Legacy New user remarks/issues

[Gladius]

This is probably going to be part issue/usability/how-do-I thread so bear with me.

• First thing I noticed is that the version number is 1.3.4 instead of .6 for my vB version, probably wrong?
• Secondly, is there actually no documentation at all?
• Thirdly, first thing I'm blinded by in the settings is the unreadable bright red warnings in all the warnings in Manage Settings and elsewhere... argh, this might look OK for the colourblind, but it's unreadable for me on the regular blue ACP background. PLEASE change this...

Next:

Path To Downloads - there's no explanation what the path should be, relative to or not, why is it not a "valid value"... the error popup "There are errors in the settings on this page." is really quite useless.

For instance, I've set my path to ./vb_dl which is the same format that I use with the attachment storage, but it's telling me it's not "valid". What the heck?

Edit: Nevermind, figured out I need to manually create the dir and chmod it 777. On top of that, the path must be FULL and not relative. All of this REALLY needs to be in the help...

Edit:

Extensions - [Add New Extension] [Add Extension Group] links are white text on bright grey background - unreadable. I spent quite some time looking around for them before I spotted them. Same thing with Categories.

Feature request: please add an enable/disable option for each extension... right now during testing I don't want all of them to be available but the only way to disable them seems to be to delete them. That's really not ideal as I'd have to redo all of them and reset all their settings if I wanted to enable them again.

Edit: Modules... I'm guessing what I'm doing here as there's no description on... anything. I also have no idea what each of these modules does exactly so I've got no idea what I'm enabling or disabling. Sure, I can do a good guess based on the names but, uh...?

What does the "Global" module do exactly and what does granting one usergroup access to it do?

 

[Gladius]

Ok, so I'm trying to upload a file... a file with an extension that's not allowed. But I don't get a warning pop-up that the extension isn't allowed. ???

Instead I get a "Current uploading..." (should be "Currently" if it actually worked) popup... that hangs there forever. Is that actually by design? Why am I not getting a "File extension not allowed - please look below for a list of allowed extensions." popup?

Also, when I put the dll in the upload queue, a small "Pending..." text appeared under it in a colour very hard to read on the white background - this colour should be changed or font enlared/bolded as it's almost impossible to read. That notice also stays there forever - no indication that the file extension isn't allowed / is wrong.

Trying to cancel this upload which isn't going anywhere by pressing the "Cancel All" button - does nothing. Again, huh?

There is no way to cancel this upload which is going nowhere short of closing the page and repeating the process, or refreshing the page.

Also, the "Select Files" upload button doesn't match the regular vB buttons in anything. If it can't be made to look the same, at least the font should match the default vB one, as it seems to be Times right now.

Edit: there seems to be no way to clear the upload queue at all... is this for real?

I'm also getting an "Internal Server Error" popup trying to upload anything with an allowed extension. Ugh...

The files seem to have uploaded anyway though - but I got no notice to that effect. This really isn't good...

Edit: actually, they haven't uploaded... the entries in File Listings were created for the files, but the files themselves weren't uploaded.

 

[Ozzy47]

Dylan who is the dev for this mod is on vacation, and has limited access to his files. So please be patient and he will answer you as soon as he can.

 

[Gladius]

On the upload edit page, the Upload and Reset Fields buttons hover on the left, outside of the window layout, in mid-air... and on the download pages, there's a huge blank gap between the File Information and the Description and Comments tabs... is this on purpose, because it looks... weird? Why that huge gap?

Also: trying to add a comment, the popup box for it jumps on top of the forum layout instead of where I am on the page when I click on it, requiring me to scroll up and hunt for it on top of the page... same goes for the Report and other pop up windows using the same script.

Also: <div class="downloads-morebits-box">
<a href="vbdownloads.php?do=download&fileid=2"><img src="vbdownloads.php?do=file&thumb=1&fileid=" style="border: 1px solid black;"></a><br>
<a href="vbdownloads.php?do=download&fileid=2">hfdh</a>
</div>

This shows a black border around nothing (looks like a |) instead of what I assume should be a thumbnail of "no image".

Also: the rating icons aren't right... I was actually starting at the tick and - for a while trying to figure it out. I didn't expect only a pos/neg system but a 1-5 rating. But even such as it is, it should be + and -... otherwise it doesn't make much sense. Basically, the tick icon should be a + instead.

