Formatting issues in SDN postings (character limit and code tags)

[Former Member]

<div style="width:50em">

I'd like to complain about two bugs features in the SDN forums that drive me nuts:

<ol>

<li>When someone posts really long code lines, they are not automatically wrapped or width limited with horizontal scrollbar. Even worse, the whole page (more precise the div #jive-flatpage) all of a sudden extends to the right rendering the whole thread pretty much unreadable.</li>

<li>Formatting gets lost if somebody posts more than 2,500 characters.</li>

</ol>

Ok, the first problem looks like missing CSS formatting to me (correct me if I'm wrong). Anyhow, no longer for me, thanks to custom style sheets, because now I'm limiting the width of .jive-pre and code and postings look good (as overflow is already set to auto I get a horizontal scrollbar, which is much more acceptable to me). I propose that SAP fixes their style sheets.

Also, I never understood the messed up formatting when a posting contains too many characters. I cannot imagine what users would tell me if I'd design an application and deliver it to them with the hint read the instructions and avoid postings longer than 2,500 characters (oh and by the way, if in doubt, just count the characters or paste it in some other tool that can give you those counts). Hhhmm, then on the other hand, maybe SAP was really hard pressed to quickly deliver a working application in no time for no cost like the rest of us...;-)

Anyhow, admittedly, you can tell when hitting the Preview tab. But what do we expect from users that even seem to lazy to <em>search before posting</em>? I favor a solution that prevents entering messages if formatting gets lost.

So the first problem I think should be trivial to fix, the second problem might be a tad harder to get implemented.

Enough ranting for today (though I'm really tempted to comment on the more important topic <em>expert forums</em>).

Cheers, harald

</div>

<br/>

p.s.: As an example below a silly ABAP code line that should mess up the whole thread...

> WRITE: 'I should never post really long code lines because it will mess up the whole thread unless I am optimistic that SAP will fix the CSS'.

> But you can use the right angle brackets to get around this.

Edited by: Rob Burbank on Apr 6, 2010 10:10 AM

[Former Member]

Thanks all for their feedback. Olivier, I enjoyed reading your reply - wasn't aware that this is SAP portal...

Anyhow, just wanted to post an update in case SAP is possibly really looking into fixing layout issues...

Today I came across this thread . Hadn't seen this before, guess normally nobody posts endless lines of characters without any whitespace. So I had to extend my stylesheet fixes by also limiting the width of the class .jive-message-body.

[Former Member]

> Hadn't seen this before, guess normally nobody posts endless lines of characters without any whitespace.

Oh, that happens often, and long ones as well...

I fixed the formating for the mortals.

Cheers,

Julius

[matt]

2500 character limit? What 2500 character limit? <br><br>E.g.<br><br>

<pre>report DEMO_CREATE_PERSISTENT.

selection-screen begin of screen 400 title TEXT-400.

parameters DELETE as checkbox.

selection-screen end of screen 400.

selection-screen begin of screen 500 title TEXT-500.

parameters COMMIT as checkbox.

selection-screen end of screen 500.

data WA_SPFLI type SPFLI.

data: CONNECTION type ref to CL_SPFLI_PERSISTENT,

AGENT type ref to CA_SPFLI_PERSISTENT.

data: EXC type ref to CX_ROOT,

TEXT type STRING.

WA_SPFLI-CARRID = 'LH'.

WA_SPFLI-CONNID = '123'.

WA_SPFLI-COUNTRYFR = 'DE'.

WA_SPFLI-CITYFROM = 'FRANKFURT'.

WA_SPFLI-AIRPFROM = 'FRA'.

WA_SPFLI-COUNTRYTO = 'SG'.

WA_SPFLI-CITYTO = 'SINGAPORE'.

WA_SPFLI-AIRPTO = 'SIN'.

WA_SPFLI-FLTIME = '740'.

WA_SPFLI-DEPTIME = '234500'.

WA_SPFLI-ARRTIME = '180000'.

WA_SPFLI-DISTANCE = '10000'.

WA_SPFLI-DISTID = 'KM'.

WA_SPFLI-FLTYPE = ' '.

WA_SPFLI-PERIOD = '1'.

AGENT = CA_SPFLI_PERSISTENT=>AGENT.

try.

CONNECTION = AGENT->GET_PERSISTENT( I_CARRID = WA_SPFLI-CARRID

I_CONNID = WA_SPFLI-CONNID ).

message 'Connection already exists' type 'I'.

call selection-screen 400 starting at 10 10.

if DELETE = 'X'.

try.

AGENT->DELETE_PERSISTENT( I_CARRID = WA_SPFLI-CARRID

I_CONNID = WA_SPFLI-CONNID ).

commit work.

catch CX_ROOT into EXC.

TEXT = EXC->GET_TEXT( ).

message TEXT type 'I'.

endtry.

endif.

catch CX_ROOT into EXC.

TEXT = EXC->GET_TEXT( ).

message TEXT type 'I'.

try.

