[WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign

[hiccup]

I agree with that. I think post count could also go. It will give a lot cleaner look, and make navigation easier and less distractful.
For those interested, it can always be found in statistics, right?

Giving it a bit more thought, what could be interesting to have there is 'post count today'.
That would give a quick indication 'where the action is'.
Another variation on that could be to have 'post count since your last visit', but only if it will give that count based on your last ip visit, not on your last log-in.

[AvikB]

Giving it a bit more thought, what could be interesting to have there is 'post count today'.
That would give a quick indication 'where the action is'.
Another variation on that could be to have 'post count since your last visit', but only if it will give that count based on your last ip visit, not on your last log-in.

SMF does not have those features built in. These will require me to create custom codes for the backend. Which is a NO.

[hiccup]

Don't judge this by the exact design, but would it be an idea to have such shortcut buttons?
It is a meager implementation compared with AvikB's first proposals for such buttons, but for now it would perhaps be better than nothing?

[AvikB]

Don't judge this by the exact design, but would it be an idea to have such shortcut buttons?
It is a meager implementation compared with AvikB's first proposals for such buttons, but for now it would perhaps be better than nothing?

unfortunately that's not possible. SMF offers no way to do this.

[AvikB]

New Update:

* Removed ability to choose skin accent color while submitting addon
* Enhanced tag input, shows warning on exceeding limits
* Undo, Redo Bug fixes for markdown editor
* added better multiple select for musicbee version from dropdown
* Improved styling select input
* added success message for addon submission which also notify user if he/she require approval or not
* Improved language file
* some styling fixes for forum

[AvikB]

New Update:
after getting some feedback from hiccup about dashboard menu discovery. i made some changes and with this update user avatar will show in the menu.



there are some major bug fixing for addons page, dashboard.

[hiccup]

About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.

[AvikB]

About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.

what do you mean? the whole site uses that color scheme for the menu. only the landing page has transparent background.

[hiccup]

About the top menu bar(s):
On the web page, they have a transparent background, which makes them blend perfectly with the rest of the page. But on the forum they currently are plain dark grey.
In my humble opinion the forum page might look even better if the color scheme of those would match a bit more with the whole page.

what do you mean? the whole site uses that color scheme for the menu. only the landing page has transparent background.

Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.

[AvikB]

Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.

yeah i get it, but it is intended.

[hiccup]

Well, that is what I compared it with.
On the website the menu's are nicely integrating in the whole page, but on the forum, they are in a rather high contrasting dark grey.
No problem at all, perhaps just a small matter of taste.
And, with the dark theme, it again blends beautiful.

yeah i get it, but it is intended.

Ok, your decision of course.
But I do seem to recall you also contemplated a while back to perhaps using some hexagon background for that? Something similar with what is at the top of the current website, and on the bottom of the new forum?

[AvikB]

But I do seem to recall you also contemplated a while back to perhaps using some hexagon background for that? Something similar with what is at the top of the current website, and on the bottom of the new forum?

i decided to keep the menu clean, also adding background image to a menu has some unwanted side effects due to being responsive.

[AvikB]

Another update.

With this update addon can be marked as beta, and it will shoe beta sign in addon page as well.
Lots of bug fixes, one minor security fix.
Some code optimization.

[AvikB]

New Update. this update is mainly focused on major structural changes of how addon delete feature is handled.

a addon author can delete his/her addon by clicking on the "trash" icon in "all addons" tab. It won't get deleted instantly, but it will be added to delete queue, and will get automatically deleted when the server decides(timely based manner).


After it is added to delete queue it can't be modified or edited in any manner. Ofc, the action can be undone, but only by mods/admin.
it is the same way if a mod deletes an addon, other mods can undelete it. For security purpose the last mod's user id will be recorded.

A mod can not force permanent delete anyway. ONLY an admin can force delete it permanently.

When a addon is soft deleted NO ONE can view/edit/download it. and upon soft delete it won't show in addon pages either.


there are also some bug fixes as well.

[AvikB]

Finally i am done with the addon search. With this update a lots of... i mean a really HUGE improvement over the previous search and also unicode and utf-8 language support.

Search engine improvement:
* much cleaner code (the previous search engine had 4x lines of code while having 1/3 of the features)
* more complex (it is about 20x more complex than previous one and provide better result. One of the best feature is that it treats every word, even better every latter as a searchable query, instead of previous whole sentence query)
* mysql FULLTEXT and LIKE search feature
* no more ":author" needed, just type in author name and boom all of that member's addon will show up
* better results sorted by relevance
* modular query for easier maintenance, i will extend with more features in future if needed.
* supports search by term, sentence and also array (complexity at it's best)

right now it searches through, member name, title, tags, short description and then generate relevant result.
It took me full day to create this and 20minute to implement it throughout the site. Addon page, and dashboard is powered by it.

Another improvement is the ability to submit and view addons on utf-8 and unicode characters. search also fully supported.
I have tried with japanese. It works darn well. Can't say for other languages.

here is an example. http://test.getmusicbee.com/addons/6/???-??-???/
EDIT: it seems the current forum does not render unicode correctly , but the link should still work
btw, i have no clue what that japanese means in english.

OFC i don't wan't the addon section to be filled with russin, chenese, hebrew languages, that will be awful but is rather a nice feature for internationalization.

Also addon center now has ability to search for user's submitted addon and filter them by category. more filters will come soon.
here is an example of searching on addon center:



i still have few things to do with dashboard. so report any issues you find.