Wedge

Public area => The Pub => Plugins => Topic started by: ahrasis on December 13th, 2012, 11:11 PM

Title: Message Index Sorting
Post by: ahrasis on December 13th, 2012, 11:11 PM
I am not sure whether this is a right place to ask.

Currently the sorting of Message Index is based on its menu on top.

1. Subject / Started by is sorted by Ascending / Descending A-Z / Z-A
2. Replies / Views is sorted by numbers.
3. Last Post by dates.

I was thinking, if this ordinary can be changed via plugin.

A separate sorting (advanced) menu is created.

A more realistic choice added on top of current ascending and descending choice like  A B C... X Y Z for the first item. Because I may want to find started by user with starting of C or topic starts with S.

More ways of sorting can be added like sort by highly rated or lowly rated, locked or unlocked or hidden or solved, new or read, friends or ignored or warned or monitored poster inside, first post by dates etc...

Just a thought... :)
Title: Re: Message Index Sorting
Post by: Arantor on December 13th, 2012, 11:22 PM
Yes, it could be done by a plugin. It probably wouldn't be a very nice plugin, it certainly wouldn't be very efficient to do (mostly because it's not possible to do it *that* efficiently)

Though, I'd argue that finding topics by starting letter is not something most people need to do that often, and when they do, they can switch to sorting by letter and paging through. In 6 1/2 years of running forums, I've only had to worry about sorting by alphabetic the grand total of twice, and one of those was involved in testing the changes I added to Wedge for being able to set what the default ordering of a board is and whether the user actually has the choice (you can set a board to default to, say, first post rather than last post, and you can force it so the user can't change it, but it doesn't add any new choices, only the ones actually present in SMF and Wedge already, whether there is an interface for it or not...)
Posted: December 13th, 2012, 11:19 PM

Oh, there isn't an interface for this just yet, but the ability to set the ordering on a board has been around without an interface for months. Just a quick DB edit away, for now.
Title: Re: Message Index Sorting + New Look
Post by: ahrasis on December 19th, 2012, 05:40 AM
Message Index Sorting
I do know much about coding. So if you say that it is not efficient, it may not be efficient.

What I am trying to say is basically, the sorting could be improved somewhere somehow. Forum is basically another social platform. If I am following a friend, I can simply go to his profile and check his post. That is one way of doing it. But how about if I have lot of friends. I couldn't be following them all via their profiles. That would be nuts. If there is a menu for message index, I could simply search my freinds' latest posts and read them. If I have ignored users on my list, I might want to see whether they have changed and I would want to remove them from that list. Like I said, if they are very few, I can follow them via their profile. But this is for many.

I might also want to see a highly/lowly rated/liked topic, (like seems one of the feature here). And the list goes on as what I have listed for reasons that this could likely be a plugin that certain admins and users might want to use. You can definitly start with the most important want in your opinion or you may want to make a poll for a more definite answer.

New Look
The look can easily be changed and I can see that wedge has made it a little bit different from SMF. The legend box have been removed and the arrangement is made different.

1. Avatar could be add in here as plugin as well.
2. The look / arrangement can be made better by inserting few last post down the topic instead of beside it.

I can imagine it but not yet translated into any picture yet. But I may provide it here later.
Title: Re: Message Index Sorting
Post by: Arantor on December 19th, 2012, 06:02 AM
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I do know much about coding. So if you say that it is not efficient, it may not be efficient.
There's no 'may not be' about it. Sorting by letters in a database is slower than sorting by numbers, especially when in most cases the table is already in the right order.
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If I am following a friend, I can simply go to his profile and check his post.
You can do that in SMF already.
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If there is a menu for message index, I could simply search my freinds' latest posts and read them
What you're talking about isn't a *sort*, it's a *filter*. And one that's even slower in the real world because there is no way to optimise it.

You see, when you're dealing with data, you build indexes, which tell you quickly where things are. When you pull everything or nearly everything, you don't need the index, you do what's called a table scan, and just get everything - it's fast. When you're being very selective, you can use the index, and it's still fast. But when you're doing what you're asking, you can't use the index, you have to go through every row, which is by comparison very slow. And it's not possible to avoid that.
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I might also want to see a highly/lowly rated/liked topic, (like seems one of the feature here).
Like is a feature. But there's no ability to see highly liked topics, mostly because it's stored at the *post* level, not the topic level. Finding very popular individual posts is relatively easy and quite cheap because of how likes are stored (outside the posts)
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The look can easily be changed and I can see that wedge has made it a little bit different from SMF. The legend box have been removed and the arrangement is made different.
We like the arrangement as it is here.
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1. Avatar could be add in here as plugin as well.
Um... the only reason avatar is not shown is because neither you nor I have set one. No plugin is necessary.
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2. The look / arrangement can be made better by inserting few last post down the topic instead of beside it.
What does that mean?
Title: Re: Message Index Sorting + New Look
Post by: ahrasis on December 19th, 2012, 06:57 AM
Not avatar in display page Arantor, in message index.

And I can safely take it as a no, this is definitely not a plugin you want to make. And I am fine with that. But I really think it is a good plugin though it may not be eficient from various point view which you have already pointed out.

Yes. It may be "filter" that I am trying to say and not "sorting", but whatever you call it, you already admitted that there is no point sorting the topic or author alphabetically. It is there for some or no reason.

Well, as for the look of new message index, I can try to implement that myself via a theme later.

No offence Arantor but you sound a bit sarcastic IMO. No hard feeling Arantor. Keep up the good work. ;)
Title: Re: Message Index Sorting
Post by: Arantor on December 19th, 2012, 04:45 PM
It's not about whether it's a plugin I 'want' to make. It's about whether it's useful.

Avatar on message index... I'm not convinced that's a huge improvement, seeing that XenForo does it. The extra load attached is not trivial to consider.
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Yes. It may be "filter" that I am trying to say and not "sorting", but whatever you call it, you already admitted that there is no point sorting the topic or author alphabetically. It is there for some or no reason.
Sorting by subject has a use for some people, even if it is inefficient. Filtering by subject, I'm not convinced has a use, but if someone wants to make it as a plugin, it can be done, of course.