 

[Dylan]

This is probably going to be part issue/usability/how-do-I thread so bear with me.

• First thing I noticed is that the version number is 1.3.4 instead of .6 for my vB version, probably wrong?
• Secondly, is there actually no documentation at all?
• Thirdly, first thing I'm blinded by in the settings is the unreadable bright red warnings in all the warnings in Manage Settings and elsewhere... argh, this might look OK for the colourblind, but it's unreadable for me on the regular blue ACP background. PLEASE change this...

Next:

Path To Downloads - there's no explanation what the path should be, relative to or not, why is it not a "valid value"... the error popup "There are errors in the settings on this page." is really quite useless.

For instance, I've set my path to ./vb_dl which is the same format that I use with the attachment storage, but it's telling me it's not "valid". What the heck?

Edit: Nevermind, figured out I need to manually create the dir and chmod it 777. On top of that, the path must be FULL and not relative. All of this REALLY needs to be in the help...

Edit:

Extensions - [Add New Extension] [Add Extension Group] links are white text on bright grey background - unreadable. I spent quite some time looking around for them before I spotted them. Same thing with Categories.

Feature request: please add an enable/disable option for each extension... right now during testing I don't want all of them to be available but the only way to disable them seems to be to delete them. That's really not ideal as I'd have to redo all of them and reset all their settings if I wanted to enable them again.

Edit: Modules... I'm guessing what I'm doing here as there's no description on... anything. I also have no idea what each of these modules does exactly so I've got no idea what I'm enabling or disabling. Sure, I can do a good guess based on the names but, uh...?

What does the "Global" module do exactly and what does granting one usergroup access to it do?

The version showing as .4 is just me not updating the number in the footer file.
We dont have documentation on it yet. I'll talk to Mokonzi and see if he can do it when he has some time.
Do you have a different ACP theme? The default theme doesn't have the problems you're talking about.
With the modules, each module allows the usergroups selected to do those things. The global one means they can view the downloads pages and see the link.

 

[Mokonzi]

We dont have documentation on it yet. I'll talk to Mokonzi and see if he can do it when he has some time.

Will get some prepared as soon as I can.

 

[Dylan]

Ok, so I'm trying to upload a file... a file with an extension that's not allowed. But I don't get a warning pop-up that the extension isn't allowed. ???

Instead I get a "Current uploading..." (should be "Currently" if it actually worked) popup... that hangs there forever. Is that actually by design? Why am I not getting a "File extension not allowed - please look below for a list of allowed extensions." popup?

Also, when I put the dll in the upload queue, a small "Pending..." text appeared under it in a colour very hard to read on the white background - this colour should be changed or font enlared/bolded as it's almost impossible to read. That notice also stays there forever - no indication that the file extension isn't allowed / is wrong.

Trying to cancel this upload which isn't going anywhere by pressing the "Cancel All" button - does nothing. Again, huh?

There is no way to cancel this upload which is going nowhere short of closing the page and repeating the process, or refreshing the page.

Also, the "Select Files" upload button doesn't match the regular vB buttons in anything. If it can't be made to look the same, at least the font should match the default vB one, as it seems to be Times right now.

Edit: there seems to be no way to clear the upload queue at all... is this for real?

I'm also getting an "Internal Server Error" popup trying to upload anything with an allowed extension. Ugh...

The files seem to have uploaded anyway though - but I got no notice to that effect. This really isn't good...

Edit: actually, they haven't uploaded... the entries in File Listings were created for the files, but the files themselves weren't uploaded.

The not allowed problem might be a 3.8.5 issue. I just tried it with a not allowed file on my 3.8.7 version and it popped up a messed.
With the flash uploader you can't clear out the queue of files to upload I believe.
The next time I work on an update I'll take a look at the button. It's what comes with the flash uploader and I don't know how much you can modify it.
If you want to give me access I'll take a look at the internal server error.

If you want me to take a look, could you please create and PM me with a temporary FTP and AdminCP account?

For security reasons, we recommend you create a new FTP account only for DBTech support, then disable or delete it after we have both confirmed the issue has been solved and there are no further issues.

The same applies to AdminCP accounts; they should ideally be temporary accounts created for us only. If we have created an account on your site already, you can optionally boost that account to Administrator and then de-admin this account once the issue has been solved.

