This is going to be an oft-updated post, so I'll break it. Basically the gist of the whole entry: I have the new control panel at a not-so-presentable beta stage, and I want people to start trying it out and giving me feedback.


Image stolen from exodus

This beta test is open for EVERYBODY. This is simply an aesthetic change to the Tabulas control panel which will hopefully give people a glimpse into where I'm taking Tabulas (and will hopefully spur some paid accounts).

This beta test is open to everybody, and all it takes is a click of a button to a specific website to activate the beta test. However, BEFORE you start the beta test, PLEASE READ THESE CAVEATS:

  • The new cpanel is not complete by a LONG-SHOT. I've made sure all important features are working and won't bork your data, but there are no guarantees on data integrity. That is what beta testing is for. However, know that it's not SO unsafe that you'll wake up and find all your data gone. No, it's nothing like that ...
  • I'm sure there will be bugs, and I will spend time fixing them, but I will need you to report the bugs in this journal.
  • There are a lot of sections that SEEM functional, but are not. Please do not test those sections out until I give the clearance in this journal.
  • There is still a LOT to do ... but I have been using this cpanel for the past few months and I really like the general feel of it. So I hope to share this with you.

Nuh uh, oh NO you DIANT (aka stuff I know doesn't work)

  • Do NOT try out the 'styles' and 'community' tabs. The 'community' tab MIGHT work, but no guarantees. I just wouldn't try it out.
  • The 'attach picture/attack file/view smilies' link does not work in the main entry. Spell check may or may not work (I haven't actually developed that feature in over a few months, so I have no idea where I left the progress on that feature.
  • Importing/backing up may or may not work. I forget. I was going to clear those up this weekend anyways.
  • The links management is a mess. This is partially because I think this is one of the best new planned features so I'm really spending time fixing this up. So don't use it yet please.

One may ask, "Why is Roy setting out such an unfinished piece of work?"

The answer: I get work done a lot faster when people are breathing down my neck to get something done. Also, I feel so bad for all of you who are still sticking by Tabulas with the old cpanel; I hope that the new cpanel will be a good stopgap gift to hold you over until I get everything done.

There's still a lot done, but I'm really looking forward to your comments. Please comment on any usability features or whatnot. Anything at all.

To join in on the cpanel beta test, go here. Feel free to share a link to this post, but do NOT post the link to the beta test joining ... EVERYONE MUST READ THIS POST BEFORE THEY JOIN THE BETA TEST.

Unfortunately I can't compensate any of you for this ... I am running a bit short on cash lately anyways, but you will have my THANKS if you help me out! :)

How it works: Any time you click your "control panel" link in your navbar, it will redirect you to the new cpanel. If you want to use the old cpanel for any reason, there is a handy link available on the left side of the new cpanel to link you back. When you log-in, it will send you to your old cpanel by default; simply click the 'control panel' link in your navbar to take you to the new cpanel.

Posted by roy on October 17, 2004 at 10:36 PM in Tabulas | 36 Comments

Related Entries

Linked Entries

These are Tabulas entries which have linked to this particular entry.

Comment posted on December 21st, 2004 at 10:05 PM
I dunno if you are going to be reading this, but when i deleted some autolinks, it told me that the autolink was successfully created. Might wanna change that :)
Comment posted on December 16th, 2004 at 10:26 AM
Sleek changes, by the way. I like it.

Want to comment with Tabulas?. Please login.

Comment posted on December 16th, 2004 at 10:26 AM
Hmm... from the text area, I think it'd be helpful if one [TAB] switched the focus to the "Post Entry" button.
Comment posted on December 17th, 2004 at 11:57 AM
Thanks for the suggestion; it's now been implemented. I also added the focus() feature so that when you visit the add entry page the title is automatically selected.
Comment posted on December 15th, 2004 at 04:27 PM
let you do your own... categories?
Comment posted on December 17th, 2004 at 12:32 PM
that's the default category. you can select which categories to have checked for every new entry (or none); check the 'set category defaults' link on the categories page (it's a new feature!)
Comment posted on December 15th, 2004 at 04:27 PM
fixed
Comment posted on December 15th, 2004 at 04:24 PM
well, with autolinks it's supposed to be one-word phrases; when you put a space in there it shouldn't work. i should make that more clear.
Comment posted on December 7th, 2004 at 05:55 AM
I'm not much of a betatester, I just really like your new spiffy cp. but, I believe the add friend option doesn't work, the "add friend" button doesn't work for me.

caMz (guest)

Comment posted on December 6th, 2004 at 02:51 AM
i found an error while i was trying to edit an entry

greenpill (guest)

Comment posted on November 27th, 2004 at 08:22 PM
When i'm trying to view link categories,

I got this:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/mytabul/public_html/links.php on line 211
Comment posted on November 9th, 2004 at 08:48 PM
shoot, I just type a rather lengthy email for you on reviewing the first two tabs from the new cpanel and it's gone. >_<

Lemme see if I can remember:
1. I got a congratulations of adding new autolink after I delete one
2. where to enable hit logging? (I know free user aren't suppose to be able to enable them)
3. I can still create categories and browse comments more than 25.

