The Old Man

I'm often reminded of the facility to limit the number of name changes in the AdminCP. The same methodology could apply to domain name changes, to limit people obviously extracting the golden fluid but support 2-3 changes a year.

I've always thought that if you put in a ticket and explained the circumstances for a domain change then IPS would/should look fairly and reasonably at it. $15 is a bit cheeky I suppose, and I never agree with anything that penalises the majority because of the actions of a small minority. If the account and admin is in good standing, why not allow such a request? It's called good customer service and it's the kind of thing that you remember and judge other providers by. That said, IPS don't always get it right, for instance a couple of years ago they insisted I buy a new Pages licence for one of my existing community sites when I already had an unused Pages license I wanted to reactivate (for a site on which I'd disabled the Pages app some time ago), and it was just sitting there unused; they wouldn't let me move it from one active licensed site to another. I've been with the founders since Ikonboard and stayed with them, that's loyalty. That's just not right. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't, and if you have multiple site licenses it is only fair and reasonable that you might want to try make an app work on a different community site where it may be better utilised or do better. I went ahead in the end and bought a new Pages license but it left a bitter taste. That reminds me, I suppose I really should start using it! Escalating the Marketplace fees to 'Apple rates' whilst was wrong but they did hold off because of the financial impacts of pandemic which was positive. IMHO being able to advertise your product as having a long established and reputable third party developer system is worth its wait in gold, it might not break even but holistically, surely it's a positive loss leader. On the other side of the coin, Lindy recently allowed me to use Marketplace credit I'd saved up to renew a full suite license renewal, that's good customer service.

Yes, I'm sad this didn't get a reply or further response from IPS other than how Matt responded in the blog comments.

Yes, this would be nice to have. I'd actually like to see an IPS 'TV' channel like Cloudflare recently launched. Available 24/7 for your convenience because of the international user base time zones, monthly content in the form of tutorials, Q&A's, monthly IPS staff and member/developer interviews, a look at featured community site of the month, previews, demonstrations, (perhaps even with a dash of that new age corporate marketing and PR bollocks that appears in the blog for those of us who value and appreciate it). Sprinkle on a light hearted chat and technology programme presented by IPS Staffers. Beginners, intermediate and advanced level content would be great. A series of guides on a particular aspect. IPS University. Calm down, Old Man.

Team effort!

Okay, thanks guys! 😬

Hi, Try turning the zlib.output_compression directive to Off in your php configuration file or Multi PHP ini settings in CPanel (Software section > basic mode > select your ini location and look at the last option named zlib.output_compression).

Is it actually possible within the 'full fat' IPS Community suite, to create a basic RSS feed of Topics (new/recent/latest), without it including the post content or without the need for a Marketplace plugin? This seems a simple task and I'm almost embarrassed to ask, custom RSS feature insists on bloating the topic feed with post content. I also noticed it passes RSS feed validation at W3C but it mentions GUID tags are missing. I'll also tried making a custom Activity Stream for its RSS feed and fiddled with Pages. Many thanks.

Sweet Jebus. That's off putting for inexperienced new developers.

Hi, Sorry to hear about the loss of your member @Pavel Chernitsky, I know how upsetting it can be. We lost 2 main cornerstones of our community from the US in the last 2 year that I'd known for almost 20 years despite never meeting in real life, both were forum staff and and it really hurts. We've probably had more go over the years, I've tried to look for a few, but many people's families wouldn't know to let websites know, for obvious reasons. However the reason I say this is because it gave me an idea at the time to create an 'In Memorium' style app where members could leave thoughts and prayers (i.e. comments) and light a virtual candle or leave virtual flowers etc, get a reminder of the anniversary in future years etc, but I'm still learning plug-ins for now due to ill health, I get 2-4hrs sleep a day when I'm lucky and losing my career in 2017 due to auterity left me very depressed, so its really put me behind in my plans, but its something I'd love to be able to do and is still at the top of my 'apps to do' list. I once even thought about reaching out to Michael J to see if he would be interested in the idea. For both members who passed, I too used announcements and preserved them in a special group, where I can do my best to preserve their profile and content etc. Re member group styling, I ended up with this, you could try it in your member groups's Group Formatting boxes: <strong style='color:#FFFFFF; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #888888'> then </strong> gives you something like this:

Aha, thanks Ryan! Just found it. Can't see the wood for the trees! I had used a language string to make a button and it looked great but I was concerned about doing it right. 'learn' => "<span class='ipsResponsive_hidePhone'><a href='https://example.com' class='ipsButton ipsButton_overlaid ipsButton_small' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener' title='Learn more at example.com (in a new tab/window).'><i class='fa fa-external-link'> </i> Example.com</a></span>"

Hi @bfarber Where can I find info on the correct formatting for this? Is it considered a form helper, as I can't seem to find it? I tried searching here with this query below and it brought up 0 results, even though it's mentioned in your post above? $form->addButton Many thanks!

