New Site Worklist: Needs, Questions, Ideas

[Driven2]

Just fyi Driven2 - you may see some other users navigating the site as I gave our mods the okay to start checking out the new site.

Okay, just be aware that any posts/threads created on this test site will be wiped out once the live forum content is merged back in.

 

[Driven2]

Driven2 I spent some time talking to the guys and adjusting the new header CSS and we have them where we want them (including a 'BGO Dark Version'. I think we are 100% good on the 'Home' page with one last request for it. The 'Feature' image at the top is too large for our liking. We'd like it about 75% the size of the current image field in both the 'BGO Classic' and 'BGO Dark' styles. Can you adjust those settings and then the Home page will be complete and you can move on to the remaining items.

Okay, done.

For future reference it's in Setup -> Option then scroll down to the bottom of the list and you'll see the Xenporta options. The very last item in the Xenporta options are the maximum feature slider dimensions. This sets the dimensions it will scale down to when telling it which image to use.

In addition, you then have to tell it the display size:
Appearance -> Styles & templates -> Style Properties -> [8WR] XenPorta 2 (Portal) PRO > Feature Slider

 

[Boone]

Sorry, I generally don't check in on work during the weekends, unless I get an emergency email or text (server down, etc). Taking a look at the items now.

Absolutely - I’m only bumping to keep it on the page as its

Okay, just be aware that any posts/threads created on this test site will be wiped out once the live forum content is merged back in.

Yep - understood.

 

[Driven2]

Driven2 Hey Ken, I did some playing with different backgrounds/color schemes for the Block Header over the weekend (to my great peril... lol ... a little knowledge is a dangerous thing ). I have the BGO Dark version perfect. But we would like to try the below option. I know how to get the appropriate colors set, but I cannot for the life of me get the text color set to white. I believe that should be adjustable in the Style Properties under 'Blocks' and 'Block Header' but that isn't working. Would you mind setting this look up for us on the Classic Style with the white text?

Are you referring to the football color? If so, I can change that in extra.less template.

 

[Boone]

I’m referring to changing all the block headers to make the top half burgundy instead of gray. We like the black edge and the gold football. I attached an example towards the end of this thread. I tried to do it myself and was able to, but couldn’t figure out how to make the text white.

 

[Boone]

 

[Boone]

Driven2 What I meant to say Ken is that we want the bottom bar black and upper half of the block headers burgundy with the football gold and white text as in the example ((only on the Classic style - we are happy with the Dark style as it is currently set up)

 

[Boone]

First post worklist has been updated.

 

[Driven2]

I started work on the rotating image. Its mostly done. I have a bug where the first image isn't loading, so it's initially blank. I also have to modify the code to rotate on click.

 

[Boone]

Looks really good and thanks for disabling on the mobile skin

 

[Driven2]

I have a running list but figured I'd start a discussion here (for us as well as Ken) instead of sending numerous emails. Items in Red are action items vs. questions/comments. Ken - it is understood that some of these would be part of 2nd stage and additional cost and we're good with that. I'd like to get it all done before we open up.

E. Post-Bit Changes

1. I have built a user title ladder based on post count and it is working fine. I have created transparent images I'd like to go above the user titles in the postbit as follows: The Cheerleader View attachment 4405 The Rookie View attachment 4406 The Free Agent View attachment 4407 The Starter View attachment 4408 The Franchise Player View attachment 4409 Super Bowl MVP View attachment 4410 Ring of Fame View attachment 4411 The Hall of Famer View attachment 4412 Redskins Great View attachment 4413 The Legend View attachment 4417
2. Basically, we would like our post-bit to show:

Avatar
Username
User Title Image (for non-staff)
User Title/Staff Titles/Custom Titles (no change needed here)
Join Date
Messages
Reaction Score
Location
Military Service Image/Alma Mater Image (side by side with a bit of space between them)
[/q

The system is not setup to do this. It expects text as a user title. While a background image can be set for the user title area, it's global - no matter what their user title is the same css styling is applied. The way to have different images like that is with user groups, but that's a lot of groups to manage just for something like that.

 

[Boone]

Yeah - we can forego that one Ken. We've had discussions about the space it would take up in the post-bit too. We'll mark this one off the list.

