Hi stacef,
thanks for your questions.
I’m a little bit confused, on how you have envisioned those “signup tables”.
If you allow subscribers to edit the tables, they could read and manipulate all existing table data. Doesn’t that raise privacy concerns, especially for an elementary school? Or will only trusted people be allowed to use/view those signup sheets? Or is the collected data not really sensitive (which would mean it is not related to students)?
Well anyway. Unfortunalte, there’s no “safe” way of removing those sections that I can think of at the moment (because all form field data is required to exist, when the form is submitted, so that it can be stored in the database). One solution (which is not safe though, as evil users could easily circumvent it, is to hide the sections with CSS (so that they are invisible, but actually exist in the source code of the page).
That would work, but again is only safe if you trust the users.
Regarding that question with moving the entry within the admin menu: This might be related to WordPress MU. I’m not sure though, as I do not have a test installation of it. It does however work seemlessly on a regular WordPress (on my sites and I have not heard anything different). I’ll try to investigate this on a WP 3.0-alpha install (with MU functionality) soon.
For the visual editor toolbar button: I would REALLY love to add the button there! Unfortunately, the last time I checked on this, this was only possible with a lot of work and hassle, which I didn’t really want to dive into. So, if you have any hints on this (the names of those other plugins would be useful), I’d really appreciate it!
Best wishes,
Tobias
Thread Starter
stacef
(@stacef)
Hi Tobias,
Thanks for the reply and sorry to confuse. I understand your concerns about privacy but, for this particular application, it’s not really an issue. What we’re talking about is parents signing up for a time slot to volunteer in the classroom or signing up to bring drinks for a class party. Yes, one parent could overwrite another parent’s data but I don’t think that will happen – they handle this process currently with paper taped to a classroom door and no one erases other people’s entries. Also, the entire site(s) is password protected and so accessible only by our community.
On hiding those sections, I’m not as concerned about evil users as click-hapy users altering the basic table created by the author. Could I do something along the lines of making those form fields hidden if the current user is a Subscriber, otherwise they’re visible? You mentioned doing this (I think) with CSS but I was thinking PHP conditionals.
Do you think it’s possible to allow access to the table separate from the post? In other words, when a table is inserted in to a post can I set it up so a Subscriber can edit table content but not the post content? I’m not sure if your code relies on the WP edit functionality.
I’m happy to poke around and play with some of this code but before I dug in I thought I’d see what you think and maybe get some direction on where these elements live within your plugin.
Thanks for checking on the Admin menu entry issue. You’re probably right – it’s probably related to MU. Maybe someone else has come up against this?
And lastly, thanks for the feedback on the visual editor toolbar button. I have no idea what goes in to making something like that happen. One plugin we use a lot is WP-Polls. It functions similarly to yours in that users create a poll and set options in a separate Polls section of the admin area. Once complete, the user simply adds the shortcode to the post, including a poll id number. All the button in the visual toolbar really does is just paste that shortcode; the user still has to add the id number of the poll he wants inserted. But for infrequent users – or even frequent users that deal with different shortcode syntaxes – this is really helpful and a lot faster than copying and pasting.
Stace
Hi,
thanks for your follow up!
Regarding privacy: Ok, in your case that really doesn’t seem to be an issue then. I just wanted to mention it, so that you are aware of the possibility.
Regarding hiding the unnecessary questions: Doing this with PHP conditionals is not possible, as it will basically break the saving of the transmitted data (i.e. you will lose all settings on the page). Therefore, you’ll need to do it with CSS. That should actually be easier.
If you want, I’ll of course gladly assist in achieving this. (Therefore it would be best, if you contact me by email, which is in the main plugin file and in the Imprint on my website).
Yes, it is possible to separate access to tables and access to posts. There’s no connection between them, so nothing really to watch out for. You can restrict editing posts as you usually would and restrict access to tables with the setting in the “Plugin Options” (well actually you need a filter to set it to “Subscribers” only, but that’s easy).
For the WP MU menu entry: I have one other report on this, but don’t know yet, if the user also uses WP MU. I also didn’t yet have time to check more on this, sorry.
