CyberNet’s First Optional Sidebar Add-On: Unread Comments
We had just released a great new feature yesterday where registered users can pick and choose which sidebar items they want to show up. That’s when CoryC made a comment with the first request for the first optional sidebar add-on:
How about a module for the “unread commentsâ€, like what’s seen on the management screen. I wouldn’t want all of them, maybe the most recent 10 or 15.
So we did it! If you’re a registered user you can now go to your “Customize Sidebars” screen and check the box to have the Unread Comments sidebar add-on appear. However, we figured that if you’ve already customized the sidebar (added or removed any items) then you would probably find this module to be useful…so it is automatically enabled for you! If you haven’t already gone and customized the sidebar you’ll have to add the Unread Comments add-on manually on the Customize Sidebars screen.
It will show you the last 10 comments that you haven’t read, and if there is more than that it will tell you at the bottom that there are still more comments beyond what is listed. Also, don’t forget that the “~” before a comment’s title represents that you’ve commented on that article…so it is really easy to see where your conversations are at.
I also received a request to extend the “Most CyberMarked Articles” list to 10 on the management screen, so I have gone ahead and done so. Right now users have CyberMarked 411 articles which is nearly twice what it was at just a few weeks ago! I’m glad that people are finding the new features useful, and if you have any other ideas make sure you let us know!
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Tags: General
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Sweet, and for my next request….
First, how about the “You still have more comments…” to link to the Management screen where more comments are shown.
And second, as you had mention in a previous post, the ability to reposition the sideboard add-ons similar to Google’s Personalized Home Page.
Thanks for the quick turn-around on the new module.
First, a link has been added so it says- “there are still more unread comments” which will take you to the management screen.
And as for the second request with the ability to reposition the sidebar add-ons… it’ll probably take a little while to get that one figured out.
Thanks for the feedback!
I like the whole idea of a customizable website. Even with something as simple as a blog, it makes sense to give users more control… now if there were only some way to standardize this control so a user can set his prefs for every website from their browser.
That will definitely be coming but I just have to experiment with how I want to do it. I know that there is some JavaScript available to let users drag and drop things but I’m not sure if I want to do it that way or not. Either way, it would be something that is done from the administration screen rather than from the website directly.
Sounds like something I could see Mozilla doing: creating locally customizable websites. Of course I guess that is kinda what the Greasemonkey extension does but in a slightly different way. I’m glad you like the new option!
Thank you, very nice feature
Now how about adding one more feature: ability to rearrange sidebar items (moving them to left or right column, and moving them up and down in the column).
Now when I have turned off some sidebar items, my left column looks much longer than right one. If there would be rearrangement feature, I could balance it, also put more important items on the top, so it could be perfect.
Edit: Oh, sorry, I just observed that other people asked for this feature too.
Of course it should work only via Administration / Customize Sidebars screen. Don’t do anything too complex (like AJAX drag&drop), just make it similar to Firefox “Manage Search Engines” window. With simple buttons [Move Up], [Move Down], [Move Left], [Move Right].
Yeah, I wouldn’t do any of the AJAX stuff simply because the available drag&drop methods in JavaScript don’t mesh well across browsers. I haven’t played with the JavaScript needed to do the move up/down/left/right command, but I can’t imagine it would be that hard. That’s definitely my next project though. If you have seen any scripts that might be helpful in setting it up please let me know.
Obviously drag&drop support is an optional enhancement - so you needn’t worry about it working on all browsers. Just write it for Firefox!
If only Web design decisions were as simple as that…pick a browser and code only for that browser.
Adding this feature for Firefox does not reduce other browsers at all. They still have the same functionality that exists now. I don’t see what’s wrong with that…
Many web-designers do that. (Or did in the past.) Remember all those “IE ONLY” websites? But that is definitely wrong, and I don’t recommend coding something for a single browser.
BTW, here is a nice comment from CNET News, which I have bookmarked 2 years ago:
How to fix “IE Only” sites
:D 
(it is short comment, please read)
In other hand, it would be MUCH EASIER for web-developers, if they could DROP only one single “wrong” browser (Internet Explorer, of course), and create code for standard compliant browsers only (all other major browsers here).
It would be awesome if we only had to develop for Firefox and Opera, but as long as Windows is the dominant operating system I think their browser will be too.
Losing browser market share stimulates IE development.
Maybe one day IE will become standard compliant browser too…… I’m praying to Gods for this.