 

[Driven2]

F. Style Selector Positions

1. Driven2 For clarification here, we'd like to retain the style selector at the bottom left hand corner just changing the paint brush icon for a lightbulb (text is fine as is). I'd also like to add JUST the light bulb icon (no text) to the nav bar between the 'envelope' icon and the 'notifications' icon. When in BGO Classic (default) mode, I want hover-over to say 'BGO Dark'. When in BGO Dark mode, I want hover-over to say 'BGO Classic'. Hopefully that all makes sense!

I need the font-awsome character number you want to use here. So far as toggling the text used there, I'll have to custom code it, Xenforo doesn't have that built in.

 

[Driven2]

J. Convert imported blogs into articles in resource manager ('Articles’) into the the 'Archived Articles & Blogs' category with the prefix image I created AND with the file cabinet icon image I used in the example as the post icon:

This will require an addon to convert them: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/convert-threads-to-resources.6503/\
It can batch update a block of threads to do this, but pre-fixes and setting icons are not handled by it, those require manually change each one.

 

[Boone]

I need the font-awsome character number you want to use here. So far as toggling the text used there, I'll have to custom code it, Xenforo doesn't have that built in.

Let's use this font awesome icon https://fontawesome.com/icons/lightbulb?style=light

 

[Boone]

This will require an addon to convert them: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/convert-threads-to-resources.6503/\
It can batch update a block of threads to do this, but pre-fixes and setting icons are not handled by it, those require manually change each one.

So you're saying that we can import all of them into that articles category, but they just won't look like other articles submitted currently... and I'm fine with that... I'm installing the add-on now.

 

[Boone]

For some reason, my server host has disabled the zip add on feature. If you know how to install that mod without doing it with a zip file, go for it. I'll get them to enable it again though.

 

[Boone]

Driven2 I was able to enable zip and install that add-on. I didn't configure it in any way, will leave that to you.

 

[Driven2]

K. On mobile view - the cover image on the 'Donate' page that says 'Support BGO' isn't compressed so the entire image is not visible. Can we fix that (not a huge deal, but definitely a glitch)? Also - on the 'BGO Classic' style, on the 'Donate' page - can we reverse the color scheme so that the 'Donate' and 'Watch' buttons are gold as static buttons, but white on hover over?

I've never used this addon before and don't know where you originally added that image in the settings. Can you tell me where you set them, because I've looked through style properties, the donate setup pages, etc. and can find no setting for an image.

[*]I'm assuming that when we move this site to 'live' that it will be using the 'https://' will be used and our SSL certificate will be active without anything else needing to be done - is that correct Ken?

Yes

When final changeover is done, will our primary URL change (currently https://www.bgobsession.com)?

Yes.

[*]Will our IP address remain the same? This is important since if it changes, I'll have to correct it on our Sucuri firewall.

The IP address will rename the same.

[*]What do we need to do to ensure that when we are sharing posts/content to social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc...) via the sharing icons, that our site logo is used as the default icon (right now it just shows up with a blank spot where an image/icon should be)?

http://bgobsession.com/xf/admin.php...properties/group&group=basic#sp-publicLogoUrl - its the Opengraph image setting.

[*]Some of the migrated content in threads/blogs is showing bizarre characters (See 'Burgundy Burner' threads - showing ' Burner's ' instead of 'Burner's'). This is not a huge deal in terms of needing a 'fix' - just want to ensure that future threads will not have issues. It appears to be related just to the use of apostrophes???
[/LIST]

I'll have to take a look at the character setting in the VB database. Normally it's UTF8, unless otherwise specified in the vb config file, but the database might have set it to Latin1. If that's the case I can have Xenforo override it.

Additional Requests (expect to and glad to pay additional fee for this Ken):

1. • Driven2 It's been a long time since I've set up Ads on a site. We do have a Google Adsense account that is still accessible. If we gave you some ad parameters (where we want them, ad types, topic areas, etc...), would you be willing to set those up for us? We will only have ads turned on for the 'Registered Member' and 'Unregistered' groups (Premium members and all of the staff will be 'Ad free'. We would basically want a banner ad at the top portion of every screen below the header/navbar and content areas. As far as ad content, anything sports, NFL, outdoor, BBQ, that type of thing would be appropriate. Let us know if you're willing to take this on. We don't want it to be too obtrusive for those folks, but could definitely use the revenue however slight.

I can do this, and it would be an extra fee we can discuss privately. I go beyond what Adsense normally does, and even what the ads manager addon does.

