# FA Sidebar (now with filters)



## Fennex (Apr 5, 2007)

*the text below was for the first version of the sidebar. For info on the latest version, continue to this post.*


Every day on FA is yet another battle with the tooltips. When you need them they disappear of the screen, and when you don't need them they're in your way. And on those rare moments you're not battling the tooltips you're peering at the screen with a telescope in a vain attempt to figure out what's going on in those ridiculously small thumbnails. And maybe, just maybe, if you're one of those lucky few who are stuck with a small monitor and FA won't even fit on your screen.

Okay, okay. I jest. But it can't be denied that FA has some minor annoyances. Obviously I had to try and fix them. (You've got to waste your time somehow :lol 

The result: Because a picture says more then a thousand words

Features in a nutshell:
Tooltips in a sidebar: Rather self explanatory. Sidebar can be resized and hidden 
Big thumbnails toggle: Big thumbnails in the gallery. (For those people with ungodly huge monitors)
Reflow mode: Forces gallery pages to fit on your monitor. (For those people with smaller monitors that want big thumbnails anyway)

Where to get it:
Firefox extension
Greasemonkey script

Not a Firefox user:
Better luck next time :wink:

Bugs, feature requests, hate mail,...:
This thread or thefennex@gmail.com


----------



## yak (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> Every day on FA is yet another battle with the tooltips. When you need them they disappear of the screen, and when you don't need them they're in your way.





> The result: Because a picture says more then a thousand words


Though from your screenshot i see that you've been using beta for your development, i will still mention that the tooltip behavior was changed there. They are no longer obtrusive, appearing only on demand and are properly being positioned even at the edges of the screen.

Are there any other issues you see with them?


----------



## Rhainor (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Say what, Yak?  Looking at the Beta-site myself, once I click to activate the "tooltip", it acts *almost* just like it does on the mainsite.


----------



## yak (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Weren't they supposed to? The only thing changed was

1. You have to click to see them
2. They no longer scroll off screen
3. When you move the mouse for ore then 10 pixels in any direction, they disappear. 
4. That's it. 

Thus, they are no longer in the way and do not disappear off screen  
Oh, and there's always a chance that you're viewing the site with cached javascripts, and do not see the changes.


I'm all for suggestions, so if any of you have better ideas, you're welcomed to share them.


----------



## robomilk (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Now that's actually quite funky! 

A couple of criticisms however. A majority of the icons on the front page don't show up. And the fact that the bar appears and disappears on certain pages ruins the fluency of the page design alterations.

EDIT: About the frontpage, there are no thumbnails for all flash, music, story and poetry submissions. And all 4 of the sections ("Submissions", "Stories", "Poetry", "Music") have thumbnails (or lack of) in the Submissions section.


----------



## Chomperz (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Two things:

I cannot get the side bar at all on the Control panel, and:

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s125/ilrzil/desu.jpg

The white font color does not go well with the background on the regular theme.


But other than that, this is pretty cool.


----------



## Fennex (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

@Yak:
Tooltip behavior on the beta is a lot better. The only way I see this could still be improved is by using a timeout on the span to make the tooltip appear (so the really lazy people don't have to click), but that would be a lot of extra work for little to no added value.



on to the bugs then...

sidebar disappearing:
It wasn't shown on pages that didn't have any tooltips. I've changed it now to show the sidebar regardless of tooltips.

no thumbnails for music, poetry, stories:
The script tried to replace the small thumbs with big thumbs (they obviously don't exist for non-image submissions). That's fixed now.

white font with regular color scheme:
Assigned the wrong class to the sidebar. Fixed now. Many thanks for the old stylesheet Chomperz. That was really useful.

front page screwed up:
Current reflow code doesn't handle submissions across multiple tables very well. Give me a couple days and I'll have that fixed as well.

reflow mode not working on edit/delete submissions:
Can't be fixed I'm afraid. (Unless some friendly neighborhood Yak would be so kind to add class="thumbnail" in the appropriate places, Wink-wink, nudge-nudge)


----------



## robomilk (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Ahh! Nice fixes! Thanks again for the amazing script!


----------



## Chomperz (Apr 5, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Word, the fixes work well.

maybe in the next release, you should have a set-width definition for Pic-preview tooltips. It's not a real problem, but, just something to think about..


