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Get Latest for This Community

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Hughesco
Get Latest for This Community

Not so sure I would call this a bug.  If I select a community. then "Get Latest for This Community".  I get a view on the left of all the latest messages for this community.  The view indicates how many messages are on the subject.  Then select the subject and I'm taken to the most recent meaassage in that subject.  Not sure this view is helpful without the other messages in the subject thread.  I have one that takes me to a message, "Thank You".  For what?  Have to select the globe idon to see the rest of the thread.  Maybe I need to be in the cummunity more frequesntly and I could follow better.  I would think this veiw more benficial if I was taken to the bottom of the selected message subject.  I will likely see the message preceding it and might have a clue what the most recent message pertains to.    

PocketWGU DevTeam
PocketWGU DevTeam's picture
Re: Get Latest for This Community

I get your point and know what you mean.  The original version of the app did exactly what you are suggesting (took you straight to the full thread and scrolled to the bottom).  There are two problems I faced when doing this:

  • First, some message threads are very long (search for some of my old threads in the community, you'll see what I mean).  If you tap on one of these, it can take a very long time to load.  I already have the "latest" message in the thread when you see the list (so I can show it immediately), but I don't have the full thread content (which can be over 1MB) for every thread in the list.  So, showing the latest is much quicker, and showing the number of replies tells the user there may be many more.
  • Second, while I can direct the browser to "scroll to top" or "scroll to bottom" there is no API that allows me to say "scroll to this particular message".  This API is missing from both iOS and Android (the use the same engine, and neither supports this).  So, you may say "always scroll to bottom" but because messages are "threaded" the most recent post will often NOT be at the bottom of the thread:  imagine one thread with 12 messages and someone replies to message #2, that reply is latest and probably near the top of the thread page.

For these reasons, I've made the app show the "latest" first and give the user the option of viewing the full thread.  I think this is best because I can show the "latest" instantly and many times the user won't care about the rest of the thread.  When the user does want to see the whole thread, he/she can tap the globe.  Make sense?

PocketWGU DevTeam PocketWGU is a volunteer project open to students, faculty, staff and alumni of WGU.

Hughesco
Re: Get Latest for This Community

I see the dilemas.  Obviously I don't spend enough time in the communities, I didn't think about the fact that the latest message on a topic may not be at the bottom of the thread, works like any other forum.  If the threads are too large taking a long time to load, not everyone has that kind of bandwidth.  Don't suppose there is a way to show the latest posting and thier parents only, excluding the rest of the thread.  An option like this would likely benefit both situations.

-Jeff
--
'If it ain't broke'
'Fix it until it is'

PocketWGU DevTeam
PocketWGU DevTeam's picture
Re: Get Latest for This Community

Ya know, it may be possible to figure out "immediate parents" of a given message.  The thing to remember is that none of this is woking with a "WGU API", I can only interpret the data I can get my hands on, so some things that SHOULD be simple, aren't.  Worth a try though...

PocketWGU DevTeam PocketWGU is a volunteer project open to students, faculty, staff and alumni of WGU.

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