Allegro.cc site tour

Allegro.cc site tour

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

I've made an Allegro.cc site tour. It's an interactive tour that I'd ideally like to get newbies to try out before making their first post. Presently, I've finished chapters 1-3, and it has 82 separate slides. When it's finished, the chapters will be:

Main Page (Done!)
Manual (Done!)
Forums (Done!)
Control Center
Depot
Creating Threads
Posting
Editing

To install it, head over to your Custom JS/CSS page and put this in the JS box:
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cgamesplay.com/bin/tour/"></script>');Then empty your cache, and press save (or press save and then Ctrl+Refresh the page you get redirected to).

I've tested this in Firefox, and I'd like to get others to try it out, and let me know if it works in their browsers, as well as their opinion of the actual idea of a site tour. Thanks!

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

Thomas Fjellstrom

Member #476

June 2000

No workie de konqueror.

edit, infact, in the upper left hand corner of the custom css/js page, there is now this: ').js">

--
Thomas Fjellstrom - [website] - [email] - [Allegro Wiki] - [Allegro TODO]
"If you can't think of a better solution, don't try to make a better solution." -- weapon_S
"The less evidence we have for what we believe is certain, the more violently we defend beliefs against those who don't agree" -- https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/592870205409353730

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

I have the same thing. Not my fault 8-)

Does Konqueror produce a script error?

Let me give more concise directions: add the above javascript to your custom JS box, save, control refresh, and be on the control center page. The control center page is what makes the tour start

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

Thomas Fjellstrom

Member #476

June 2000

Yeah see, I did the ctrl+refresh from the cc page the first time, then I tried others.

No errors except on the actual theme-css page:
Error: http://www.allegro.cc/cc/theme-css: TypeError: Undefined value

BAF

Member #2,981

December 2002

It showed the "Loading" screen for entirely too long at first.

BAF.zone | SantaHack!

HardTranceFan

Member #7,317

June 2006

Hey, great idea. I take it that it'll kick in once a new member has registered?

I tried it out on FF Portable (it worked fine), and had a n00b moment - actually learnt a little bit more about the site.

--
"Shame your mind don't shine like your possessions do" - Faithless (I want more part 1)

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Quote:

No errors except on the actual theme-css page:

Odd. I'll see if it's the balloon library I wrote causing the problem. Oh, are cookies enabled?

Quote:

It showed the "Loading" screen for entirely too long at first.

It's actually loading, so...

Quote:

Hey, great idea. I take it that it'll kick in once a new member has registered?

Nope, I don't have control over what new members see, they'd have to install it themselves.

Quote:

actually learnt a little bit more about the site.

I tried to throw something in there for everyone

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

Rampage

Member #3,035

December 2002

Neat. The dialog needs a "Back" link, though.

How is this supposed to be used? Newbies would have to know how to change their custom JS before they can use it to learn.

Will Matthew do anything about it?

-R

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Quote:

Newbies would have to know how to change their custom JS before they can use it to learn.

I'm thinking about making a website "installer" where you provide your user name and password and it installs it for you.

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

GullRaDriel

Member #3,861

September 2003

I tested it and it worked nice !

If only I had something equal when I first came there

"Code is like shit - it only smells if it is not yours"
Allegro Wiki, full of examples and articles !!

Simon Parzer

Member #3,330

March 2003

In Opera it just shows the Loading... screen. But I suspected something like that. Opera has a lot stricter JavaScript implementation compared to Firefox or IE.

Tested it in Firefox and it worked great. It looks like it was a lot of work.

LennyLen

Member #5,313

December 2004

Quote:

In Opera it just shows the Loading... screen. But I suspected something like that. Opera has a lot stricter JavaScript implementation compared to Firefox or IE.

I had the same problem. The status bar showed it loading to about 13Kb, and after that it just hung on the loading message.

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Quote:

In Opera it just shows the Loading... screen.

Can you give me a script error or something? Just for background information, the initial loading screen: creates an iframe; loads the custom js/css page; updates the tourConfig variable; submits the form; removes the iframe; then closes the loading screen. You can see the code for it at http://cgamesplay.com/bin/tour/steps.js, right up near the top, in the 'saveConfig' key.