If you use a .htaccess password protection for your AdminCP directory, it is recommended that you create a new authorised user for DBTech and remove this user once the issue has been solved.

Please test any temporary accounts you create to ensure that the FTP account has access to the forum files, and that the AdminCP account can access the administrative controls for the product we are assisting you with.

Ensuring this is all in order before submitting the information will significantly speed up the process of assisting you. We will alert you via PM if there's any issues with the login information you have provided.

When sending the PM, for your security you should also un-tick the "Save a copy in my Sent Items folder" checkbox. When the access details have been received, we will delete the PM from our inbox. Ensuring you have not kept a copy of the PM reduces the risk of security breaches.

 

[Gladius]

The version showing as .4 is just me not updating the number in the footer file.
We dont have documentation on it yet. I'll talk to Mokonzi and see if he can do it when he has some time.
Do you have a different ACP theme? The default theme doesn't have the problems you're talking about.
With the modules, each module allows the usergroups selected to do those things. The global one means they can view the downloads pages and see the link.

I've got the default blue v3 theme - note this is different from v4. Ok regarding global.

The not allowed problem might be a 3.8.5 issue. I just tried it with a not allowed file on my 3.8.7 version and it popped up a messed.
With the flash uploader you can't clear out the queue of files to upload I believe.
The next time I work on an update I'll take a look at the button. It's what comes with the flash uploader and I don't know how much you can modify it.
If you want to give me access I'll take a look at the internal server error.

If you want me to take a look, could you please create and PM me with a temporary FTP and AdminCP account?

For security reasons, we recommend you create a new FTP account only for DBTech support, then disable or delete it after we have both confirmed the issue has been solved and there are no further issues.

The same applies to AdminCP accounts; they should ideally be temporary accounts created for us only. If we have created an account on your site already, you can optionally boost that account to Administrator and then de-admin this account once the issue has been solved.

If you use a .htaccess password protection for your AdminCP directory, it is recommended that you create a new authorised user for DBTech and remove this user once the issue has been solved.

Please test any temporary accounts you create to ensure that the FTP account has access to the forum files, and that the AdminCP account can access the administrative controls for the product we are assisting you with.

Ensuring this is all in order before submitting the information will significantly speed up the process of assisting you. We will alert you via PM if there's any issues with the login information you have provided.

When sending the PM, for your security you should also un-tick the "Save a copy in my Sent Items folder" checkbox. When the access details have been received, we will delete the PM from our inbox. Ensuring you have not kept a copy of the PM reduces the risk of security breaches.

There being no way to clear the queue is a pretty big usability issue, I think... it's definitely something that should be there. I'll PM you the info.

 

[Dylan]

On the upload edit page, the Upload and Reset Fields buttons hover on the left, outside of the window layout, in mid-air... and on the download pages, there's a huge blank gap between the File Information and the Description and Comments tabs... is this on purpose, because it looks... weird? Why that huge gap?

Also: trying to add a comment, the popup box for it jumps on top of the forum layout instead of where I am on the page when I click on it, requiring me to scroll up and hunt for it on top of the page... same goes for the Report and other pop up windows using the same script.

Also: <div class="downloads-morebits-box">
<a rel="nofollow" href="vbdownloads.php?do=download&fileid=2"><img src="vbdownloads.php?do=file&thumb=1&fileid=" style="border: 1px solid black;"></a><br>
<a rel="nofollow" href="vbdownloads.php?do=download&fileid=2">hfdh</a>
</div>

This shows a black border around nothing (looks like a |) instead of what I assume should be a thumbnail of "no image".

Also: the rating icons aren't right... I was actually starting at the tick and - for a while trying to figure it out. I didn't expect only a pos/neg system but a 1-5 rating. But even such as it is, it should be + and -... otherwise it doesn't make much sense. Basically, the tick icon should be a + instead.

I'm not sure what's causing that gap, it's not supposed to be there. I'll keep checking.

The popup box was designed to go to a certain screen position, next version I'll work on getting it to go relative to the users current position on the page.

I fixed the missing thumb on the users other downloads.

I'm not sure why he did the ratings icons that way. It is a pos/neg system and I'm not sure why he designed it with a check and minus instead of check and x or + and - or thumbs up/down.

