Adding a topbar. (So can we do this or not Pirate Kitty / Morrus)??

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 03:42 AM

I have prepared a topbar specifically for the messageboards similar to the one in use on the Dusk Site but tailored to the messageboard. A test of it is here:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hoste...d/titlebar.php

The file uses JAVA script, but then again so does the UUB boards themselves, so none of the browsers on this site should have any problem with it.

The generating files are all in

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hoste...messageboards/

They are

menuheaderscript.php
menubody.php
mm_menu.js
arrows.gif
titlebar.gif

Installation
Installing the menubars, is self contained. If updates are needed later I can do this for you by changing the menuheaderscript.php file (I do not have to tamper with the main index file).

Place all the files above in the same directory as the forumn's index.php file. Then add these two lines of PHP code.

Somewhere in the header of the file

PHP Code:

   include("menuheaderscript.php");

Immediately after the body tag...

PHP Code:

   include("menubody.php");

The whole thing is only 20 pixels high, and I think it will be very useful. Though I suspect that it is possible to create an alternate index file on the boards to test this, I didn't want to try since its not my place to tamper with the boards.

Anyway Russ, Piratecat, I'd really like this to see use. What do you say?

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 03:54 AM

Just checked the spacing... The table code will be necessary. This is approximately what it will look like with the code.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hoste...ard/sample.gif

I've been doing multiple edits to this post to get the appearance right. Seems the UUB translator tries to process html commands - I thought that was turned off, but oh well.

Psionicist · 3rd March 2003, 05:17 AM

Excellent work.

For the admins: If the above installation doesn't work. try

<?php include("menuheaderscript.php"); ?>

and

<?php include("menubody.php"); ?>

Edit: Damn board formatting.

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 05:33 AM

Darn it, I tried 6 times to get the boards to stop processing the PHP code with the tags... How did you do that?

Psionicist · 3rd March 2003, 05:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael_Morris
Darn it, I tried 6 times to get the boards to stop processing the PHP code with the tags... How did you do that?

Quote my post, it's standard "HTML special characters codes" ( & g t ; without the spaces for example)

Horacio · 3rd March 2003, 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael_Morris
Darn it, I tried 6 times to get the boards to stop processing the PHP code with the tags... How did you do that?

Code:

He used "& lt" (without the space) 
instead of "<" and "& gt" (also w/o space) 
instead of ">"

And I like a lot the menu bar

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 05:47 AM

Ok, that's useful to know...

Actually, I should have thought of that.. Oh well - I'm too dependent on Macromedia Dreamweaver to encode special characters for me :P

Terraism · 3rd March 2003, 05:47 AM

Darkness made a good point, in that it could be a resource eater, but I doubt it. Either way, if it works, I'm voting for it.

Psionicist · 3rd March 2003, 05:55 AM

Terraism: Shouldn't be a problem as it's at least 90% JavaScript, which runs locally and not server-side.

**Darkness** · 3rd March 2003, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Terraism
Darkness made a good point, in that it could be a resource eater, but I doubt it. Either way, if it works, I'm voting for it.

Here's Michael Morris' response to my query, BTW:

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael_Morris
This is how much memory the two included files need...

menubody.php 1687 bytes
menuheaderscript.php 20,474 bytes

Total 22,161 bytes (21 K). This can't be cached, so it has to reload with *every* page. This comes out to just over 7 seconds / page @ 28.8 kbaud (the lowest end of modems still commonly in use).

Your browser can cache the other two involved files.

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 06:03 AM

Terra's right, it's JAVA script so it isn't going to suck up your processor's power - download time could be a problem, but even in the cast of 28.8 it's not that bad.

The server's only contribution is the upload time. And I would point out that more than a few folks have 'sigs well in excess of 21 K, so I don't *think* this addition is that much of a problem.

Dragongirl · 3rd March 2003, 06:15 AM

It's and interesting idea, but with the boards already slowed down by all the 3.5 news gawkers (and I mean that in a nice way) I would rather not see something that slows it down more, even if only a few seconds a page. Can you make it optional?

**Darkness** · 3rd March 2003, 06:19 AM

Michael Morris has since checked it again and found that the extra time is only 1/8 of the original estimate, BTW.
So it's not a biggie.

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Darkness
Michael Morris has since checked it again and found that the extra time is only 1/8 of the original estimate, BTW.
So it's not a biggie.

I spoke too soon. My initial pessimistic outlook was correct.

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dragongirl
It's and interesting idea, but with the boards already slowed down by all the 3.5 news gawkers (and I mean that in a nice way) I would rather not see something that slows it down more, even if only a few seconds a page. Can you make it optional?

Making it optional would require altering the messageboard code in a major fashion. That said, it *theoretically can be done (It's a question of omitting 2 include calls).

**Darkness** · 3rd March 2003, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Michael_Morris
I spoke too soon. My initial pessimistic outlook was correct.

Damn - that sucks.

Michael Morris · 3rd March 2003, 06:36 AM

BTW, if you want to get a firm idea on how this would affect downloads, visit the Dusk pages (empty your cache first if you've been there before). The code used on those pages is virtually identical to what I'm suggesting.