"Topic title and desc" fields are too short.

[HPHubbard]

The "Topic title" and "Topic Description" fields are too short.

Please make them as long as the "Forum name" field.

If that is not possible, lengthen them as long as you can.

[David_B]

I agree. ;)

[Wolfie]

Not really.. Otherwise you defeat the purpose of a title if you can practically include an entire post in the topic. :)

You also have to consider formatting and all.

[HPHubbard]

Not really..  Otherwise you defeat the purpose of a title if you can practically include an entire post in the topic. :)

You also have to consider formatting and all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I did not ask for unlimited length. The "Forum name" field is of a finite length. Make all title fields that length.

[Wolfie]

Perhaps my slight exaggeration didn't make the point clear.

For every extra byte length you add to the title & description, you add an overall total of 2 characters to the entire length. Make it too long, and if someone makes a title/description that uses an excessive amount of wide characters, then all of a sudden, the formatting is messed up. Makes the board look sloppy.

The idea of a title is so that the reader gets some form of an idea on what the topic/post is about, not so that they can read an entire post squeezed into a sentence, and the main post saying "tsia".

Don't forget, not all posts are 15+ lines long. Some are only 1 line, but too long to fit into the title.

[HPHubbard]

Then why is the "Forum name" field as long as it is?

[Wolfie]

In the default skin, you would have to be using very long forum names to have it make a difference. Look at where we are now...

Invision Power Services > Company Product Development > Invision Power Board > Invision Power Board Feature Suggestions

If that were the title & description, that would ran up onto the "Outline

[David_B]

Its too short, trust me. I post at a lot of boards, I know how to word topic titles. It is a lot of fun to tease with a well worded title. Forums are supposed to be fun. This is the conundrum we face. The things we depend on for enjoyment are often designed by engineers who design for function and are unable to see the true end use. Not to fault them for that, it is always difficult to imagine things from others point of view. But to take a simple observation such as this and turn it into a lecture on how to properly word a title to fit the form, is rediculous.....................

[Wolfie]

I suppose one persons observation (mine) is another persons definition of a lecture.

But in all true seriousness, how much space do you really need to make a topic? However long you say, there will always be someone who thinks it should be longer.

P.S.
In the future, please don't assume that I am lecturing when I'm not. Thanks.

[Michael_C]

IMO the current length is plenty long enough and if its not you can run it onto the topci description. If its too long even for that then you need to shorten your title. :)

[FrostedPopTart]

I think it's somewhere around 65 characters for the topic title and 40 characters for the topic description. Feel free to correct me if I erred as I have been up all day restoring my computer.

As for the suggestion itself - I don't think it should be increased that much; if at all, due to the fact that extremely long titles and descriptions would distort the skin tables (unless a fix was implemented to prevent this from happening).

[David_B]

I apologise if I came off brusk. I think the comment was that the description field should be as long as the title field. I agree, and feel the description field could be longer than the topic. That is the nature of the two fields, the topic title should be short and sweet, the description should have more detail, this is how I use it anyway. IMO, this is a good feature, one that is not really implemented well. The way it is currently set up the two lines run concurrently anyway,(in the header) making them basically one long line. I think it would be a nice feature if the topic title appeared in the search results, with the description right below it, where there is plenty of room. (as it does now) In the heading and top of the page,etc. where it may ruin the tables, etc, it could be implemented as a mouseover feature, if at all.


I find this feature especially useful for making Site Announcements, etc. where you do want people to see as much of what the post is about, with or without taking the time to read it.


I think it is a good feature, that just needs a bit of tweaking to become a great feature.


Again, I apologise if I stepped on anyones toes, it was only my intent to point out the difficulty of approaching a problem from different levels of experience; ie, the coders/dev. vs. the user/n00b. I have little knowledge of the technical ends of things, and that of course colors my expectations, maybe makes them a bit unrealistic.

[cowudders]

Ok, ignoring whether you think it's long enough or not, you can change it to whatever you like.
Assuming you are using v2:
Go into your admin CP and select "skins and templates"
Skin manager
select whichever skin you wish to change - you'll need to change it separately for each skin you use.
"Edit Root Skin Template HTML"
"Post Screen"
"topictitle_fields"
Edit the number in size and maxlength value for both topictitle and topicdesc as required.

Similarly, if you wish the edit the length of the name field, select "nameField_unreg" instead of "topictitle_fields" and change the size and maxlength fields to whatever you wish.

It's a bit different for 1.3.1 but I can supply directions for this too if you wish. Just ask!

HTH! :thumbsup:

Oh, and I really think this would be a great option to have as a variable in the adminCP generally, rather than having to manually edit the templates. Matt? ;)

[Wolfie]

Interesting..

I looked in the structure.. There IS a limit, but the title is limitted to 250 characters and the description at 70 characters.

:lol:

[David_B]

Ok, ignoring whether you think it's long enough or not, you can change it to whatever you like.

Assuming you are using v2:

Go into your admin CP and select "skins and templates"

Skin manager

select whichever skin you wish to change - you'll need to change it separately for each skin you use.

"Edit Root Skin Template HTML"

"Post Screen"

"topictitle_fields"

Edit the number in size and maxlength value for both topictitle and topicdesc as required.

Similarly, if you wish the edit the length of the name field, select "nameField_unreg" instead of "topictitle_fields" and change the size and maxlength fields to whatever you wish.

It's a bit different for 1.3.1 but I can supply directions for this too if you wish. Just ask!

HTH! :thumbsup:

Oh, and I really think this would be a great option to have as a variable in the adminCP generally, rather than having to manually edit the templates. Matt? ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank you! This worked. It gives our News posts a little more professional look without having words cut off. I have noticed it really only took a few more characters, I changed it from 40 to 50. ;)

[IncredibleHulk]

thanks cowudders. i increased both those fields to 80, but when postig it says it's limited to 50???

[rakaposhi]

but when postig it says it's limited to 50???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I get that too.... and I can't see where else its being controlled from.

[Kilroy-was-here]

The 50 might be the database limit, not sure about that though as I haven't been able to look at it.

[Wolfie]

The 50 might be the database limit, not sure about that though as I haven't been able to look at it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There is an internal limit, it's hard coded in the source files or in the skins (I forget where exactly).

[martinjwallace]

While I sometimes find myself fighting the limit I think it is generally not too bad. This is okay in English, but I could understand people having problems in those languages (like german) which generally have longer words.

[winabe]

Open the file post_new_post.php and search for this block

  //-----------------------------------------

  // More unicode..

  //-----------------------------------------

  

  $temp = $std->txt_stripslashes($_POST['TopicTitle']);

  

  $temp = preg_replace("/&#([0-9]+);/", "-", $temp );

  

   if ( strlen($temp) > 64 )

  {

 	 $this->class->obj['post_errors'] = 'topic_title_long';

  }

change the value above (65) to what you want !

Note: the field type of title and description are defined in table ibf_topics and they are 250 for title and 70 for description.

[123]

it will be good if it will be in IPB 2.1 as an opition to the admin cp or to the IPDynamic 1.0

[cowudders]

Edit: Duh, should have noticed the "page 2" button... :)