New Listology Feature
Submitted by jim on Tue, 03/04/2003 - 02:35
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I've put in a "what's new" feature that highlights changes to a list. It only works on an item basis (so if a item in a list changes, the whole item will be highlighted, not just the change within the item). It's experimental. Let me know how it works for you. Of course, it won't highlight any changes made before the update was installed. It'll only work on changes made from now on.
I also updated some infrastructure code that should be transparent to everybody but me (so let me know if it's not!). I laid some groundwork for "Listology Pro" but it's not enabled yet (and might not be for some time), so let me know if you are denied access to any features.
I had a last-minute change of heart regarding the underlying architecture for this feature. So I've had to reset it. It should still work, but will only highlight changes made from this point forward.
Ah ha! My first victim! *Ahem* I mean volunteer. Phreak has updated his Movies On My 'To See' List list. Call it up, see what he says changed, then click on "What's New" to see what Listology says changed. :-) You'll note that "what's new" can't really distinguish between an updated item and a deleted item. You can choose to call this a bug or a feature. :-)
Just a couple of questions Jim.
1. Does this mean we can't delete anything from our lists after the first posted version?
2. Is there a specified amount of time that the "What's New" designation (highlight) lasts on a members list.
3. Occasionally, I'll make a spelling or punctuation mistake and not notice it until I've already posted the list. Will going back in to correct a minor error corrupt the "What's New" system?
Good questions. Taken by number:
1. No, you can still delete whatever you want. It's true that stuff you've deleted will show up struck through if a user clicks on "what's new." If you really want something deleted for good with no trace that it ever existed then you'll have to save it twice. Another possibility would be for me to add a checkbox when you save the list saying something like "disable what's new for this save" but I'm worried such a checkbox would be confusing and might clutter the interface. Thoughts?
2. Pretty much forever (i.e. until the next time you save the list). If it helps, the highlighting never appears automatically. When a user first loads your list they will always see the current version by default.
3. Yup. Only the correction will then be "new". This is also how the "save twice to subvert the feature" workaround works.
As long as we're on the topic, the next feature I'm planning on implementing is an RSS newsfeed that contains forum posts, news items, and these "what's new" updates. This feed will be filterable by type of content and user at least. This will allow users of news aggregators to have pretty much all Listology action automatically pulled down to their computers. For obvious reasons this feature will be one of the first to be limited to "Pro" users, but for now it'll be open (once I finish it). Thoughts on that?
Just one more clarification on #1. Listology does not keep a complete history of changes to a list. It only stores the immediately previous version of the list for comparision purposes. Nothing older than that.