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To clarify, I'm not talking about notification emails. That appears to be functioning fine. But since migrating to the new Private Message System (v1.0.17), while feedback is quite positive regarding the layout and responsiveness, a number of users have expressed concern about how to tell which messages remain unread.
One member insisted she was not seeing messages for which she was being notified. Troubleshooting this issue I noticed that the small number for unread messages within the Inbox button at top does not update until the PM page is refreshed. Oddly, however, I confirmed that marking a private message as unread does update the number without requiring a page refresh. So for this user, I believe she was indeed reading all messages but assumed there were more she was not seeing because the number did not update.
In figuring this out, I noticed there is no indication of unread messages in the list of threads on the left. When there are multiple threads in the inbox, this makes it difficult to identify which thread has the unread topics. There is a running total number of messages next to the subject for each thread. If this number could be colored, or the thread highlighted in some other way, it would be much easier to manage which threads have unread messages. And if the specific unread message had an alternate background color until read, that would just be keen.
Finally, I'm not certain about this, but it appears the PM System assumes you have read all new messages if you visit the Private Messaging page. Without clear indication of which threads have unread messages, however, I'm not sure if this is the case. If so, it would make sense to keep all messages and notification numbers marked as unread until the individual unread message has been displayed.
Hopefully this can be considered a feature request and is not identification of some unexpected behavior. Since the plugin seems to be using it's own css, I doubt I could try to address this with theme hacks, but I'm happy to try or help test if given direction.
As if y'all didn't have enough to do...
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Jim, the thread list in the left column IS color coded for meaning... you have a color for unread, a color for read and a color for selected... we have had a few folks say they cannot really tell the colors apart - not a problem for me, but then I can understand...
realistically users should (though not required) copy the plugin, in this case pm, css file (private-messages/resources/css) into your sp theme styles directory (recommend your own theme and not editing our provided ones) and change up the css to match your sp and wp themes...
If you look at that css file, I think you will easily see how to change the unread, read and selected colors to make it more obvious... take a look and let us know if you need more help...
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Mr Papa said
take a look and let us know if you need more help...
Got it. Just one question regarding styling: Does the whole PM Display stylesheet need to be inserted into the modified theme CSS, or can I just add the specific styles being changed?
Finally, I do notice the color distinction but after sending multiple messages in separate threads and then checking that account, not all the threads are highlighted as unread. The most recent is identified as selected, the second shows the spPmThreadUnRead background color, but the third appears as spPmThreadRead.
I don't want to waste your time on this relatively trivial issue and will look into it further and report back if necessary. But the issue does remain that the Inbox button number does not auto-update upon reading a message while it does change without page refresh when marking a message as unread so it seems the functionality is in place, but admittedly, all this magic is beyond be!
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I can answer the CSS question. Just drop the whole file - or a copy of the file is better - into your SP theme's 'styles' folder. SP looks there first for the CSS and reverts to the original plugin CSS file if not there. So drop the file - make the changes and those will be used from then on.
I, personally, have some weirdness with the inbox count when on the pm page and I opened ticket for that but I know Steve was having an issue replicating it. When we can we can fix...
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Yellow Swordfish said
Just drop the whole file - or a copy of the file is better - into your SP theme's 'styles' folder.
Thanks for the clarification!
I, personally, have some weirdness with the inbox count...
Happy to hear it's not just me! I'll report back if I can provide any details that may be useful.
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yeah, Andy has pictures of it happening... I just have not, nor has he, been able to make it happen on command so we can see what is going on...
we probably need to do a walk through on the js that updates the counts and see if anything jumps out...
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Wish I could help identify what's going on... but I did just confirm this potentially related behavior:
- Marked messages in 3 different threads as unread
- Color for all three threads in list on left immediately reflected new spPmThreadUnread color
- Inbox unread count (on button) updated to 1 after marking first message
- Inbox unread count (on button) did not update after marking next two messages
- Clicked Inbox button to refresh page
- Inbox unread count read 3
- But no threads in list displayed spPmThreadUnread color
- Expanding all messages in each of the three threads did not update the Inbox unread count (on button)
- Refreshed page and count returned to 0
Of course, I am presuming marking a message as unread should result in the same behavior as receiving an unread message, but I went through this exercise after sending a few messages back and forth between two accounts and noticing the issue.
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Good thread this guys, I am watching with interest. I too have had some unquantifiable weirdness, I'll pay more attention.
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Jim - I will add those notes to the ticket. Beware this might take a little while to sort. There is some complex stuff going on in there!
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we might have chance this weekend - hope so... but we are trying to get a 5.0.2 out also... as plugin, its independent of that...
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