A week behind schedule ... CAN PAY for answers!

.

Alright, if you don't want to know the background, just skip to the next paragraph.

Some people (mydatery) seem to think that I have nothing else to do aside from getting our dolphin community working up to par. Fact of the matter is that I'm working on 4 different TLDs containing additional subdomains and tens of thousands of files. I'm not only creating custom options & features for the community such as our own music pages, our own video functions, and game includes, but I also have to translate boat loads of files/templates/terms into german since the german language pack that I purchased from expertzzz was far from perfect. Just the translations are going to cost me a couple of more days time. I purchased dolphin with branding rights to our company, based on the advertising from the boonex site ... which suggested to me that this phenomenal application can be made to work like a charm in just a few days and after being told that the language packs could save me a lot of time. Well, in reality, I think someone has to have at least 2 to 4 weeks of "tinkering time" to make dolphin truly incredible, and that's time that I just don't have! Having said that ....

.

I'm a week behind schedule now. Our community was supposed to be "perfect" as of last Friday and testing all of the functions was supposed to commence on Monday, four days ago. Being a week behind schedule is a major disaster and I'm not just blowing smoke here. Everything within our massive project is designed around timelines and if we didn't make every effort to keep those, our project would only be half finished at this point. Due to the fact that almost all of the really cool functions are contained within ray (which is not branded to our company and which we're not using) it's taken considerable more time than anticipated to get things done the way that we want.

.

We're looking for and willing to pay someone ... for answers that are still missing!

No references to firebug and half a dozen other sites that teach php and other useless baloney like that. I repeat what I said above, our timeline is already a week behind. Time for more and more research is the last thing in the World that we have. We need answers and answers only. I'm willing to pay someone 50.00 USD via PayPal to help me figure out how to move things around on the profile pages ... stuff like the tiny text user menu at the very top of the page ... stuff like the profile photos that are wayyyyyy off center ... and some other things that people in this forum, particularily mydatery, seem to think are senseless easily answered items and/or items that have already received answers ... which I'm too stupid to find as most of the answers that I need aren't SPECIFIC enough.

.

We purchased dolphin with branding rights after lots and lots of research online having been convinced by all of the promos that dolphin is an "out of the box" community solution, which in hindsight is absolutely not true ... at least not if you don't want to purchase branding rights for ray too (yes, I've been emailing back and forth with boonex a few times). No, we're not "upset" that dolphin wasn't perfection out of the box, it is incredible community software! But we are upset about users who constantly tell us to learn more php and follow links and research more on google and blah blah blah blah blah.

.

When I go to a forum, I go there for the purpose of looking for answers because to me that's the purpose of a forum. If I don't know the ANSWER to a question ... I shut up! If I do (or think that I) know the answer, I provide it. But I don't believe in telling other people to do a lot of other time consuming things ... unless their question isn't concise enough or unless it's blatantly obvious that he or she hasn't even tried to find the answer on the forum. Think about it this way .... if you were to vacation in a foreign country and you went to a forum, looking for a few key phrases to use, how happy would you be about people telling you to buy language books, or research half a dozen language sites, etc.? You're looking for answers that someone knowledgeable can easily provide ... yet people are telling you to spend hours doing something on your own which ultimately causes you to find the answer yourself. Hello, wake up and smell the coffee, those aren't answers but rather ... ADVICE. And advice is something we're not interested in as that won't actually answer any of our questions or problems.

.

Unlike most people who use their dolphin community for everything or their homepage, or with ray, we're only using dolphin as a small fraction to a ton of free services that we also provide ... and that's why we don't have nor ever had lots of time to deal with dolphin in the way that some people suggest. We need answers, real actual answers, and that's that. So, like I said, 50.00 USD to someone who's willing to help with all of these simple and silly things that I'm to dumb to figure out. According to mydatery, our problems are so pathetically simple that I'd imagine a lot of people will be asking about the 50.00 bucks. After all, it's easy money, right?

.

Screenshots of everything, plus detailed questions will be provided after contact has been established.

Please do not answer this post, just send a private message to get more dialogue going, thanks!

.

.

Greetings from Germany

You've yet to ask a question here that hasn't been answered.  The problem is, your questions are vague:

To move the menu at the top I already told you how to do it, if you said exactly where you wanted it then I'd tell you exactly how to get it there.

