Attachment Management

[jwxie]

I think this is a big topic to be discussed. I just want to start this, so tell everyone what do you think about the current management, and what do you expect for the future?

1. Store by month instead of user_id
2. Rename each attachment
3. Add watermark
4. Use Gmail attachment's upload method (show the upload bar and stay on the same page - without refreshing the page)
5. Multiple selection
6. Users can keep track of what they have uploaded (a new page in their profile)
7. FTP mod (Paul wrote one, we can store attachment on a different server)
8. Group / User permission - administrator can set a limit quota or maximum upload size for each group
9. Thumbnails

[Phil]

1. Store by month instead of user_id

Why?

2. Rename each attachment

Why?

3. Add watermark

That could be an option, sure.

4. Use Gmail attachment's upload method (show the upload bar and stay on the same page - without refreshing the page)

So some sort of AJAX-based upload, then?

5. Multiple selection

What?

6. Users can keep track of what they have uploaded (a new page in their profile)

An attachment management ACP module would probably not be a bad idea.

7. FTP mod (Paul wrote one, we can store attachment on a different server)

This would probably be a portion of the scalability changes, though on sites large enough for this to matter there are better ways to do it.

8. Group / User permission - administrator can set a limit quota or maximum upload size for each group

I would imagine this would be a result of the new permissions architecture anyway.

9. Thumbnails

Is already a feature
To be honest jwxie I think you've really been jumping the gun here and in other topics. Core architecture needs to be written before anything like this is relevant; such should be planned first.

[jwxie]

Seriously, I do not understand what this forum is for.
First of all, team members even posted threads on features, not just me.

Secondly, we are here to give ideas and we do not get pay for this.

A team member said he and the phpBB team wanted to introduce ideas here, not to bring revolution(to change phpBB into a new software). I got that, and so I gave some ideas about what we could do with attachment.

Isn't this an idea?
I even said this in here and quite honestly, I wrote it.
viewtopic.php?f=75&t=32094

I know some questions have been answered but they are based on the past.However, I feel like we are jumping ahead with other things: profile control, ajax or not. These are features, not objective. We are here to brainstorm. We are not here to release another phpBB 1 , 2, 3 by adding, removing features, and rewrite the package. No. We should really look into what we want to do with forum?

Every time we tried to propose something, our thread was killed by "thought police". Dude, this is brainstorming. If you don't want to change phpBB into something new - I understood it clearly and I believed you guys were right, then okay, now what the hell do you want us to discuss? What ideas do you want me and other users to bring? Are you guys contradicting yourself?

Although the actual phpBB4 is like 5 years away, it is critical that within this time and next year we have some sort of ideas what should be done for phpBB4. Listen, no big change for phpBB4, because it's a BBS, and I am aware of that.

Some attitudes here made me angry, seriously. People take their times to look at related threads and try to return feedback (for this thread, I have to read like 10+ discussions on the Internet, dude).

We try to have a peaceful and an enjoyable discussion - but people have to mess it up.
I mean what else do you want us to discuss about core architecture. What new innovations can be bring up to the front when ONLY 5 NON-TEAM MEMBERS EVER VISIT THIS FORUM?

I even said that in my post (look at that quote) and nobody cared - all you guys did was "hey jwxie, we don't want G.W, okay?"
I was right on the spot before but got rejected. Now you try to give me a lecture on that?

If you guys really want to build phpBB community, first make sure you have some expectations for the users to discuss. Our "philosophical questions" are like guidelines. People don't want to spend hours to read every thread and reply. Last night this guy came in to spread his love for G.W, and got punched down because he did not read our previous discussion. You don't have a clear vision for the users to contribute. All we see is "introducing ideas". What ideas?

Isn't profile control another feature? Isn't search also a feature? What is this architecture? I know I am not a software engineer yet, and I certinaly don't have that experience compare to the developers, but as a user I try to be part of this community.