I have a large set of custom CSS rules and javascript I've written to go into ad positions. Ads that are more responsive than Google's "responsive" ads, are never doing things like creating massive ads on mobile (Google's auto ads will do that, unfortunately), and so on.

My longest term ongoing client, last February we went through this ad optimization process and more than doubled their ad income in under a week. Obviously I can't guarantee the exact gains, but I've always seen them improve.

 

[Boone]

K. On mobile view - the cover image on the 'Donate' page that says 'Support BGO' isn't compressed so the entire image is not visible. Can we fix that (not a huge deal, but definitely a glitch)? Also - on the 'BGO Classic' style, on the 'Donate' page - can we reverse the color scheme so that the 'Donate' and 'Watch' buttons are gold as static buttons, but white on hover over?

I've never used this addon before and don't know where you originally added that image in the settings. Can you tell me where you set them, because I've looked through style properties, the donate setup pages, etc. and can find no setting for an image.

I believe it just called for dumping the cover image of your choosing into this location: /xf/data/thdonate_campaigns/cover/o/0/1.jpg
I don't think there are any settings related to it. If you can't figure that one, it's fine.

[*]I'm assuming that when we move this site to 'live' that it will be using the 'https://' will be used and our SSL certificate will be active without anything else needing to be done - is that correct Ken?

Yes

When final changeover is done, will our primary URL change (currently https://www.bgobsession.com)?

Yes. What will it be? Will the old url redirect to the new one I assume?

[*]Will our IP address remain the same? This is important since if it changes, I'll have to correct it on our Sucuri firewall.

The IP address will rename the same.

[*]What do we need to do to ensure that when we are sharing posts/content to social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc...) via the sharing icons, that our site logo is used as the default icon (right now it just shows up with a blank spot where an image/icon should be)?

http://bgobsession.com/xf/admin.php...properties/group&group=basic#sp-publicLogoUrl - its the Opengraph image setting.
Got it - thanks

[*]Some of the migrated content in threads/blogs is showing bizarre characters (See 'Burgundy Burner' threads - showing ' Burner's ' instead of 'Burner's'). This is not a huge deal in terms of needing a 'fix' - just want to ensure that future threads will not have issues. It appears to be related just to the use of apostrophes???
[/LIST]

I'll have to take a look at the character setting in the VB database. Normally it's UTF8, unless otherwise specified in the vb config file, but the database might have set it to Latin1. If that's the case I can have Xenforo override it.

Thanks for looking at it before final migration

Additional Requests (expect to and glad to pay additional fee for this Ken):

1. • Driven2 It's been a long time since I've set up Ads on a site. We do have a Google Adsense account that is still accessible. If we gave you some ad parameters (where we want them, ad types, topic areas, etc...), would you be willing to set those up for us? We will only have ads turned on for the 'Registered Member' and 'Unregistered' groups (Premium members and all of the staff will be 'Ad free'. We would basically want a banner ad at the top portion of every screen below the header/navbar and content areas. As far as ad content, anything sports, NFL, outdoor, BBQ, that type of thing would be appropriate. Let us know if you're willing to take this on. We don't want it to be too obtrusive for those folks, but could definitely use the revenue however slight.

I can do this, and it would be an extra fee we can discuss privately. I go beyond what Adsense normally does, and even what the ads manager addon does.

I have a large set of custom CSS rules and javascript I've written to go into ad positions. Ads that are more responsive than Google's "responsive" ads, are never doing things like creating massive ads on mobile (Google's auto ads will do that, unfortunately), and so on.

My longest term ongoing client, last February we went through this ad optimization process and more than doubled their ad income in under a week. Obviously I can't guarantee the exact gains, but I've always seen them improve.

Okay - that sounds good. I honestly can't even completely figure out the Google Adsense account settings. Basically, we want to set up ads ONLY for the Registered User and non-logged in folks. Premium and staff usergroups will be ad-free (I've got it set up that way in usergroup permissions). We don't have huge traffic, we are just looking to offset some site costs. Biggest thing is, we don't want them to be annoying or too obtrusive as I described above. And these are automated ads (not solicited ads) if that isn't obvious. What kind of time frame would that be to set up (is it something relative easy for you that could be done before going live (I'm anticipating sometime this week?) or would you rather do it more deliberately after we go live? We'd be okay with whatever makes the most sense for you.