The profile page photos, that one has been answered obviously.  Now, you seem to think this board is just for flaming and that no answers are even given.  So you can keep your $50 and I"m going to tell you one last time:

1.  Moving the menu is done as follows:  Open templates/tmpl_uni/_header.html

Locate the menu:

<!--<div class="topestMenuWrapper">-->
   <div class="topestMenu">
    __TOP_Links__
    __TOP_News__
    __TOP_ContactUs__
    __TOP_About__
    __TOP_Privacy__
    __TOP_Termsofuse__
    __TOP_FAQ__
    __TOP_Feedback__
    __TOP_Aff__
    __TOP_Invitefriend__
    __TOP_Bookmark__
    __switch_lang_block__
   </div>
  <!--</div>-->

Now, if you want it off the top of thpage then just comment all of those out, if you want some of them removed, then comment some of them out.  If you want to move them to a different location.  Now, if you would like to move them to the main menu, then first click on each one to find the url it goes to.

Open your Admin-> Builders -> Navigation Menu Builder -> and create a menu tab using that url, give it the name you want, whether it's as the item already appears or a new name you want it to have.  The system will automatically create your language key.

Moving on:

To change the photo size, go to Admin -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Scroll down to the spot in the image and adjust the size.  You can also adjust thumbnail sizes here:

Now, you might be wondering how to center it in the block, but you don't want to disrupt other pages within Dolphin.  This is where you need to figure out where the pic is called from and isolate.  Now, if your using gallery that is one thing, non-gallery profile photo is another. 

So keep your fifty bucks, you obviously need it more than anyone else here and answer the question less vaguely and take a moment to actually read. 

And just for fun, if your using non-gallery, here's the cure:

Open templates/base/profile_view.css

Locate the following:

.photoBlock
{
 position:relative;
 text-align:center;
 }

***On a default install it will look like the above, your looking for .photoBlock string:

Now, input the following items within the string:

margin-top:center;

margin-left:20px;  (You'll have to play with this to set it exactly to center, make sure the photo your testing with completely fills the box width wise so it will work correctly regardless of the photo size someone uploads)

overflow:visible; (this trick will take care of the 2nd column cutting off the pic, but you may end up with text over top if the 2nd column is to close or the 1st column is to narrow for your pic size)

Your string of code will look like this when done:

.photoBlock
{
 position:relative;
 text-align:center;

 margin-top:center;
 margin-left:-20px;

 overflow:visible;
}

Your done, save it (don't close yet) and go check how centered it is.  This will take trial and error, sorta like the way your parents did trial and error in trying to get having a kid right, I'm guessing your were the first try.

I'll be back in a few minutes to do the photo gallery option getting centered. 

Mydatery, you are such a generous person. I would not dream of helping this person with anything. Their entire post came across as a rant. I read it to myself and the entire time I was picturing someone yelling and screaming @ me, using all kinds of aggressive and rude gestures. Like Mr. Incredible's boss from the beginning of the movie, The Incredibles. Meinecommunity, I hope that you get through what you're going through. Good luck.

Mydatery, bless your kind soul lol!

The pleasure came in letting him keep his Fifty bucks... After all, he must need it really bad if he is so frustrated that as a master programmer he can't figure this stuff out on his own.  I'm still waiting for a php quesiton from him... :))

I'll wait and see how he acts before I post the next fix... If he couldn't figure those things out, he'll never figure out how to center the pic when photo gallery is turned on for profile photos...

.

@mydatery

.

First, I see nothing wrong with paying someone for their efforts if it saves me time. What's fair is fair and you seem to be pretty darn knowledgeable about the inner workings of dolphin. It's money well spent if the answers are provided, and aside from that I have more than just 2 questions.

.

Second, I already know most of the stuff that you wrote about ... except for the photo centering within the profiles, both in the '"my account" page as well as the "profile view" page. Made some screenshots that show exactly what I mean and if the photo centering question has been answered then it won't have to be gone over again here.

.