Seriously, iWisdom, you are a great guy, and I have learned you in the past with your helpful hand in the support forum. But have you not realize that this 4.0 forum has becoming boring and meaningless? Certainly some discussions are tangent (away from our focus), but you need people! As long as it is within the boundary, let us discuss, let us propose.

While some experts may come up with a new innovated ideas how to improve the overall phpBB structure, other should also be allowed to propose some core components. I quite understand the situation - but this population does not allow that happen.

[Phil]

My statement was not at all a personal attack on your ideas or philosophy or anything else, nor, I should point out, is it at all an enforcement of policy here or representative of the ideas or goals of the development team. It is an opinion just like yours or anyone elses.

Architecture consists of things like those that are listed here -- the messaging (notification) class, the template engine, the posting API (which IIRC was being looked at for the previous iteration of 3.2 to make it a bit less jumbled), the sessions engine, the DBAL, etc. These are the things that phpBB are built off of -- without them, things like attachments cannot be. At this point in time, while tossing ideas out is all fine and dandy, it is my opinion that our focus at this point should be these core architecture points. Once they are mostly consented upon, the collective should move on to more specific things, like attachments, etc.

The population, as I have seen, has done nothing to prohibit anything -- one of the aspects of discussion is ideas being presented that the majority will not like. That, unfortunately, is something that cannot be avoided. Ideas are free to be proposed, but I see nothing wrong with someone stating that they believe it is far too early to worry about such things -- no use preparing the bread before the grain is grown.

[DavidIQ]

Following the spirit of discussion...

1. Store by month instead of user_id

Echoing what iWisdom said...why? What would be the purpose of that?

2. Rename each attachment

Not sure you've looked at the current attachments feature but attachments are not stored with the original name.

3. Add watermark

Sounds like a good idea.

4. Use Gmail attachment's upload method (show the upload bar and stay on the same page - without refreshing the page)

Would require some AJAX but also a good idea.

5. Multiple selection

You probably meant "multiple uploads". The problem with this is that there is no good way to do this in PHP. There might be some upload controls available but not sure any of them are good...

6. Users can keep track of what they have uploaded (a new page in their profile)

I was actually surprised this didn't make it into phpBB3. The attachment MOD in phpBB2 had this feature as a matter of fact.

7. FTP mod (Paul wrote one, we can store attachment on a different server)

Also a missing feature. Would be good to see this.

8. Group / User permission - administrator can set a limit quota or maximum upload size for each group

All I can say is "more permissions?"

9. Thumbnails

As iWisdom already said, this is already possible.

[jwxie]

I hope my words did not offend anyone, but it gets really frustrated when I don't know how to contribute (people post different things, one does feature, one does the core).

For #1 - store by month - this might be a cultural difference so I am not going to comment that. Either method is good.
#2 well, when I try to download this, it gives me the exact filename on my local computer
viewtopic.php?p=203301#p203301

[EXreaction]

You can make all the suggestions you want, but there needs to be some reason and detail behind it, not just something like "rename each attachment." Nobody even knows what you are talking about.

[bobtheman]

What new innovations can be bring up to the front when ONLY 5 NON-TEAM MEMBERS EVER VISIT THIS FORUM?

as others have argued in the past, i would love to see the entire area51 forum taken down and merged with the main support forum. Keeping the forums separate, does just that, keeps everyone separate.

[Phil]

The objective of Area51 is to provide a test-bed for bleeding edge code that actually has some traffic. Moving everything over to the main site eliminates that.

[code reader]

....
as others have argued in the past, i would love to see the entire area51 forum taken down and merged with the main support forum. Keeping the forums separate, does just that, keeps everyone separate.

i do not think this is a good idea.

phpbb.com does a good job in support, but less than stellar when discussing development.
one can speculate on the reasons for this (too many fan-boyz? too many people with axe to grind? too much baggage? too many clueless people feeling urges to join the discussion?) whatever is the reason, my sense is that this will not be good for the quality of discussion.

peace.