Question2Answer 1.4 Priorities

Question

Not really a question, but based on people's responses and my own input, here is the prioritized wish list of major features for Q2A 1.4:

1. New plugin module type: widget. For showing extra content on left or right - can be used to implement plugins for: ask box, popular tags in sidebar, etc... Done.
2. New plugin module type: event. Allows implementation of plugins for posting to Twitter, sending extra email notifications, etc... Done.
3. New plugin feature: theme modifier. Allows part of the theme class to be overridden without defining a separate theme. The theme modifiers from different plugins should (in most cases) play well together. Done.
4. Image and document uploading in rich text editor. Done.
5. 'Flag' button with option to hide automatically and/or notify admin after a post is flagged by a certain number of users. Done.
6. Points-based permissions. Done.
7. Ask question form becomes a single page. Done.
8. Show questions with most answers/votes/hotness. Done.
9. Private messaging. Done.
10. Subcategories (please comment if 2 levels are enough or if it has to go deeper than that, since that will affect implementation). Done (4 levels).
11. Counting and showing question views. Done.
12. Out-of-the-box WordPress user database integration. To appear in beta 2.

As previously, I may well release Q2A 1.4 into beta before all of these are implemented, and some may be skipped if it becomes clear they are too difficult.

The release is scheduled for April-May. But as soon as possible I hope to release a developer preview of Q2A 1.4 with the first 3 items implemented. This will allow people to get started on new types of plugin without waiting for 1.4's release.

Please note that before I start on the above list I will be releasing 1.3.2 with a bunch of fixes for small issues that have been raised, so look out for that first!

Comments

In some cases 2 levels categories are to little. My vote is that infinite subcategories (or ~5) would be much better. It's good for SEO and people have more ideas what to ask and what QnA site is about.

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perfect list! subcategories 2 level is good enough.

Thanks for your great efforts!

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I've just found Q2A after being asked to find Q&A systems for a client, and rejecting more complex ones for a system that can be customised and linked into existing PHP projects. This list of priorities fairly closely matches my client's requirements, which is great news for us. (For us, points-based permissions would rank higher than some of the things above it, but we have a possible cron-based user promotion solution in the meantime).

I think two levels of subcategory is likely to be enough.

Would your content plugin allow the implementation of content that is only available to certain kinds of members?

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@depthoffocus_mike I believe in all the current plugin types you can access the various Q2A functions, therefore can display/action things based on the user, their points, user level, etc.

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Yes - I've just been following up on another point and found an answer which shows me how to limit certain accesses through the theme, too. Thanks for your response.

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I am a bit out actually, but at least regarding the implementation of SUBCATEGORIES y would vote for more than 2 . For example a regional QA site would need more like:
Country -> State -> County or Region -> City or place

The same for a scientific qa site:
Biology -> anatomy -> human anatomy -> organs

I think to maintain the scripts universal power, more categories or at least the database design to add more levels later should be hold in mind from the beginning...


And, regarding the one-site-question-form , to maintain the possibility to have simple question submit forms on third party sites. A la: Ask a related question with redirect to the full form on the qa site, where tags or categories can be prepopulated..

Besides of this I am impressed by the excellent new  feature collection

Will be  back soon...
monk333

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Hey Gideon,

How can we help you in order to finish those changes faster?
Do you have some ETA?

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Version 1.4 is scheduled for release in April-May.

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Thanks for publishing the planed feature list!
Question to "7. # Ask question form becomes a single page".
Right now I really like that the user is asked if his new question is already in the system - after he submits his new question title.
How will this "filter of duplicates" work if the question form becomes a single page? -> something with AJAX after subject-cell is entered? Hopefully this filter-feature remains?

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Question 9. Private messaging is a great idea! Can we also consider an option for private fields when entering a question. We need this so that users can enter their orderID numbers if they purchased a product from us. We don't want everyone to know their order number.

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Is it a bug, or everyone keeps replying to my first comment ? I'm getting notifications.

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No, as far as I know it doesn't save exactly who you replied to, just that you are subscribed to the "thread" so you receive email when anyone replies. I'm also getting emails for every comment added.

