer layout can't handle a number over 6 digits, maybe it should be more robust  :P I'll make sure you can have one billion views, a billion I say !
Oh it can handle a six figure number just fine, but what you want is for it to handle two six figure numbers on the one line, with a seperator between them, plus descriptive text for each number. That's not quite the same thing.

Whenever I do a gui everyone is stoked because it's clean. Then they start thinking of ways to make it as clusterf#$ked as the old one they are glad was ditched. :P

If views are not useful, and I mean really useful, IMO they should not be there regardless of how comforting some oddballs may find them. For the majority of people they are just a waste of space.
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #10 –

 emanuele would ditch views completely from the entire Elkarte...

 emanuele runs! :P
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #11 –

Go for it. I'm certainly not going to argue. I did it over at the site I used to run. One person questioned it once. Nobody else gave a rat's.
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #12 –

QuoteIf views are not useful, and I mean really useful, IMO they should not be there regardless of how comforting some oddballs may find them. For the majority of people they are just a waste of space.
 Spuds would ditch click menus as it falls nicely in that category, runs to make PR !

Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #13 –

ROFLMAO. Well, no. TBH you would be better off ditching hover menus. Click menus work nicely with touchscreen. Hover menus don't. :P
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Re: Message index sorting options are a mess.

Reply #14 –

FWIW, views was one of the things that was considered controversial at Wedge. I wanted rid of it but apparently some people who care will miss it (to which the standing answer absolutely applies: anyone who cares is going to be using harder analytics tools than what's in the box and everyone else won't care anyway)

Mind you I took the same view on that as for the number of 'guests online'... I could have saved so much performance by not caring about this random figure...

On a pure performance note, not having views saves you a query pretty much every topic view which is not insubstantial. (It's not quite once per page view, because viewing the second page of a topic right after the first shouldn't generate another query)