Creating resources

[kolakube]

Once a website platform or online tool gains a certain amount of popularity you will see a community form around it to share unofficial support and user-created resources for the platform. The most relatable examples being the XenForo Resources manager, and all of the addons and themes on vBulletin.org back in The Day.

These resources aren't just limited to addons and themes of course, though they seem to be the highest class of resource out there. Other examples are publishing your own tutorials, releasing graphics, and sharing code snippets.

For the platforms and software you use, have you ever released a resource? If so, what was your favorite creation?

 

[Arantor]

For the platforms and software you use, have you ever released a resource? If so, what was your favorite creation?

For SMF I released somewhere around 100 addons over time. Some very small, some large.

SimpleDesk (ticket system) and Levertine Gallery (gallery) were the two I spent the most time on, and am most proud of.

Favourite, though, that's a whole different question. I don't think I have a favourite.

 

[Cory]

As you probably know, I code for Jcink. I have created over 200 codes and released them on my board for administrator's use. All you use is a combination of JavaScript/jQuery mostly, so it's not too hard to code for the software. I've never created an actual "add-on" for a forum software considering my coding days have been primarily on InvisionFree, ZetaBoards, and now Jcink.

My favorite resource I've coded for Jcink is probably my feedback system, which is kind of like an eBay feedback system. You may ask how I accomplished such a feature with no database access, an old friend taught me how to utilize forums/topics for database usage essentially and use AJAX to fetch that data to be displayed where needed.

 

[kolakube]

Favourite, though, that's a whole different question. I don't think I have a favourite.

Well, when you have 100 addons I think the fair answer is...

*warning: sports reference incoming*

My favorite addon? The next one.

 

[kolakube]

As you probably know, I code for Jcink. I have created over 200 codes and released them on my board for administrator's use. All you use is a combination of JavaScript/jQuery mostly, so it's not too hard to code for the software. I've never created an actual "add-on" for a forum software considering my coding days have been primarily on InvisionFree, ZetaBoards, and now Jcink.

That's pretty impressive you were able to make that many with such a limitation in place. From an admin perspective it is nice because the majority of your addons can just be copied/pasted, but I'd worry about using so much JS over time.

 

[Cory]

That's pretty impressive you were able to make that many with such a limitation in place. From an admin perspective it is nice because the majority of your addons can just be copied/pasted, but I'd worry about using so much JS over time.

You just have to get a little creative with what you can all manipulate with JavaScript and listen to other user's ideas. But yeah, some people do definitely go overboard and add too many scripts to their board.

 

[Cedric]

That's pretty impressive you were able to make that many with such a limitation in place. From an admin perspective it is nice because the majority of your addons can just be copied/pasted, but I'd worry about using so much JS over time.

Back in the days of InvisionFree that’s all we had. We’d run countless scripts and sometimes it would break, more amazingly most of the times everything blended in very well without really breaking or slowing down the forum. And at one point we saw the javascripts being hosted externally which made our code snippets in the board wrappers much more organized.

 

[Darth Cognus]

I've worked with a couple of platforms that whipped up a wiki-forum account connection and I kick myself for not encouraging those to turn into more open projects because that always seems to be tricky to find and implement. I think the two get along splendidly with a little TLC.

 

[Jason]

I'd like to get into that, but I haven't even mildly mastered Python yet. Anyway, I think forum mods are written in PHP, though.

 

[Arantor]

Forum mods are written in whatever language the forum is - Discourse plugins are written in Ruby, NodeBB plugins are written in Node etc.