Private Messages new window reply bug

[Jeff7]

I don't know if this is a minor tweak that can be made on the Anandtech servers, or if I have to make this suggestion at Fusetalk's site.
I had a window open, typing a reply to one user. Then, I noticed something in the window behind - another user I needed to send a message to also. I clicked reply there - this opened the new reply link in the existing window, wiping out all that I'd typed. Would there be a way to make it open a new window for each user that is being PM'd? This has happened to me a few times before; I'm used to things popping up their own windows, instead of taking over existing ones.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'm betting on a finger point at IE...

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

It would take just a tiny bit of new code to work around it...

The reply link fires off the function pmwinopen which takes the parameters of url, the name of the window, and the dimensions.
Since they are just calling the window "ViewPM" the link will always open in the same window.

However, they could easily tack on the messageid onto the end of the "ViewPM" (ex. "ViewPM7511850"). This would ensure that every single reply click would open in a new window (unless you clicked reply on the same message, this would refresh the window basically).

An alternate would be to tack on the profileid of the person you are pming onto the end of the "ViewPM" (ex. "ViewPM42964" if I were pming you). This would ensure that each person's reply window would be in a unique window (but just 1 window per person)


Summed up, above are two ways to easily implement your suggestion, but both would require a change in the code, which they probably aren't willing to do at this time as it DOES work as coded.

 

[Confused]

Or you write 1 pm, send it, then write the next


Using 1 window for PMs has been in place as long as i can remember.


Confused

 

[Lord Evermore]

Easy changes to code never means it actually gets done.

 

[Jason Clark]

Actually it's already in our bug tracker and in the next build.

P.S Lord, maybe you can head on over to Microsoft and knock on the Microsoft Internet Explorer development teams door, tell them their WYSIWYG editor / DHTML ActiveX edit control isnt working. Maybe you can show them how it's done? <kidding> Seriously, the WYSIWYG editor is not developed by fusetalk it's a Microsoft control thats all it is, with a gui wrapped around it that just calls their functions. I believe we're looking at some pure java editors for a later release so OSX and netscape can use it.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I don't know anything about coding, but I'd think it's not an IE issue causing the editor to not paste in what you tell it to put in. I personally simply wouldn't be paying to use something that didn't work.

 

[Jason Clark]

The base control handles all events from cut and paste to bolding etc, not the developer. Some editors like eWebEditPRO from Ektron handle bringing in word content better as they wrote new controls to replace functionality in the COM object from Microsoft. We may offer the Ektron editor in the future to our customers, but that?s still up in the air. Again, this is not a forum issue, and has little to do with FuseTalk as they neither designed the control or the wrapper, FuseTalk OEM's ActivEdit that?s all. FuseTalk is investigating using alternate editors for a number of reasons in the future (end of year type thing)

Thanks

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Confused
Or you write 1 pm, send it, then write the next


Using 1 window for PMs has been in place as long as i can remember.


Confused

I'm a multitasker, but sort of like Windows 3.1 was. It made it LOOK like it could multitask, but it actually couldn't. I can think of only one thing at a time, but there's not enough memory to remember what the other stuff was, for instance, the fact that I already HAVE a PM window open.

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
It would take just a tiny bit of new code to work around it...

The reply link fires off the function pmwinopen which takes the parameters of url, the name of the window, and the dimensions.
Since they are just calling the window "ViewPM" the link will always open in the same window.

However, they could easily tack on the messageid onto the end of the "ViewPM" (ex. "ViewPM7511850"). This would ensure that every single reply click would open in a new window (unless you clicked reply on the same message, this would refresh the window basically).

An alternate would be to tack on the profileid of the person you are pming onto the end of the "ViewPM" (ex. "ViewPM42964" if I were pming you). This would ensure that each person's reply window would be in a unique window (but just 1 window per person)


Summed up, above are two ways to easily implement your suggestion, but both would require a change in the code, which they probably aren't willing to do at this time as it DOES work as coded.

Yeah, I saw that; sort of like the links that the forums open when you click a link in a post. I need to do Shift+click for each, because each link I click tries to open in the same new window. The source says target=new. I use target="new window" when I created HTML pages, and that opens a new window for EACH link clicked, which seems preferable. I tend to forget that a certain window was created by an Anandtech forum link, and then it's wiped out (too often along with a typed response to another thread) as the new page loads over it.



Glad to hear that this PM thing is a bug that'll (hopefully) be squashed.

 

[Confused]

If you're not using the WYSIWYG editor, then if you inadventantly open a new link, just click back (if you've not got a button on your mouse that will do that, click somewhere that isn't in the text box, and press the Backspace key) and your post will be there. Alternatively, just do a ctrl-a and ctrl-c every now and then when writing pms/posts

That'll be a short-term fix until it gets updated again


Confused

 

[Lord Evermore]

Retention of text doesn't always work when you accidentally go to another link. I had it working, but then it broke again, and I don't know why. Using Proxomitron is what causes it, but even setting it to not activate on these forums doesn't work now, which it did a few weeks ago.