Awesome, thanks Brandon.

Aha, yes that was it, thanks.

Thanks, I think so, but I'll try again. I assumed it just didn't like the link tags per se.

Thanks for this. As a noobie, I was surprised how much is done outside of the dev center and in a text editor or IDE when creating a plug-in. I was kind of expecting to see live variables, strings in a sidebar, with realtime error messages or something. Something called Whoops appears sometimes, but its a bit overwhelming and there is nothing to say how to use it in the tutorials section. Its taken me 3 days to work out how to make a quick debug entry and I still can't get it to log the form->$values I've just saved inside it. Why is an exception with a 200 message needed when 1 line of text would surely do? I'm obviously a newbie.

Hi, In a Plugin Settings form, I can add text, with HTML formatting etc by using: $form->addMessage('mymessage'); and a language string: 'mymessage' => "<p>Thinking bout burgers.</p> <p>I wish I had one, right now. I'd eat it all up. With onion rings of course.</p>" This works, but if I try to insert tags for a hyperlink to open in a new tab/window such as for example: <a href="https://www.w3schools.com" target="_blank" title="Visit W3Schools (in a new tab/window).">Visit W3Schools</a> ... it refuses to display the form. I recall HTML is filtered automatically, so entering raw is okay. What is the best practice to insert a URL into my text? Secondly, I can't seem to find a helper for a button (to add a few buttons to my plug-in settings page), should I create my own in a language string? I've not started with templates yet, only code hooks and plugin settings. Many thanks!

Please, pretty please, with donuts on, can you extend stock photos to include Unsplash for 4.5? Would be brilliant to have this choice built in on release rather than have to write a mod. I'm also using Unsplash more and more in particular for Pages content and within widgets. Many thanks 🙏🏻

Hi, Yes, the ad network will likely be using a CDN and that's fine, Securi is a different fish altogether, it's a security and audit service. If you have a server manager, sure it wouldn't do any harm, but I'd try and do a bit of testing first. Perhaps you could start by deactivating all of the ads and the ad platform first, clear your AdminCP Cache (run the support tool), clear Cloudflare's cache and see what happens to the performance and errors, in particular the malformed header tags. Use the free GTMetrix and run at least 3 quick checks, before and after or try and use Redbot. If the malformed headers disappear you know that's it's something to do with their ad platform, their configuration or their content. Those malformed headers are from the actual html webpage, not a file such as an image file, so something either on the server itself is setting or changing breaking them or perhaps you have a plugin or app or something in IPS's AdminCP you could rule out by deactivating it temporarily.

Hi, Just took a quick look using GTMetrix and Redbot and they show some invalid characters (commas) in your HTTP headers and duplicated headers properties which won't be helping. These are probably inadvertently blocking genuine urls loaded by your page. The ones coming from Cloudflare will be syntactically valid, but check your server configuration as that will generate them first, and perhaps check in the AdminCP in case you are using their headers feature can duplicate headers. Look defiant at Content Security Policy and X-Frame Options. HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:19:48 GMT Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8 Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d6ca9e2f11bb679d134153007b3e5a3321591463987; expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 17:19:47 GMT; path=/; domain=.breatheheavy.com; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax Cache-Control: max-age=600, public Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-requests;, upgrade-insecure- requests; Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol Expires: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:29:48 GMT Host-Header: e172abecbd394f56a1a2479517f27fbfe05ff815 Last-Modified: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT Pagespeed: off Pragma: public Response: 200 Set-Cookie: ips4_IPSSessionFront=0d58a60ca0463a7fda66fe44ded47a01; path=/; secure; HttpOnly Set-Cookie: ips4_guestTime=1591463988; path=/exhale/; secure; HttpOnly Set-Cookie: ezoadgid_177600=-1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezoref_177600=; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezoab_177600=mod15-c; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC Set-Cookie: active_template::177600=pub_site.1591463988; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:19:48 UTC Set-Cookie: lp_177600=https://www.breatheheavy.com/exhale/; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 19:19:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezovuuidtime_177600=1591463988; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:19:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezovuuid_177600=94ca7346-0f41-4483-659e-0e3155b01da5; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezopvc_177600=1; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:49:48 UTC Set-Cookie: ezCMPCCS=true; Path=/; Domain=breatheheavy.com; Expires=Sun, 06 Jun 2021 17:19:48 GMT Vary: Accept-Encoding Vary: cookie,Accept-Encoding,User-Agent,X-APP-JSON X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff X-Ezoic-Cdn: Miss X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN, sameorigin X-Ips-Cached-Response: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 17:17:33 GMT X-Ips-Loggedin: 0 X-Middleton-Display: pub_site_to_orig_sol X-Middleton-Response: 200 X-Sol: pub_site X-Sucuri-Cache: MISS X-Sucuri-Id: 11004 X-Xss-Protection: 1; mode=block, 0 CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC cf-request-id: 032c3e62f800009641d33cf200000001 Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report- uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct" Server: cloudflare CF-RAY: 59f3cce4cd9f9641-SJC The more custom headers and Vary properties you have, the less chance of requests being cached. Caching by user agent is definitely one to avoid performance wise, there are far too many variations with so many user agents out there.

