Have You Seen... ? Expand & Collapse Buttons, Back to Top, Conversation View, and Ribbon BB Code

Hi everyone, and welcome to the first in a new series of threads I'll be creating within this section! Have You Seen threads highlight features and functionality on KH-Vids that users may not initially notice or know how to operate, or just new things we've added that we'd like to draw attention to!

Each thread will include images and information on the features, and users are welcome to reply with any comments or questions about the features. Please note, of course, that suggestions for new features should be created as new threads in this section -- help us keep organized!

Expand & Collapse Buttons

The first feature I'm showing off today is a small but useful addition to the site -- one that members who were with us during our vBulletin days may miss. They're expand and collapse buttons throughout the site! On a forum as large as ours, scrolling through the index can be a bit of a pain -- especially when you don't visit certain sections. We now let you collapse categories, to make your index shorter and a bit more tailored to your interests.

Collapsing Nodes (Categories)
Nodes can be collapsed by toggling a plus/minus button in the category header.



Collapsing the Sidebar
Similarly, the sidebar can be collapsed on the pages where it appears, giving you a wider view of the main content (which expands to fill the open space). This option is available on any page with sidebar, though it excludes certain mobile devices (phones, especially), because the sidebar already moves to the bottom of the page to accommodate the narrow screen.



Best of all, your settings will be saved, so if you don't give a hoot about the Kingdom Hearts sections, you can collapse them and effectively never have to see them again. But why would anyone do that, right?

Back to Top

A back to top button is nothing to new to KH-Vids and nothing particularly innovative, but a handy feature all the same. Our previous implementation was slightly janky, however, as it relied on a third-party add-on that is no longer maintained. The new one is much improved!



It's a simple addition but a nice feature to have!

Don't like the button? That's okay, my feelings aren't hurt. You can save yourself a few milliseconds on page load and prevent it from showing by toggling it in your Browsing Preferences.

Conversation View

Personal Conversations are a handy tool to chat with your fellow users in a more private setting, but there's really no need to display the expanded information found in posts (like message count, location, etc.), especially when you have relatively brief messages. Our new styles offer a more condensed view.



Obviously, if you want more information about the user or to head to their profile, you can click their avatar, their name in the message meta (the bar with the edit/report buttons), or their name in the Conversation Participants box. It's a nice space-saver, especially on mobile devices.

Ribbon BB Code

Since its introduction, the Ribbon BB Code has been a popular way to create headers within posts. Unfortunately, past styles didn't really display it very nicely, especially on mobile devices.



Naturally, the Ribbon BB Code has been improved for our new styles (in fact, you can see it in action on this very post). Notice how it wraps around the edge of the post now.

On a mobile device? No problem! We eat mobile devices for breakfast. The Ribbon will automatically adapt to fit your screen.

Users can create Ribbon headers in their posts by wrapping the ribbon BB Code around their desired text, like so:

Code:

[ribbon]This is my header text[/ribbon]

That concludes our first Have You Seen post! Expect many more on the way, highlighting existing features and alerting you of new ones.

Please note that some of these screenshots and gifs were taken off our test board throughout development of our styles, and therefore may not reflect the final product.

 

Felt bad for doing it, but ditto.
As well as the Creativity Corner for now.

Getting rid of the sidebar is amazing, though~

 

It's a really nifty animation! Big thanks to @libregkd for both the node and sidebar expand/collapse.

 

Is this cookie-based like on vBulletin? If I clear my browser data, which I do weekly as you know, will I have to reset it?

Not that I would mind doing that. I'm just curious. Although I likely won't hide anything as I generally don't mind seeing all the categories expanded.

 

Yes, expand/collapse settings are saved via cookies.