Third, I definitely appreciate your time and knowledge ... we just don't see eye to eye. You may know 100 times more about dolphin, php, css stylesheets, whatever - but that doesn't make me an idiot - just as you're not an idiot because you don't speak/read/write multile languages fluently, or because you don't know as much about cgi/perl as I do, or because you don't know as much about graphic designing as I do, or architecture & blueprinting, or because you're not maintaining a boat load of domains & services as I am, etc. etc. etc. blah, blah, blah.

.

As far as my coding knowledge is concerned, I'm pretty much maxed out. Eventually I'll hopefully find myself with more time on my hands and then I can learn additional & new coding stuff too, but right now I don't really have any time nor energy left to pile even more on my plate than I'm already dealing with. If that makes me an idiot, then so be it. We're all entitled to our own opinions, aren't we? Be that as it may, here are those screenshots ...

.

1. Photo off-center in th may account page (not the same as profile page).

.

2. The menu which conflicts with our header image map.

I've never had a problem with the toppest menu or header placement. The problem lies in the fact that the default PROFILE TEXT MENU underneath the "hello member" text conflicts with our image map. I was hoping that that text menu could be moved down into the dropped/grey submenu somehow ??? If that's a pain in the ass I suppose I can design a whole new header image. That'd be my last choice though.

.

3. This screenshot shows two problems, the profile photos and the "presence" item.

Again, I believe the photo issue has been addressed enough but I'd also like to know how to completely remove the link and word "presence" which appears in the upper text menu between my profile and log off.

.

Offering the 50.00 USD payment has nothing to do with frustration or lack of knowledge since I'm certain that, given enough time, I can handle these issues too. But as mentioned before, I don't have the time anymore and so why shouldn't someone be rewarded for helping us out?

.

What you don't know is this ... part of the problem comes form that damn german translation which I purchased. A lot of stuff, particularily page building buttons & functions were translated either incorrectly or in some cases the same in triplicate ... even though only only one single function was supposed to work for one of those builder buttons. To make things even worse, apparently the file was never converted *FROM* UTF8 to iso-8859-1 which caused additional problems like you wouldn't believe. For example, if you went into the translated files and corrected a "symbol" error and then saved the page EVERYTHING after that symbol got wiped out ... deleted ... decimated ... destroyed. You have no idea what it's like to have templates end in mid-sentence, mid-paragraph, and in some cases having more than just a paragraph wiped out. It's a mess, and then all of these other simple things that mydatery thinks I'm too stupid to deal with etc.etc. etc.

.

I generally do pretty well under pressure, often even welcome it, but this mess that I've got on my hands at the moment has just got my hair standing on end. The dolphin installation itself went fine and it's all working pretty much as it should. But all of the "admin usable guts" are all jumbled up in two languages and more often than not translated incorrectly which then makes a simple "duh" function more of a guess than anything else.

Okay, I'll be back in the AM, it's past 20:00 hrs. here and the wife wants me out of the office.

.

.

@cpittman

Ranting, screaming, yelling .... Geeez, what on earth are you talking about?

.

.

Greetings fom Germany

Cpittman... He obviously just does not understand how to use less words and feels the need to defend himself.  I'm sure that somewhere in life he was taught how to say "Thank You" and the frustration of a script that completely defies programming logic is just driving him nuts...   I'm sure MC is checking into getting hairplugs for men...

After all, if he wasn't behind schedule dealing with a script that is so evasive in it's answers then it would be obvious to him that to Move the _Hello_Action_ which is what's in his way he just needs to:

Open templates/tmpl_uni/_header.html and look for this string of code:

<div class="topBlock">
   __main_logo__
   __hello_member__
  </div>

And replace it with this string of code:

<div style="position:absolute;top:85px;left:925px;">

<div class="topBlock">
   __main_logo__
   __hello_member__
  </div>

  </div>

And then he can move that part to where ever he would like it to go.  And best of all, it will be uniform then on each page that he places it on.  But with so much going on that he can't even take another morsel of knowledge into his brain as the cerebral synapses are alredy overloading, the wife is screaming, the belly is grumbling and well... The investors threatening to pull out.  After all, it's pretty hard to go to:

templates/base/member_panel.css and locate the following code:

div.thumbnail_block
 {
  margin-left:auto;
  margin-right:auto;
 }

And then change it to read:

div.thumbnail_block
 {
  margin-left:0px;            (play with it until you get the margin where you want it, this can use a % + or - value)
  margin-top:center;      (same rules apply for this, use a pix, center, %, + or - to place it where you want
 }

     I love lime green and red... :))

That would be pretty difficult to figure out for most people, especially someone with such knowledge as perl.  I am truly in awe to be in his company.  So, in the end, if he cares to say thank you in a polite manner with a rant then I'll be happy to tell him how to fix the profile photos stacking up in Gallery mode and displaying off to the side. 