----------



## Fennex (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

New version.

most notable bug fixes:
- weirdness when changing settings across multiple windows/tabs
- various sidebar width bugs
- no thumbnail when big thumbnail of image submission unavailable

new features:
- minor ui redesign
- icons on thumbnail to identify submission type

somewhat hidden features:
- change banner (set fatooltipssidebar.banner to a value between 0 and 14 in about:config)


----------



## yak (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> Unless some friendly neighborhood Yak would be so kind to add.....


Where and what? I don't mind helping out.


----------



## Rhainor (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*



			
				yak said:
			
		

> Weren't they supposed to? The only thing changed was
> 
> 1. You have to click to see them
> 2. They no longer scroll off screen
> ...



I probably should have been clearer.  They no longer scroll off the bottom of the screen (which I didn't notice earlier), but (depending on the position of the submission clicked on) they *do* still scroll off the _side_ of the screen.


----------



## dave hyena (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

They don't seem to anymore. When I click on the title of a submission, which is at the right edge of the screen, the infomation box pops up aligned to the left. In opera.

Overall, it's a right fine change and I'd swear pages load quicker. :O


----------



## Fennex (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*



			
				yak said:
			
		

> Fennex said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



nearly every thumbnail on FA is wrapped into a table with class="thumbnail" making it relatively easy for me to detect them. The only page where this isn't the case is http://www.furaffinity.net/controls/submissions/
Adding that class there would make things a little bit easier for me (and make FA's UI a bit more consistent).


EDIT:


			
				Rhainor said:
			
		

> I probably should have been clearer.  They no longer scroll off the bottom of the screen (which I didn't notice earlier), but (depending on the position of the submission clicked on) they *do* still scroll off the side of the screen.


Weird. Tooltip orientation is hard coded as far as I can see so this shouldn't be able to happen. (Unless you change the position of the submissions like with my reflow mode)

Something I did notice however is that in IE7 scroll position is ignored (scroll way down the page and tooltips appear at the top)


----------



## Rhainor (Apr 9, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

Well, it's happening nonetheless.  It'll shift up if it's near the bottom of the screen, but it ain't shifting left like it apparently should.  I just did a Ctrl-F5 refresh on it, and it didn't change.

'Nother, random thing I noticed about the beta-site...the color has reverted to the normal blue style, but it's still showing the April Fool's Day banner.  Note that I've currently got the option set to the dark theme in my settings on the mainsite (I've been flipping back and forth since the option became available, trying to decide which I like better).


----------



## Fennex (May 7, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

New version again. For this version I have both good news and bad news.

First the bad news:
- The fancy 'auto-apply without needing to reload the page' had to go. It was a massive pain in the ass to maintain.
- Changing settings looks more intimidating than it should.
- I didn't do a lot of testing so there are probably a couple new bugs.

The good news:
- A lot of the semi-hidden settings from the previous version are now available in a fancy options panel.
- Reflow mode now works on the front page, submission management and favorites management. (So it should work everywhere now)
- Resampling of thumbnails so you can get them at exactly the size you want. (this should also fix those rare occasions where FA forgot to do the resizing for the big thumbnails)


And as this is the last stretch before the 1.0 release I've prepped a website as well. (Ignore the front page for now btw. I just wanted to have some fun with web 2.0 clichÃ©s)


----------



## Fennex (Dec 30, 2007)

*RE: FA Sidebar*

*First beta of version 1.0 released*
I would really appreciate it if some people would like to help out with bug-hunting.

new screenshot

Rest of post copy and posted from my journal:



> *What is it?*
> It's a greasemonkey script that fixes a whole truckload of minor annoyances and inconsistencies on some FA pages, and does a complete renovation of some other pages.
> 
> *Greasemonkey?*
> ...


----------



## imnohbody (Dec 30, 2007)

You want bug/comment stuff in here, or PM? I've already found an issue or two to ask about.


----------



## Fennex (Dec 31, 2007)

Either way is fine really. Though posting it in here might save people from having to ask about stuff that has already been answered.


----------



## imnohbody (Dec 31, 2007)

Ok, in no particular order:

1) I noticed that there are two "Control Panel" links, pointing to the same place, right below the submission notice thingy in the upper right corner. Doesn't seem to be breaking anything (both work as they should), but it does seem a little silly. 

