ILIAS open source Forums

Das Forum müsste weiterentwickelt werden. Notwendige Schritte dazu sind:

a) Sammeln der gewünschten Features
b) Diskussion über Sinn der aufgeführten Features
c) Priorisierung unter Berücksichtigung der Nützlichkeit und der Entwicklungskosten
d) Geldspenden, um die Entwicklung des Forums zu finanzieren

Ich habe mal mit a begonnen und die vergangenen und aktuellen Wünsche für das ILIAS-Forum zusammengefasst:
Bitte schreibt in diesem Thread hin, wenn ich was übersehen habe (Beitrag im Forum oder Mantis), oder wenn etwas schon realisiert wurde.
Bitte eröffnet neue Threads für andere Features.
Ich freue mich über die Beiträge.


=== THEMENBEREICH a: Darstellung der einzelnen Threads bzw. der einzelnen Postings

Moderator/Administratorbeiträge highlighten: Colorbox ums Photo/Name
- viewtopic.php?t=4087

Sortieren nach Häufigkeit/Neuigkeit
- viewtopic.php?t=4086

Linke Baumstruktur: zu eng, zu dicht
- viewtopic.php?t=3646

Sticky Function (vgl. PHPBB): Beiträg bleibt an der gewählten Stelle (Implemantation ins RBAC)
- viewtopic.php?t=2605

Optional auf linkes Benutzerfenster verzichten: a) Nach Antworten sortieren (2 Fenster), b) Nach Datum sortieren (1 Fenster) - Moodleansatz
- viewtopic.php?t=3646


=== THEMENBEREICH b: Forenbeiträge archivieren, verschieben, kopieren

SingleThread verschieben
- viewtopic.php?t=2198

Als Tutor/Forenadmin kann man Beiträge verschieben bzw. zusammenfassen?
- viewtopic.php?t=3208


=== THEMENBEREICH c: Userrechte einschränken

New-Topic Problem: Zwei Modi definieren: a) restriktiv: nur Antworten möglich oder b) freier: auch neue Threads dürfen von Usern gepostet werden
- viewtopic.php?t=3843
- viewtopic.php?t=3208
- viewtopic.php?t=2332
- viewtopic.php?t=3160

Add a switch that Allows/Disallows users to Upload files to a Forum.
- viewtopic.php?t=2567


=== THEMENBEREICH d: Posting schreiben

Mehrere Quotes in einem Reply
- viewtopic.php?t=3306






Nicht aufgeführt sind:
- Wysiwyg - es ist eine globale Lösung zu suchen
- Forum Notification ist bereits in 3.8 realisiert

Hi there,

first of all, I think we should keep this topic in english, so anyone can join us.

Second issue: The notification might be realized in 3.8, however, the different notification features (four, as far as I'm counting correctly) are not that esay to distinguish in their scope of consequences. This should be simplified.

Greetings - Florian

Hi,

So far, we have implemented the following changes in the forums on our ILIAS installation. If some of them are of general interest, I can commit them into the repository:

In the repository and the personal desktop, forum items only list the number of unread and new articles.
In ILIAS 3.8 much more attributes are listed.
In our opinion, listing the bare minimum information that is needed to decide whether it is worth opening an object or not, improves the efficiency of the user interface.

Topics in topic view ared ordered by the date of the last post in the topics.
In ILIAS 3.8 the topics are listed by their creation date.
The proposed sorting is the same as done in phpBB. Active topics are on top. If a reply is done on an old topic, it is moved to the top of the list. In our opinion, this kind of sorting improves the efficiency of this list.

Posts are listed with relative dates, dates are localized.
In ILIAS 3.8, some dates are localized, some are not, some are relative, some are absolute.

The photograph of users are shown next to a post.

The number of posts of the user in the current forum is listed.
In ILIAS 3.8 the number of posts in all forums is listed.

The registration date of the user is not listed anymore.
In our opinion, this information is not helpful.

Unread posts are marked with a blue star, new posts are marked with a red star.
In ILIAS 3.8, unread and new posts are visualized using italics and bold text.
We plan to use the same star symbols to mark unread and new files in the repository. Also, we plan adding a tooltip to the stars, stating what they mean, and making the stars clickable, so that they can be used to mark a post as read.

With best regards,
Werner

I vote for an easier handling of the notification feature.

