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Is it possible to add a permalink to each comment on the n-Forum?
Otherwise, is there an easy way to obtain a link to a specific comment? I know it is possible, I've done it, but it is usually trial and error, i.e. hacking the url.
The permanent URI for a specific comment takes this form:
http://www.math.ntnu.no/~stacey/Vanilla/nForum/comments.php?DiscussionID=
&page=
#Item_
The value of is the same for every comment in a given thread, so just look at the URI from anywhere on the page. The value of is usually 1, but it can be more if a thread has more than 50 comments. The value of varies from comment to comment; you should be able to see this number at the beginning of each comment, just before the name of the poster. Note that = 1 for the comment that originates a thread.
It would be nice if every comment automatically automatically had a permalink provided by the software, so you could just cut and paste that.
You an also use a URI of this form:
http://www.math.ntnu.no/~stacey/Vanilla/nForum/comments.php?DiscussionID=
&page=
#Comment_
(the difference is at the end). However, I don't know any way to look up the value of other than by looking that the HTML source of the page that the comment is on, so I don't use that method. However, it is the URI that you get just after you make a comment, so it may be convenient in that way.
you should be able to see this number at the beginning of each comment
Interesting. I know the format of the url and that is what I meant by "hacking it", but I do not see the comment number anywhere (otherwise that would be close enough to a permalink for me).
For each comment, the only identifying content I see is, e.g. "Urs 5 days ago". There is no comment number. Is there some forum setting I'm missing or something?
PS: I just experimented with various stylesheets and none of them seem to display the comment number for me.
PPS: If it matters, I'm using Firefox 3.6 on Windows Vista.
Note: If I hover my mouse over the "edit" link (which only appears for my own comments), I can see my comment number and then hopefully the comment I want to link to is close by so I can add or subtract, but that is suboptimal.
David: I've felt the same way :) What is the secret we're missing?
I do not see it in Internet Explorer 7 either, so it must not be a browser issue.
@David and Eric: me three. I don't see the numbers in Firefox or in Google Chrome.
It must be a setting. Toby is a Forum moderator, so he must have super powers. Do either of you two have admin powers here?
I'm guessing this is something Andrew (and Toby?) could probably switch on for everyone as default setting. I want to try to re-examine a lot of the discussions that went on here over the past couple of days, pull out somethings, put them on the nLab, follow-up with questions, etc. Some kind of permalink or even just a comment number would help.
Whoa! Permalinks suddenly appeared :)
Thank you :)
Regard it as "permanent" in the sense of "it'll change if I discover that I did it wrong". However, it's cut-and-paste from the search page (which links directly to comments) so hopefully it'll work properly. Any suggestions on styling or placement also gratefully received.
I've no idea what Toby was talking about with the numbers beside the comments. If it's moderator powers that made him able to see that then it was quite amazing ones as there's no numbers in the source as far as I can see. So I've put them in by hand. (There's one possibility: a stylesheet might change the unordered list which contains the comments into an ordered list. If so, then Toby will now be seeing double and I'll have to figure out which is the best implementation. I'm minded to go for the "by hand" method since that ought to handle the second/third/... pages better. Please let me know.)
Regarding placement. If not too much trouble, I think "upper right" near the "edit" button would be better. The important thing is the functionality, which is awesome. Thanks! :)
Awesome. I can now see comment numbers as well as a permalink :)
Very nice. Now we can follow Toby's references :)
Gah, it currently looks like a regular link. Perhaps you could make it smaller, grey, and either on the top right or bottom right?
More complaining... :P
Hush.
I think I've found a bug: in threads displayed across more than one page, the comments on the second (and probably subsequent) pages are numbered from 1, instead of continuing from the previous page.
Yes, I am now seeing double.
I would be shocked if this has anything to do with my moderator powers. That gives me a ‘delete’ link by every post, which I can use for deleting spam (and have used, I think, twice). It shouldn't change the numbering of the lists.
I have found these numbers very useful. Even now, seeing double, the numbers from before are much more readable than the new ‘RowNumber .’ that's been added.
In a moment, I'll check my settings and tell y'all which stylesheet I'm using. It's not a standard one.
I've been referring to comment numbers, because I thought that I remembered seeing them all along, before I switched stylesheets and before I had moderator powers. But maybe not!
Incidentally, the comment numbers do restart on every page, so you need to use my URI template. But Andrew's new PermaLinks are probably better than that template anyway, now that we have them.
OK, it looks like the stylesheet that I've been using is the last of the four named ‘default’ at http://www.math.ntnu.no/~stacey/Vanilla/nForum/account.php?PostBackAction=Style.
This stylesheet has a little trouble with columns, but I chose it because there are only two stylesheets that sensibly format code
. (In particular, that word ‘code’ should be in the same line as the text before and after it. Otherwise it looks dumb, possibly illegible.) And the other format (vaneblack) can't handle ordered lists!
Actually, cloud6 isn't too bad with code. But it's terrible with links.
See http://www.math.ntnu.no/~stacey/Vanilla/nForum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1001 if you want to test stylesheets for yourself.
Fixing the bug about numbers across pages is possible with the coded page numbers (since I can test for the page number, I just hadn't looked to see if I needed to or not) but near impossible with CSS (or at least, with my knowledge of CSS). I'll take a look at Toby's stylesheet and see what the numbers look like: I can make it look right if I know what looks good.
I think, now that you mention it (I'm posting this after I read the '(stylesheet) test' discussion) that I'm using vaneablack and I think it does handle ordered lists correctly - again, now that you mention it then I think that that's the tweak I made that I referred to in the other thread. But I may be misremembering.
Hmm, there's probably a simple list of "don't be stupid"s that all stylesheets should adhere to (like inline stuff staying inline, and ordered vs numbered lists). If we can agree on such, then I"ll adjust all the stylesheets to fit that model (or if there's a majority view I'll fork a list of "certified" stylesheets). It's nice to be able to have different looks because we all have different opinions on what looks nice, but it's also good to have ones that aren't annoying.
(By the way, I agree about the placement of the 'permalink' link. As I was away last week, I didn't make shifting it a high priority. I did so on one test forum, but off the top of my head I don't remember whether it was on the MathML test forum or on the one I had running on my laptop. If the former, you can see what it'll look like by heading over there (just add 'MathML' straight after the 'nForum'), if the latter then you'll have to wait until I merge the changes.)
I don't see any permalink on the test forum, but I do see a very nice source view!
The source view has been there for a long time! After a few comments on the cafe, I figured that if I get markdown+itex working here, then it wouldn't take long for people to want to be able to see the source. Meant that I had to actually learn a bit of javascript (yuk) but I hope it'll be worth it.
I'm back on my "travel laptop" and I can see that it was on the one on this machine where I shifted the permalink to top-right. As admin, it now reads "edit delete Source PermaLink" (non-moderators wouldn't see the "delete" and you only see "edit" for your own posts, of course). I guess that the capitalisation isn't consistent - always something to tweak!
I fixed quite a lot of the bugs so I need to merge them in to the demo and then I think it'll be ready to make the switch. As I said in the relevant discussion, I hope that the changes will be only positive. Modulo a few gripes about Opera not supporting MathML!
As admin, it now reads "edit delete Source PermaLink"
That sounds great. (If it were me, I would capitalise them all.)
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