SL Developer Info : Weblog, Template Group, File Upload, and $PREFS Object information, with MSM support : Version 1.4.6

Hello all,

Quicker than anticipated (for once), version 1.1.0 is available for your downloading pleasure.

I’ve updated the opening message of this thread with details of the new version; suffice to say it’s worth upgrading.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their suggestions, they’ve resulted in a much improved module.

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers, Stephen

Wow…that is really, really nice now. Thanks SO much.

It was fantastic before and now it is simply perfect 😉

Thanks for such a great add-on.

Best wishes,

Mark

Very nice. Works like a charm! This is going to speed up my development. So thanks a bunch.

Excellent, I love it 😊 I seem to have discovered one small bug, though. The Weblogs > Categories links takes me to a URL like that:

http://example.com/system/index.php?S=0&C=admin&M=blog_admin&P=category_editor&group_id=3|1|2

which doesn’t work, because it should be:

http://example.com/system/index.php?S=0&C=admin&M=blog_admin&P=category_editor&group_id=3

Also, if you haven’t assigned categories, there is no link (which makes perfect sense), if you haven’t assigned a status group it tells you “No statuses”, but there is a link, which returns:

Notice: Undefined index: group_name in ..../system/cp/cp.publish_ad.php on line 6330

If I have no field group assigned to a weblog (it happens, I only needed the title and entry date) I simply get “There are Fields in this Weblog”. (The same is true for an empty status group, containing no fields.) I do realize these are all edge cases 😊

That said, let me thank you again for an excellent module. It blows all the other attempts in this field (developer template, plugins) out of the water.

Curses, I guess it wasn’t quite perfect after all Mark! 😉

If I have no field group assigned to a weblog (it happens, I only needed the title and entry date) I simply get “There are Fields in this Weblog”. (The same is true for an empty status group, containing no fields.) I do realize these are all edge cases.

Good catch on the “edge cases” Ingmar. The “There are Fields in this Weblog” was actually a mistake in the language file (I missed out “no”).

Version 1.1.1 (available from all good retailers) should sort out all of these issues, but if you encounter any problems just let me know.

That said, let me thank you again for an excellent module. It blows all the other attempts in this field (developer template, plugins) out of the water.

Thanks Ingmar, glad you like it.

Cheers, Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Very nice add-on indeed.

I have three comments/suggestions.

1) It would be great if the panels displaying template and weblog info were collapsible. That is, it would be nice if in the page “Template groups” at first only the list of template groups were displayed and all the info - only after clicking on certain template group name. In the page “weblogs” each weblog could have two collapsible panels: one for its category groups and another one - for its custom fields. I think that collapsible panels are essential for this module since in cases category groups or custom field groups are large you get a very long unusable page.

2) It would be better if order of categories and order of custom fields were the same as in Admin tab. Now in some cases order is different.

3) It would be great if nesting of categories were displayed. Now it is impossible to recognize that some categories are parents of some other categories.

Thanks again for this excellent add-on!

I selfishly request adding global variables. Now I bow my head in reverence and quietly walk out backwards. :red:

@Laisvunas

It would be great if the panels displaying template and weblog info were collapsible. That is, it would be nice if in the page “Template groups” at first only the list of template groups were displayed and all the info - only after clicking on certain template group name. In the page “weblogs” each weblog could have two collapsible panels: one for its category groups and another one - for its custom fields.

I debated about this early on, and decided against it. The decision was partly in order to get the first version out the door, but also because I wasn’t convinced it was a good idea — collapsible panels mean an extra click to get at the information, which seems unnecessary.

I’d be interested to hear what other people think about this, and what you feel the root problem is. Is it that you feel the page can’t be easily scanned, in which case could the issue be fixed by placing more space between the blocks of information (for example)?

It would be better if order of categories and order of custom fields were the same as in Admin tab. Now in some cases order is different.

I’ll check that out, must be an oversight in the SQL queries.

It would be great if nesting of categories were displayed. Now it is impossible to recognize that some categories are parents of some other categories.

Good point… I’ll add that to the to-do list.

@smartpill

I selfishly request adding global variables. Now I bow my head in reverence and quietly walk out backwards.

Some people are never satisfied 😉 Good idea, I’ll look into it…

Cheers, Stephen

[…] I wasn’t convinced it was a good idea — collapsible panels mean an extra click to get at the information, which seems unnecessary.

Of course, collapsible could mean an extra click, but only in case all the panels are initially displayed collapsed. If there were selectbox with two options - “Expand all” (default) and “Collapse all” and if onchange the option chosen were saved in a cookie, then the panels would be collapsed or expanded exactly when you like them to be in such state.

I’d be interested to hear what other people think about this, and what you feel the root problem is. Is it that you feel the page can’t be easily scanned, in which case could the issue be fixed by placing more space between the blocks of information (for example)?

The problem is that the page can’t be easily scanned, but it hardly can be fixed by placing more space between the blocks of information. In case blocks of information have many items, say 50-80 custom fields or 50-80 categories and such big custom field groups or category groups are assigned to several weblogs you get extremely long page which should be scrolled a lot in order to find needed block. Usability of such page is, of course, poor.

@Laisvunas

The problem is that the page can’t be easily scanned, but it hardly can be fixed by placing more space between the blocks of information. In case blocks of information have many items, say 50-80 custom fields or 50-80 categories and such big custom field groups or category groups are assigned to several weblogs you get extremely long page which should be scrolled a lot in order to find needed block. Usability of such page is, of course, poor.

I understand that it could be a pain to use in such a situation, I’m just not sure how common such a situation is. I’ve built some pretty hefty sites in EE, and I can’t save I’ve ever used that many custom fields in a weblog, or that many categories, from what I can recall.

Essentially I don’t want to make this work better 1% of the time, and worse 99% of the time.

Your “Expand / Collapse All” suggestion could be solution to this. Attached is another possibility, which makes it easy to find the item you want if you’re dealing with a massive amount of information, and can be safely ignored if you’re not.

Feedback (from everyone) is welcomed.

Cheers, Stephen

Attached is another possibility, which makes it easy to find the item you want if you’re dealing with a massive amount of information, and can be safely ignored if you’re not.

Although I would prefer to have possibility to expand/collapse the panels, a selectbox which would allow to jump to needed item is very good solution indeed.

Hello all,

Version 1.2.0 of SL Developer Info is now available for download.

Here are the updates: * Fixed ordering of categories and custom field. * Implemented category nesting, to accurately display category parent-child relationships. * Added “Global Variables” section. * Implemented “jump to” navigation on Templates and Weblogs pages, to facilitate easier in-page navigation.

As ever, feedback is welcomed.

Cheers, Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Thanks so much for this module and upgrade!

I have only one comment/suggestion.

Using “jump to” navigation on Templates and Weblogs pages the page is reloaded when you jump to needed item. This does not seem right for two reasons: 1) all needed info is already loaded, 2) the page which is reloaded might be quite big, e.g. my Weblogs page is 800KB.

Why not use another method for displaying needed item? For example, each panel (class=’tableHeading’) on Templates and Weblogs can have an id parameter assigned and selectbox (id=”sl-devinfo-jump-to”) can onchange find element having that id and fire scrollIntoView() method of that element.