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WCTL
Examples
Creating
an Ignore User Filter
Sometimes,
just like in face-to-face life, community members get on each
other's nerves. One powerful tool many sites use to help people
stay out of each other's way is an Ignore User filter, sometimes
known as a "bozofilter." What this does is let the user
choose to ignore the posts of up to 5 different authors. When
the user encounters a post by someone on their Ignore list, instead
of seeing the post, they see a note stating that it's been ignored.
This
filter is built to make it impossible for users to ignore their
own posts or those of a host or the sysop. Hosts cannot ignore
any posts in the area in which they have host privileges, and
the sysop cannot ignore any posts anywhere.
We'll
need to make changes to three macros in order to build this filter:
As with
any macro customization, the process is to find the appropriate
macros within the standard.tpl file in your webx directory on the server, place them in a separate text file you
name webx.tpl, and edit them there. Upload webx.tpl
to your webx directory, and reset the file cache in the
Control Panel > Reset file cache
to see your changes.
Editing
editPreferences
First,
find the editPreferences macro. The black code just below is existing
editPreferences code. Find the correct lines, and insert the code
in red in between. If you'd prefer to put the code elsewhere on
the page, you may.
<tr><td colspan=2><b>Personal information</b>
(optional):<br>
<textarea name=bio rows=8 cols=70 maxlength=24000 wrap=physical>%%
userBio %%</textarea></td></tr>%%nop%%
<tr><td colspan=2><b>Your favorite URLs</b>
(optional, one per line, each URL may be followed by a space and
a comment):<Br>
<textarea name=urls rows=10 cols=70 maxlength=24000>%% userUrlsRaw
%% </textarea></td></tr>%%nop%%
%% if servePictures || serveInfoPictures %%
<tr><td colspan=2>%% use PictureInfo %%</td></tr>%%nop%%
%% endif %%
<tr><td colspan=2><hr>
<h3>Ignore Post List</h3>
<tr><td colspan=2>If there are users whose posts you prefer
not to see, list them here. Enter <b>one user name per line</b>
up to 5.<p>Note that you can not ignore the sysop or the host
of an area even though you list them here. %% if userIsHostorSysop
%% Hosts will see all user posts in the areas in which they are
hosts, regardless of who is on their Ignore Post list.%% endif
%%</td></tr>
<tr><td valign="top"><b>Users to ignore:</b></td>
<td><input name=user.bozo1 type=text size=15 maxlength=50
value="%% user.bozo1 %%"><Br>
<input name=user.bozo2 type=text size=15 maxlength=50 value="%%
user.bozo2 %%"><Br>
<input name=user.bozo3 type=text size=15 maxlength=50 value="%%
user.bozo3 %%"><Br>
<input name=user.bozo4 type=text size=15 maxlength=50 value="%%
user.bozo4 %%"><Br>
<input name=user.bozo5 type=text size=15 maxlength=50 value="%%
user.bozo5 %%"></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><hr><h3>Settings</h3></td></tr>
-
- This
macro displays a sentence or two of instructions along
with 5 form blanks where users can enter names for
their personal Ignore list.
- Most
of the changes to this macro consist of standard HTML
form fields within the existing table layout. The
%% user.bozo1 %%, %% user.bozo2 %%,
etc. are the names of the Web Crossing custom user
fields we'll create when the user submits the form.
These fields will hold the names of the individual
Ignored users. Placing %% user.bozo1 %% into
the value attribute of the form field ensures that
the existing value will be shown to the user when
he or she returns to Preferences another time.
- The
%% if userIsHostorSysop %% block in the instructions
serves an extra line of instructions (up until the
%% endif %% statement) to Hosts and Sysop,
but not to regular users.
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This
produces the following HTML for a user who is not a Host or
the Sysop.:
Figure
1 - Edited portion of editPreferences page
Editing editedPreferences
Find
the editedPreferences macro, and within it, locate these existing
lines of code, in black. Once again, paste in the red code
below at the proper location. If you'd rather have this display
elsewhere on the page, you can do that instead.
<tr><td colspan=2><b>Personal information:
</b><Br>%% userBio %%</td></tr>%%nop%%
<tr><td colspan=2><b>Your favorite URLs: </b><Br>%%
userUrls %%</td></tr>%%nop%%
<tr><td valign="top"><b>Users
on your Ignore Post list:</b></td><td>
%% user.bozo1 %%<Br>
%% user.bozo2 %%<Br>
%% user.bozo3 %%<Br>
%% user.bozo4 %%<Br>
%% user.bozo5 %%<Br></td></tr>%% nop %%
<tr><td colspan=2><b>%%nop%%
%% if userFolderSortBy oldestCreated%%
List items by date/time created, oldest first
- These
additions simply display the user's Ignored Post list
in the page which is displayed after a user submits
Preference changes
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This
produces the following HTML. Note that only one user has
been defined so the other fields don't produce any names.
Figure
2 - Edited portion of editedPreferences page
Editing messageListItem
This
last addition goes into your messageListItem template, toward
the top. This one must go in the designated spot or the
filter won't work correctly.
%% If pathIsDeleted %%
%% if siteShowDeleted %%
%% spacing %%(Deleted message
originally posted by %% authorName %% on %% itemDate %%)<Br
clear=left>%%nop%%
%% endif %%
%% else if !userIsHostorSysop && !author.userIsHostorSysop
&& authorName != userName && (user.bozo1 == authorName ||
user.bozo2 == authorName || user.bozo3 == authorName ||
user.bozo4 == authorName || user.bozo5 == authorName) %%
%% spacing %%(This message not displayed because <b>%%
authorName %%</b> is on your Ignore Posts list. To change
your Ignore Posts list go to <a href="%% urlBase %%25@%%
certificate %%@%% location %%">Preferences</a>.)<Br
clear=left>%% nop %%
%% else %%
%% if servePictures && userShowPictures %% ...
- The
statement beginning "else if" is really the
meat of the filter. A translation for some of the symbols:
| ! |
"is
not" |
| != |
"is
not equal to" |
| || |
"or" |
| && |
"and" |
| == |
"is
equal to" |
So,
translating the code, we see it says:
If
the message has been deleted, deal with it that way,
Otherwise if
the user is not a host or sysop
and
the author is not a host or sysop
and
the author name is not the same as the user name
and one of these is also true:
user.bozo1
is the author
or
user.bozo2 is the author
or
user.bozo3 is the author
or
user.bozo4 is the author
or
user.bozo5 is the author
Then display the Ignore text, with a link back
to Preferences, instead of the actual message.
Otherwise
(i.e. if this convoluted logic statement doesn't evaluate
as true), the macro goes on to display the message.
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This
produces the following HTML for an ignored message:
Figure
3 - Ignored message display
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Note: This macro does not explicitly check to see that users
listed on the user's Preferences page actually exist in the
database. It would be simple to add that check by adding a
Preferences Process Filter,
and check for the existence of the user name before submitting
the form. If the user didn't exist, the form would be bounced
back. |
Resources
WCTL
Concept Reference Page
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