2) The inbox handling thing seems a little off. Clicking the "mark as read" button beneath each submission takes the submission away, but doesn't update the notification count until clicking the "apply changes" button. Intentional functionality, or a possible problem?

Firefox 2.0.0.6 on XP Pro, for the record.


----------



## Fennex (Dec 31, 2007)

imnohbody said:
			
		

> 1) I noticed that there are two "Control Panel" links, pointing to the same place, right below the submission notice thingy in the upper right corner. Doesn't seem to be breaking anything (both work as they should), but it does seem a little silly.


I'm afraid I'm not following you there. Could you provide a screenshot?



			
				imnohbody said:
			
		

> 2) The inbox handling thing seems a little off. Clicking the "mark as read" button beneath each submission takes the submission away, but doesn't update the notification count until clicking the "apply changes" button. Intentional functionality, or a possible problem?


You're right, the redesigned inbox is not as clear as it could be and the notification count should be updated. I'm making some changes in that area now. 

And If you don't mind me asking a question myself, what did you think of the overall user friendliness? With me being so close to the project, knowing all the ins and outs of the script, that can be kind of hard to judge for me from time to time.


----------



## imnohbody (Dec 31, 2007)

Fennex said:
			
		

> imnohbody said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Sure. See attachment.



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> imnohbody said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I haven't yet come to a real conclusion, but I'm generally leaning towards liking it. In a day or two I should have some more concrete input on the issue of user friendliness.

(But not right now, I'm like 2 hours overdue for bed, before work tonight.  )


----------



## Fennex (Jan 1, 2008)

Ah, I see now. Let me guess, this only happens when you have no new messages? If so then I think I've just fixed it.


----------



## WolfoxOkamichan (Jan 2, 2008)

I can't seem to get the extensions. =S


----------



## Rhainor (Jan 2, 2008)

WolfoxOkamichan said:
			
		

> I can't seem to get the extensions. =S



Greasemonkey extension for Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Install that, restart Firefox (it'll ask you to after installing Greasemonkey), then install the FA Sidebar script from this thread.


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 2, 2008)

Fennex said:
			
		

> Ah, I see now. Let me guess, this only happens when you have no new messages? If so then I think I've just fixed it.



Correct. When there's new messages, it has everything on the same line, with the message count, then to the right of that the CP link.


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 2, 2008)

Never did get around to my comments on the sidebar... 

Anyway, overall I like, but there's a few issues I have with the UI. The following is all IMO:

1) The filters should use the default FA icons if it doesn't have a special icon, for the non-picture submissions. I'm not interested in the music or poetry, but if I put those categories in the filter the filtered submissions use the large thumbnail, which kind of defeats the purpose of filtering out stuff in which you (generic "you") aren't interested.

Or, better yet, clip out the filtered submissions entirely. Sure, you might miss something, but you pays your money, you takes your chances. 

2) I wouldn't mind the submission inbox handling quite as much if the buttons were at the top of the page, instead of under the submissions. That way, when the submissions are collapsed after selecting what you want to see, you don't have to go chasing after the "apply changes" button. In the current setup, the AC button zips up to the top when you mark everything read and the submission thumbnails disappear. Not a OMGWTFBBQ! problem, sure, but it is somewhat annoying (and that's with just a relative few submissions; I'd probably upgrade the severity of the issue if I had to wade through dozens of submissions each time I opened up FA).

Overall, though, I like it better than the 0.3 "official" version, which I uninstalled after a bit because it didn't seem worth it, just for larger thumbnails. With some documentation on the details (instead of my "trial and error" approach), I think this new version is A Good Thingâ„¢.

One thing that would make it better, beyond the above, though, is to see about making the submissions/page stick between sessions (which may be a part of Ferrox, dunno). It's somewhat bothersome (though, again, not OMGWTFBBQ!) to have to select the larger number of submissions per page each time I go browsing.


----------



## Fennex (Jan 3, 2008)

imnohbody said:
			
		

> 1) The filters should use the default FA icons if it doesn't have a special icon, for the non-picture submissions. I'm not interested in the music or poetry, but if I put those categories in the filter the filtered submissions use the large thumbnail, which kind of defeats the purpose of filtering out stuff in which you (generic "you") aren't interested.
> 
> Or, better yet, clip out the filtered submissions entirely. Sure, you might miss something, but you pays your money, you takes your chances.