With the upload, the flash uploader is not working. I'm still trying to figure out why. It works with the flash uploader disabled. I'll try and figure out why, that flash uploader isn't the most friendly to work with.

The upload / reset buttons being over to the left must have something to do with 3.8.5. On my 3.8.7 it fits right. That's something else I'm looking at.

 

[Gladius]

Cool, thanks for looking into it.

 

[Gladius]

Another usability issue is the Reset Fields button... while it works as intended outside the Flash uploader, it doesn't give a user the option to clear just the download queue. So for instance if I try to upload a file with an invalid extension and one with a proper one, but get denied the upload and go back, I need to hit the Reset Fields button and delete everything - all the description text included, even if I just need to clear the queue. It would be very useful if there were two buttons, for example "Clear Text" and "Clear Files". That way there's no unnecessary deletion in the case of wanting to clear just the text or just the files (because usually you don't want to do both at the same time).

 

[Gladius]

Also, Delay Advertisement doesn't seem to be working either... all files download immediately for me?

Damn, lost the post when the boards here went down. :/

Basically, I figured out that every usergroup a member belongs to needs to have a delay set... so it's quite inconvenient to change the delay as it needs to be done for each usergroup one at a time. Would it be feasible to implement a global setting here to make this more user-friendly?

Also Dylan, I added another category with an image, but it's not showing on the downloads index for some reason... I tried uploading a file to it just in case, but it gave me the "You don't have permission..." notice... wth? Are the usergroup permissions not followed properly here? Because I only allowed Registered Users to upload, but obviously that should also include all users who belong to this usergroup and any with higher permissions...?

Edit: yea, that seems to be the case... it's kinda working now that I added the Administrator user group too. I think this is incorrect behaviour though.

It's also telling me the files I uploaded are in the moderation queue (the irony), but I can't see this queue anywhere... it doesn't show in the Mod CP... where should it be?

Edit #2 : there's also an invisible character in the editor field that appears as the first entered character, like a space... this should be removed?

 

[Gladius]

I have to say that I'm disappointed; I expected this mod to be much further along after 2 years. The basics are there, but nothing beyond that, and there's a lot of badly needed polish missing and quite a few very obvious usability issues to address... I mean, this is a paid mod and it's lacking a bunch of features that the free DownloadsII has (even layout-wise DownloadsII is much more pleasing to the eye). I don't know what happened with David but it seems development on this has pretty much stopped. Right now I can't see a single area that feels better executed in vBD than in DownloadsII and that's very worrying. I can't see this mod being a serious alternative to D2 if it doesn't even match, let alone surpass it.

Are there any plans at all for getting this up to scratch soon?

(I'm going to put all the suggestions for implementation in a separate thread after I finally get everything to the point that I can use it without issues, I'm posting it all here just for the time being.)

 

[Cosmic]

I have to say that I'm disappointed; I expected this mod to be much further along after 2 years. The basics are there, but nothing beyond that, and there's a lot of badly needed polish missing and quite a few very obvious usability issues to address... I mean, this is a paid mod and it's lacking a bunch of features that the free DownloadsII has (even layout-wise DownloadsII is much more pleasing to the eye). I don't know what happened with David but it seems development on this has pretty much stopped. Right now I can't see a single area that feels better executed in vBD than in DownloadsII and that's very worrying. I can't see this mod being a serious alternative to D2 if it doesn't even match, let alone surpass it.

Are there any plans at all for getting this up to scratch soon?

(I'm going to put all the suggestions for implementation in a separate thread after I finally get everything to the point that I can use it without issues, I'm posting it all here just for the time being.)

I'll let Dylan handle the specific questions, but I just wanted to pop in and say that yes a significant update/rewrite of the mod is on the cards. David is no longer part of the team (and hasn't been for a while) and the mod is now under Dylan's portfolio. This unfortunately means the normal upgrade schedule for the mod was interrupted so it has gone a little longer without a major update than would usually be the case.

 

[Gladius]

I'll let Dylan handle the specific questions, but I just wanted to pop in and say that yes a significant update/rewrite of the mod is on the cards. David is no longer part of the team (and hasn't been for a while) and the mod is now under Dylan's portfolio. This unfortunately means the normal upgrade schedule for the mod was interrupted so it has gone a little longer without a major update than would usually be the case.

