Kunena 6.2.5 & module Kunena Latest 6.0.7 released

The Kunena team has announce the arrival of Kunena 6.2.5 [K 6.2.5] which is now available for download as a native Joomla extension for J! 4.3.x/4.4.x/5.0.x. This version addresses most of the issues that were discovered in K 6.1 / K 6.2 and issues discovered during the last development stages of K 6.2

If you are having problems then, for your own benefit, it would save us all a lot of time if you would kindly post your configuration report when you ask for help from this forum. If you do not post your configuration report we will not ask you for it but you will probably not get your problem solved, either.

Question Automatic insertion of uploaded attachments

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9 years 10 months ago #1 by sixtyfive
Hello Kunena Community,
I would like to set an automated Insert of Added Files in Topics. The problem is that users do not know that they must click on "Insert" after uploading files into the Topic. I had many complains about that and I think this is possible to solve somehow?

Thank You.

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9 years 10 months ago - 9 years 10 months ago #2 by sozzled
I just want to let you know that I have read this topic and I am working on a response; that doesn't mean others are unable to respond to this topic as they wish. It is going to take me a while to prepare a good reply - a reply that I want to be satisfied with, I mean - and I thought you should know.

On one hand you have written that you would like some way for your users to automatically insert attachments into their forum posts and, on that score, this feature already exists but perhaps not to the extent of "automation" that you may desire. On the other hand you say that you are receive complaints from your members and, in that area, I can help.

I have a solution to your problem but it will take me a while to put together a response to this topic. I hope you don't mind the wait. Of course, other members of this community are welcome to contribute their thoughts. :)
Last edit: 9 years 10 months ago by sozzled.

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9 years 10 months ago - 9 years 10 months ago #3 by sozzled
I apologise for the amount of time it's taken for me to get back to you with a good answer to your question. It has been 2½ hours since you posted your question here and I am I giving your queston a lot of thought.

If I understand correctly, your question can be separated into:

(1) How to automatically insert an image when someone posts a message on your forum (wih a single mouse-click); and

(2) How to reduce the level of complaint from the members of your community when you give them the solution.

The first point is technical; the second is non-technical. As we know, most problems can be "solved" technically - but technical solutions are costly and they may not always achieve the outcome you want - but many of these problems can be addressed in other, non-technical ways. Let me put to you that this could be a case of "either/or": provide a technical solution (but still not reduce the level of complaint) or tackle the complaining.

As we all know, explaining how the internet works (in relation to how to use images on web pages) is a question that must have been asked millions of times since the internet was created and HTML was introduced. For those people who are familiar with PC-based applications (e.g Microsoft Word, email, etc.) in order to perform image insertion operations we are well acquainted with the use of "copy/paste" (i.e. CTRL-C/CTRL-V). Perhaps it is unfortunate that internet-based applications do not work the same way - that's just stating a fact - because internet-based applications do not support copy/paste as far as images are concerned. Inserting an image into a web page is a two-stage process (even in applications like Facebook or Google Mail):
  1. Upload the image to a web server; then
  2. place the image somewhere on the page.

If I have correctly interpreted your question, you would like those two "phases" merged into a single mouse-click operation; technically possible but the means to achieve it is complicated.

As far as I know, from my experience in using internet-based discussion forums (whether or not they're based around BBcode ), there is not a forum product that does this now. All internet forums - as do many other internet applications, like GMail, Windows Live Mail or even Facebook) rely on the user clicking two "buttons": one to select a file (stored on a user's PC) to then upload this to the application's server and a second one to insert that file (the "image") within the body of a forum message. I'm not trying to side-step the question; I'm only trying to explain to you what people have discussed on internet forums for as long as I can remember.

In relation to the second "phase" the amount of control/flexibility people have to position an image on a web-page is determined by the application. In native HTML this is achieved with the <IMG> tag; in Kunena this is done either with "Insert" button or the Kunena "img" BBcode tag; other internet applications may do things differently or, in some cases, you may not have any control over where the image appears.

Before we get into any detailed discussion about what it is that you want, I would like to know from you which of the two questions I mentioned earlier is the more important one: giving your users a technical solution or reducing the level of complaining?

Even though a technical solution may be arrived at - and, to be realistic, you and I both know that technical solutions require time, effort (and money is also a key factor) - is a technical solution the best way to tackle the problem? I don't know the answer to that question; that's something only you can judge for yourself.

So, before I go any further, can you answer my question, please. What is is the real problem that you want to solve: making it easier - to eliminate one mouse-click that your users otherwise have to make - or reduce the complaints? :dry:
Last edit: 9 years 10 months ago by sozzled.

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9 years 10 months ago #4 by sixtyfive
First of all thank you for the detailed answer and your invested time regarding my questions. Complaints which I received are also based on the fact that forum users are not always ready to spend time for "extra" steps, they want simple interfaces to use. I can not say that there are hundreds of such complaints, it's just a small number of users, but their "question" sounds always the same so I thought about it to ask on the Kunena support forum (which is also a great place with great supporters).

However, this is not a real issue neither a big issue. Maybe a change in the code such as inserting a red text message next to the Insert button like "Press Insert to add your File" would be a simple and effective solution. I will look through the code and I will try to implement such a function. If I suceed I gonna post my solution here. Again thank your for the answer, it is always the same in here - sympathetic and experienced supporters are here to help us. :)

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9 years 10 months ago #5 by sozzled
Thank you for your reply. Indeed you are right that I have invested a lot of "thinking time" in this matter. I empathise with your current situation - these kinds of complaints are echoed everywhere - and they're often defused when the facts (and the methodology) is properly explained (as I am trying my best to do for you).

The forum here is mostly a community-driven place for people to ask questions and where we do our best to point people to the best solution that suits their needs. "Support" is given, where we can provide it - remembering that we're all volunteers here who give our time freely to help one another and we're not getting paid for the advice we offer - in terms of when things break or fail to operate in ways that people would normally expect them to operate.

As I mentioned earlier in this topic, the internet does not always "behave" in ways that non technically-minded people might expect. Worse, when we "technical" people try to explain things we're often criticised because our answers are full of jargon or unfathomable technical terms. I am doing my best to reduce the technical clutter in this discussion here. I am doing that for two purposes: (a) so that you can point your own forum members to this discussion in order to help them understand and empathise with your own predicament and (b) in order to help others who use this forum who find themselves in a similar situation.

When I am asked "how do I insert an image in my Kunena forum" I refer them to the instructions that I wrote a few years ago - and repeated many times since then - in the topic How to upload, insert and display an image attachment .

I found that when I explained the technique in simple terms that the level of complaint in my own forums virtually evaporated. You still get the "hard cases", of course, but patience, understanding, empathy - and, perhaps, a healthy dose of repetition of the same answer - will eventually prevail. (Well, I hope so, in the long run :))

Yes, it's possible to add an extra feature - a kind of memory-jogger - to place an extra "reminder" to people to press the "Insert" button. Even more "in-your-face" you could pop-up a message on their screens but people will eventually become irritated by such techniques as that. In my opinion, it does not matter if you placed text in red font, bold font, flashing font or zebra-striped font - just like they place stop signs at intersections - people don't always follow the signposts.

I hope that some of what I've written is useful to you. You might like to place a link to this topic on your own forum for the benefit of your users or simply copy-and-paste parts of what you need.

Please let us know if this resolves your question.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. Moderating a forum is never an easy job, is it? ;)

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