Devtracker 1.1

[Garthilk]

Read the full article here (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/article/alliance-exclusives/devtracker-1-1.html).

Last week as part of our efforts to bring you more features and more information we asked what kinds of features you wanted to see added to Warhammer Alliance. One of the things was a search tool limited specifically to threads that developers had posted on. Well with the help of a very talented community member we were able to get it up and running faster than anticipated. Community member Node chipped in and helped us bring the DevTracker up to version 1.1. Now fully search enabled.

[miber]

Nice stuff. This was definately my most sought after feature. Great job Node. :D

[Node]

Nice stuff. This was definately my most sought after feature. Great job Node. :D

Thanks! Happy to help out. Expect further contributions from me in the (probably near) future.

[Garthilk]

Big thanks to Node for helping us smooth out the rough edges with the search feature. Mind you we're always looking at ways to make the information more accessable and this is just one iteration of the DevTracker as was the last. We'll continue to add more features to make it easier to find. It's no suprise that a community member helped speed things along as this community has so many talented people in it.

[Kilrogg-WHA]

Thx for making Miber's job a bit easier :p

[Bolg]

heh Miber clone... so the work of world Miberization has begun. :)

[Ryuno]

Really great feature, good job! :)

[Archangel-WHA]

Good stuff there matey. Cheers for the input.

I bring you thanks

[checkthis5000]

I was wondering if the post search thing can look up the posts so that when you click the topic you go straight to the posts. Similar to how the Dev Post Tracker originally worked. Some of the threads are over 6 or 7 pages long, and finding the particular post by the dev is tedious.

It's a great addition. I'm just throwing in my two cents to make it a little better. :)

Great add. It helps a lot with finding important topics.

[Node]

I was wondering if the post search thing can look up the posts so that when you click the topic you go straight to the posts. Similar to how the Dev Post Tracker originally worked. Some of the threads are over 6 or 7 pages long, and finding the particular post by the dev is tedious.

It's a great addition. I'm just throwing in my two cents to make it a little better. :)

Great add. It helps a lot with finding important topics.

I was waiting for someone to point this out. :) Let me explain why it currently doesn't do so, and what options there are...

The search feature I added to the DevTracker add-on works on near identical (some changes to allow for searching within usergroups) logic as the main vB search. You have the option of showing the results as threads, or posts. If you have it as threads, a variable (calling it "a" variable for simplicity's sake) is filled with information pertaining to the threads where the result was found, and that variable is accessed in the templates that actually display the results. The key part here is that it contains information for what threads contained the search result. One singular thread could have 8 posts by a certain developer, all containing the word "squig". The thread variable you're given within the template doesn't give you the ID of the individual post it found the query in, because there could be a number of them within the thread.

However! You can do a search by posts, and this will show individual post results by those in question, with a direct link to their place within their respective threads. This is the method the main DevTracker itself uses, which is why you'll see duplicate thread names on it, but never within a DevTracker Search being done by thread.

You can see what the vB search results by posts looks like using the forum's main search feature, here's an example of how the DevTracker Search could look (except limited to developers / mythic employees only, of course):

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/search.php?query=pickle&showposts=1&do=process

Which I myself prefer. Allowing users to select either method is actually already implemented, but not on the live site. I believe Garthilk is away for a few days, but when he's back the new version can be installed.

As an aside, DevTracker itself uses a kind of hybrid display. It searches by posts, but displays in a thread-like view. This is another option that could be implemented, albeit with a bit more work, it would really depend on if people would use it over the other two.

[Khaela-Mensha-Khaine]

Awesome job Node. Well done everyone.

[Ralzar]

I was waiting for someone to point this out. :)

I was thinking it but trying not to look the gift-horse in the mouth and all that :P

[Exardious]

This is my first post. I created this account, only to give W.A. and Node a big thanks for this very welcome addition. Great work guys. If you need help for something extra, feel free to contact me. Im a software developer, and can develop almost anything.

Regards
Ex...

[Garthilk]

Exardious,

Thanks for the offer. This site has always been very much a community effort and I'm sure there will be opporutnities in the near future to help out. We have a lot of plans in the future and I can't wait for the opportunity to help bring them to life.

[Node]

I was thinking it but trying not to look the gift-horse in the mouth and all that :P

Haha. By all means, stare the gift-horse down. Suggestions on improvement are always welcome, and, in this case, it was nice to have the issue of not linking directly to the post echoed by a few others.

[Rohan]

Nice work Node, this will be a nice addition to the tools for us people that like to respond to posters questions with proof backing it. :)

[Node]

Nice work Node, this will be a nice addition to the tools for us people that like to respond to posters questions with proof backing it. :)

Already used it myself, to do so. :)

[Garthilk]

Another small upgrade last night, allowing people to search by post or thread. :p