CMG's improved software!

[Lance]

Hello everyone!

We have an updated look thanks to our guru, RICK! Soon we will be on a new server and things should be noticeably better. You should see vast improvements in working the site. You will edit differently now, etc., and we have many new colors, however, it will only take a few moments to learn your way around. Please let me know if you run into any problems so we can attempt to solve them quickly.

[John F]

We have an updated look

So I see. I don't know what improvements there may be under the hood, but on first acquaintance the user interface is not an improvement - to the contrary. At least not for desktop and laptop computer users; I suspect the Php developers have been trying to please tablet and smartphone users, which I am not. The result is that basic functions have been removed from the top of the page, and many have been made invisible; the FAQ help doesn't always explain where to find them.

For example, New posts and Unread posts are no longer out in the open but in a dropdown menu under Quick links. It took me a while to find them, and though I now know where they are, it's an extra mouse click to get to them. Login, the first thing one needs to do when entering CMG, has been moved from the top to the bottom of the page.

Php boasts of its new, "clever" quotation feature. You can see what it's like at the top of this message. It applies only to quotations from other posts in the same thread, so the additional information is needless. I also took a while to figure out how to use it; instead of a button named "Quote" at the bottom of a message, there one with a mere quotation mark at the top right. Also, when I view my message including such a quotation, I see an open quote at the beginning but no close quote at the end. The one at the beginning is needless, as the quotation is identified as such by "Lance wrote" at the beginning and a background color change.

Editing and deleting a post is now done with buttons at the top right with a pencil graphic for edit and an x for delete. I had to look that up in the FAQ too.

Changing user preferences is no longer a matter of clicking on a Settings button at the top of the page. I had to look this up in the FAQ: "a link [to the User Control Panel] can usually be found by clicking on your username at the top of board pages." The way it looks here is Private messages John F; this looks like one link but actually it's two separate links. As for that "usually,"

I see one actual improvement so far. When composing a message, the text box stretches so my whole message is visible. In the old software, the depth of the text box was fixed and I had to scroll up and down to refer within my typically long messages. Up to a point. Starting a new paragraph after this one, I see the scroll bar again. But most messages other than large quotations won't need the scroll bar.

Well, of course I'll eventually find all the features I use, if they're still available, and will get use to the UI "improvements." But I'd rather not have to.

Soon we will be on a new server and things should be noticeably better.

If the new server is more reliable than the old one, and doesn't go down unexpectedly for hours or days at a time, that will be very welcome! When this is done, perhaps Rick might archive most of the messages in Chatterbox and Corner Pub? I suggest they be archived through December 31, 2015.

[jserraglio]

Change isn't always easy for folks set in their ways. The GUI is a definite improvement and I am using a laptop with a big screen, not a tablet or smart phone. I look forward to digging into it in more detail later on but I must be off to work for now.

Thanks for the update.

[lennygoran]

For example, New posts and Unread posts are no longer out in the open but in a dropdown menu under Quick links. It took me a while to find them, and though I now know where they are, it's an extra mouse click to get to them.

I'm glad they are there but I just am unable to find the quick links-sure confused me this morning but I guess after a while I'll learn these new things-right now I'm pretty much confused. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

I'm glad they are there but I just am unable to find the quick links

Okay I just found the quick links. Regards, Len

[John F]

The GUI is a definite improvement and I am using a laptop with a big screen, not a tablet or smart phone.

So you say, but how is the new UI an improvement? I'm interested in others' reactions.

Incidentally, one feature is broken: "Hide my online status" under Global settings doesn't work.

[jserraglio]

So you say, but how is the new UI an improvement?

The new GUI, incorporating modern graphic design, is far more readable and attractive overall than the old one. That cluttered, tired, dated relic has been put out to pasture, and a good thing too. But since you ask, here's why and how, as I see it, the new look is better:

TOPIC & MESSAGE WINDOWS:

-- clean modern interface framed by white space to rest the eye
-- unread-message alerts marked with red text icon next to topic headings
-- buttons well-spaced & intuitively laid out
-- buttons icon-based rather than text-based
-- appealing blue/red/dark gray color scheme
-- topics set off from rest of page with boldface type
-- topics set off from rest of page with bigger type
-- attractive wide borders that frame the text & guide the eye down the page
-- quote callouts on yellow or gray background to contrast with the default blue page bg
-- quote callouts marked with easy-to-find boldface icons
-- unobtrusive, innovative animations on left-side buttons

POST-REPLY WINDOWS:

-- cleaner type face
-- better letter spacing
-- nice array of modern formatting choices
-- icons instead of text buttons on formatting bar

[maestrob]

Not a problem for me. Change is inevitable, I guess, and this set-up is easy enough to navigate. I've already managed to post (as you can see), so I'm comfortable with the new format. Thanks, Lance, for modernizing us.

