SurfiOnline

I’ve just posted a huge (28) batch of screenshots from the new Messenger Plus! Live which is currently in private beta, over at my flickr account.

Take me to the Messenger Plus! Live photoset.

For lack of a better buzzword to go in the title.

This weekend saw me once again battling with the fierce client side scripting language commonly known as Javascript. The good forces of my self however once again prevailed and I’m happy to introduce to you two new things which will appear in MyBB 1.2 despite our best attempts at telling you they wouldn’t make the cut for this release.

This functionality is very easy to implement in other pages too, thanks to the design of the classes in which they operate from. How simple? Try one line of javascript is required to add this functionality to a page. (and maybe altering some of the markup a tad)

I’ve created two small videos which show this new functionality in MyBB. If you cannot see the videos then you need to download the XviD codecs.

Auto Completion

Auto suggest, auto complete. Both words which essentially describe the same thing. It’s been long requested that MyBB support the auto complete functionality for username fields when sending private messages (and other places) and after several hours of work on Saturday and ploughing through piles of Javascript problems (especially cross browser problems), it is finally in.

Video: mybb_auto_complete.avi (2.7 MB)

Inline “Quick” Editing

Some see the point whilst others do not. Inline editing is basically what it says it is – it allows you to edit data “inline” without loading another page for that specific functionality. (so to speak)

The better part of today (Sunday) was spent tackling this monster too – getting it all implemented and working.

Right now, MyBB 1.2 only supports this on the thread listing pages for thread subjects. It’ll be extended to post subjects on the show thread page and eventually will also cover editing actual messages. (the class will need to be reworked a little for that functionality)

The basics of it are that you click and hold down on the link on the thread listing and the link suddenly changes into a text box from where you can edit the title of the thread and then press either enter, escape or click outside of the text box to save your changes.

We decided for a bit of a different approach to other boards who don’t seem to show the user that an action is being carried out by the XML HTTP Request library – that is, the title is being saved. It is hard to see from the example video (due to it running off a local networked machine) but a “spinning” image (OS X users will be familiar with this) appears whilst the thread title is updated behind the scenes. Once complete – it will go away.

Video: mybb_quick_edit.avi (895 KB)

The best thing about this javascript is that it is tiny compared to the same functionality found in other bulletin boards. Less overhead means quicker page load times! For example, the auto complete functionality:

• Invision Board: 15 KB
• vBulletin: 9 KB
• MyBB: 6.2 KB

We’ve also had several other interesting commits come in to MyBB since my last update here but we’re keeping a bit of it under wraps for a bit longer and maybe I’ll leave it to some of the other developers to explain what they’ve been up to recently.

For now until then, take it easy – more updates will be in soon!

So there is this one day of the year for each person on the globe that they celebrate something. I’m having quite a bit of trouble working out what that day is called and the purpose of it.

I’m lead to believe it involves how many years someone has been alive and that it is some sort of anniversary. Rumor also has it that you are sometimes given gifts by certain people and “wished well” by others.

I scouted around on Wikipedia for a while and came up with a possible solution to the word i’m looking for to describe this event.

Yes, I’m now 19.

At about 12PM Today, I was greeted by a man dressed in a blue suit from Star Track Express out the front of our house. There was no question about what he was delivering – it could only be one thing. Of course, I also knew this because I’d been refreshing the tracking page on the Star Track Website (left for delivery at 7:53AM).

The package was signed for and I was given a small brown box just large enough to contain the Mac Mini as well as some extra padding foam. I quickly whipped it away to my room and opened the box to reveal what was inside.

Continue reading ‘Mac Mini: First Impressions’

I decided I’d give Apple a call today to see what they could do about the shipping on my Mac Mini – it was expected to ship on the 22nd and be delivered by 28th. Much to the delight of myself, the Apple guy said that because I live in Sydney, I’d most probably receive it on the 23rd. Okay I was thinking – Apple is giving me a birthday present on my birthday!

This wasn’t the case. Much to the delight of myself I noticed after I came home from work that I had an email stating “Shipment notification for order # 7033747490″. First I thought this was spam as there were no tell tale signs of it being from Apple. A quick check of the mail headers which showed it was from Apple and I decided the attachment was safe.

So now i’m looking at something like below on the Apple site, with the date of arrival the 23rd – but it should be here by Monday due to my close proximity. The tracking number isn’t up at Star Track however, so we’ll see.

Can’t wait.

Yes people, it is time. Time to make the switch.

Of course, now I need to order a 4 port KVM Switch which supports DVI and USB. I found one for $318.00.

Michele, are you proud of me now? Hehe.

Essential OSX apps? Give me advice!

Now DennisTT (MyBB Developer) has had his turn on talking about 1.2 and what he has been up to. If you’re after what he’s been doing recently and a bit of a MyBB update, head on over there.