Agreed, a typography appreciating man such as yourself may find appeal in the FA5 literature improvements, I don't really know much about them. Don't get me wrong, v4 was certainly great possibly even awesome in its day, but it's all relative and things obviously move on. No, I don't have actual bench tests to hand. I do recall members here saying they didn't like the v4 caveat in terms of having to load them all at once, other libraries were starting to adopt single icon support. The way the newer variations of SVG and JS are implemented in FA5 offer faster, compressible resources, when you go into the FA5 Dashboard, it tells you which methods are better than others. They're saying FA6 will be improved again, I've no reason to not believe them and that's from the people creating it. In terms of accessibility, FA5 can do more of the ARIA related work for you, less attributes and code in your html page. The performance and efficiency improvements of v4 to v5 were compared, documented and marketed all be it by FA at first upon release of 5, but also by third party websites, especially given the huge number of additional icons, up from I think it was 800 with FA to literally 1000's. All the extra great choice of icons and styles available to site owners and Pro License owners who want to make use of them, but of course the free icons available to all can still be used by IPS and theme designers. Somebody posted a link to their site recently regarding performance caching issues and it was a topic page a mortifying 10.5MB in size and loading all the javascript, CSS and icons in the FA4 doesn't help when you only need to display a handful of icons but your page is bloated with third party ads and trackers. I'm somewhat reminded in general of the old saying, "every bit helps, the old lady said, as she pissed into the sea". Tesco's used a slightly different version in their ads. Seriously, how time consuming would it really have been for IPS to stick with the original loading method of FA4 with the Unicode codes but use a few search and replace regex commands to update the CSS template? https://fontawesome.com/how-to-use/on-the-web/setup/upgrading-from-version-4#name-changes There are even third party scripts out there to save some time: https://stackoverflow.com/a/54179185

Yes, I think justification for upgrading outdated third party libraries extends far beyond just the oranges vs lemons design scenario of the icons, it's also about performance and efficiency as well. Bells aside (!), to take perhaps another analogy since the early 20th century the humble car has still had wheels, a motor, seats and lights but mankind didn't stick with the Ford Model T or the 4th era of vehicles because it was essentially the same thing. People upgraded their for cars for aesthetics, safety, security, performance, availability and efficiency when the designers and manufactures improved them. FA4 is slow and inefficient, not desirable qualities end users appreciate.

Thanks for that @Rikki The free version would indeed be fine but couldn't we just utilise our own Pro Licence credentials if we have them or opt to buy Pro later?

Thanks! 😝

Thanks @Rikki, yes I definitely agree about the shim quick fix, I removed it after trialing it, but it might be worth another look as the additional icon designs aside, the modern FA5 SVG files are very fast, efficient and the individual icons can load as needed by the page, without having to download the whole mother-lode of icons. Plus you could probably remove the whole separate Icomoon web font library as I bet those few icons it provides are now included within FA4 or FA5 these days. TBH I always kind of assumed you could do some careful automatic search and replace within your source. Actually that reminds me, I saw some Google warnings this week in Lighthouse about security vulnerabilities discovered in the jQuery version that IPS uses. That might need an update.