Tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?

Subject: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Nemesis
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 05:08 AM

Dear Mudcatters,

I'm fed up relying on the kindness of others - it's about time I stood up on my own two feet and learned to do a blue clicky thing by myself. :)

Um, but to launch me on this path of independence could others kindly tell me how?

Many thanks, Hille x

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 06:07 AM

Have a look in the Mudcat FAQ

Click Here

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 07:55 AM

Yes, it really is quite easy, Hille, just open a thread and call it "HTML practice thread" and try your first links there.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: SharonA
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 01:40 PM

I'm afraid I've always been confused by the FAQ's notation. Okay, you've got your "less than" sign, then an a and a space and href= and an inch-mark ("). Presumably, the site you want to direct the computer to is the one inside the inch-marks (sorry, they're not quotation marks; they don't look like flying double-commas!). Then after the second inch-mark is a "greater than" sign and – again I'm presuming here – the blickey as it will appear in the thread. Am I right?

All well and good, but how does one direct the computer to a specific post WITHIN another Mudcat thread, rather than just to the thread itself? That part mystifies me.

And I don't understand the e-mail blickey notation in the FAQ at all. Does that blickey send you to your e-mail program automatically?

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 04:50 PM

One can also take things from the site into a Word template, build the your clickies there and paste them in. I did that for a long timeuntil the HTML codes made sense and now I just type them.

Sharon, to clicky someone to a particular message in a thread, RIGHT-click on the name of the person for the post you want, in the list of who has posted in the first part of the thread; copy shortcut or copy link, and paste that URL into your clickie.

So the URL for your post above would appear in a clickie like this:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=39542&messages=4#561416

That last number after the number sign is the message ID in the database.... [insert creepy movie music]... where all our messages mingle most immoderately, message ID numbers emblazoned... like people wearing "I survived this thread" T-shirts.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 05:24 PM

To confuse the issue, I always remove the "&messages=*" bit, which is redundant.  You can also remove the "http://www.mudcat.org" bit, thus converting an absolute URL which will only work if you happen to be on Shorty, to a relative URL which will work on any of the Mudcat servers.

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Bernard
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 05:58 PM

Alternatively, copy and past this, changing the xxxxx to the thread number... if you save the thread, you can use it more readily when posting!

<a href="http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?ThreadID=xxxxx"...">CLICKY</a>

For other sites replace 'sitename.com' with the ...erm ... site name!

<a href="http://www.sitename.com">CLICKY</a>

For an email clicky:

<a href="mailto:[e-mail]">Email me!</a>

(change '[e-mail]' to your email address!!)

Clever bit - email clicky with default subject line:

<a href="mailto:[e-mail]?subject=I can do clickies!">Email me!</a>

Oh - line break!! <br>

TTFN
B

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Pene Azul
Date: 29 Sep 01 - 07:58 PM

Give this a try:

Make a link ("blue clicky")

Jeff

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Bernard
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 04:34 PM

Nice one, Jeff!!

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 04:59 PM

Yes, Jeff. Way to go! I've been thinking of doing something like that for a long time but just never made the time. Now give your blickifier an icon and put it at the top of each page near the search panel or something.

Thanks,

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Pene Azul
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 05:03 PM

Thanks, guys. After the upgrade, there will be a link to it below the posting textarea in each thread.

Jeff

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: wildlone
Date: 30 Sep 01 - 05:06 PM

Jeff
Whos a clever bugger then ***BG***
[added to favourites]
dave

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: MudGuard
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 01:27 AM

Jeff, don't forget to let the blickifier open in an extra window (target="_blank"), otherwise if someone decides to use it after typing half his/her posting, all that work might get lost!

MudGuard

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 06:24 AM

Mudguard,

I reckon Jeff realises that ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: SharonA
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 07:12 PM

Thanks, everyone... but Susan, I CAN'T "right-click" – I'm on a Mac! So how else can I come up with the message I.D.?

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Pene Azul
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 07:18 PM

Sharon, you should be able to copy the "shortcut." It's been a while since I worked on Macs, but I think ctrl-click on a Mac works like right-click in Windows.

