Updates To TownCrier Posting Interface - September 20, 2007
The next time you go to post a calendar event in TownCrier, you'll notice that a number of small changes have been made to the posting interface, in hopes of making it both easier to use, while at the same time bringing to light some of the functionality that TownCrier has that many users may not have been aware existed.
In past versions of TownCrier, certain entry fields have been hidden until prompted by user input. For example, if you weren't posting a seminar, the two seminar-specific TownCrier data fields would be hidden from your few. The same is true if you were creating an event that was non-repeating. These fields would remain hidden from your few in order to cut down on the size of the event entry form. Doing this, however, led to some confusion in how to perform certain tasks in TownCrier since many users had never thought to select the option to toggle the display of the additional fields. For this reason, all fields that were once hidden are now visible to the user when they start to enter in a new calendar event. Though disabled at first, these fields specially marked with a different colored background color can be activated and then filled out, ensuring that you're able to enter in as much information as possible on your event.
Another small change is that when creating a repeating event, a small frame to the right side of the repeating event options will house the dates that your event is scheduled to take place. Many of you will find the functionality of the Repeating Events portion of TownCrier familiar since it is modeled off how Oracle Calendar handles repeating dates.
Also, we have a few questions for our TownCrier userbase:
1) When we first wrote TownCrier we were thinking that giving news the ability to expire would be useful, but we're starting to find that we rarely use that functionality anymore. This prompts the question: how do you use the End Date functionality of TownCrier news posts? Do you use it to ensure that a post stops appearing on your news page after a certain date? Do you just enter a date far in the future because you never want the article to disappear? Or do you use it in some other way?
2) How often do you find yourself using the "This Event Is Open To The Public" / "This Event Is Private" options of the TownCrier? Are there many events that you're all posting that have to be marked as private? Or do most of you just let your area submissions imply whether or not something is private?
Any feedback on these things would be appreciated. Please send it in to wolftech-webmaster@ncsu.edu
Also, if you have any problems or questions using the new interface, please let us know.
Andrew Stein
Web Developer
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Updated Edit Pages - September 18, 2007
To cut down on some of the confusion caused by the "edit" pages of TownCrier, we've changed their layout a bit.
The biggest change is an easier way to tell where the event you're editing has been posted to along with improved color coding and selection ability when selecting new areas to submit your event to.
Futhermore, let me just reiterate that, when using TownCrier edit pages, there are two separate unconnected forms. The form at the top of the page allows you to edit the text of your event, along with the dates and times. The second form is the listing of available TownCrier areas to post your event to. Since this wasn't particularly clear, some design elements have been added to the page (new horizontal rules being added, mainly) in hopes of clarifying the unique functionality of each form and submit button.
Using TownCrier display engine from: 2006-04-20