That's all I can remember, couldn't remember the PHP warnings :/

mali (guest)

Comment posted on November 2nd, 2004 at 05:36 PM
i'm using it!! \^^/
Comment posted on October 25th, 2004 at 07:55 PM
I tried the new control panel. I successful added an entry, and then saw a typo so I went back and edited it. When I tried to enter the corrected post I received this message:

You have an error in your SQL syntax near '0', sticky = '0', comment = '1', usericon = '45025', draft = '0' WHERE entryid = ' at line 1.

I don't understand any of the above. I went back to the old control panel and successfully added the entry.

Did I do something wrong when I edited the entry?

Also, do we have to manually correct the time each time we post an entry? The time was correct on the old control panel but not on the new one.

rx (guest)

Comment posted on October 21st, 2004 at 06:50 AM
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: generatecode() in /home/mytabul/public_html/account.php on line 51

When trying to change usernames in the new control panel. I'm not sure if this helps you or not.

Mmm.. also log in/log out/log in again and you go to the old control panel.

Just trying to help. If I find any more, I'll let you know.
Comment posted on October 20th, 2004 at 10:15 PM
i love the birthday reminder!
Comment posted on October 20th, 2004 at 01:22 PM
Regardless of whether or not it's free of spelling/grammatical errors, spellchecking an entry gives an error message.
Comment posted on October 19th, 2004 at 08:50 PM
Oh, I just remembed the other thing. The current mood/book/song/watching doesn't look to be active.
Comment posted on October 19th, 2004 at 08:48 PM
It seems that each entry is automatically organized into the first available category. It would be awesome if that field was left blank, so that entries wouldn't get automatically categorized if the user doesn't want. Does that make sense?

Also, it looks like crossposting doesn't work.
Comment posted on October 19th, 2004 at 05:33 PM
Hey, there seems to be a problem (on my end anyway) with posting metadata. It won't go through; I have to go through the old CPanel to do it.


Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 10:27 PM
Below are your hit counts for all the months you've enabled hit logging. Each month will give you a breakdown of hits per day and the total PERCETAGE (taken from the total month).

on the view hit counts page.
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 05:39 PM
I would love to test it out but since I didn't realize there was anything wrong with the old control panel that kind of tells you how clueless I am about these things. Don't know that I'd be much help to you. :)
Comment posted on October 19th, 2004 at 03:52 AM
Hey, would you mind if I quickly accessed your account to try to troubleshoot your gallery problems?
Comment posted on October 19th, 2004 at 10:39 AM
Feel free to access away. I have nothing to hide. :)

Hmmm, wasn't there a president who said that?
Comment posted on October 20th, 2004 at 12:31 AM
Tallullah,

I successfully uploaded an image to your account. There is nothing wrong with your gallery system.

- Roy
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 04:32 PM
its good, but you might want to have a feasture (maybe for paid accounts only) that deletes the whole album <i>with</i> the pictures included in it...so it's easier..and if you do already...GO YOU!

oh i'm a paid account, my brother owes me 11 bucks, then it's on.
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 10:21 PM
GO ME! It's already included in this iteration for all users :)
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 04:34 PM
i'm getting*

how could i forget the getting...i'm a dumbass don't worry about it.
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 03:04 PM
roy++
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 03:51 PM
What happened to your tabulas!
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 02:45 PM
Mmmm, fresh-brewed semantics.

The fieldset legends don't seem to fit--or they seem to cramped and busy. Perhaps you could employ something like what <a href="http://www.cameronmoll.com/portfolio/websites/upload/">Cameron Moll</a> or <a href="http://www.warpspire.com/index.php?p=37#comments">Warpspire</a> are thinking. Actually, the fields themselves clash with the cleanliness of the design in general: just a personal preference, but I like flat(ter) input fields.

Sexy icons.

I dig the new gallery structure. And the documentation is now right in the CP. <em>Nice</em>.

Slick tabs--but could we see some <a href="http://wellstyled.com/css-nopreload-rollovers.html">rollover action</a>? When a user sees a rollover, they immediately know it's a link. Also it looks killer from a UI point of view.

Heh, nice error message.

I like it--vast improvement over the old, tably one.
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 03:46 PM
The fieldset for the add entry page has been the biggest hurdle thus far.

The problem is that there is simply far too much stuff to set to simply allow for a standard 'list' of fields; the original version did do this for a big, but it got to be such a scroll killer ... I've had to compromise and kind of stuff a lot of fields, using both vertical and horizontal space.

If you can comp out a different one, I'd be more than willing to check it out and try to incorporate a better flow.

But yeah, I'm not totally happy with the add entry page right now. But I just don't know how to manage all that data in one single form without having people scroll gazillions of lines down.

I'll try to rollover, although it won't be a neato CSS trick since the tabs are images already (and that was done on purpose for aesthetics).
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 02:11 PM
I haven't had much time to use it, so I haven't found many bugs, but it looks great! Very elegant and fun to use.
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 01:58 AM
Ciera loves Roy!
Comment posted on October 18th, 2004 at 11:05 PM
yay!
Comment posted on October 17th, 2004 at 11:39 PM
*Help section: two instances of "*Documentation*Support Center" on heading
*Launch Site hyperlink: remove the "/" before the site address.
*Logout: logout.php doesn't exist
*Directory: "Community Directory" points to User Directory