Feature requests

[altenbach]

Here are a few features that would improve the usability of the forum:

(1)  Easy forum link names:

Whenever a url to a different local thread is pasted into the edit window, a link is created with the same name as the url of the target. I think it would be much more meningful if the name of the link would contain the thread title instead.

Example:

Old: http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=160399

New: How do I force a nonlinear (quadratic) curve fit through the origin?

(2) Tracker sorting

There is still no easy way to sort the tracker page by activity.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/tracker?user.id=7614

If I come here in the morning, I am always most interested in my threads that had activity, so I look for bold entries. The problem occurs if somebody replies to a thread that is relatively old, it will be on page 20 and I'll never find it. And If I don't recognize the title, I might miss it in the regular forum too unless I really focus on the thread icons. Suggestion (again!): Please sort the tracker page by last activity in the thread and not by the dates of my posts. All bold entries nust be on top of the list!

Thanks! 😄

[tst]

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@altenbach wrote:

(2) Tracker sorting

If I come here in the morning, I am always most interested in my threads that had activity, so I look for bold entries. The problem occurs if somebody replies to a thread that is relatively old, it will be on page 20 and I'll never find it. And If I don't recognize the title, I might miss it in the regular forum too unless I really focus on the thread icons.

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That's the main reason I complained about the icons all that time ago. Now that the icons were changed, a small LV app can be written which will parse the HTML source of all the forum boards (so we don't have to go over each one), detects the unread posts (since it will only have one of two icons, either unread where I posted or hot unread where I posted), and displays the links to those thread (it could even display the link to the newest messages). We can even put it in the tools menu.

Any internet-toolkit-enabled, HTML-savvy, takers?

It should be fairly easy, but I don't think I have the internet toolkit anywhere (I'll have to look) and I'm not big on HTML. I could try to see if I have the toolkit, or if I can gut some of the LIST VIs to do this, but even so, it will probably take me a while to write, because I need to catch up on HTML and on the forum structure.

Of course, my original suggestion was to have links to all my threads with unread activity in the main forum page, but I think Molly said then that it wasn't possible at the moment.

[tst]

After thinking about this some more, the program should probably remember when was the last time you used it and not go past it, or go only an X (user settable) number of days back and probably only go to some of the boards (also user settable) to avoid the time it takes to load the HTML page for all the boards.

Any other suggestions?

[tst]

OK, I tried looking at this a bit and I'm stuck on one important point - I couldn't find a way to log in automatically. When I try to retrieve the HTML page the data returned is for an anonymous user. I also tried using the link supplied by Molly for auto login, but that just seems to point to some redirection page.

Molly, Charly, any ideas?

[Ben]

I would like to see the "tracker" page sorted by last activity as well. That activity should include ratings being assigned.

I have had the same problem that Christian mentioned. People will relpy to an old thread for some additional info thinking that I (we) would be notified.

Ben

[Molly K]

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@tst wrote:

 I couldn't find a way to log in automatically.

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I have some good news for you (I think).  It does require a redirect, so I'm not sure you will like it...  but...

Now, if you add this to the beginning of the forum URLs, your login status will be maintained.  If you weren't logged in, it won't make you login.  If you were logged in, it will silently keep you logged in.

http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?requireLogin=False&forumDU=

If you add this to the beginning of the forum URLs, you will be required to login.  If you were already logged in, it should log you in silently.

http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?requireLogin=True&forumDU=

Example 1:

http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?requireLogin=False&forumDU=http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?...

Example 2:

http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?requireLogin=True&forumDU=http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?b...

Happy Monday!

[tst]

No, doesn't help. That was the link I refered to when I was talking about the link you supplied.

Here's the VI I started using - at the moment what it's trying to do is find all the links which appear after the appropriate icon. The problem is that it doesn't find any links because the page returned is an anonymous page. The auto login only seems to apply to my browser session.

Is there any way to force a login with a specific user in the URL?

If this is not possible, then this whole tool won't be possible.

[tst]

Incidentally, since I learned you can edit old posts, can you edit the first post in the icons thread and add a remark that the link to the image should have its extension in lowercase?

[Support]

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@tst wrote:
Incidentally, since I learned you can edit old posts, can you edit the first post in the icons thread and add a remark that the link to the image should have its extension in lowercase?

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Done.  :)

[tst]

Molly, anything?

Is there a URL I can use with the VI attached to post 7?

Or, alternatively, will we see an option to view our threads sorted by newest activity?