My Blog XML Feed Is Causing Trouble...

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by www.AmCy.org, May 27, 2005.

  1. #1
    Hi:

    I was recently contacted by a DP member about my latest blog heading. He complained that my heading was too long and was causing horizontal scrolling on his monitor. I checked out his claim by viewing one of my posts on my 800x600 laptop and he was indeed correct: lots of horizontal scrolling.

    Is there a solution for this? Sometimes my blog headings are going to be long and I want them that way, but I don't want to scare off any members whenever I post. Any insight appreciated.

    AmCy
     
    www.AmCy.org, May 27, 2005 IP
  2. SEbasic

    SEbasic Peon

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    #2
    I had this problem...

    I'd just edit a specific XML feed and send it to DP. It's a pain but I don't see another way.
     
    SEbasic, May 27, 2005 IP
  3. blackbug

    blackbug Peon

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    #3
    Hi,

    I'm sometimes a fan of stupidly long blog post titles too :) I guess that it's just a case of the forum code being aware of this and truncating the message length when displaying it.

    BTW. It's not just people with small screens that it's an issue for. I'm a fan of extra large screen sizes, but I never have my web windows full screen, I much prefer a tall rectangle, makes for easier reading. So it effects me and others like me too. :)


    Cheers

    Chris
     
    blackbug, May 27, 2005 IP
  4. nevetS

    nevetS Evolving Dragon

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    #4
    what blog software are you using? There's an MT Plugin called ellipsis that will trim down text to x number of characters then follow it with "..." There's also Excerpt Words that will do that on the number of words you are using.

    You just do something like the following in your rss template:

    
    <$MTEntryTitle encode_xml="1" ellipsis="30" $> for 30 characters or
    <$MTEntryTitle encode_xml="1" excerpt_words="4" $> for 4 words 
    
    PHP:
    (note, you must have the plugin installed for it to work)

    You could use that in your xml feed that you use for digital point.
     
    nevetS, May 27, 2005 IP
  5. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #5
    Never really noticed myself I guess because I have a pretty big monitor. I'll set it up to auto-trauncate at some point.
     
    digitalpoint, May 27, 2005 IP
  6. Blogmaster

    Blogmaster Blood Type Dating Affiliate Manager

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  7. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #7
    I reported this previously...

    It's an annoyance for people at 800 x 600 but I think there are still many people who feel that's old technology so "who cares?"...

    It isn't... often it's more a matter of visual acuity than old or new technology.

    It's a problem in other respects for forum software -- I've never run a vBulletin board but there are numerous mods for this for phpBB and the "manual" fixes aren't really difficult.

    When I reported it before, Shawn took a quick stab at a fix (nowrap) but as I recall that messed up something else.
     
    minstrel, May 28, 2005 IP
  8. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #8
    It's an easy fix (truncating the length)... Maybe I'll do it this weekend or something. Who the hell uses 800x600 anyway? :) Or 1024x768 for that matter...
     
    digitalpoint, May 28, 2005 IP
  9. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #9
    I won't get into the display resolution issue again but think of it this way: Whatever the reasons for people viewing your forum at 800 x 600, for those who do, viewing a page like this one looks like absolute shit... think of it as going out on a date wearing the clothes you just painted the garage in and dripped mustard and ketchup on while eating that burger you had for supper... :eek:
     
    minstrel, May 28, 2005 IP