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The mystery of Aqua-Soft's elusive resources section...

Carvetia

By Carvetia
in Comments & Suggestions

  

30 members have voted

  1. 1.

    • Interesting idea, keep working on it.
      28
    • I really don't care.
      1
    • It's crap, give up now before you embarrass yourself.
      1

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Carvetia

Carvetia

Posted
Posted

As long as i can remember... there's been a little link in the menu at the top of Aqua-Soft's front page to a non-existence resources section. Anyone who has ever clicked on it will know of it's misleading nature... back towards the front page.

Anyhow, enough of all that... i have a proposition that may eventually lead to that void being filled... so here we go...

Here are a few images with my ideas for the resources section...

Firstly, the submission process:

Click for image (P.S. a very big image at that, so please wait)

For the most part, it speaks for itself, though i'd like to highlight the last two panels of it, which, with some nifty php-ing (can it be a verb?) should be able to integrate this feature into the forums. Please read the text on these last two to get an idea of what the feature would do. A feature which might make things a whole lot easier for mods.... Anyhow, still work in progress as i change the features of it.

And as for the browser...

Click for image (not so big)

Again, fairly self explanatory...

So... no doubt you're thinking, "well this is all very lovely, but making all the images isn't the hard part, the trick is in making it actually work!"

Well no problem. So far anyway... i'm still working on it, tuning the submission process (image uploader, resizer and mover is proving tedious) but, having only spent a short while on it i do have some form of browser complete with sturdy MySQL database.

The theme i'm using on it is somewhat arbitary... and i'm still working on different browsing methods... but just to prove it's not all hot air here are two examples....

EDIT: Newer aqua-ier version: HERE

Columns Method (P.S. Internet Explorer makes it look even worse... I suggest Firefox till i sort it all out...)

Thumbnail + Info Method

If you do decide to try it out, the only category currently with any test items in is the Windowblinds one, so don't be surprised if the rest are blank.

Feedback people, feedback!

P.S. Before i waste any more time is anyone actually interested in a resources section? I've skipped on the "market research" here... Even if anyone isn't... it's been good for "personal gain"...

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Timan

Timan

Posted
Posted

CDi, I approve your suggestion and idea of doing something like that.

Basically this is what that section was planned for.

- Tutorials (how-to aquafy your desktop)

- Links (useful links to downloads, tutorials, other customizing stuff)

- Downloads (was an option, but we can not host any files at aqua-soft so that was a concern)

I love your idea, problem is, is it something that is possible? I also am not a big fan of adding mods to the forum, so it has to be something that can integrate into the site without the need of modding anything.

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Carvetia

Carvetia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hmm... fair points, i'll start by addressing your three points first

- Tutorials... Could just be another Category

- Links... Not what i had interpreted as "Resources" but that could perhaps be a different page entirely

- Downloads.... Yes i beared in mind that you wouldn't want to host those, so in the submission process i allowed the user to specify a link to where the file is hosted... (e.g. devArt) and hence the "size" box, because it would not be able to detect the size of the file if it is not hosted by aqua-soft but from an external source.

And the mod issue... well it could be done without mods but there's always the risk of illegitimate material...maybe use a report function instead so that users can patrol it themselves so to speak...

But anyway, if it doesn't get put to use i'm not bothered, it's been handy as a personal project in refining MySQL skills more than anything, i just neede a theme around which to work.

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Timan

Timan

Posted
Posted

Well, this is something I can see possible

(posting wise)

- Select Category

- Put in File Information

- Description + Thumb/SS

- Verify

- Submit file + (bbcode / template for someone to make a new thread on, it would not post one, but give them the bit to post one themselves).

Files would must be verified by a staffer / (sep user / pass, nothing to do with forum)

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Carvetia

Carvetia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well i wrote the following fields in one of the database tables for the items (for now):

-id

-name

-category

-author

-size

-date

-version

-rating

-downloads

-description

-preview Image (just working on script to get this from the full one)

-full image

-validated

Once everything is written to the db then it's fairly easy to work with...

Though unfortunately I have little experience with the forum system so the whole "Auto-Post" idea is more of a concept than a working example... but if it is able to import that data into the fields, for the user to then submit that is perfect.

And i was wondering what the possibilities of the first page of the submission system accessing the user database of the forums for the sign in... or would security/password encryptions hinder this...

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Carvetia

Carvetia

Posted
  • Author
Posted
@ Timan - Magnolium might give you a Needlemen/d7hosting account...

I have one of those, so there's no issue there, i'm already sharing portions of it via ftp out to people and i'm happy to share it to more, but with the files we are dealing with, it is probably better to keep them off server for the sake of straining it, especially as it's not dedicated hosting, and those aco****s are a courtesy, and hence removed at his wish.

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