The script uses cookies to decide where to open the tour to when the page changes... those have to be enabled as well.

[edit]
Link updated.

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

LennyLen

Member #5,313

December 2004

Error log attached.

edit: There are some unrelated CSS errors n there as well.

Kibiz0r

Member #6,203

September 2005

I had no problems, but it would be nice if there was something like a table of contents, so newbies might be more likely to go straight to the part they are concerned with.

---
https://www.allegro.cc/account/agreement <-- Read it, newbies.

Thomas Fjellstrom

Member #476

June 2000

Quote:

newbies might be more likely to go straight to the part they are concerned with.

And thats exactly why there shouldn't be a table of contents

Kibiz0r

Member #6,203

September 2005

Many of them couldn't be bothered to thumb through the reference that came with it, much less the manual on the site... You really think they'll stick around if the tour doesn't answer their question immediately?

---
https://www.allegro.cc/account/agreement <-- Read it, newbies.

Thomas Fjellstrom

Member #476

June 2000

Quote:

You really think they'll stick around if the tour doesn't answer their question immediately?

All the better.

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Quote:

I had no problems, but it would be nice if there was something like a table of contents, so newbies might be more likely to go straight to the part they are concerned with.

Head back to the control center and press Begin Tour

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

Jeff Bernard

Member #6,698

December 2005

CGamesPlay said:

I'm thinking about making a website "installer" where you provide your user name and password and it installs it for you.

Yeah, giving out one's password is never a bad thing to do. ::)

--
I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

LennyLen

Member #5,313

December 2004

Quote:

Yeah, giving out one's password is never a bad thing to do.

CGamesPlay already has pages that use the A.cc login.

Jakub Wasilewski

Member #3,653

June 2003

Quote:

CGamesPlay already has pages that use the A.cc login.

It's different in this case (at least if you mean Minorhack). The password never actually leaves A.cc, only some login information identifying you as a user.

---------------------------
[ ChristmasHack! | My games ] :::: One CSS to style them all, One Javascript to script them, / One HTML to bring them all and in the browser bind them / In the Land of Fantasy where Standards mean something.

weapon_S

Member #7,859

October 2006

I was really looking forward to a tour but I'm using Opera... :'(
I tried IE 6, but it doesn't work at all.(Perhaps of some crappy settings; I never use it.)
I've attached a un-/barely readable error output of opera. Hope you make it work for all the browsers.

Yes well, legibility and correct punctuation might not be "street"... but that's how I roll, motherfucker. -Edward.
Yes it sounds more authoritative to invoke some cute phrase every few sentences, but it doesn't actually make an argument any more impressive. Matthew Leverton

CGamesPlay

Member #2,559

July 2002

Okay, I downloaded Opera and messed with it. Opera supports neither the toSource function nor the uneval function, so I had to get an additional JSON library to cope. Because of the increasing number of JS files, I combined them into a single one. Finally, due to Opera caching the old JS on refresh, I had to write a somewhat dirty hack to work around it.

/* BEGIN TOUR */
var tourConfig = null;
if(typeof(dryrun)!='undefined') document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cgamesplay.com/bin/tour/"></script>');
else{dryrun = false;var d = new Date();document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.allegro.cc/js/user.js/2559?'+((d.getTime()-d.getMilliseconds())/1000)+'"></script>');}
/* END TOUR */

Should work in Opera and Firefox. Try it out in Konqi as well!

I'm aware of the arrow alignment issues in Opera. Don't know why they happen.

--
Tomasu: Every time you read this: hugging!

Ryan Patterson - <http://cgamesplay.com/>

bamccaig

Member #7,536

July 2006

It's a great idea and I'm impressed by the interface, but it's far too demanding on resources... Why does it take so long to load each time? And why are you hiding the bulk of code? :-/

In the amount of time I'm waiting for the tour on each page to load I could have downloaded a flashy, user-friendly Flash interface and not have to wait for loading times anymore (and it would also take care of some browser-compatibility issues).

--
I mean the best with what I say. It doesn't always sound that way.