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@monk333 you need Forum not Q&A Site. :)

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@gidgreen Would you provide hooks for another editors. For example bbcode editor based on markitup from Jay Salvat http://markitup.jaysalvat.com/home/  ? In my opinion is this editor more beautiful simple and lightweight.
Here how it looks on my site: http://img195.imageshack.us/i/markitup.png/

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@allesubuntu You can already hook your own editor! See the editor plugin section in the advance page (http://www.question2answer.org/advanced.php#module-editor ).

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The most important change is a FEATURE #2

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I think 2 levels is more than enough. Tags really is the most versatile way for people to navigate.

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Thanks gidgreen,

What a wonderful list of new functions!

For the necessary depth for sub-categories, I would vote for 2. I think it is enough to keep my site well-organized, more than 2 levels would cause the site too complex to browse or manage.

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great software, I love it...
my 2 wishes:
1- add filter bad word functionality
2- add openid support
thanks

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so when will the updated features be available in the download ? They are still not present in the developer version.

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votes, answers and views box are highlighted more than the questions on home page. Do you think reducing size of these box will give better visibility to questions?

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Is it possible to implement feature 'permalink' or 'link' to question, answer, and comment in upcoming release? (if it is easy to implement)

permalink or link can be placed before flag option.

why?
if someone want to give a ref to some comment or particular answer then this is very useful.

while answering below question I felt the need of this. I was not able to find direct url to the particular comment.
http://www.question2answer.org/qa/6045/is-there-gonna-be-badges-feature-in-near-future-updates

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@ProThoughts - regarding permalinks to answers or comments - the word 'answered' or 'commented' gives you the permalink.

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@gidgreen it gives permalink to latest answer or comments only on home page but how about old questions. It will be nice feature if users can copy link from answer or comment. What do you think?

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@ProThoughts - I'm talking about the word 'answered' or 'commented' on every answer or comment on question pages...

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'answered' or 'commented'  is only seen on below two pages.
http://question2answer.org/qa/activity
http://question2answer.org/qa/

but not on below page
http://question2answer.org/qa/questions?start=2

permalink is available only for last answer or comment but  it is not available for every answer or comment.

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I would love to see at least 3 or 4 levels for categories. Allowing users to select a secondary category might also be helpful

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@gidgreen is there any way the community can help the development of the question2answer?
Uploading this to a git or anything will make development much faster and the ideas will be discussed much more. I think it's a little bit slower when you take all development by your hand. I'd love to help, actually I found some bugs (for example, you can run any HTML on WYSIWYG, thats dangerous) but I cant contribute to the main project.

What you think?

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@allesubuntu
Thank Your for the hint with the forum, but I do not agree: If You see any scientific website You allways will find more than 2 subcategories. It may be not necessary for most people to have more categories, but it would limit this excelent script very much, at least it would be impossible for all the larger sites to use this script for category related questions and answers. However, it was just my recomendation, as we all was asked to comment...
Please see point 10: Subcategories (please comment if 2 levels are enough or if it has to go deeper than that, since that will affect implementation).

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Thanks a lot for the 1.4 final release. great work!

Answer 1

Loving the sound of the new plugins and points-based permissions. I have a few questions:

1. No badges? It wasn't a popular request this time but it was for 1.3. Or will this be possible with the event module?
2. Would on-site notifications (i.e. post replies) be possible with any of the plugin types, or a combination of plugins?
3. What about things like showing comment forms without a page load? (P.S. I can help with Javascript/jQuery if necessary).
4. For the widget module, will there be fixed positions and pages, or more customizable? e.g. a custom place on the user page.

Comments

1. Yes, it will be possible to build a badges plugin by combining an event module (which detects when certain events happen) with a content module (which can display the badges, I imagine in place of or alongside the user title). This would be quite a complex plugin which would also manage its own database table.

2. Yes, it would be possible to create a system for tracking users' notifications by combining an event module (to track events relevant for each user) with a page module (to display the notifications for the user).

3. Based on the feedback on this site, dynamically loading comment forms didn't make the cut this time round, but I'm very aware of the issue and it's even started bugging me on the Q2A Q&A...