Making the filtered icon be the same size as the thumbnail: Done. Making them the size of a big thumbnail is ridiculous. What was I thinking when I wrote that code :roll:

keeping the default icons for non-picture submissions when they are filtered: Difficult. Unless I can find a way to make it clear that this image has been filtered it's most likely not going to happen.

clip out the filtered submissions entirely: Didn't do this at first because of complexity, but it is definitely a more logical way of filtering. Will have to figure something out for thumbnails in tooltips (empty tooltips look stupid, and not showing a tooltip makes the tooltips appear broken) and thumbnails in the message center (automatic removal may be a bit too drastic)



			
				imnohbody said:
			
		

> 2) I wouldn't mind the submission inbox handling quite as much if the buttons were at the top of the page, instead of under the submissions. That way, when the submissions are collapsed after selecting what you want to see, you don't have to go chasing after the "apply changes" button. In the current setup, the AC button zips up to the top when you mark everything read and the submission thumbnails disappear. Not a OMGWTFBBQ! problem, sure, but it is somewhat annoying (and that's with just a relative few submissions; I'd probably upgrade the severity of the issue if I had to wade through dozens of submissions each time I opened up FA).


The position of the buttons is driving me mad as well. I'm still looking for a way that makes them easily accessible from anywhere on the page, without having them be in the way. I'm thinking of putting them in a small box in the bottom right hand corner of the window that scrolls down with the user.



			
				imnohbody said:
			
		

> Overall, though, I like it better than the 0.3 "official" version, which I uninstalled after a bit because it didn't seem worth it, just for larger thumbnails. With some documentation on the details (instead of my "trial and error" approach), I think this new version is A Good Thingâ„¢.


Documentation has sort of been on the back burner for a while now, but I suppose the complexity of the thing does warrant some decent docs. What do you think would work best, a detailed overview of all settings or a problem oriented approach?



			
				imnohbody said:
			
		

> One thing that would make it better, beyond the above, though, is to see about making the submissions/page stick between sessions (which may be a part of Ferrox, dunno). It's somewhat bothersome (though, again, not OMGWTFBBQ!) to have to select the larger number of submissions per page each time I go browsing.


I'll look into it. It's definitely an often requested feature.  And it's been bugging me as well. (Weird how I don't notice things that have been bugging me until someone else points them out)


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 3, 2008)

Fennex said:
			
		

> Making the filtered icon be the same size as the thumbnail: Done. Making them the size of a big thumbnail is ridiculous. What was I thinking when I wrote that code :roll:
> 
> keeping the default icons for non-picture submissions when they are filtered: Difficult. Unless I can find a way to make it clear that this image has been filtered it's most likely not going to happen.



Well, the filtered items appearing with small thumbnails/icons no matter what the general thumbnail/icon size chosen seems like it would be one of the less blecherous alternatives, to me. That may be because I'm not sure how you handle blowing up the thumbnails, though.



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> clip out the filtered submissions entirely: Didn't do this at first because of complexity, but it is definitely a more logical way of filtering. Will have to figure something out for thumbnails in tooltips (empty tooltips look stupid, and not showing a tooltip makes the tooltips appear broken) and thumbnails in the message center (automatic removal may be a bit too drastic)



Making them disappear entirely would be nice, but what I mentioned above, about filtered submissions only showing with the small thumb/icon, seems to me like it'd be an acceptable substitute.

But, then again, I tend to not get too picky about something falling just a touch short of "ideal", if it gets "close enough".



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> The position of the buttons is driving me mad as well. I'm still looking for a way that makes them easily accessible from anywhere on the page, without having them be in the way. I'm thinking of putting them in a small box in the bottom right hand corner of the window that scrolls down with the user.



The "floater" sounds like the least obnoxious way of handling the button movement issue. Next-best would be having the "mark/apply" buttons at both top and bottom, though even without having code access that comes across to me as a clunky sorta-solution.



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> Documentation has sort of been on the back burner for a while now, but I suppose the complexity of the thing does warrant some decent docs. What do you think would work best, a detailed overview of all settings or a problem oriented approach?