But finally Good News for the visual editor toolbar button: I also found another plugin that does this, so I should be able to add this function to the next plugin version. Thanks for reminding me about it!
Best wishes!
Tobias
Hi,
I think I found the problem with the admin menu entry. I don’t know why it happens now (actually in all WP versions), because it did not before… Maybe one of my other changes conflicts somehow.
Anyway: Here is a possible fix:
Open the file “controller-admin.php” (from the subfolder “controllers”) and entirely remove the lines 202 through 204 (which are
if ( isset( $_POST['options']['admin_menu_parent_page'] ) )
$admin_menu_page = $_POST['options']['admin_menu_parent_page'];
else
).
Then the changing should work again without the error. (Click “Dashboard” after saving the change, to notice it.)
And regarding the visual editor button: I was able to implement that yesterday and it will be included in the next version. 🙂
Best wishes,
Tobias
Thread Starter
stacef
(@stacef)
Hi Tobias,
Thanks very much for all of your help and your very prompt replies.
Your fix for moving the admin menu entry worked like a charm! Thanks!
And great news on the visual editor button – my users will appreciate it. Thanks for that, too!
I will email you directly regarding the other items. You’ve already been more than generous with your time and it means a great deal that you are so willing to help.
Thank you very much,
Stace
Thread Starter
stacef
(@stacef)
Tobias,
Thanks again for all of your help configuring your code to fit my needs!
Two formatting questions:
Is there any way to set the width of the columns? I’ve got a table with two columns and the first column takes about 2/3 of the table, even though the text only takes about a quarter of that column.
The other issue is within the Table Contents of the Admin area. Having more than 4 columns extends past the page boundaries, meaning there is no way to scroll there; you have to widen the browser window which can be difficult on a laptop. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Stace
Hi,
thanks for your questions!
Changing the column widths is possible with CSS. I suggest taking a look at the corresponding question “How can I set column widths?” in the plugin FAQ.
For the scrolling: Don’t you see a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of your browser? I just tested with Firefox and IE8 and I can scroll to the right to cell all columns.
Best wishes,
Tobias
Thread Starter
stacef
(@stacef)
Thanks for the pointer to the FAQs – I should have looked there first.
Unfortunately, I get no scroll bar. I’m testing with Safari 4.0.4 and Firefox 3.5.8 on a Mac.
As always, thanks for all time.
Stace
Hi Stace,
really?! I somehow can’t believe that. I wouldn’t have thought that Macs could show this behavior, especially with both browsers….
Can you make a screenshot?
Does it happen both as admin and with reduced Subscriber layout?
If you want, we could reduce the widths of the textareas with some CSS, so that they are smaller and potentially all fit on your screen.
Best wishes,
Tobias
Thread Starter
stacef
(@stacef)
I checked on a PC and the issue was there with Firefox 3.0.8 but, as you said, in IE it worked as expected. And user role doesn’t seem to make a difference. I will send you a screenshot directly.
Thanks,
Stace
Hi Stace,
wow, that’s weird… Thanks for the screenshot also!
I’ll investigate on this, hoping that it does not affect more people, which would be kind of disastrous…
I’ll email you some CSS that should fix the problem for you.
Best wishes,
Tobias
Dear Tobias,
I wish to know if you have tested (your plugin) on a MU scenario?
Thanks for a so useful plugin!
Best regards, Julio
Hi,
I have not tested with a MU install in much detail, but test install on WP 3.0-beta1 went without issues.
Also, I know of some people who are using the plugin on a MU installation, so I guess it should work 🙂
The best thing for you would probably be to test it on a local test site.
Best wishes,
Tobias
Thanks Tobias for you answer!
I’ll perform some tests on a MU scenario and keep this thread / you updated.
Again, thanks for all time!!
Regards,
Julio
Trying to upload this plugin (Wp-Table-reloaded) and the screen just stalls at “Unpacking the package…” It never gets passed that stage. I can install other plugins without a problem. I’m running the latest version of wordpress. Any suggestions?
