Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Francisco Gomez — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 18:32:22 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]

Means I've stepped into my special room at home, where there's a pole installed in the middle...

[/quote]

I knew it was something like that!

[quote]

(seriously ... it just means I'm in the management section doing admin)

[/quote]

yeah.. wha'eva

[quote]

the big vetsurgeon.org upgrade will be coming very shortly afterwards.

[/quote]

brilliant ! :-D

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 18:25:59 GMT

[quote user="Francisco Gomez"]

By the way, anyone wonders what does it mean when you look in the 'Who's online?' section and find this?

[/quote]

Means I've stepped into my special room at home, where there's a pole installed in the middle...

(seriously ... it just means I'm in the management section doing admin)

By the way, we've just upgraded vetnurse.co.uk with a massively upgraded job section, and addressed a couple of other issues that came up in discussion here. Just ironing out a couple of glitches and testing, and the big vetsurgeon.org upgrade will be coming very shortly afterwards.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Francisco Gomez — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 17:42:43 GMT

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]

I wonder if we could sticky something like this in a new forum? not just ringworm, but other frequently asked clinical questions. I think it would be a great addition to the site! (For informational use only disclaimers, of course!)

[/quote]

I think that's a great idea, so I'm sticking your post here in my list of requests for Arlo's new future improvements.

By the way, anyone wonders what does it mean when you look in the 'Who's online?' section and find this?

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

John Flynn — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 19:52:33 GMT

I've had problems uploading photos on occasions where I click on the icon and just nothing happens. Definitely with Chrome, but possibly others as well as I have switched browser a few times in last couple of years.

I often think that a good feature would be the ability to "nest" a discussion within another.

So, for instance, someone asks a question to discuss a case, something else interesting to discuss comes up, rather than having to either hijack the existing thread or go and start a new one totally from scratch, being able to start a "nested" thread which is collapsable and doesn't get in the way of the original one or something?

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 11:31:33 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]Sadly it looks as if I will not be on the list. It all works fine for me![/quote]

Yes you will! I'll want to make sure the new one also works fine for you.

It would be helpful to have a bit more detail from those who have had problems uploading images. I'd like to know exactly what the problem is. On a computer, it should just be as simple as clicking the filmstrip icon, choosing the file from your computer and pressing upload. However, the file upload button is not displayed when viewing the forum on an iPad and perhaps this is what you're talking about ...

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Bob Russell — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 11:26:19 GMT

Sadly it looks as if I will not be on the list. It all works fine for me! Red stars move me to tears of course!

More smilies - sarcastic, a less devilish mischievous one, absolutely knackered, I don't understand a word of what you have said for some of Mr Wray's posts. losing the will to live (perhaps directly linked to the vet helpline)!

I am sure I will think up a few more!

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:34:01 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]The massive irony is this is one of the easiest forums to use on my Blackberry.......[/quote]

In that case, I'm going to come to your place in the dead of night, in a balaclava, and blow up all your other devices

This thread has prompted me to have a discussion with developers this morning.

Our plan now is to take this list of tweaks (and a few others), see which are issues on the new platform we have in development and make sure we have addressed them before we upgrade.

Then we'll invite a few of you to come and test it and check you are happy with it. Michael, you'll be top of my list of invitees.

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]If you change things that don't need changing and I mean colours of boxes, position of boxes, names of things which are obvious etc. I, and I hope many others, 'cos I'll recruit some of my heavy friends, will come to your house at night and break things.....[/quote]

As will you, Anthony

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:21:41 GMT

The massive irony is this is one of the easiest forums to use on my Blackberry.......

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 08:35:14 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]The reason I stick about is the people and discussion not the platform![/quote]

Michael, I'm genuinely sorry that you don't like the platform. Really. I'd much rather you did. It's not any fun for me reading your posts on the subject

You often compare our platform with forum software, which I can understand because you mainly use this section of the site, but which ignores the fact that our platform does many other things besides, such as the job advertising section and the events diary and the galleries. PhpBB and Vbulletin are just forum platforms.

That said, I agree with you that everything you've highlighted would be good.

As I've said many times, last unread post is something I've been pushing for. I shall push for it again today and see if there is any news.

Links always used to be automatic for me in IE - just add a space after the link and it converted to an active link. I've just looked on phpBB and I see it handles links in some other way. I agree it's better, and would be an improvement on the current system which requires that people add the link using the chain link icon. I'll discuss this with the developer.

Smilie codes - I've checked again and there is something going on there which I need to investigate further. In fact, I did have some of those standard ones configured already, but I see it requires them to be put in [] to work. That shouldn't be the case. That said, I've never found it that difficult to select a smilie from the drop down list, so this hasn't ranked that highly on my to do list.

Advanced search. That I do know is on the new system, and very impressive, because I have tried it myself. Might ask you to check it out for me before we upgrade.

[quote user="Mark Holmes"]I like vs better than the majority of other forums (fora?) but the slight ios incompatibility is frustrating.[/quote]

I agree about the iOS compatibility being frustrating. It is high on my list of priorities. Problem was that iPads weren't around when I started VS, and the fix we implemented to make the forums work on an iPad is not the ideal workaround, but the best we could do at the time. I might see if there is a better fix available now.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Mark Holmes — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 06:52:29 GMT

I like vs better than the majority of other forums (fora?) but the slight ios incompatibility is frustrating.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:10:01 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]hat's not quite right, Michael. We use a state-of-the-art platform which is also used by companies like Dell and Microsoft. So it's not something I've knocked up in my garden shed, nor is it a 'poor man's version' of something else. The company that makes this platform is a global leader in the field.[/quote]

It maybe is, but I was jumping to the first unread post on Vbulitin/IP/ based forums long before vetsurgeon.org was born. You can even do it on the free open source phpBB.

