[Plugin: WP Idea Stream] Voting doesn't work.

Hi alaskan,

voting system is only available on single idea template and for registered and logged in users.

Thanks for the reply, imath. Much appreciated.

I’d like to enable voting on the “all ideas” page because I don’t want to make users click through to a new page just to vote; I don’t think they’ll bother, actually. I think users will just assume voting is closed or broken when they can’t vote on the “all ideas” page.

Can I do this by simply editing the templates, or will that cause major problems? Any guidance would be great.

Thanks.

I tried editing the templates, and it didn’t work.

I added <?php wp_idea_stream_ratings_single();?> into a new div under

<div class=”entry-content”>
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div><!– .entry-content –>

It made a mess, basically. The original “ratings stars” doubled (?) and the new ratings stars I created below the content were not clickable.

(Advice and pity would be greatly appreciated.)

Hi Alaskan,

If i were you, i would simply disable the built in voting system and choose a plugin like vote-it-up… Then once installed, you will be able to adapt its behavior the way you want.

As i run an idea management tool, i can tell you that enabling the voting system in other page than single can sometimes make the contributor feels the idea has not been read entirely…

Thanks, imath.

Ok, but, are you saying it’s not possible?

Given the nature of my website, the ideas that people submit are rarely longer than a few sentences and the complete “idea post” is visible on the “all ideas” page.

(I already tried “Vote it up” and it doesn’t work. It’s full of bugs in WordPress 3.3.)

i’m not saying it’s not possible, i think it’s faster and a better option than adapting the plugin.
Because, if you modify the code of the plugin, all your modifications will be erased at the next update of it…

So i think it’s a better option to copy templates in your theme’s folder then install a voting system and then adapt the templates of your theme’s folder.

Yes, of course I would copy the template files into my theme folder and edit them there. I was asking you if I could implement this change via the template files alone; leaving the plugin code alone.

That last sentence has me completely confused. What, exactly is a better option? Are you talking about choosing another plugin?

I’m confused.

imath —

I like this plugin, but I can imagine it being much better with a few improvements like Alaskan is talking about.

— Perhaps make “Allow voting on summary page” an option that users can switch on and off. I also believe that most of the ideas that will be submitted will be short, and the reader will have a good understanding just from the summary page.

— A more sophisticated approach: turn on voting on the summary page by default, but whenever the “Read More” is triggered, turn OFF the voting on the summary page and add a note that says “To vote, [link]read complete idea description[/link].” That way, your concern about people reading the full idea is handled automatically, while providing the greatest convenience for readers when the full dieas are visible on the main page.

— You could also make the amount of text that is displayed before a “Read More” break to be a configuration parameter for the admin — if the admin wants to devote an extra line or two to each post to get the full text of most of them into the summary, he can do that.

The plugin would also be much easier to use if it automatically created a new tab/item in the main menu called “Ideas” that would take the reader to a summary Idea Stream page (what I call an “Idea Wall”) that shows N (configurable) recent ideas along with a form for submitting a new idea and a link to the FULL list of ideas.

— I know on one experimental site where I installed this plugin, I somehow was able to create such pages — I actually ended up with two menu items both going to the idea stream. (I’m not sure how either one is defined or where I go in the site admin pages to eliminate one of them.)

But on another site I’m playing with, I haven’t been able to get ANY link to the idea stream on the menu. (That second site is also using BuddyPress, which may be interfering with Idea Stream.)

If getting a page were simply automatic, that would be a big help.

Merci beaucoup for all of your work on this plugin to-date!

Hi rsteer,

thank you for your interest in this plugin, i’ll check your requests as soon as i can.

Alaskan —

As a temporary fix I’ve added text in the all-ideas.php file to instruct the reader to click on the idea title in order to vote, like this:

<div class="entry-meta">
	<?php wp_idea_stream_posted_on(); ?>
	<?php wp_idea_stream_ratings();?> <b><i>(Click on idea title to vote!)</i></b>
</div><!-- .entry-meta -->

imath —

Thanks for getting back so quickly. By the way, the website link to the “Plugin Page” in the WP plugins directory seems not to work. I don’t really know PHP, but if there are some ways I can help with this, let me know.

thanks rsteer for your fix, i’m sorry i don’t understand what link doesnt work..

By the way, I’ve found that my problems with not having all of the IdeaStream features accessible IS due to using BuddyPress (BP). BP’s default template is quite primitive, and doesn’t include footers and some of the other features that IdeaStream wants to use to display its menu etc.

Perhaps if I go through the cumbersome process of adapting some other theme to BuddyPress, then IdeaStream will also work better.