He's right, I only speak English, Russian, Latin & Chinese... I never really learned very many languages... Plus I only hold Residential/Agricultural Licensing in 36 US States and 4 Canadian Provinces, Financial Commercial Licenses in all 50 States, DC and all of Canada.  Figure I only have 3 daughters, am a single dad and MyDatery is the first site I ever built in my life... He is so much better than me and has so much more on his plate...  I could never expect him to take on learning more...

So, he can go ahead and continue ranting if he likes and once he forwards 50 Euros (I like the conversion rate) to my paypal account:  admin@mydatery.com then I'll answer the profile photos question.  Otherwise, he needs to learn to ask politely without the rant and look up the word apology. 

Have a nice day Cpittman

how can you start a web project without anyone knowing a little php and css? thats just crazy talk....

Cpittman wrote: "Mydatery, you are such a generous person. I would not dream of helping this person with anything....  bless your kind soul lol!"

-

He also jumped in and gave a long detailed response to someone who's entire post was something like, "I wanna make my menus work.. tell me how"!   Certain posts do not deserve a response, and I also found this one to be insulting - especially since meine dressed me down earlier for trying to help on another issue.  Mydatery - I'm sure most people appreciate your help, as I have, but you are going to burn yourself out.

Erm.. LOL im saying nothing

I'd charge 50 bucks just for reading all the long posts

This is a forum to help others. If you do not like what you read, don't respond. That will save a lot of aggravation and allow the rest of us to move on.

Just my two cents.

yeah me too, i learn a lot from mydatery posts, im gunna start printing them out.. LOL Who needs w3schools website when youve got those. :-)

lol!

.

@Stuart038 ... Thanks.

@sammie ... Thanks, will give that a shot.

.

@mydatery ... You mentioned "no thanks" even though my first response to you in this post stated: I definitely appreciate your time and knowledge. Well, I would have been happy to send you the fifty bucks, but as I'd suspected your answers weren't able to help us at all. This more than likely may have something to do with the fact that the entire flash block has been completely removed and that the top main menu (not toppest) has been disabled by removing all of the button functions from within the admin panel. I could take this line here ...

.

<div style="position:absolute;top:85px;left:925px;">

.

... and stick it ANYWHERE in the _header.html file, without correcting the situation. Sure, I could move the hello user text down, but it was moved down right along with the header image which of course changed how everything was layed out to begin with. Remember (other post), we wanted the header image to appear at the very top - right under the toppest menu. No idea why, but regardless where I placed that line, it also caused for my background color to vanish so that all of my blocks (except for the header) were floating on top of the page background image.

The reason why this should not be a .css fix (please correct me if I'm wrong) is because when one css applies to one template page or file only, then the change that you make in that css file will also only take place for that appropriate page only. I could be wrong, but I believe that I'd have to either adjust each css that has something to do with pages where the info. that we want moved appears, or, as I had suggested in other posts, I could make a global change in the source php file that controls a particular function ... globally ... such as moving the tiny text profile menu further down. (the tiny text menu that appears directly underneath the larger "hello member" text)

.

Example (member_panel.css ... and yes, I did know that this was going to happen):

.

div.thumbnail_block
{
margin-top:222px;
margin-right:20px;
/** margin-left:auto; **/
/** margin-right:auto; **/

.

When I used that, the profile thumbnail was moved down on the member account/member.php only.

And as soon as I checked the profile view, the thumbnail was right back where it was before. Why? Well, because that thumbnail is also controlled in an additional .css file for that particular view. Again, I'm not an experienced .php programmer but when we installed and customized our video portal, our annual planner/scheduler, our country wide interactive photo albums, and a few other applications, our global changes were usually done directly in php source files since a single php file may control a whole bunch of related functions as opposed to a css file controlling the same function/look to be changed, but just not in as many user visible files.

