Not a bug in the usual sense, but a search for online components reveals a rich seam of Custom Code components. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that these go against what BSS is about and wish that they were not there. Is there any support for having some system for preventing them from being uploaded in the first place and for those already uploaded being removed?
+1 with a bit of an exception in my opinion lol. Although I don't always care to use them, I do have some of my own that I use quite often so I can't be totally against them ... BUT It would be great if they were singled out in some way or marked that they are custom code or include custom code, somewhere in the description similar to how the tag was added for B3 and B4 so we don't have to open the comments of every single one to see that info. Usually that's the only place we find information pertaining to whether it's custom code or not. If no comments, we have no idea until we install it which is a lot of time wasted.
A specific tag in the mouseover description that shows "Custom Code" would tell us it includes it or all of it is. That to me would be very helpful and alleviate half of our time wasted searching for true BSS built components. Also a check for number of lines of custom code might be helpful as well so we don't end up with a full website custom code block. Limitations on this really would be helpful indeed.
I only say the above because I've found some pretty awesome components in the online components that are custom code that I wouldn't give up for the world. I don't mind editing them at all as custom code, but some can be pretty long and tedious and some people have even included full website designs or close to it, all custom code which is really over the top in my book. We shouldn't have to wade through all that, and things like that really should not be accepted.
I don't mind that there are custom code components, but it would be really nice if there was a "flag" on any component that utilizes custom code, so that non-coders would know to not bother downloading it.
When I upload components, I make sure they DON'T use custom code, so people get accustomed to knowing that anything made by Printninja will be customizeable from within the BSS UI. I will usually write in the description words to this effect.
An another note, the whole Online Library needs major updating/organizing. It could be a hundred times better than it is, with some simple improvements. I find the whole "Trending" and "Latest" categories to be useless. I'd rather categories of "Most Downloads", "Highest Rating", and some sort of organization (Navbars Headers, Footers, Forms, etc...) You can't even rename your own component once you've uploaded it. You have to take it down, rename it in your own library, and then reshare it. And there was a bug I once encountered where I couldn't delete an uploaded component after I added a revised version of it with some CSS fixes, but I had kept the same name, so the old component got "frozen." Martin had to go in and delete it.
And the Online Library should not allow foreign language components. The program is in English. The components should be in English.
Many of us have shared ideas and desires for improvements in the Online Component library.. the search functions, or even something as simple as adding a Forum category to discuss online components, but so far its all fallen on deaf ears.
Thank you for all the ideas shared in this thread! I agree, the online library is in need of an update. We just always had features with higher priority that took up our time.
To address some of the points raised:
- It will be a net negative to remove all custom code components. They can still be useful. We can show a tag next to them, and display an option when searching so they can be filtered out.
- The search is lacking right now. You can't filter by framework. With the introduction of BS5 it will be even harder to find what you need. We will improve it with an ability to filter by framework version (alongside the custom code check from above).
- Components titles, screenshots and descriptions can be edited. You can do this by clicking "Share Online.." again, and pressing the Update button.
- Categories like Highest Voted and Most Downloaded wont work in practice - very few people vote on components, and votes tend to favor older components that have existed for longer. But we could add the ability to sort by these metrics when searching, instead of having them as categories.
- We can't block foreign language components. This would involve manual review, and we have other things to do.
Looking forward to your input on these ideas.
@Martin,
In all honesty, before addressing the Online Components, I'd appreciate if the devs had a look at this post.
https://bootstrapstudio.io/forums/topic/suggestion-for-ui-changes-to-reduce-headaches-and-improve-clarity/
@Martin
Thanks for the feedback on this and I would welcome all of your observations.
All looks good to me @Martin. I am wondering though, isn't there a way to add a tagging system to the online components? I personally don't care if there is custom code or not, but what if we had the ability to choose multiple tags to filter our searches? This to me (when done correctly of course) would be more helpful than metrics even though I'm not quite sure what that means, I'm assuming it's something like what has been downloaded the most etc.? If so, then that's not helpful at all because if people are like me I download a lot of them to check them out and then delete most of them because they are junk. That wouldn't tell me much at all.
A good tagging system that requires the authors to choose at least 3 tags would be more helpful I think. Then there could be the auto tags added for things like Bootstrap version, Custom code, month/year added, and so on.
Okay, so perhaps have a message stating something like, "We encourage users to upload components with the name and description in English, along with a relevant thumbnail image, so that other BSS users will have a better idea of whether the component will fit their needs before they install it. This will encourage more overall interest and downloads of a given component.
There definitely should be a way to filter BS3, BS4 (and BS5 when it becomes available.)
