Group Colors Request

[Webfusion]

Hello all,

While it may seem minor, the ability to change the display name of our users to match the color that designates what group they are in is important to us. every other (free) forum system we've used has this feature built-in, and we were surprised when we made the jump last year to IP Board that we are unable to do that without a plugin.

We've been using "T31 Group Format" to handle this for us. Unfortunately, the author is a very busy man, and each new IP Board version requires him to update the plugin, which prevents us from moving to the latest IPB version for months at a time.

SO...can we PLEASE have this basic ability/feature added to IP Board (and have it work with all the IP Board apps, because we use them all :cool: ) so we can always install the newest IPB version(s) of everything without losing our group colors? Again, I realize it might seem to be a minor thing, but it is very important to those of us that use it to designate groups, etc.

Thank you for your consideration.

[JahLion]

I'll like this also built-in because hosting customers can't used "T31 Group Format" and even if we could it's pain in the butt to keep doing file edits every time we upgrade our board,IPS should really give us this feature please. :)

[dean84]

If it is added it would need to be an on/off option, as some custom skins use coloured sections which may work well with the text on some coours, but on another skin it may look awful.

example = Orange member group

... test ...
Background 1 = black (works great)
... test ...
Background 2 = Red (Not so good)
... test ...
Background 3 = Orange (Not gonna work at all :P)

So for those who use just 1 or 2 skins, this would probably be great, but for those who use quite a few colour variants, this wouldn't work all that well on some custom skins

[Aisha]

Bro, everytime a person makes this thread ips blatantly ignores it.

The guy who made group format also is on the dev team and he also added a ton of hook point into 3.2. I'm willing to bet he added enough hook points so that group format will require almost no edits in 3.2 and he'll have it ready quite soon.

Or I'm just being too nice to the guy.

[Webfusion]

If it is added it would need to be an on/off option, as some custom skins use coloured sections which may work well with the text on some coours, but on another skin it may look awful.

example = Orange member group

... test ...

Background 1 = black (works great)

... test ...

Background 2 = Red (Not so good)

... test ...

Background 3 = Orange (Not gonna work at all :P)

So for those who use just 1 or 2 skins, this would probably be great, but for those who use quite a few colour variants, this wouldn't work all that well on some custom skins

Well, I doubt group colors would even be advisable unless you were controlling the overall appearance of your board. We mandate our board's color, as we build alot of custom applications around our skin.

Bro, everytime a person makes this thread ips blatantly ignores it.

I certainly hope you're wrong....as we had this functionality in PHPBB 7-8 years ago, and it would seem to be just an oversight not to have it in a package of this caliber (and a relatively easy addition to boot). At any rate....I guess I'll just keep asking. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.

[Matt]

I would like to point out that I'm not ignoring this topic.

[Aisha]

I would like to point out that I'm not ignoring this topic.

Well, that's a start.

[Webfusion]

I would like to point out that I'm not ignoring this topic.

Great! Any chance you could give us some insight as to if/when we could see this implemented? We're still unable to upgrade to the latest Gallery version due to having to wait for the T31 group format plugin to be updated.

[Connor T]

Well, that's a start.

yeeeeeeeeee

[Tanax]

Well, check this blog entry:


Scroll to the bottom of the entry and see the picture where the admin is logged in. It got a group color.

[JahLion]

Well, check this blog entry:

Scroll to the bottom of the entry and see the picture where the admin is logged in. It got a group color.

That's not what we speaking about,we speaking about the full board with the group color not just some parts of the board.

[Adriano Faria]

IPS doesn't like to talk about new SETTINGS, but it's too easy to add the member_group_id in each query or cache to show in templates formatted name or just the name of the user... Settings would be like:

• SHOW USER GROUP COLORS IN LINKS IN TOPIC VIEW
• Other setting to FORUM VIEW
• ... BOARD INDEX (including SIDEBAR)
• ...PRIVATE MESSAGES
• etc.

[Webfusion]

IPS doesn't like to talk about new SETTINGS, but it's too easy to add the member_group_id in each query or cache to show in templates formatted name or just the name of the user... Settings would be like:

• SHOW USER GROUP COLORS IN LINKS IN TOPIC VIEW
• Other setting to FORUM VIEW
• ... BOARD INDEX (including SIDEBAR)
• ...PRIVATE MESSAGES
• etc.

Yeah...if it were EASY to implement what we need, we would have done it long ago. What we NEED is something that is fully integrated with the IPBoard system itself, so that it doesn't get broken and/or need dozens of skin edits every time an upgraded application is released. The only way that's going to happen is if the devs include it in the package itself.

Honestly, this is more important (IMHO) than some people think. Having a person's display name appear in an assigned color can make it easy for a board's users to see at a glance the "authority" of the person replying. If, for example, a user is asking an important question that relates to a service they have purchased through your site, having someone reply whose name color signifies they are "support" lends additional authority to the answer given, etc.

[Adriano Faria]

Yeah...if it were EASY to implement what we need, we would have done it long ago. What we NEED is something that is fully integrated with the IPBoard system itself, so that it doesn't get broken and/or need dozens of skin edits every time an upgraded application is released. The only way that's going to happen is if the devs include it in the package itself.

That's what I told and you didn't understand! It's TOO easy to be IMPLEMENTED by IPS! I can't see why they couldn't do it!

[Ryan H.]

I would like to see this.

[Francismori7_2]

Well, that's a start.

You should stop being a smart ass, really.

[Aisha]

You should stop being a smart ass, really.

I wasn't being a smart ass. I was simply stating that acknowledging this thread is a start, which it is. It, however, is not what we were hoping for.

[Webfusion]

That's what I told and you didn't understand! It's TOO easy to be IMPLEMENTED by IPS! I can't see why they couldn't do it!

Yep, read that wrong. Sorry about that.

At any rate, I don't mean this to be a "beat on the devs" thread. IPBoard is (IMHO) the best thing going. I just wanted to impress on them how important such a minor-seeming feature is to some of us, as I can see how something that seems so insignificant would get pushed to the bottom of any to-do list when they are working on so many other things.

[Scarred Sun]

If it is added it would need to be an on/off option, as some custom skins use coloured sections which may work well with the text on some coours, but on another skin it may look awful.

example = Orange member group

[background=black]... [color=orange] test[/color] ...[/background]

Background 1 = black (works great)

[background=red][color=red]... [color=orange] test[/color] ...[/color][/background]

Background 2 = Red (Not so good)

[background=orange][color=orange]... [color=orange] test[/color] ...[/color][/background]

Background 3 = Orange (Not gonna work at all :P)

So for those who use just 1 or 2 skins, this would probably be great, but for those who use quite a few colour variants, this wouldn't work all that well on some custom skins

Not necessarily. What I currently do is assign a CSS class to member groups in the ACP and simply define lighter/darker shades of a colour to complement a different skin. Seems to be a workaround for those who have highly different skins.

[Webfusion]

Not necessarily. What I currently do is assign a CSS class to member groups in the ACP and simply define lighter/darker shades of a colour to complement a different skin. Seems to be a workaround for those who have highly different skins.

Does that work across all the IP Board applications? (Gallery, chat, blogs, etc.)

[Webfusion]

Just a note - since the developer of the "T31 Group Format" mod seems to have stopped actively supporting it, we're trying to work on our own solution for this. If we come up with something that works reliably (and is easy to manage), I'll post the fix/mod here for anyone that wants it (however, an officially supported option within IPBoard itself is STILL what we really need :thumbsup: ).