Thanks for the heads up Cosmic, as long as you're aware of the issues here I trust that I won't ultimately regret going for a lifetime licence with this one. The mod really needs to catch up to D2 fast and surpass it to justify the price tag.

 

[Dylan]

I just installed a new version on your server, let me know what errors we have left heh.
One thing I wanted to know, do you have suhosin installed on the server?
From what I've seen on that 403 upload error, there is some protection that makes the swf uploader look like another user.

I'll need usergroup permissions if you want me to take a look at the delay problem

With the permissions, there is no way to tell "higher" usergroups. You need to specify the usergroups that have access, I don't know any mod that knows a higher usergroup.

Admin didn't have downloads modcp access, I added it so it's in the downloads dropdown now.

 

[Gladius]

Nice, I'll check it out.

Regarding suhosin, it's not installed (to my knowledge anyway). We are running PHP as CGI in case that has any bearing on it, though. This is standard in Ensim's high security mode.

I figured out what the issue was with the delay, basically the same as with all the other permissions; it's not enough to add delay to one usergroup a member is part of (say Registered users), for an Admin, you specifically need to add the Administrators user group as well. That's a problem because it gets to be a mess when you've got a bunch of primary and secondary user groups... as you literally need to edit the delay in each one of them to be sure that it works everywhere. You see the issue with this? Normally permissions everywhere are inherited; in this mod it's exactly the opposite. It probably couldn't be done differently on a usergroup level, which is why I feel there should be a global setting to get around this if you just want to say set the same delay for all users except those who belong to one or two usergroups.

Either that, or have a separate Permissions panel like in vBActivity (vbactivity.php?do=permissions) where all the relevant permissions can be applied quickly across all the usergroups from a single page. That would simplify and speed it up immensely.

Edit: btw, is there any sort of notification when new downloads are waiting in the approval queue? I didn't see anything...

Edit2: there should also be an option of displaying both an image and the default text for download categories, not just one or the other.

Edit3: I'm also missing some ad location spots... for example, you could have skyscraper spots on both the left and the right side, plus a central ad spot above and below the Files listing on download pages. On the downloads index, there should be an ad spot just above the Categories listing for starters.

 

[Gladius]

Ok, here's a quick list of things that I assume should be quick/easy fixes:

• Extensions - [Add New Extension] [Add Extension Group] links are white text on bright grey background - unreadable. I spent quite some time looking around for them before I spotted them. Same thing with Categories. (Default blue ACP v3 skin)
• Add descriptions for what exactly each module in Manage Modules does
• Flash uploader - we could really use that upload % indicator or at least some sort of notice after hitting the upload button - popup or on-page like "Please wait while your files are uploading!" while we're waiting for you to fix the Flash uploader. As it is right now, I know that a lot of people won't get that they need to wait for the upload to finish before clicking again and will keep mashing that upload button. An obvious notice would prevent that.
• Edit File & Delete File links should be renamed to Edit & Delete Download instead - this would be for the sake of consistency as well as clarity as "download" suggests a file + description whereas "file" suggests you're only editing the file and not the whole entry
• Replace the rating check icon with a + or just replace both icons with new +/- ones.
• There's an invisible character pre-entered in the text editor field that appears as the first entered character, like a space... this should be removed

Thanks for fixing the rest of the stuff already!

(The rest of the issues/suggestions I'll put into a separate post later on to make them easier to go through.)

 

[Dylan]

What annoys me is I fixed the ACP link problems while on vacation then overwrote them when I got back
I'll get those fixed again

I'll check what's going on with the extra character in the editor

with the flash uploader, I think that's a security thing on your server (possibly mod_security if you have it installed?), not sure if there's anything I can do with the program to change that. I'm not all that familiar with the server security side of things to know how to bypass it.

 

[Gladius]

Doh, having to do the same work twice sucks.

Hm, yes, I do have mod_security... but this is a very common install on servers these days so I'd suggest looking into how to make the flash uploader work with it... because otherwise a lot of your customers won't be able to use that uploader. Maybe someone else on the DBT team has more knowledge about this specific issue? Such flash uploaders are relatively common and I don't think we've had any problems with other apps on the server that also use flash for this purpose so there must be a workaround for it.

But in the interim, if you could implement what I suggested for the regular uploader it should help things along a lot.