User Wall -- give your users a Facebook-style wall (guestbook)

Pol · November 2006

I'm working on a new addon called User Wall. It adds a space to every user's profile where any user can post a public comment. This is similar to the "Wall" feature on Facebook or the "Comments" feature on MySpace. It's a fun feature for communities.

I've uploaded Beta 1. I'm calling it a beta, but it may be more of an alpha, because some features are still missing, and it's not really ready for use on a public forum. But I believe in "release early, release often", and I'm posting this to get early feedback, such as bug reports, feature requests, and interface style suggestions, from those who like to test new addons.

Stuff that I know is missing and that I'll be adding:
* Pagination. Currently, all comments are displayed on the user's profile page; that could get messy, so I'm going to have it paginate discussion-style. The default will be 5 comments per page, I think.
* Customizability. The user will be given an option to disable their wall.
* Notifications. Users will have the option to receive email notifications of new wall comments.

Mark · November 2006

Cool!

Tex · November 2006

I like the idea. It should contribute positively to a community. Nice!

3stripe · November 2006

Nice nice nice. Testing right now.

3stripe · November 2006

Just tried to install:

Error Message
    Could not create User Wall table
Affected Elements
    UserWall.undefined();

    The error occurred on or near: Incorrect table definition; there can be only one auto column and it must be defined as a key

I'm on Dreamhost running PHP 4.4.2 and MySQL 5.0.24a.

Mark · November 2006

Sounds like a mysql version conflict. What version of mysql are you using, Pol & 3stripe?

3stripe · November 2006

^ Just edited my post. Too quick for me!

Polo · November 2006

Nice, but when I enabled the extension it gave me an error message: A fatal, non-recoverable error has occurred Technical information (for support personel): Error Message Could not create User Wall table Affected Elements UserWall.undefined(); The error occurred on or near: Incorrect table definition; There can only be one auto column and it must be defined as a key

Pol · November 2006

D'oh, completely my fault. Sorry.

I uploaded Beta 2 which should fix this. Alternately, you can edit userwall-mysql.sql and change the second line from:
`WallCommentID` int(8) NOT NULL auto_increment,
To:
`WallCommentID` int(8) NOT NULL auto_increment PRIMARY KEY,
That's the only change, so you don't need to redownload it if you'd rather change it manually.

Beta 3, which adds proper pagination, is coming soon.

3stripe · November 2006

Cheers for the fix! Working nicely now. I'd love to see: * User authentication (at the moment you don't have to be logged in to write something, as you prob know already) * "Edit" option for the owner of the wall as well as "Delete" * Option to include people's icon on the left of the comment, as per a normal discussion * Option to allow html, textile or other formatting (dangerous?) * Option to hide ips Erm that's it for now...

Pol · November 2006

I'm glad it's working now, and thanks for the suggestions, 3stripe.

I'll change it so that it only shows the IP address if the IpHistory extension is installed. I had that installed on mine, and I had forgotten it wasn't the default behaviour.

The authentication thing was an oversight; that'll also be corrected in the next version. User icons also will.

I'm not sure about adding formatting; I don't want to overcomplicate it. I want people to just be able to click on the button, type something, and have it posted. I had considered it, but decided to leave it out for now. Maybe I'll see what other people think.

Currently an issue with the PageList class is holding the next version up. I'm working on resolving it with Mark.

3stripe · November 2006

Sounds good to me. I know what you mean about keeping it simple. Hmmm... actually allowing formatting might encourage people to use it in the wrong way (a la myspace) and post up tons of links and cruddy images... maybe not such a good idea after all!

Minisweeper · November 2006

Would it be possible to have an admin setting to turn on other formatting options *if the formatter was already installed*?

3stripe · November 2006

Also if the owner of a wall posts a comment, it should have a different style attached to it so it looks a wee bit different from the other comments.

Pol · November 2006

Maybe, but there'd be no real need for a user to comment on their own wall. The standard way to respond to a wall comment is to comment on the poster's wall. (A future version will add "Reply" links if you're viewing your own wall, which would take you straight to the comment form for that person.)

I'm thinking it'll also have a "Wall-to-Wall" feature like Facebook, so you can follow a cross-wall exchange.

Pol · November 2006

Ok, I uploaded Beta 3. It adds pagination -- it does pages just like the discussion or comment list. (For this, it uses an internal fixed version of the PageList class. I'm hoping Mark will incorporate this fix into the next version of the Lussumo Framework.) Another fix in this version is that it no longer shows IP addresses unless you have the IpHistory extension installed.

The default number of comments per page is 5. For now, you can change this in conf/settings.php (USER_WALL_COMMENTS_PER_PAGE).

More features coming tomorrow.

MySchizoBuddy · November 2006

can some one post better screenshots of what does this extension do exactly

Polo · November 2006

Cool. It works great.

Tex · November 2006

@ MySchizoBuddy:
It gives everybody the possibility to comment on an user. These comments are listed in the profile of the user, who has received a comment.

MySchizoBuddy · November 2006

@Pol is this based on some third party code.

Pol · November 2006

@MySchizoBuddy: No, I've written all of it myself, but it is inspired by a similar feature on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.