4. For widgets I'm thinking of the following. The widget will specify where it can be displayed in a broad sense, i.e. left side, right side, across full page. The admin can then determine more precisely where the widget appears (e.g. top of page, after title, bottom of page, sidebar, etc...), in what order relative to other widgets, and on what pages (by matching against the request with wildcards). The widget will be told where it is displaying its content, and on what page, and will simply output HTML as appropriate.

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Hi gidgreen, thanks for answering! One more question: is it possible, either now or with the new features, to create admin-only pages? I'm thinking of making a quick tag editor e.g. something to remove any nonsense tags that got added or edit misspelled tags.

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Yes, it's already possible now. Use a page module in a plugin and test if (qa_get_logged_in_level()>=QA_USER_LEVEL_ADMIN)

Answer 2

Can we please get support for SMTP mail.

For those of us using Q2A on IIS on windows, its not suitable to use the PHP mail function.

Comments

Refer to http://www.question2answer.org/qa/336/how-do-i-configure-mail
It tells you how to configure SMTP mail although I have not tried it yet.

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I have tested SMTP mail - and it works perfectly  (v.1.3.2)  :))

Answer 3

Thanks again for making a really nice product!

I agree with Snoopy0815 about feature "7. # Ask question form becomes a single page". Right now I really like that the user is asked if his new question is already in the system - after he submits his new question title. Please keep this functionality to reduce duplicate questions or let it be an option.

About feature 9. Private messaging; can we also have an option for private fields when entering a question, or an easy API to implement them as a customization? We need this so that users can enter their orderID numbers if they purchased a product from us. We don't want everyone to know their order number.

About feature feature 4, image uploading, can you also allow other file types such as PDF, ZIP and RAR, or provide an API to implement them as a customization?

Sorry, my last question, will feature 3 allow an easy method of decreasing the height of the voting and answer boxes so that each question does not consume so much vertical space on the screen?

We need this for production and we are willing to help pay for these updates or make a donation.

 

Answer 4

Great idea banders. Maybe will be possible to donate some money soon for those, who cannot support project with modifications ?

Anyway it costs to rent a server for question2answer.org, so why not ?

Comments

I have not seen any official donation requests. After the new version is released, I can sent you a private message; can't wait for that new version!

Answer 5

About feature 8 (Show questions with most answers/votes/hotness.), while that be a dynamic sorting or an admin config? It would be great if we could decide at runtime the sorting we want (most recent, most answers, votes, hotness...)

Comments

Yes, these will be different user-accessible pages rather than a single setting in the admin interface.

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Excellent, thanks! :)

Answer 6

Well, I have a sugestion which has already been discussed here and it was very well received by Q2A users: closing questions. It is very simple to implement, at least in generic cases, so it also should be in Q2A. And is really good for moderation. :)

Comments

Yes I wanted this too!

Answer 7

http://www.question2answer.org/qa/4056/how-to-install-numeral-captcha

Comments

+1 from me.
I want this too.

Answer 8

In some cases 2 levels categories are to little. My vote is that infinite subcategories (or ~5) would be much better. I would use ... It's good for SEO and people have more ideas what to ask and what QnA site is about.

Answer 9

What about some features for next versions like below samples:

http://www.askmymob.com/q/1366674

Answer 10

In event log it would be very nice to have an event for landing on a page from a referer.

Comments

That should be doable with a plugin, see http://www.question2answer.org/plugins.php
Maybe an event plugin if there is an event for page load, otherwise a widget will work.

Answer 11

So when is beta 2 going to be released? :-D

My suggestions:

- category-images

- use PO and MO files for translations

- an in-build widget for top 5 users

- an in-build widget for top 5 hot questions

- an in-build widget for "who's online?"

- an in-build widget for "donate me!"

- an in-build widget for social media buttons like hyves, facebook, ..

- advanced search (i.e. let users specify whether they wanna search only in title, content or tags)

- option to view excerpt (like first 50 characters or so) of question-content underneath the question-title on the frontpage

- button in admin panel to backup your database

- a field in admin panel where you explicitly place the link for a favicon

- a field in admin panel where you explicitly place the code for Google Analytics

Comments

Oh yeah I forgot!!

A second password field @ registration, for preventing not mistyping your password when you only use one password field.

With two password fields you can check whether the passwords match and then let registration go on.