My general question: Is it really necessary to distinguish between the different threads for notification? Does anyone need this feature? Or wouldn't it be sufficient

(a) to be notified about any new posting in a forum?
(b) to be notified about a reply to my posting?

Activation of (a) could be done in the thread overview of a forum
(something like a checkbox with text « Notify me about new postings »

Activation of (b) could be handled like it is now - when adding a post to a thread there is a checkbox « Notify me when a reply is posted »

In 3.8, I can choose: Enable notification for this forum. This feature must be there, also in future.

Then, when I open a discussion thread, I can click on a button: Enable notification for this thread.

We think this is a great new feature.



a) In 3.8, you only have to click one to the button "Enable notification for this forum". This is great, i think - for every teacher observing different forums. With a checkbox, you must cklick twice.

b) No, the new solution is better. In 3.7 I can only get the replies, when I post. But in 3.8 I can be informed about every Mail in a specific thread - even if I am only an observer.

Hello Hansjörg,

monitoring a forum - which is possible since 3.8 - is a great feature indeed! I have engaged myself for it . For tutors and teachers who are responsible for a forum it is a very helpful feature, because you want to be up-to-date about everything that happens in your forum. So no doubt about it. This feature is helpful and necessary.

Getting a short notice when someone replied to a posting of mine is a helpful feature as well. I want to react immediately. So both features should be available within a forum. IMHO the first one should be available on the entrance page of a forum where all threads are listed. The second feature should be available when posting - because that is the moment when you decide that you want to know if and when someone replies.

My question was, if there is still a need to be notified only about a single thread within a forum. I am wondering about the intention of a user using this feature. Does he/she wants only to know if someone is posting something in this particular thread - but not in any other thread or creating a new thread???

If we could get rid of the other notification modes and only offering the notification about the entire forum and about my posting, the user interface could be designed much clearer and easier.

That`s good idea.



In the test38-Installation, the button is available on the entrance page!?



In a specific forum I know, there are about 10 teachers/moderators. Every moderator posts about 5 exercises. Now every student must post some answers and write some replies to answers in 5 or 10 postings. So it is nice if the student can say: I wanna Email-notifications in these 5 (or 10) forums. He wants to see all the discussions in these threads.

Now you can say: Make 10 forums, but they want all the discussions in one forum.

Hans

We are meaning the same page. It is the first page when you enter a forum. It is where you see all listed threads of a forum

Thanks for this example. In this case thread-sensitive notification is really helpful.

So what about this suggestion:

1.) On the main / entrance page of a forum where all threads are listed, a user can decide to be notified about all postings in the forum (incl. new threads).
2.) In every thread the user can decide to be notified about the current thread
3.) At the end of every posting one makes she/he can decide to be notified when a reply is made to this posting.

The main idea behind this concept is: enable notification where the content is.

Hi Matthias

1.) On the main / entrance page of a forum where all threads are listed, a user can decide to be notified about all postings in the forum (incl. new threads).

=> I agree

2.) In every thread the user can decide to be notified about the current thread

=> another suggestion: maybe we can implement the following: On the entrance page of a forum, a user can descide to be notified about all postings in the forum, but also about different threads: I small button to every thread (or a checkbox).

3.) At the end of every posting one makes she/he can decide to be notified when a reply is made to this posting.

=> I agree.

That's how it is now. You choose one or several threads by clicking the checkbox and select notification in the select menu.

But from my point of view this not that elegant. I would like to have only one menu / button for notification on this page. Now there are still two.

I see (now), i did not found the select notification. Yes, One button would be more elegant: "Enable notification for this forum/Enable notification for the selected threads"?

Hans

Of course, these features are great.
However, there are two more ones, i.e., when posting a new topic or answering, there are two check boxes below the text box, reading something like "notify me if someones answers" and "notify me when someone posts inn this topic at all".
I think these ones should thought about again ...

There will be some funding from the HSU for forum improvements with 3.8.0/3.9.0. I listed the features at the release pages ("Communication and Syndication"):

- http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto.php?targe ... nt_id=docu
- http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto.php?targe ... nt_id=docu
- http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto.php?targe ... nt_id=docu

Jens will do some general code revision in parallel. It is uncertain whether the funding will cover the features listed at the 3.10.0 page.

Hi Alex,

Yes, this sounds good to me.
I will coordinate with Jens Conze about the integration of my changes.

Great. Thanks.