Thread

Apologies if this has been covered recently somewhere else, but has there been any more word on an importer for EE installations with galleries? I am still stuck on 1.x due to having several large galleries and now that most of the add-ons that I use exist for 2.x, I would love to upgrade as soon as possible.

Apologies if this has been covered recently somewhere else, but has there been any more word on an importer for EE installations with galleries? I am still stuck on 1.x due to having several large galleries and now that most of the add-ons that I use exist for 2.x, I would love to upgrade as soon as possible.

Hi Linda,

Yes, we’re actively working on this. Its turned out to be more complicated than expected. Our current target is to have this available in EE 2.4 or 2.5. All the work we’ve done in the File Manager, especially the ability to store metadata, has been in preparation for this. I’d be happy to invite you to be a private tester when we’re ready. If you’re interested, just .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I’ll make sure you’re part of the private test group.

I’m trying to read between the lines here, and compare it to promises made earlier…....

It appears the Discussion Forum improvements may be geared toward letting EE itself upgrade it’s forums from the 1.x code base? In other words, they would finally start using the software they have been selling for a couple years?

Let me see if I can save people from having to read between any lines.  What you say about letting ourselves upgrade isn’t correct. The Forums worked with EE 2 since launch. The big item that has prevented us is our store, which is in the final stages of being completely redone using an existing EE Commerce solution (we’re working closely with the devs).

The most requested “feature” in the last six months that isn’t directly about EE itself is an improved support experience. So in that context, you’re correct. The new DF 4 features are aimed at delivering a better support experience and enabling other people who provide person-to-person support in community format (forums). The specific features are driven from feature requests as well (some pretty long standing).

In short, the DF 4 is part of a larger effort to overhaul the support experience here (private support & mid-tier support & enterprise support rounding out the support overhaul).

These decisions supersede previous plans. I know this will deeply disappoint some people and make others very happy. If we want the forums to continue to grow as a product, our feeling is that we have to specialize instead of generalize. We’ll be detailing specific features closer to release. Plus, you’ll see the new solution live on the EE Forums, hopefully prior to EECI in late October.

I’ve added all the suggestions in this post to our forum backlog (where we keep potential new features for review every two weeks). Once the new forums are closer to initial release, we’ll also open up a specific place on the Feedback Machine for them.

Hi Linda,

Yes, we’re actively working on this. Its turned out to be more complicated than expected. Our current target is to have this available in EE 2.4 or 2.5. All the work we’ve done in the File Manager, especially the ability to store metadata, has been in preparation for this. I’d be happy to invite you to be a private tester when we’re ready. If you’re interested, just .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I’ll make sure you’re part of the private test group.

Thank you Leslie, great to hear it is being worked on. I am not sure I will be in a position to do testing since I currently have just the live site itself, but perhaps I can work something out with my host.

Let me see if I can save people from having to read between any lines. 

The most requested “feature” in the last six months that isn’t directly about EE itself is an improved support experience.

In short, the DF 4 is part of a larger effort to overhaul the support experience here (private support & mid-tier support & enterprise support rounding out the support overhaul).

If we want the forums to continue to grow as a product, our feeling is that we have to specialize instead of generalize.

I’ve added all the suggestions in this post to our forum backlog (where we keep potential new features for review every two weeks).

Well, I still had to read a bit between the lines (I’m a bit dense sometimes!), but I think I have the gist of it…...let me see if I have it right!

1. The forum is being modified based mostly on the requests of the last 6 months - mostly for your own use (support of EE) , as opposed to the last 4 years of feature suggestions and improvements and whatever else you can think up as continuous improvement.

2. The decision to do this does away with (supersedes?) all previous statements and plans of upgrading the forums.

3. Generalize, meaning perhaps adding features that have been suggested over the years, is less likely to happen as opposed to the forum getting honed to Specialize in Support for a software based product or similar (EE or Solspace, etc.).....

4. Deeply disappoint some people and make other happy - although I certainly don’t know the EE business, I would be amazed if any decent percentage of Forum users had the “support” upgrades as their top desires of the past couple years. It sounds more like an upgrade spurred by complaints about EE support than an upgrade for the masses….

Leslie, I’m not trying to nitpick here, but many of us have waited years for basic communication on these things - and been very patient. To hear that the last 6 months does away with all the other plans (intentions, promises, statements) after all this time - yes, it is very disappointing. While I know that EE does not need any one customer (myself or anyone else), there is something to be said for total honesty earlier in the game…..and continuously!  Most of us, I think, can handle the straight scoop. For instance, what would be wrong with a statement like this (not saying it is true, but if it was?)......

“Folks, we at EE are only seeing 1/6 of our customers purchase the Discussion Forum, and being of limited resources we have decided that it simply cannot be front and center to the degree we hoped. We do intend to keep supporting it and using it, and it is possible that sometime in the future we may be able to roll additional requested features into it, but this is not going to happen within the near future. If you find that you are in need of expanded features for your Forums, we would suggest that you consider integrating a third party forum with EE”.

Maybe a bit brutally honest, but then again I’m from Philly!

I have no doubt EE will prosper with or without vastly upgraded forums - but more important are customer relationships.

Well, take it for what it’s worth. Better communication would definitely have helped over the last couple of years, and maybe still.

Better communication would definitely have helped over the last couple of years, and maybe still.

We agree, and think that we have improved tremendously in that regard in the interim, and work on getting better every day.

