Tabs

Edrondol

Cadet
I'm finding that nobody is playing the new games. I think this is because it defaults to the All tab when you first hit the page.

Are we looking at doing something where they see 2 columns - top games and new games?
 
I have a site full of slackers. Sure yours aren't just being good and not playing while at work? :D
 
Are we looking at doing something where they see 2 columns - top games and new games?
I don't know, are we? :P

You could try turning off the categories in the ACP so that you have one listing instead of the tabbed listing.
 
I really don't like the whole Tabbed Categories idea.
I would suggest devs make Categories similar to the XF Resource Manager Categories in left sidebar. If devs are interested I would love to propose a layout mokeup for Arcade main page.
 
I really don't like the whole Tabbed Categories idea.
I would suggest devs make Categories similar to the XF Resource Manager Categories in left sidebar. If devs are interested I would love to propose a layout mokeup for Arcade main page.
If you don't mind, can you create a new thread with that suggestion? I like the idea of the categories in a sidebar; having them as tabs is a hold-over from our experience with v3 Arcade for vBulletin. By having each suggestion in its own thread it'll be easier to keep track of it and, even if it doesn't happen right away or at all, it'll stay in the suggestions forum until some kind of response is ready.
 
I used the ACP option.
Try turning it off again in the ACP and then viewing it with the default XF style; it definitely works but if you've modified any templates, etc. in a custom style then they may not have been updated.
 
If you don't mind, can you create a new thread with that suggestion? I like the idea of the categories in a sidebar; having them as tabs is a hold-over from our experience with v3 Arcade for vBulletin. By having each suggestion in its own thread it'll be easier to keep track of it and, even if it doesn't happen right away or at all, it'll stay in the suggestions forum until some kind of response is ready.
okay, sure I will start a new thread with the mokeup :coffee:
 
Try turning it off again in the ACP and then viewing it with the default XF style; it definitely works but if you've modified any templates, etc. in a custom style then they may not have been updated.
When I unchecked "Enable Categories" from ACP, my arcade page only shows 25 games (as there is no pagination right now) .. so i don't think that's a perfect idea :smiley:
 
When I unchecked "Enable Categories" from ACP, my arcade page only shows 25 games (as there is no pagination right now) .. so i don't think that's a perfect idea :smiley:
.... and you just reminded me that I need to post the fix for that that xfrocks finished. I'll post it either later tonight or tomorrow night.
 
I'm not sure if I like the categories in a sidebar that mimics the XF Resource Manager. Attached is a screen shot showing how it looks using a fixed width style. It solves one problem because now you can have as many categories as you want without having the top tabs word-wrapping and looking weird but it also means losing 230px on the left side of the page so we'll need to tweak the game listing details a bit now to make up for it (eg: reduce the font size being used for the game name & try to reduce the size of the rest of the columns a bit).

Thoughts? Do I go ahead with the index page having a sidebar like XF RRM

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I still think this is the way to go. Perhaps we can even shrink the sidebar on this one area, and allow any really LONG category name (a rare occurrence) to word-wrap.
 
I think this is actually quite good as is (got 13 positives and 0 negatives):
Resources
Yeah, I was just about to remind Kevin my designed mokeup, thanks for linking :smiley:

I understand it maybe difficult to make the exact layout with current available features, but if majority of people likes my suggested layout then we should at least give it a try. I'm available to redesign it further with current available features.

Sidebar at the left side is a right move (y)

I look forward to more improvements in the future.
 
Categories will definitely be on the left in the next release instead of the tabs. Might not be much else in the sidebar but at least the groundwork will be laid for adding additional boxes as we go forward.

I'm also working on redoing the URLs a bit so that instead of using jquery to reload the categories into the existing window, and retaining the generic "/arcade" URL, the categories instead will be reachable by their own URL like "/arcade/puzzle.1/browse" instead. The default "/arcade" will show the full game listing when no category is specified. I'm not sure yet where the new & random listings will go. In my head the plan is to have them as tabs like in the mockup. I'm not sure about the "browse" part of URL and it might change to "games" instead but that can be handled after everything is working.

The URLs for playing the games is also getting changed. Instead of being "/arcade/snake.15/play" it will be just "/arcade/snake.15" instead.

The URL changes are to make them a little more consistent with the core XF structures and to make things a little bit more straightforward. Plus, if nothing else, having the category URLs like "/arcade/{NAME.ID}/games" might get some of you guys/gals more hits from Google when people search for something like 'arcade puzzle games'.
 
Thoughts on having the categories appear on the right instead of the left? (example pic below)

Advantages: It can be implemented by including the standard <xen:sidebar> include and also the stock CSS defined CSS definitions. This would allow it automatically inherit any style changes for the sidebar instead of needing to new CSS definitions in arcade.css to mimic the left sidebar of the XF RM. AKA: It is easier to implement.

Disadvantages: It's on the right? :cautious:

For now I've stripped out the new CSS I had in there to have it on the left and will go with having it in the right using the standard xen:sidebar unless there are major objections. Yes, in the screenshot below the tab headers work. I just need to replace the hard-coded working text with phrases.

Question: With these changes is the option to disable the category tabs still needed? I am thinking the answer is "No" since there are no more category tabs at the top and the sidebar can/will be used for additional sections as we go on so that option would end up just disabling that one sidebar section.



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I think there are more advantages with the sidebar on the right, so you can call the sidebar and the css with a minimum of fuss.

I'd definitely like to see the games count next to the sidebar categories as well. I'd stick pretty close to Veer's mockup actually, just keep the sidebar on the right.

I'm also fine not worrying about an option to disable tabs in the next version. There are more important features to get in.
 
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