Be Social Application

[Josiah Wallingford]

I would really like to get people more engaged with their profile status updates and updates from all across the site. I am hoping for an application that will do the following:

• Status Update on all pages: This would be something where someone could post a status update on their profile no matter where they are on the site.
  • I think this would be best as a pop-out somewhere on the desktop view that is expanded by default and could be collapsible.
    • If the site admin wanted to they could disable this and just use a block somewhere on their site.
  • On mobile view, it would just be a small box at the top of the page which they could tap and start typing their status update.
• Below this new status update box would be:
  • A stream of the users status updates and the status updates of all members they follow as well as any content the member follows.
  • This should be configurable by the admin for defaults as well as by each individual member so that they can customize what their stream contains.
    • Perhaps the admin wants all site activity (the full Activity Stream) to show in their feed by default and the user gets to alter that based on their preference.
    • Club updates
    • Blog updates
    • etc etc etc
    • Maybe the admin does not want to allow the users to customize their stream and want to choose exactly what can be shown on their stream.

I think having this application on your site would make your site feel very familiar to users who are used to facebook (everybody in the world).

Here is the next piece which would put the application over the top!

• A new homepage that shows exactly what I have described above in full view. The pop-out version would show up when the user navigated off of the home page.
• If possible it would be great to have the option to only show this as the homepage to logged in users.

 

[simonle]

18 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

Status Update on all pages: This would be something where someone could post a status update on their profile no matter where they are on the site.

We kind of already have this, the Create-link in the header allows your members to create and post status messages on all your pages. You could customize this link to make it more visible for your users.

18 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

• A new homepage that shows exactly what I have described above in full view. 

 

You could probably edit the stream template files to accomplish something like this.

18 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

If possible it would be great to have the option to only show this as the homepage to logged in users. 

Yeah, I would love to be able to use a single static page from Pages as the default index page for guests while the stream is the default index page for logged in users.

[Josiah Wallingford]

25 minutes ago, simonle said:

We kind of already have this, the Create-link in the header allows your members to create and post status messages on all your pages. You could customize this link to make it more visible for your users.

Yes, but I need it more prominent. I want users to use the feature. Currently nobody posts status updates. It is some distanct, non-important feature that most don't even know is there. Even on mobile status updates is disabled by default. I feel that if I had this much more prominent it would keep users engaged and on the site.

25 minutes ago, simonle said:

You could probably edit the stream template files to accomplish something like this.

I have no idea how to do this.

If an application would allow the site to operate as I have explained it will make the site feel much more like a social network instead of just another forum.

[simonle]

I tried it on my own website and managed to add a status box on the stream page, check it out:

This is the code for the status block:

<div class="statusBox"><h3>Update your status</h3><div class='ipsWidget_inner cStatusUpdateWidget' data-controller="core.front.core.statusFeedWidget">
	{{if \IPS\core\Statuses\Status::canCreateFromCreateMenu()}}
		<div class="ipsAreaBackground ipsPad_half" data-role='statusFormArea'>
			<div class='ipsComposeArea_editor' data-role='statusDummy'>
				<div class='ipsComposeArea_dummy ipsType_light' tabindex='-1'>
					{lang="status_content"}
				</div>
			</div>
			<div data-role='statusEditor' class='ipsHide'></div>
		</div>
	{{endif}}
</div></div>

Add it to your streamWrapper file and make the appropriate CSS edits in your custom.css file.

[Josiah Wallingford]

2 minutes ago, simonle said:

I tried it on my own website and managed to add a status box on the stream page, check it out:

This is the code for the status block:

<div class="statusBox"><h3>Update your status</h3><div class='ipsWidget_inner cStatusUpdateWidget' data-controller="core.front.core.statusFeedWidget">
	{{if \IPS\core\Statuses\Status::canCreateFromCreateMenu()}}
		<div class="ipsAreaBackground ipsPad_half" data-role='statusFormArea'>
			<div class='ipsComposeArea_editor' data-role='statusDummy'>
				<div class='ipsComposeArea_dummy ipsType_light' tabindex='-1'>
					{lang="status_content"}
				</div>
			</div>
			<div data-role='statusEditor' class='ipsHide'></div>
		</div>
	{{endif}}
</div></div>

Add it to your streamWrapper file and make the appropriate CSS edits in your custom.css file.

Awesome! What would be appropriate CSS edits for the custom.css file? I am not a coder so I will be fumbling around with this. Also, if IPB updates the streamWrapper file, will it break this?

Does your status updates show up in the activity stream? Is there a way to customize what the defaults are for users looking at the activity stream?

[simonle]

2 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

What would be appropriate CSS edits for the custom.css file?

That depends on your theme. But if you use my code you will need to edit the statusBox and h3 class. See example below:

.statusBox {
    border: 1px solid #e0e0e0;
    box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
    border-radius: 3px;
    margin: 0 0 25px 0;
}

.statusBox h3 {
    background: #f6f7f9;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #dce1e3;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: 600;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    color: #8d99ae;
    border-radius: 3px 3px 0px 0px;
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 0;
}

4 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

Also, if IPB updates the streamWrapper file, will it break this? 

Most likely, yes. But if you add it to a Pages block you can easily add it to the template file again if that happens.

4 minutes ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

Does your status updates show up in the activity stream? Is there a way to customize what the defaults are for users looking at the activity stream?

Yes. In your ACP, under Content Discovery just change the settings on the Streams page.

[Josiah Wallingford]

1 hour ago, simonle said:

That depends on your theme. But if you use my code you will need to edit the statusBox and h3 class. See example below:

.statusBox {
    border: 1px solid #e0e0e0;
    box-shadow: 0px 1px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
    border-radius: 3px;
    margin: 0 0 25px 0;
}

.statusBox h3 {
    background: #f6f7f9;
    border-bottom: 1px solid #dce1e3;
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: 600;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    color: #8d99ae;
    border-radius: 3px 3px 0px 0px;
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 0;
}

Most likely, yes. But if you add it to a Pages block you can easily add it to the template file again if that happens.

Yes. In your ACP, under Content Discovery just change the settings on the Streams page.

Okay! That all looks good. Now, I set the activity stream as the homepage. Will the users be able to make changes to what is viewable and have those changes save for the next time they go to their homepage?

The next thing I will need is some sort of floating button that shows on all pages that the user can click and quickly update their status.

[Josiah Wallingford]

1 hour ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

Add it to your streamWrapper file and make the appropriate CSS edits in your custom.css file.

Is it possible to also put in the drop downs where users can make selections of what they want to view?

This would answer my previous question because they could click "Make this my default stream"... I am assuming I am displaying the user's default stream?

[Josiah Wallingford]

The "Update Status" box still appears (without the editor in it) when a user is logged out. Any way to hide it when a user is logged out?

[DawPi]

{{if \IPS\Member::loggedIn()->member_id}}
your code
{{endif}}

 

[Josiah Wallingford]

19 hours ago, Josiah Wallingford said:

Is it possible to also put in the drop downs where users can make selections of what they want to view?

This would answer my previous question because they could click "Make this my default stream"... I am assuming I am displaying the user's default stream?

I tried to do it myself but I suck at this. What code do I need to put in?

[Joel R]

Enhanced Status Update Widget by @Mike John or @onlyME.