“Folks, we at EE are only seeing 1/6 of our customers purchase the Discussion Forum, and being of limited resources…”

Actually the forum is used by far fewer than one of every six ExpressionEngine powered sites.  Though I don’t like the thought of playing the “limited resources” card.  What business doesn’t have some manner of constraints?  I’m sure yours does as well, so you, like us, make as aggressive business decisions that you can that you know will have the greatest impact.  At this juncture, the greatest impact is not on making the forum module compete with a feature list from standalone forum applications, but on improving that tool’s ability for us to meet the needs of our entire community.

but more important are customer relationships.

I couldn’t agree more, and is precisely why these particular forum module improvements have jumped the turnstile so to speak.  We are in a position to modify the module to allow us to vastly improve our relationships with our users.  The current model served us well as a smaller community as a niche market player.  We need more to serve the growing user base with the experience they deserve.

If you find that you are in need of expanded features for your Forums, we would suggest that you consider integrating a third party forum with EE

I actually wouldn’t go that far, as I still firmly believe that for the best integrated experience with a whole site, our forum module is the best solution for discussion forums on an ExpressionEngine powered site, and it is quite extensible.

We do intend to keep supporting it and using it, and it is possible that sometime in the future we may be able to roll additional requested features into it

Craig, I still have your personal emails to me back in January regarding the forums in my inbox.  Your suggestions, and similar, are not being ignored, so it’s important to me that if you remain frustrated and get nothing else out of this discussion, it’s that you remember that I’m still looking at your requests from time to time, with appreciation for your thoughtfulness, and an earnest desire to once again have you visiting other communities in your online travels extolling the virtues of EE and its forum module.

Craig, I still have your personal emails to me back in January regarding the forums in my inbox.  Your suggestions, and similar, are not being ignored, so it’s important to me that if you remain frustrated and get nothing else out of this discussion, it’s that you remember that I’m still looking at your requests from time to time…...

Ah, thanks….nice to know suggestions are not ignored…

I certainly understand the idea of limited resources. You don’t want to create things that do not have a market and are not going to pay dividends to your company. On the other side of that same coin, we sometimes get the results we desire…that is, put effort in X and less into Y and Y suffers, therefore reinforcing our original decision to largely ignore it…

Of course, investing in Y involves risk - and more mature companies generally are risk averse (IMHO)....

In summary, I really have no complaints except occasional lack of clarity in terms of direction. I don’t follow these things closely, but as a regular user and layman I always assumed that 2.0 was naturally going to update the forum. Then, when I heard it didn’t, I thought….well, maybe the forum insides are updated because the CI thing and therefore others can extend it more easily. That didn’t appear to be the case, as very few new mods and extensions are available. Then I hoped that the promise of a complete update (new features, templates, etc.) was being worked on. Now it appears that main changes are for the support of EE themselves on this site.

In any case, it might just be that some of these “support” updates might be a neat thing for many of us…..and I look forward to watching them and seeing if they might help us serve our users better. I may actually finally have a pressing reason to install my 2.x upgrade! I guess that says it best. I (maybe WE) want a bunch of great reasons (speed, searching, flexibility, membership, multi-image upload, etc.) to upgrade!

I know what I said earlier, but I’m knee deep in integrating a coded design into EE forums. It’s a horrible, horrible thing and makes some of the above more incredible.

I know I’d chip some money in with a few others to have someone sort out the mess and add a few new features to bring it into the 90’s, but that’s a really sad situation to be in.

Oh well, at least EE support will be marginally better :(

I’ve wrote a several table-free XHTML-versions about four years ago and a HTML5-Version last year — it’s a little bit complex, but in my opinion not much more difficult than other large forum-systems out there

I’ve wrote a several table-free XHTML-versions about four years ago and a HTML5-Version last year — it’s a little bit complex, but in my opinion not much more difficult than other large forum-systems out there

Yes, you caused quite a stir when you said you were going to release one of them and forgot about it 😊 - http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/89993/P18/

Follow through and you’d ease the problem for a lot of people, or even consider selling them like Iain did with Scaffold.

Stefan Rechsteiner,

Please release your template! Working on figuring out how to the same to my forums, want to do a different look, but viewing your templates may help the learning curve to create my own.

I Just love your look and glad to know it is possible,

thanks!
Mike

Stefan Rechsteiner,

I Just love your look and glad to know it is possible,

The brunt of the markup can be edited directly in the theme, so most things are possible. There is still a decent amount of markup and class definition in the core which you need to muck around with if you want to do anything other than “skin”.

We will release our Themes soon, but I need some time to do this right. Stay tuned. And sorry for the delay 😊

I ended up spending about 2 days modifying the blue theme to match my personal sites look.

Wish we could have native EE tags in the forums and vise versa.

You can view it here, http://goo.gl/IOB0i (best if NOT viewed in IE….)

Normally my menu is dynamically made from my EE, but due to the limits of the forums I have to copy finished code into my forums every time I add content to my site. (Work around)

Now that I figured out the process of the forum themes it really is not that hard to do. If I had to do it again I think I could do it in a day..

My goal is to use the forums in my templates, but currently I cannot get them to display correctly with my MSM EE install.

What I learned,
• 1st I changed any CSS that used the same names as my sites css
• Some minor changed to mod.forum.php and mod.forum_core.php were needed
• Modified some profiles themes also
• Started from the top and went down, until new theme was done.

I still have a few minor things to correct but that’s for later. (Add footer, some member areas, textures…)

May not have the lists of most viewed topics and other things that I thought you could do, well as you can outside of the forums in EE.

But thanks to Stefan I knew it was possible.

Mike