[david johnson]

Looks fine, Lance. No problems for me.

[lennygoran]

It's getting easier for me-we're heading down to Florida today-I'll get a chance to see how it looks and works with my tablet-things are always tougher with it. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

A follow up -i`m up in the air right now using free wifi care of jet blue-the new format seems to work out fine! Len

[IcedNote]

I like it! Now it looks like we're in 2005 instead of 1995. Definite improvement!

But seriously, no problems finding my way around. Thanks, Lance!

-G

[jserraglio]

Way-Back: St. Patrick's Day, 2008

[John F]

Now there's a fine user interface. Seriously, after ten years and 18,000 posts here, the last thing I need is to deal with a new and (in my view) less user friendly UI.

[John F]

CMG's forum software is incompatible with one of the widely used web browsers, Google's Chrome. Specifically, if a YouTube link is embedded in a forum message using the youtube button, it is not visible in Chrome and can't be played. A major bug, then, that needs to be fixed pronto, or else we should revert to the previous compatible version.

Belle discovered this fault when viewing the thread Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, in which I posted YouTube clips by Wanda Landowska. I've now verified it using Chrome on a "clean" system running Windows 7 (at the library). It's a much-used and important feature here, when we want to provide audio or video examples of what we're talking about. A normal link works but it isn't good enough.

Lance, please get your man Rick on the case. If there's an update to fix this bug, we need to have it installed here ASAP. If not, then the bug has to be reported to the software maker, phpBB Limited, whose address is here:

https://www.phpbb.com/

Apparently phpBB has done nothing about it yet, as the current release of its forum software is dated January 7.

Meanwhile, CMG members can view the site properly using Mozilla's Firefox browser. If you don't have it, it can be downloaded here:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

[Ricordanza]

CMG's forum software is incompatible with one of the widely used web browser Google Chrome.

Thanks for pointing this out, John. I am a Google Chrome user.

[jserraglio]

CMG's forum software is incompatible with one of the widely used web browser Google Chrome.

Thanks for pointing this out, John. I am a Google Chrome user.

The funniest thing happened on my way 'round this forum using site guru, Rick's nifty interface. With Chrome I see the CMG site properly. In Chrome running under Windows 7, I also click away on CMG/embedded YouTube videos. Guess what? They all play nice with that browser. So does this fetching clip I embedded using Chrome:

[John F]

Specifically, are you able to play or even see the embedded YouTube clips in the Bach Chromatic Fantasia thread? That's what we've been talking about. And if you can, that doesn't alter the fact that two of us can't. It's a software bug.

[jserraglio]

Specifically, are you able to play or even see the embedded YouTube clips in the Bach Chromatic Fantasia thread? That's what we've been talking about. And if you can, that doesn't alter the fact that two of us can't. It's a software bug.

You bet. That's the thread I'm talking about, and not only do I see 'em but they play fine via Chrome 56 under Windows 7. Yes, the phpBB software might have a bug, but it also might be that Chrome requires updating to the latest version, given that Firefox and Opera, as well as the latest version of Chrome, v.56, all display phpBB's embedded vids properly. The problem might lie with an outdated version of the Chrome browser, not phpBB.

[John F]

Another thing about this UI. When composing a new message or a reply, we can't type anything in the compose window until that damned smiley face appears in the upper right corner. If I start typing when the window opens, my first keystrokes do not appear and aren't remembered - my message starts with whatever key I striike after the smiley appears. Absolutely pointless and, for me, maddening.

[Lance]

Funny, I am immediately able to type a message with the gray "smiley" face to my
immediate right. I have not experienced any problem thus far. Not sure what to say about
this John. I know Rick looks in on this post from time-to-time. Perhaps he can comment on what you are experiencing.

[jserraglio]

Another thing about this UI. When composing a new message or a reply, we can't type anything in the compose window until that damned smiley face appears in the upper right corner. If I start typing when the window opens, my first keystrokes do not appear and aren't remembered - my message starts with whatever key I striike after the smiley appears. Absolutely pointless and, for me, maddening.

Everything works fine on my computer: Tested with up-to-date versions of both Opera and Chrome, the blessed emoij icon appears immediately, and the reply window immediately accepts all my keystrokes.

So once again the likely suspect is the browser, not CMG's new GUI.