.

UPDATE: By playing around with <div class="topMenuWrapper"> and a few BRs, I did manage to place the logged in user/welcome user text perfectly between the header and the body, with a little space between each. This was not a GLOBAL solution though and so I couldn't make use of it. We need those changes to work globally, on each and every page that displays the logged in members tiny text links.

.

The problem is really nuts actually because if I disable __hello_member__ altogether, then it's disabled everywhere and doesn't show up in the profiles either. That won't do. But if I leave it enabled and merely move it around in the _header.html, then it only stays moved on the homepage, but not within the profiles .... ???

.

Where the "hello user stuff" appears is also a php function/directive and since php - java - xhtml can be made to work together within a file it's possible to adjust global functions even better from within appropriate php source files. At least that's my opinion. Sorry if that doesn't seem to make any sense, but that's why I asked for assistance in tracking down the source files in an earlier post because if there's a php file that tells something to happen somewhere - and you change this - then that change will take place not only globally, but it will sometimes also override an uncooperatice css command (that's been my experience anyway).

Hmmm, guess I'll have to think about this awhile longer? The fifty bucks is still up for grabs of course.   :(

.

.

Greetings from Germany

Okay, your getting closer to being polite.

Now, you did not follow the instructions I gave you completely, you can not give a block a command and then comment out a duplicate alternate command for the same exact item. 

div.thumbnail_block
 {
  margin-left:0px;            (play with it until you get the margin where you want it, this can use a % + or - value)
  margin-top:center;      (same rules apply for this, use a pix, center, %, + or - to place it where you want
 }

Now trying to argue, but you did what you did something different than you were told, by placing a margin-right;20px:  into the code string, you did not pull the photo back, instead you caused it to be depended on the column width and where the column ends and then tried to pull it back.  This does not work well in dolphin.  If a positive px count on margin-left will not get it all the way over then use a negative margin-left:##px; to pull it back to where you want it.

Pay attention to the side notes, you can also use a percentage to pull it back, in a positive or a negative value.  This works and I know it because it's how I created the members profile pages on mydatery.

div.thumbnail_block
{
margin-top:222px;
margin-right:20px;
/** margin-left:auto; **/
/** margin-right:auto; **/

You were told to do this:

Is not what I told you to do.  This is exactly the reason that so many people who have experience in coding have problems with Dolphin.  Normally, yes, if you made a change in one spot it would effect all others that use the same command, but your not adjusting this in the /general.css file (which would effect all others using this same block) your only adjusting it in the "My Account" page which is handled by member_panel.css

Now if you will take a moment and quit trying to look for a reason to fight with me, then you will see that I told you what to do with this to get the photo to appear where it needs to be.  Here is the code string I suggested to you earlier, I'm going to take it a little further this time.  Please listen and don't try to bring in past software coding experience, Dolphin does not always take it well. 

Next up:  Yes, if you adjust the _header.html file it will effect all pages.  If you would like to adjust it on just the homepage for example, then you would need to create a new _header.html file and label it as  /_header2.html, make adjustment to the templates/tmpl_uni/page_1.html as follows:

Open it and locate:

__include _header.html__
 __promo_code__
 __page_main_code__
__include _footer.html__

And change it to:

__include _header2.html__
 __promo_code__
 __page_main_code__
__include _footer.html__

This will allow you to make a different header appear for the specific page that your wishing to change the position of the _hello_member_ item on and not effect the rest.

Now, as far as the command causing the logo to move, sorry about that.  That's my error, I should of broken that string of code apart for you.  But it's a great example of why you need to experiment a little.  I told you to move the Hello Member Action this way:

<div style="position:absolute;top:85px;left:925px;">

<div class="topBlock">
   __main_logo__
   __hello_member__
  </div>

  </div>

Yes, that will cause the logo to move because if you look in the box it says:

__main_logo__

In order to use a div style=... to move the __hello_member__ you need to seperate it out.

So when it starts like this:

<div class="topBlock">
   __main_logo__
   __hello_member__
  </div>

You need to convert it over to look like this:

<div class="topBlock">
   __main_logo__

</div>

<div style="position:absolute;top:85px;left:925px;">

__Hello_member__
  </div>

  </div>

That will allow you to move the Hello Member items and not move the logo.  Now, this isolates the Hello Member and has no effect on the logo or anything else.  As far as the background color goes, nothing that I gave you will alter a background color or remove one. 