Jeff

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Nemesis
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 09:18 PM

I am reading this with close (but confused) interest.. All will eventually reveal its little blue self...

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 09:31 PM

I just know there is a simple and obvious answer to this, but, in Bernard's post above, how come the "printed out" link examples didn't automatically convert to blueclickies when he submitted the post?

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 09:42 PM

Nice one Jeff, a lot better than mine. I'd forgotten about the one I'd posted here until now.

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 01 Oct 01 - 09:45 PM

and I still can't do links!

Jon

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 04:49 AM

Murray,

it can be done this way:
type &lt; and we see an < that is not read as a command
type &gt; and we see an > that is not read as a command

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 05:49 AM

Thank you, Wolfgang. Clever stuff, indeed :-)

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 12:36 PM

as you might expect, there is a program to automate the display of HTML code without executing it....that program can be found here... called sHTML

there are more little programs on the source page that will automate things like displaying colored script

you may not use it often, but it is nice to have, is free, and is small.

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 12:38 PM

Sharon, ask Amos (PM) and let us know the result.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Oct 01 - 06:54 PM

...so where is my follow-up post?

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 01:53 PM

.

---

I'd like ask our "regulars" to take the time to learn how to do within-Mudcat clickable links (internal links). When you make a link, leave out the http://XXX.mudcat.org (XXX being the name of the server). That way, the link keeps the reader in the server he/she was using. Our regulars post a lot of internal links, and I've had to spend a lot of time changing them. If you link to ragtime or dharma or shorty or loki, or even www - there are times that those servers aren't working, and your link then leads people to a dead end.

---

One exception to this - when posting links in the Help Forum, you have to include the http and the complete URL, because the Help Forum opereates independently.

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Bernard
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 02:13 PM

Point taken, Joe - so why do the thread names and other links on Mudcat itself not follow the same protocol? It would reduce file sizes and download times...

I've always put www for the server, which is what Mudcat itself does unless you've logged to a specific server.

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 02:51 PM

er...well...
Good question, Bernard. I guess that if would cut download time (but by a very small amount) if our menus could generate internal links, but they don't. Many of the permanent links you'll find ARE internal, but not the ones that are automatically generated. Maybe Pene can tell us why that happens.

If you're on our Loki server, ColdFusion will generate a new Forum Home menu of Loki links each time you refresh the Forum Home page. If you're on Ragtime, the Forum Home will refresh with Ragtime links. If you can refresh the page, it means that you must be on a working server - and the links on the Forum Menu will most probably work. If you are on Ragtime and post a link that points only to Ragtime, somebody who clicks the link tomorrow may end up in a dead end if Ragtime is down.

There is one exception - if you are linking to Mudcat from the Help Forum, you have to use the entire URL, with http and everything. The Help Forum operates independently, so it's less likely to go down when the rest of Mudcat is down. If you're posting a Help Forum that you might want somebody to use next week, it's best to use links that start with http://www.mudcat.org. If you're telling us about a problem, there's no need to make a clickable link for us - just give us the URL (address) of the problem, and we'll fix it.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 03:20 PM

I think I nearly follow all that!

Regards

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 03:50 PM

Alright....I'm incredibly stupid. Show me one as it should be without the unneeded stuff.....

First I put in <a href=

Then what ---Just take it from there as though you were linking this thread. That way I get the whole thing and it doesn't do a clicky.

Spaw

Subject: RE: tech: Blickies/ blue clicky things - how?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 04:03 PM

Okey-dokey, Mr. Spaw:

for a thread:

<a href=/thread.cfm?ThreadID=39542>(click here)</a>

for a song (link preferably taken from SuperSearch/ digitrad & Forum Search):

<a href=/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=409>(click here)</a>

Note how cleverly I have also deleted extraneous stuff from the end of the URL of both the thread and the song. All you need is;

• the display page for either the thread or the song (/thread.cfm or /@displaysong.cfm)
• a question mark to show a query
• THREADID or SONGID
• the number of the thread or song

Ross Perot would say, "It's THAT simple."
Spaw, you oughta listen to Old Ross.

-Joe Offer-