This forum, Ajax style

[jack.slocum]

It's still in development, but in a few hours worth of work I was able to create an Ajax front end for this forum.

Browsing and reading posts works. Ajax sign-in and sign-out works. All that's left is posting and (maybe) private messages.

It's pretty fast and I like the UI (a clone of my blog). Check it out and let me know what you think. Is it worth finishing?

http://www.jackslocum.com/forum2/

Jack

[Animal]

Definitely. It looks great. Anything that avoids full page updates by applying some Ajax techniques improves usability. It actually makes people more likely to use the application.

[jack.slocum]

I agree. I spend alot of time browsing these forums and waste alot of time waiting on full page refreshes.

[jbowman]

I actually started doing web application development by modding up phpBB :) I've played with it a lot, and one thing to consider with your new layout is this... how will people be able to bookmark a specific topic so they can return to it?

[jack.slocum]

That's a good question. History (back/next buttons) and bookmarking in a single page app is always a problem. I haven't really thought about it yet, but it is a great point. The YUI history component is a long way off and until it comes out maybe I will have to write one. :)

Jack

[jbowman]

if you figure that out, my entire site will be jack slocumified :lol: I'm building my site completely around phpBB3's beta right now, using it for all the user administration, forums, and private messaging backend.

I figure they won't hit final til 01/07 at the earliest, so building my new profile and blogging systems around it should be fine, since I have plenty of time. :)

[vjani]

Awesome job, Jack!! I would definitely go for Ajax forums rather than the current ones.. Do complete it..:)

Vivek Jani

[jack.slocum]

Thanks. As soon as I get done with this series of articles on the new release I plan on getting back to work on it.

[mohaqa]

That's a great work. First time I see a fully ajaxed forum.
I'm also working on an Ajax application which it's UI resembles to yours but I have problems in adjusting each part's height to the exact amount I want. For instance when I set the height of a sidebar in left to 100% percent then a scroll will appear in IE despite using overflow:hidden in css for body tag.
How I can solve it and how I can make a clear UI with yahoo yui?

[jack.slocum]

Mohaqa,

In strict mode IE displays an empty scrollbar always for me and overflow:hidden on the body does nothing.

Due to the brilliant W3C box model (sarcasm), width 100% and height 100% are just about worthless unless you nest all your elements and make sure the width/height:100% element has no borders or padding.

Jack

[mohaqa]

I could not find a copyright statement on your website. Can I use some sections of ajaxed forum's style in my work?

[mohaqa]

Sorry, I'm asking so much.
In forum2's style you set formbody's width to 60%. I think you adjust it's width after loading the page. am I right?

[jack.slocum]

Yes, I use script to adjust the width and position everything. This allows me to put in the splitters and the Element object gives me auto box-model adjustments so it looks the same on different browsers.

[allaboutyui]

Um.. Wow!

This is amazing.

Ive been following your blog for a while but didnt know you had a forum.

I really hope you finish the ajax forum !

[jbowman]

out of curiosity, is the new system mainly done on the backend by modifying templates? I'm looking at it, and seeing how pretty much most of that can be done without getting too deep into the phpbb code? Was that the case or am I missing something?

I might be looking at doing something similar for phpBB3 beta2 in a few weeks, once I wrap up some other portions of my code. I'm trying to avoid messing with the internals of the system, since it's in beta, but creating new templates is easily enough done and ported.

[jack.slocum]

I didn't use any of the templates. I have a new index.php and then a bunch of new *.php that kick out xml. So to drop it in you would replace index.php with the new one and copy over the new XML files.

[jbowman]

hmm I was thinking about creating a new index.php in my webroot, that would use updatemanager to call the phpBB php files, which would be running on a modified template that spit out xml. The purpose being to keep the phpBB as intact as possible, while using it, so updates would be a breeze. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to start making a stab at that.

[HAKI]

Amazing :)))

Do you accept a public download in the future ?

I wanna this forum script really good work

[Captain Xarzu -- Alpha Centauri Galatic Federation Post Rep]

It's still in development, but in a few hours worth of work I was able to create an Ajax front end for this forum.

Browsing and reading posts works. Ajax sign-in and sign-out works. All that's left is posting and (maybe) private messages.

It's pretty fast and I like the UI (a clone of my blog). Check it out and let me know what you think. Is it worth finishing?

http://www.jackslocum.com/forum2/

Jack
I think this is very impressive. Is the movable split-screen-like frame border an AJAX element or feature?

[Animal]

Errm, do you know where you are?

[cumpa]

I would like to try new forum, but my profile doesn't work with that version. Why?

Thx.
Cumpa

[Animal]

It was an experimental forum setup, it was not finished. It's not intended for use.

[cumpa]

Ajax sign-in and sign-out works.

I thought we could try it.

Thx.
Cumpa

[jon.whitcraft]

That was for the old forum on the yui-ext.com site. This is no longer valid. Closing the thread...