[Canadaka]

thanks to Hyacks nagging I fixed some bugs with the news system

I made a major backend overhaul to the news system. I now have a common news function that I can re-use on all the news pages, so the news links to be more consistant look from page to page, and easier to maintain.

Also going to page2 should work correctly now, and not miss any news items.

The code is also a bit more efficient now and has 1 less database query.

[Canadaka]

I'm trying to make submitting news links easier and faster. the news link submission form now kinda works like Facebook when you paste a link in your status.

After you paste a URL into the link field, the site will try and fetch the articles title, description and images in the background. Once its done loading you can review the selections it made and make modifications if needed.

It selects the first 10 images on the page, so use the small arrows to select the best image, you can always override and upload or link to an image if none of the ones the script finds are relevant.

I created a short 30 sec video to demonstrate http://screenr.com/KGrs

[Brenda]

Awesome!

[Regina]

[raydan]

Finally

[Scape]

Works like a charm!

[Hyack]

Strange, it doesn't work for me when I drag the addy in but works when I C&P it, but the page still times out after cropping the image.

[Canadaka]

Hyack Hyack:

Strange, it doesn't work for me when I drag the addy in but works when I C&P it, but the page still times out after cropping the image.

you need to press tab or click outsode the "link url" field for it to start fetching the data.

I havn't had any problem with the image crop timing out... can you give me the URL you are trying to crop. Are you submitting a URL or uploading image?

[Hyack]

No problems Trev, it's a browser issue.

[Regina]

That works cool!

[Strutz]

Just tried it out. Works GREAT!

Awesome Trev!

[Strutz]

So... two things to mention to you Trev.

I posted a news article just now (Maple leaf Foods) and it showed that there were 3 available images and one of them was displayed. However when I clicked on the arrows the other two did not "view". The one image vanished until I clicked the arrow again (either the left or right, made no difference).

The two news stories I have posted so far since you made this change yesterday have been from the CTV news website and the information loads within seconds. BUT, I tried to post one from the Vancouver Sun site but after pasting the URL it showed that it was searching for the info but nothing loaded. Waited a few minutes then clicked cancel and tried again. Would not load. Something maybe with the Van Sun site?

Edit...

I guess nevermind my first comment... just posted another item with multiple images and this time it let me view them all to select. I guess it must just be a glitch with the source (in this case the CTV site) and the images available.

[Curtman]

I like the new changes to submitting news. Is there anything that can be done for us mobile users to submit news? There doesn't seem to be any way to do it from the mobile site so what ive been doing is manually deleting the m. from the URL, and submitting to the regular site. When it gets to the crop image screen I can't find any way to do that properly on a touchscreen. I can't click and drag. Any suggestions other than waiting until I get home to fix the picture?

[DrCaleb]

I like the new News submission, but I may have found a bug. Using IE 7 (all they give us at work) if you mistakenly put a title where the URL should be, it'll cause an application error.

At least, it does for me.

[Canadaka]

Curtman Curtman:

I like the new changes to submitting news. Is there anything that can be done for us mobile users to submit news? There doesn't seem to be any way to do it from the mobile site so what ive been doing is manually deleting the m. from the URL, and submitting to the regular site. When it gets to the crop image screen I can't find any way to do that properly on a touchscreen. I can't click and drag. Any suggestions other than waiting until I get home to fix the picture?

I honestly didn't expect anyone would want to submit news using a mobile device, so I never added it. But I can add a submission form to the mobile site and leave out the image upload part.

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I like the new News submission, but I may have found a bug. Using IE 7 (all they give us at work) if you mistakenly put a title where the URL should be, it'll cause an application error.

At least, it does for me.

thanks for the report, I will add some JavaScript to check against that.

Strutz Strutz:

So... two things to mention to you Trev.

I posted a news article just now (Maple leaf Foods) and it showed that there were 3 available images and one of them was displayed. However when I clicked on the arrows the other two did not "view". The one image vanished until I clicked the arrow again (either the left or right, made no difference).

The two news stories I have posted so far since you made this change yesterday have been from the CTV news website and the information loads within seconds. BUT, I tried to post one from the Vancouver Sun site but after pasting the URL it showed that it was searching for the info but nothing loaded. Waited a few minutes then clicked cancel and tried again. Would not load. Something maybe with the Van Sun site?

Edit...

I guess nevermind my first comment... just posted another item with multiple images and this time it let me view them all to select. I guess it must just be a glitch with the source (in this case the CTV site) and the images available.

It can sometimes take awhile for the script to fetch the data from the link, depending on how large the linked page is and how many images are on the page. That's why I added the cancel link. Its not perfect.