I agree with @Jo that a tag system would be very helpful. Perhaps one that basically follows the standard Bootstrap Component categories would be helpful (or at least the categories in BSS studio... (eg. Buttons, Cards, Carousels, Modals, Navbars, etc). There should be a tag to indicate whether the component uses custom code, and a way to search by filtering (inclusion, exclusion, multiple inclusions). So a search for "collapsible" " "sidebar," "-custom code" would list only collapsible sidebars that do not use custom code.) Maybe a tag indicating if the component requires JS or a CDN would also be helpful.
I think it would also be helpful if you could include user names in the search, so if I'm telling someone in the forum about this nifty component I created, I don't have to remember the exact name, I can just say, "do a search for "Printninja" and you'll see my testimonials slider."
It would also be nice if we could get rid of the current categories that show up (Trending & Latest) and go with something that would auto populate a "Newest" category that would show you those for the past 30 days from the date you searched. I would think that would be more helpful as the 2 that are there now are pretty much the same things in both of them almost always. Trending to me is basically what's downloaded most? See my previous post about how useless that is for this app, as "downloaded" in no way represents "used", "useful", etc.
Would love to see the ability to do the following:
1. At first glance you see only a "Newest" category which would show the components uploaded/edited in the past 30 days from date of search, which would be read from the date of upload/edit. I would search more often if I knew it worked this way. Right now I have no idea how often that list is updated.
2. Ability to categorize all search lists regardless of search criteria (in other words, if I do a search, I want to be able to see that list categorized by component type, date, BSx version, etc. multiple choices). This would also help for those components that would possibly fall into multiple categories as some do.
3. No duplicate named items ever, not even from the same person. Names need versions depicted or if something is updated, "updated xx/xx/xx".
4. Ability to see "All" in a categorized list by type of component. Ideally it would be great to have each category listed by date with ability to sort by newest to oldest, oldest to newest, etc., all still while within their categories. Not sure how feasible that is, but it would sure be nice!
From here, assign some of us to help you weed out the coughs simple minded coughs stupid coughs useless items that people upload to test the system. I can't tell you how many times I've had to wade through numerous uploads that were created for a single row with a column type components because someone learning had an epiphany and thought it was awesome and wanted to share it. There are so many useless (not to be confused with bad or custom code) components in there that are basic already included components with oh ... color! wow! it's red! Share it! lol. Centered column! and so on. It's great they get excited when something clicks, I do too, but I don't need it shared each and every time it happens lol.
Use your users here to help police it so you aren't having to do all the work of keeping it clean. We are the ones that have to wade through it all so let us help you clean it up and keep it clean by reporting the ones that need to be removed due to ... for lack of better terms ... redundancy and uselessness. That alone would help clean up a ton of the junk that's in there that I've had to wade through while trying to find something. Makes this feature almost useless at times as it can get pretty full of stupidity in that list here and there.
I am willing and I'm sure there are some others that would also. Volunteer(s) could pledge to only weed out those that are useless repetitive (people love to post the same super simple, already included in BSS component over and over in different colors or styles). Volunteer(s) could report the author name, BSx version, component name and date, and someone on your end could take a once over to assess it and remove it if they agree. This would mean you guys wouldn't have to go through them all yourselves, and that it would only take a handful of minutes here and there for someone on your end to appraise what the volunteer(s) give you and to remove if they agree.
This could be done via email or even better (if it's possible) via a new forum here where the volunteer(s) could have the ability to edit indefinitely (so it doesn't time out editing on them) so they can update a single list as a whole rather than multiple lists from multiple people which would keep the repetitiveness down for the person on your end. And should you add the tag system we're asking for, that would make cleaning it up even easier.
Just some thoughts on how it could get and stay cleaned up with a little help from your users.
From here, assign some of us to help you weed out the coughs simple minded coughs stupid coughs useless items that people upload to test the system. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to wade through numerous uploads that were created for a single row with a column type components because someone learning had an epiphany and thought it was awesome and wanted to share it. There are so many useless (not to be confused with bad or custom code) components in there that are basic already included components with oh … color! wow! it’s red! Share it! lol. Centered column! and so on. It’s great they get excited when something clicks, I do too, but I don’t need it shared each and every time it happens lol.
OMG!!! THIS!!! +11111111
I'm so sick of seeing...
- "red container with a single row, column and big centered blue heart icon"
- "blue container with a single row, column and big centered red heart icon"
- "black container with a single row, column and big centered pink heart icon"
These aren't components. They're flotsam. "Oh look, I made a copyright notice for the bottom of a footer. Let me post this as a custom component!"
For the love of god, why would anyone post stuff that is just ordinary, basic components with things colored differently? I probably hesitate to post a lot of components people would find useful because I'm afraid they're too basic!
I for one wouldn't be averse to a probationary upload area, where someone knowledgeable looks over each uploaded component and checks to see it if it's truly unique, built correctly, works correctly, and is actually worthy of inclusion as a "custom" component."