Difficulties for people with MND

[MND Digital]

Hi there,

I am the website admin for the MND Association, and we recently upgraded our forum from 4.2 to the latest cloud version. The forum is located at https://forum.mndassociation.org

Since we put it live a couple of weeks ago, we've had several people who have motor neurone disease comment and say they're having difficulties with the upgrade. I wondered if anyone is able to suggest any fixes on how we can resolve these issues?

1. Live Activity Stream

This seems to be a feature that is missed by most users. I've tried suggesting using Today's Posts and Latest Activity as an alternative, but they claim it doesn't have the functionality the old activity stream had. I never used it myself, so is there something I'm missing?

2. Now and Next buttons

It's been mentioned that the arrow buttons to go to previous/next pages are really small and difficult to use for people who use eyegaze software. Is there a way to make them larger or replace with the words Previous/Next?

3. iPad and Internet Explorer logging in issues

A few members have messaged to say that they are struggling to log in to the forum using an iPad. I've tried on two different models. On an iPad mini with iOS 9.3.5 it doesn't work, all I get is 'Logging in' and doesn't go any further. However using a larger iPad which has iOS 13.1.3 on it and it works fine no problem.
I've also found on Internet Explorer it won't log in either. Is there a way of resolving this?

4. Pagination

I've looked through all the settings, and can't find a way of being able to display all the pages within a topic from the channel list or within the topic itself. Some members are finding it hard to navigate through multiple pages, possible because of arrow buttons like above. Is there a way to change this.


Any help you're able to provide, would be much appreciated!

Simon.

[Wayne Luke]

1. I am unsure what you mean by Live Activity Stream. The activity stream in vBulletin 5 was directly copied from 4.X in its base functionality. From there the Activity Stream view has been added to additional locations throughout the software. Did you have an add-on in vBulletin 4.X that auto-updated the Activity Stream after a specific number of seconds?

2. The top navigation should go away. It is something that I have wanted to be done for a long time. The design provides poor accessibility. You can change the width and add Previous/Next text with CSS. Something like this:

.arrow {width:80px !important;}

.left-arrow::after {
content: "- Previous ";
padding-right: 8px;
}
.right-arrow::before {
content: " Next -";
padding-left: 8px;
}

The pagination at the bottom of the page shows more information. With the bottom pagination buttons the size can be controlled by CSS on your custom installation. Something like:

.pagenav .b-button {font-size: 18px}

On vBulletin Cloud you can add your own custom CSS by:

1. Clicking the "Edit Site" button to the right of your username on any user page.
2. Clicking on Style.
3. Clicking on the CSS Editor Tab.
4. Pasting your custom CSS into the text box for the css_additional.css template.
5. Save at the bottom. Close the editor and the page will refresh.

3. Unfortunately, this is a result of older technology not being updated to support modern and recommended development techniques. Both Apple and Microsoft have stopped supporting this older technology as well. In the case of Internet Explorer, it is recommended that users download Microsoft Edge. This is available for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 as well as MacOS and Linux. It is a replacement for Internet Explorer. For older versions of iOS, the only substitute that I can think of is the Mobile Suite apps. It is compatible with iOS 9.0 and later at this time. However, the mobile suite does bring its own set of challenges to many people.

4. The bottom pagination should show more information and does not use the same controls as the top bar. There is currently no way to show the number of pages within the Channel Display.

To control how many posts appear on a page within a topic, you would have to edit the module displaying them.

1. Go to any topic on your site.
2. Click the Edit Site button to the right of your username in the header.
3. Click "Edit Page"
4. Click the edit icon (looks like a pencil) for the Conversation Detail Module.
5. Change the options to fit your needs.
6. Save the module.
7. Save the page (make sure to overwrite the template to apply it to all topics).

[MND Digital]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the quick response.

1. Attached is a screen grab of a comment that we've had about the Live Activity Stream vs Latest Activity which may help with trying to get across what I mean. Whilst we did have some add-ins installed on the old forum, I'm not aware of one for the Activity Stream however.

2. Previous/next buttons - Brilliant, thanks for the code, I've incorporated that in and can see the change, so think that will be a definite help.

3. Thanks, will look into the mobile suite, but will let our forum members know that it is recommended to use Edge instead.

4. Thanks for the tip, it's a shame about the pagination not being available, but your suggestion will help.

[Wayne Luke]

Latest Activity and the Activity Stream are two different things.

If you look at the home page of these forums (and your own with the default homepage) you will see several tabs above the forum list. One of these is the Activity Stream. This works just like the Activity Stream in vBulletin 4.X. It is not the primary tab by default because the feedback on the activity stream has been mixed at best but most people do not like it. However, you can make it the default tab by clicking Edit Page on your site, editing the module and changing the tab order and default tab shown.

The latest activity module on the home page is simply a search that shows the latest activity to the user.

[MND Digital]

Latest Activity and the Activity Stream are two different things.

If you look at the home page of these forums (and your own with the default homepage) you will see several tabs above the forum list. One of these is the Activity Stream. This works just like the Activity Stream in vBulletin 4.X. It is not the primary tab by default because the feedback on the activity stream has been mixed at best but most people do not like it. However, you can make it the default tab by clicking Edit Page on your site, editing the module and changing the tab order and default tab shown.

The latest activity module on the home page is simply a search that shows the latest activity to the user.

Hi Wayne,

Thanks for getting back to me, apologies for the delay in responding.

We don't appear to have the Activity Stream tab on our forum. Is there a module or something similar to be able to add it into the tabbed section? As I've been looking everywhere and can't seem to find it?

Also, on page topics, is there a way so when you click on the title, it will automatically take you to the last unread post of that thread rather than the first page? I know there's the icon available, but for someone with mnd it might not be so easily to focus and click on that using equipment like eyegaze?

Cheers,

Simon.

[Wayne Luke]

Should work pretty much the same as it did in vBulletin 4.X. It will list all posts in order of latest activity. You can make it the default tab by clicking Edit Page, then editing the module.

There is no option to have a thread title click take you to the first unread post. This would require modifications that are not available on Cloud.

[MND Digital]

Thanks again for the quick response.

Understood about the thread titles, however I think you misread my last post, I was meaning an 'Activity Stream' tab not 'Latest activity'. From what I understand they are two separate things?

[Wayne Luke]

The Latest Activity tab is the activity stream. It occurs on the home page, in each forum, and in each topic. This is different from the search modules in the left column that use Latest in their name and is different than the "New Posts" and "Latest Topics" searches that can appear in the navigation bar. That is what I meant earlier.

If it makes it easier, you can change the Latest Activity text to Activity Stream by editing the latest_activity phrase in the AdminCP under Languages & Phrases -> Search For Phrases. Search fo the text you want to change and click the edit button in the results. Place your new text in the translation box.