CONNECTION = AGENT->CREATE_PERSISTENT(

I_CARRID = WA_SPFLI-CARRID

I_CONNID = WA_SPFLI-CONNID

I_COUNTRYFR = WA_SPFLI-COUNTRYFR

I_CITYFROM = WA_SPFLI-CITYFROM

I_AIRPFROM = WA_SPFLI-AIRPFROM

I_COUNTRYTO = WA_SPFLI-COUNTRYTO

I_CITYTO = WA_SPFLI-CITYTO

I_AIRPTO = WA_SPFLI-AIRPTO

I_FLTIME = WA_SPFLI-FLTIME

I_DEPTIME = WA_SPFLI-DEPTIME

I_ARRTIME = WA_SPFLI-ARRTIME

I_DISTANCE = WA_SPFLI-DISTANCE

I_DISTID = WA_SPFLI-DISTID

I_FLTYPE = WA_SPFLI-FLTYPE

I_PERIOD = WA_SPFLI-PERIOD ).

call selection-screen 500 starting at 10 10.

if COMMIT = 'X'.

commit work.

endif.

message 'Connection created' type 'I'.

catch CX_ROOT into EXC.

TEXT = EXC->GET_TEXT( ).

message TEXT type 'I'.

endtry.

endtry.</pre><br><br>

A reference to the class actor of the persistent class CL_SPFLI_PERSISTENT is assigned to the reference variable AGENT. The static constructor of the class CA_SPFLI_PERSISTENT generates this reference once only. The GET_PERSISTENT method checks whether or not there is a persistent object with this key in the database already. If so, it can be deleted using DELETE_PERSISTENT. If not, the system raises and catches the exception CX_OS_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND. Then it tries to create the object in the relevant CATCH block using CREATE_PERSISTENT. Note that the object is created in the database only when the COMMIT WORK statement is executed. If there is no COMMIT WORK statement, the program retains only the managed object, which is deleted from the database after the program ends. (See Transaction Mode).

[Former Member]

Hi Matt,

Try to use the proper formatting (i.e. the tags) and then do a preview of your posting. You'll see what we mean then...

Cheers, harald

[matt]

I know exactly what you mean. I was just playing, and demonstrating that there are ways of posting more than 2500 characters. But you can't use the forums' markup.

[Former Member]

You have to attend the 5 days course and get the SAP SDN Forum certification to be able to post properly more than 2500 characters...

Or you may wait for the new transaction SENDSDN that SAP will create in SOLMAN 8.3. After a 1 week customization project, you will be able to use this free tool to send nicely formatted messages up to 2555 characters. The 3000 characters will be brought to you by EHP5 for SOLMAN 8.3.

Of course, I'm kidding (partly...) !

[ThomasZloch]

Grumpy strikes again, thanks for the afternoon laugh

[Former Member]

>Grumpy strikes again

I have a reputation to keep !

[Former Member]

Hi Matt,

I know exactly what you mean. I was just playing, and demonstrating that there are ways of posting more than 2500 characters

Fair enough, but I suspect your <em>demo</em> is based on my 2009 posting of an [instructional video for optimizing usage of SDN forums|http://tinyurl.com/y8ufsnp]. The video was posted under [creative commons attribution non-commercial|http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode] license, so please reference the <em>original author</em>. Maybe award some points for compensation.

Thanks, harald

[Former Member]

>

> You have to attend the 5 days course and get the SAP SDN Forum certification to be able to post properly more than 2500 characters...    
> 
> Or you may wait for the new transaction SENDSDN that SAP will create in SOLMAN 8.3. After a 1 week customization project, you will be able to use this free tool to send nicely formatted messages up to 2555 characters. The 3000 characters will be brought to you by EHP5 for SOLMAN 8.3.
> 
> Of course, I'm kidding (partly...) !

Olivier, you make my day!!!

Can you please add a line about actually finding something in SDN that matches the search-criteria by more or less 80% ??? (without cheating by using Google!!).

[former_member184657]

ROTFL.

pk

[Former Member]

Actually, I don't mind the 2,500 character limit. Before it was in place. people would post entire programs without thinking. Now at least, you have to look at your program and figure out where the problem is before posting. Or complete dumps.

But it would be much better to produce an error rather than allow the unformatted code to be posted.

Rob

Edited by: Rob Burbank on Apr 6, 2010 10:14 AM

[Former Member]

>But it would be much better to produce an error rather than allow the unformatted code to be posted.

That is definitively the bad "feature" : a bad solution for a real problem.

Olivier

[marilyn_pratt]

Just to let you know that we are listening which doesn't always correlate to being able to immediately address.

But knowing the level of discontent is at least a concrete step for us in prioritizing a feature/function list of repairs.

This will be raised to the team that tries to remedy and please understand that trying to address the most painful and quickly "fixable" issues is our priority as well.

Thanks for starting the thread.

[Former Member]

Hi,

I completely agree with you that these forum "features" are a disgrace and look absolutely NON professional especially from such a big company like SAP.

I never reply and even don't read long unformatted posts because it hurts my eyes.

When you add that this Jive forum runs as a component of the SAP Portal, it is a very bad advertisement...

Olivier

[former_member184657]

I cannot imagine what users would tell me if I'd design an application and deliver it to them with the hint read the instructions and avoid postings longer than 2,500 characters (oh and by the way, if in doubt, just count the characters or paste it in some other tool that can give you those counts). 

... also if you find that you have pasted less than 2,500 characters and still the formatting is messed up, dont let it bother you too much. Its just another bug feature we offer.

pk