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]links manually? That's browser-dependent. [/quote]

I use FF mainly and it's never worked. I tried today with both IE and Chrome and no good. Just comes up as a dead link. Every other forum this works just fine.

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]Standard smilie codes[/quote]

:) ;) :D :( would be a bloody good start. Universally recognised.

An advanced search that allows searching for posts, author, date range etc.

It's not something unique and not in existence, I have 5 different forums open on my computer at this moment as the others all can do all these things on different platforms. In all browsers.

The reason I stick about is the people and discussion not the platform!

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Linda Filshie — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 09:24:42 GMT

I found it exceptionally difficult to upload pics on Firefox and on iPad - a vetsurgeon ipad app would be super! (Or at least the ability to write posts with paragraph/line breaks without having to enter the manual line break code).

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Anthony Dennison — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 08:54:01 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]Pictures frustrating to upload. Not sure what you are finding frustrating. I upload pictures like anyone else, and I've never had any issue with that.[/quote]

I've had this problem, but only with Internet Explorer. Works fine on Chrome.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:51:11 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]Arlo says he is making a unique forum, but there are so many already existing forum platforms available that can do everything this site can and more.[/quote]

That's not quite right, Michael. We use a state-of-the-art platform which is also used by companies like Dell and Microsoft. So it's not something I've knocked up in my garden shed, nor is it a 'poor man's version' of something else. The company that makes this platform is a global leader in the field.

Sure, nothing is perfect. Even a Rolls Royce can benefit from improvement. I agree with you that 'last unread post' would make life a lot easier, and I have asked the company to add it (or we will have to consider doing it ourselves). The search function is considerably enhanced in the more recent version of the platform, which we haven't yet upgraded to yet (road-testing it on another community to iron out glitches).

Looking at your specific comments:

'go to first unread' - I agree. I want to add this. I can't give you a timeframe.
Standard smilie codes. That's just how I configured things, not a fault of the platform. If you want me to change the setup, post a list of the smilie codes you want.
Single newsfeed spitting out forum posts and news? I'm not sure exactly what you mean. What, you want a single RSS feed? I didn't think very many people use RSS. And given the volume of posts, I'm not sure it would be helpful to bury the news in amongst them. But maybe I misunderstand you.
links manually? That's browser-dependent.
Pictures frustrating to upload. Not sure what you are finding frustrating. I upload pictures like anyone else, and I've never had any issue with that.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 15:08:06 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

[quote user="emma_j"]

Will there also be a 'last unread post' option for when opening up threads? At the moment I can either go to the start of the thread or the last post, but if I haven't caught up for a few days I have to scroll through to find where I left off - most forums will have a 'last unread post' option that takes me straight there.

[/quote]

My perpetual problem with this forum. Arlo says he is making a unique forum, but there are so many already existing forum platforms available that can do everything this site can and more. It really annoys me, but apparently no one else minds.

[/quote]

It's a minor irritation for me.

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]It just strikes me as a massive waste of time making a poor man's version where other perfectly working versions already exist.[/quote]

Wow . I have tried many fora, vitnery, dental, Mac and ballistic, and I only really like vetsurgeon.org and Mac4mac.

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]no 'go to first unread',[/quote] that's a good point [quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]the standard smilie codes don't work[/quote] it's the work of a millisecond to get one in from the menu [quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]you have to go looking for everything when a single newsfeed with forum posts and news would be ideal[/quote] I can't see the problem [quote user="Michael Woodhouse"] links need to be manually set up each time[/quote] not a big problem, in fact I rather like it this way [quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]pictures frustrating to upload[/quote]I don't find that at all - big (in Mb) pictures take a little time to get through, but that's not surprising. On some fora you have to mess about doing stuff like joining Flickr (whatever that is) and all sorts just to post a picture.

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:53:22 GMT

[quote user="emma_j"]

[/quote]

It just strikes me as a massive waste of time making a poor man's version where other perfectly working versions already exist.

[no 'go to first unread', the standard smilie codes don't work :(, you have to go looking for everything when a single newsfeed with forum posts and news would be ideal, links need to be manually set up each time, pictures frustrating to upload etc etc]

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

emma_j — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 11:44:56 GMT

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Anthony Todd — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 16:54:07 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]That's coming in the next version of VetSurgeon![/quote]

Arlo, I give you fair warning.

If you change things that don't need changing and I mean colours of boxes, position of boxes, names of things which are obvious etc. I, and I hope many others, 'cos I'll recruit some of my heavy friends, will come to your house at night and break things.....

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Rebecca MacMillan — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 16:46:22 GMT

[quote user="Virginia Campbell"]

Arlo, can you make it so that a whole thread turns up as one search answer rather than every individual post on that thread?

[/quote]

I second that!

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Virginia Campbell — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:35:45 GMT

Arlo, can you make it so that a whole thread turns up as one search answer rather than every individual post on that thread?

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Francisco Gomez — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:47:52 GMT

Fantastic, Thank you!

Re: Search tool in Vetsurgeon

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 11:35:34 GMT

Hi Francisco

That's coming in the next version of VetSurgeon!