Beta products usually do tend to back-burner documentation, I think that's generally accepted by most people inclined towards helping with beta testing.

As for which format for the help, I'd think that the detailed overview of everything would be the best option (if not necessarily easiest, mind you).



			
				Fennex said:
			
		

> I'll look into it. It's definitely an often requested feature.  And it's been bugging me as well. (Weird how I don't notice things that have been bugging me until someone else points them out)



It's easy to fall into the thought process of "it's probably not that big an issue, or else I'd have heard about it already". Lord knows I tend to do it more than I like.


----------



## Fennex (Jan 3, 2008)

Okay, plan of action:

*removal of filtered submissions and fixed submissions/page*: 
Both require changes that may not do well for the stability of the current branch. And considering I may not have enough time this month to provide an effective and properly tested implementation in a reasonable timespan I am moving both features to the 1.1 release. Estimated release date: end of January.

*Current version*:
No known important bugs remaining. A dozen or so actual bugs fixed. Many tweaks and refinements made to various areas, mostly filters and inbox. The ''floater" on the redesigned inbox and correct size for filtered images has been included. Moving out of beta. download link

*Documentation*:
Documentation effort has begun. It may still not be as organized as I would like and it is not yet complete. But what is already there should be enough to get most people started.

*tl;dr*:
Stable version released!
Website here
Direct install link (greasemonkey required)
documentation
installation guide

*Acknowledgement*: (where it gets all sappy :cry
The entire FA staff: none of us would be here without you guys.
Whoever wrote the mess that is the original FA code: If it weren't for you I would never have written this 
The beta tester(s): That means you imnohbody. You've been a tremendous help. Take a bow man.
The FA community (told you it would get sappy :lol

Now where's that :beer: icon. This is the first time I've ever released an actual 1.0 version of anything and I want myself a release party 8).  (Also, I've never used this many smileys in my entire life.)


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 3, 2008)

It's not an icon, but... 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





(Or... BEER!)

After installing the final 1.0 release, though, I did notice one issue, though not with the functionality of the extension. Namely, that the FA Sidebar doesn't appear in the "Add-ons" list that Firefox has. As I recall the 0.3 release did have such an entry, but even after a browser restart the 1.0 release isn't listed. Not one of those ZOMGWTFBBQ things, but at least in my mind having no uninstall option (even if I don't use it) tends to kinda smells of Microsoft's uninstallable "let's screw the user" patches.


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks like I should've actually tried the 1.0.1 release before commenting on it.

After doing the initial setup popup thingy, now I'm not seeing any of the control settings, when I open up the sidebar. The buttons get selected, but nothing appears below it.

Also, what's up with the scroll bars for the large thumbnails? Kinda clunky, and in most cases the space taken up by the unneeded horizontal scroll bars is what's causing the need for the vertical ones.


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 3, 2008)

(disregard, please delete this post, since I apparently can't nuke it myself)


----------



## Fennex (Jan 4, 2008)

Right, apparently some weird stuff happens when installing this version just like that.

Uninstall any and all versions of the sidebar (Tools menu -> greasemonkey ->manage user scripts)
Restart browser
Only then install the new version.

And that _should_ fix things.


----------



## imnohbody (Jan 14, 2008)

Kind of old thread, I know, but I didn't feel like a new one just for a follow-up.

For some reason, when I'm browsing a gallery or the recent submissions, after a while the large thumbnails... well, aren't.

They're spaced to leave room for large thumbnails, but they only show the native FA-sized thumbnails. I'll have to do some research, later, to see if it's the number of submissions or number of pages that's causing the problem... but first I need sleep.


----------



## Fennex (Jan 17, 2008)

imnohbody said:
			
		

> Kind of old thread, I know, but I didn't feel like a new one just for a follow-up.
> 
> For some reason, when I'm browsing a gallery or the recent submissions, after a while the large thumbnails... well, aren't.
> 
> They're spaced to leave room for large thumbnails, but they only show the native FA-sized thumbnails. I'll have to do some research, later, to see if it's the number of submissions or number of pages that's causing the problem... but first I need sleep.


Thats really odd.
I'll see if I can reproduce the problem this weekend.


----------

