In my Nashville trip topic, I just had to try at least 10 times to get it to post because of the insanely low limit on the max number of emoticons and images per post that this forum has. The same happened to me on my forum, although I can obviously override that in he admin CP. I'm asking for the simple message to be modified from :

"Sorry, but you have posted more images than you are allowed to."

to something like

"Sorry, but you have attempted to post a total of 13 (or some other number) images. The forum administrator only allows a maximum of 5 images per post. Please reduce your total number of images accordingly."

The same should go for the emoticons, as that part annoyed me more in this particular instance. Since I had smilies scattered all throughout that huge post, I had to try like 10 or 12 times or so to get it through and posted because of the vagueness of the error messages.

Exactly, the error messages needs to be more specific to help members.

I thought it was at one point.

However, what kind of impact does that have on language packs? Will they all read the same with diffrent numbers?

Yeah, the error messages need to support parameters.
Hopefully the exception system in php 5 that will be avalibe for v 3 will resolve this.
Remember, errors are multilingual too!

I think we should be able to change / translate through the ACP or setup custom messages with {post_image_total} or {post_image_allowed} or something like that in the error message. Also I think overhaul of error messages completely and more specific would be helpful too.

So I agree with whats already been posted.

Which Forum did you try to post it in?

Because if that limit is 5 (or so) pictures globally, how come the post with all those cute Panda's has a bazillion images per entry?

IIRC, it's limited to ten, which is why he had to use multiple posts. It's limited on a post basis.

It is setable in the ACP.

Very nice suggestion. :)

Which Forum did you try to post it in?

Because if that limit is 5 (or so) pictures globally, how come the post with all those cute Panda's has a bazillion images per entry?

Sorry for the late reply.

It was in the general discussion forum here on the company board. See my Nashville pictures topic to find out how I did it.

Yeah, the error messages need to support parameters.

Hopefully the exception system in php 5 that will be avalibe for v 3 will resolve this.

Remember, errors are multilingual too!

I'm not sure how the exception system will help much. You will still need language bits in order to make errors specific (unless you want them hard coded). Besides, using exceptions like this would be extremely wasteful with almost no benefit to the software itself.

The reason the IPB errors are so....limited...is partially related to language packs and partially related to, put simply, processing power. The more specific you get with the error, the larger the need for both gets. It's a trade off really. Not to mention that specific error codes for multiple similar events would actually cause a lot of duplication and make translation much more difficult :S

I'm not sure how the exception system will help much. You will still need language bits in order to make errors specific (unless you want them hard coded). Besides, using exceptions like this would be extremely wasteful with almost no benefit to the software itself.

The reason the IPB errors are so....limited...is partially related to language packs and partially related to, put simply, processing power. The more specific you get with the error, the larger the need for both gets. It's a trade off really. Not to mention that specific error codes for multiple similar events would actually cause a lot of duplication and make translation much more difficult :S

can't you use a simpler term so it doesnt display the exact ammount needed
so it would just say something like
"you have exceed the allowed amount of smilies allowed please edit your post"

that shouldn't use to much processing power
not like when you upload an avatar over the size limit
and its able to process that it exceeds the allowed limit/size?

so it would just say something like

"you have exceed the allowed amount of smilies allowed please edit your post"

There is an error that says almost exactly that already. There is already a message that says you've posted more than the maximum images allowed. These are generic just as you've mentioned. The OP wanted specific errors, some that might be very specific to a particular user (as is the case with user limits on upload space), which would cause the issues I'm mentioning. :)

Exceptions got objects that can be subclassed. We can have a class called IPBException with a getDisplayText method and a bunch of fields used to contain the info about the error.

Sounds a lot less confusing. Error messages should be concise.

Exceptions got objects that can be subclassed. We can have a class called IPBException with a getDisplayText method and a bunch of fields used to contain the info about the error.

That has nothing to do with user displayed error messages though. Unless you are saying it'd be a good idea to make an exception class for every single error message. :wacko: Exceptions are useful for program operation (and the prevention of stop errors), and debugging because uncaught ones give a trace to their origin, not error message display.

You haven't looked at many framework right?
Every single unique error type has a special exception class.

You haven't looked at many framework right?

Every single unique error type has a special exception class.

:blink: You know what, you're right. Every large program has 5000+ classes specifically for any possible error message. No...they don't...That statement alone shows that you don't quite understand the purpose of an exception. An exception is not always an error and an error is most commonly not an exception. :)

Yes, but realistically, how resource intensive could more specific error messages be? It's not like everyone will get the same message generated at the same time right? How often would the same message be flooded enough to cause a load on the server for ideally one query compared to other major sections of the forums? Just curious is all :P

This particular case is an extremely simple, one-line, fix, just do a str_replace on the language string with some placeholder text being replaced by the value of the var before sending the error message. This sort of thing is done already in at least one language string I can think of off the top of my head, 'total_word_string' in lang_boards.php. You wouldn't need to do anything really complex to achieve this.

sprintf the string and be done with it.

How easy is this to change then, if it is just a one-line "fix"?

Well, I could post it here, but this isn't a support forum.

Can you PM it to me or post in the customer's area? It would be much appreciated. :)