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Nigel:

Since a widget cannot be scrolled, my Research Tasks module has become too large to be comfortably shown as a widget. I would like to move that info to a Resource page or a separate file under the Extra-menus module. I haven’t been successful in coding what is necessary to pull the info over. If you have time, would you please post that info?

On occasion, the Recent Changes module also becomes too large as a widget. I don’t want it on the home page but the respective report provides a satisfactory work-a-round.

Thanks for all you do.

Roy

Apache 2.4.27  PHP 7.19 MariaDB 10.2.8

nc-east:
I use the Research Task too and it’s quite long. So I put it at the top left of my home page and set it to managers only (of which there is only me) so it’s not viewed by anyone else. The height shows 4 entries at a time, but I prefer that over the Widget. I like this way over a resource page that would be, I think, like the old My Page.

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Roy wrote:

Since a widget cannot be scrolled, my Research Tasks module has become too large to be comfortably shown as a widget. I would like to move that info to a Resource page or a separate file under the Extra-menus module. I haven’t been successful in coding what is necessary to pull the info over. If you have time, would you please post that info?

On occasion, the Recent Changes module also becomes too large as a widget. I don’t want it on the home page but the respective report provides a satisfactory work-a-round.

That’s a very interesting idea, and triggers a possible solution to mental issue bugging me for a while.

I want to start replacing all the existing Reports menu items with better alternatives. But the way the current reports are designed make it harder to mix new with old. So ideally I need a new main menu item for the “new” reports while phasing out the old. It’s too much work to simply switch from old to new in one go.

Your use of the term “Resources” might just be the answer. Similar enough to “Reports” to be compatible, but different enough to fit side by side at least until the Reports set become redundant, and easily implemented quite quickly.

Adding “resource” page versions of (some) widgets seems like a reasonable direction to go too. (@Mac – note “adding” not “replacing”, thus giving more choice).

I will definitely look closely at this. I’ll see if I can do something with research tasks along these lines next week as an initial trial.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Just a quick “ps” on your comment that widgets can’t be scrolled.

That was a design choice, but one that can easily be changed with a custom styles (CSS) page. It’s only a case of giving the right element something like “overflow-x: auto” and a fixed height.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Roy

Attached is a new module that (I hope) does what you need. It’s not in a fully finished state but works well enough for now. It does need adding to the ‘Extra menus” menu as you suggested. Later I aim to include it in a new “Resources menu group.
Installation as follows:

1. Unzip it to the modules_v3 folder like any other module
2. Go to Administration > Modules > Manage modules and enable it
3. Go to Administration > Modules > Menus set your preferred access level and save.
4. Go to your Extra menus config ( Administration > Tools > Extra menus and add a new menu item with the url “module.php?mod=resource_todo&mod_action=show”

The only major item I haven’t included for now is a configuration page, so the ‘normal’ three configurations are hard-coded for now. If you want to change them they are in lines 76-80 of module.php. Currently all set to ‘true’ (i.e. ‘yes’):

//Configuration settings ===== //
$show_unassigned = true; // Show research tasks that are not assigned to any user
$show_other = true; // Show research tasks that are assigned to other users
$show_future = true; // Show research tasks that have a date in the future
// ============================ //

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

WOW, that was quick.

Just downloaded it and will install it tomorrow. Have to mess around with a contractor about a warrantee issue but will make time to install it, play with it a bit and provide some feedback. The hard coded configuration matches what I do anyway so they are just fine.

Thanks a million!

Roy

Apache 2.4.27  PHP 7.19 MariaDB 10.2.8

Nigel:

The resource-todo module worked great. It is really handy being able to open it as a new tab.

As you mentioned, putting the extra menu and resource pages to work does expand the choices how an administrator and users choose to work. I also believe, appropriate pages with print functions using either of these two tools is a viable way to switch us from many of the old reports. I suspect using those two tools also expands your options as the developer.

The experience even further convinced me of the value of moving the edit functions to a tabbed system. Now I am looking forward to that version.

Thanks for the help with this one. Great job!

Roy

Apache 2.4.27  PHP 7.19 MariaDB 10.2.8

In your opening post you mentioned the recent Changes widget and report as well:

On occasion, the Recent Changes module also becomes too large as a widget. I don’t want it on the home page but the respective report provides a satisfactory work-a-round.

I’ve now created a “resource page” version of that one. Would you mind giving it a try for me (attached)?. Installation is similar to resource_todo, just an obvious change in the url for extra-menu. I have a slight usability concern over it’s config. options, so keen to hear your input. It would become a replacement for the Changes report, but still an alternative to the Home page block and / or the widget versions.

My plan, probably with the next release (3.2.0, Jan 2016) is to add a new main menu item “Resources”. This will then be used to gradually replace items from the Reports menu with new versions along the lines of these first couple, plus a couple of other things such as the “fancy_treeview” module. Eventually I will remove the “Reports” menu completely, whilst ensuring the resource items can be easily printed without any need for messy pdf code and formatting.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Nigel:

I will get it installed later today and provide feedback.

To be honest, I originally thought that reports were sacrosanct. Now I think that you are on the right track with this new concept.

Great job!

Roy

Apache 2.4.27  PHP 7.19 MariaDB 10.2.8

Nigel:

The resource_changes module will be an excellent alternative for the widget and replacement for the report (with a print button).

I found it necessary to clear the server and browser caches to get the two menu items to play together. Before doing so the menu would disappear with both items listed. Only one at a time could be listed.

A couple of things about the resource-changes module:
1. Initially the option calendars open below the available page size; needs more space.
2. It is a bit confusing having both the beginning and ending date option plus the last number of days option. Perhaps a comment between them to the effect “or latest”. If only one option is provided, the latest number of days would be best for me. However, the majority of users would probably prefer the beginning and ending date option.
3. The option calendars do not have a save button and it is necessary to click on a day to close. That happens even when only changing a month and/or editing the year.
4. After clicking on show, the option calendar boxes usually revert back to today’s date as do the dates on the top of the actual listing. The number of days shown is correct, however. The actual listing is also correct.
5. I could not reproduce it but at one point I had tried several different listing options and the number of days at the top of the actual listing were cumulative indicating the total days of each of the options I had tried. The actual information in the list was correct for the last option set that I had tried. I suspect that is also a cache issue.

Another great feature!

Roy

Apache 2.4.27  PHP 7.19 MariaDB 10.2.8