Another way to move the Hello Actions is to go into templates/tmpl_uni/general.css and do the following:

Locate:

.topMemberBlock
 {
  position:absolute;
  right:5px;
  top:10px;
  height:50px;
  text-align:right;
  padding:3px;
  width:400px;
  font-size:11px;
 }

By adjusting top:10px; to a larger or smaller value you can move this up or down out of your way, it will take care of the entire block (member thumbnail, Nickname and all the little links below it)

If you only want to move the Small Text Links such as "My Presence" "My Profile" "My Account" then look for this code:

.hello_actions
 {
  text-transform:capitalize;
  font-size:11px;
 }
 
And add in a top:##px; below text-transform:capitalize; And this will move the Links down.  Problem here is I do not know where you want them to appear.  Now this will change it on every page and you should not use these tricks together, each is intended to be used as only one as the changes will build on each other when it comes to this box.  Within here you can also change the Text size, add a text decoration such as underline, bold or flashing and so on.

text-decoration:blink;

And the text in the box will blink accordingly. 

MC, Dolphin goes against the normal mindset of programming to bring some cutting edge items into use in a manner that is very basic.  It breaks multiple rules and in the end causes problems to the more experienced coders because of how it works in comparison to the other scripts.  Now, for position these guys, stay out of the php source files, that is more work than you want to take on.  Yes, you could use a position div in them, but you do not need to for 99% of this stuff.  There are a few that you do.  Do yourself a favor, when you climb into the Dolphin files to edit the changes you need, dump everything you have learned about any other type of site programming out the window and act like your brand new to it.  Just act like you know nothing about coding and come into with that mindset, once you let go of all your old coding habits and the things you learned, this script will become much easier for you to work with.   I don't think your stupid or lack the ability, I just know that your overthinking all of this and you keep yanking at the bit to get into the php files to make your changes, that is not what you want to do when it comes to dolphin layout issues.  Keep it in the .html & .css files and you'll see that just about everything you want to do can be done in there. 

I am pointing you in the right direction here, but without a URL to the exact page your having a problem with I can't give you a definitive this will do exactly what you want answer without being on that page.  Your site has had it's template modified, you have other items in there working behind the scenes and I have no clue what else you've done with this.  So, if your willing to provide a URL to the exact page you need the adjustment on, such as your sites URL so someone can join it and log in to an account page, then myself and other can only give you basic information, which may not work on your site because of other changes you have going on.

Good job on trying to knock down your attitude a little in the last post.  If you want the help let us know and we will be happy to help you out. 

.

By adjusting top:10px; to a larger or smaller value you can move this up or down out of your way, it will take care of the entire block (member thumbnail, Nickname and all the little links below it)

If you only want to move the Small Text Links such as "My Presence" "My Profile" "My Account" then look for this code:

.hello_actions
{
text-transform:capitalize;
font-size:11px;
}
.
And add in a top:##px; below text-transform:capitalize; And this will move the Links down.  Problem here is I do not know where you want them to appear.

.

Hi again, and thanks for all of the input.

Well, I think that I'll just re-design the header image in order to compensate for those small links that appear within it. Still haven't been able to figure out how to completely remove the "my presence" globally either. I guess the main problem really is that there's nowhere for me to move those items to, unless they could be moved right inside of the grey drop-down menu ??? both in the my account as well es the profile view pages. There's no decent room anywhere else that wouldn't conflict with another block or something else and I believe that that is just out of my league as well as combined with frustration that I don't have the patience for at the moment.

.

I'll pm you the login for the test account because I don't want to take a chance on having that info. retrieved out of this forum for spamming purposes since that info. gets used within several different testing environments of our whole project. You're welcome to look at whatever you want. We're still testing and working on setting everything up, so it's not a big deal. Can't change the fact that we're behind schedule .... sat myself down to watch Anger Management with Jack Nicholson in German .... and now I'm feeling a bit more chilled (cuz I feel pretty, oh so pretty) ....

Anyway, thanks.

.

.

Greetings from Germany