Is this ready for sale? Is it usable?

BradleyB

Trying to get the examples to work. No data. No connection information. No problem solving connection faqs.
Want to search the forums? No forum search, just site wide.
Want to check rules for forum search? Like rule #1 (usually) check for existing post with a search. INVALID LINK

WTF?

tangerine

Trying to get the examples to work.

Are you referring to DataTables or the DT Editor?
Which particular example? What happens? Do you see error messages?

"Site wide" means you search the forum and the documentation at the same time, which thousands of DT users find helpful.

The FAQs are here:
https://datatables.net/faqs/index

EDIT: I see you have opened another thread with most of the same comments. That isn't helping.

kthorngren

As Tangerine mentioned multiple posts with the same comments is not helpful. I'm sure the developers will respond to your comments.

My suggestion would be to open a new thread and provide more detail of what you downloaded and what you configured. Maybe start with some code snippets. Simply saying you followed the instructions and they aren't working doesn't provide the detail needed to help.

Kevin

BradleyB

@kthorngren - YOU are a duplicate.
@tangerine - This is about DT Editor and now about forums too. First 2 posts themselves duplicates, telling me not to duplicate post. Irony??????

• I'm referring to All of the examples. All show no data. No errors (on the page, found one in the console).
• Site wide search WAS NOT HELPFUL. First post I followed bounced me back and fourth between 'this is a duplicate of that' . F that. Thousand of people find drinking their own urine useful, so what?j
• I couldn't find any FAQ on no data, no connection, no errors.
• Manual says, "The Editor PHP demo files will run on any web-server capable of running PHP 5.3 or newer (e.g. Nginx, Apache, IIS, etc). So php itself should work, right?
• Says to just copy to root dir of server and open a directory. Ok. I guess php needs to have an actual page, no biggie, but not accurate.
• Turns out to using php as dev web server, you start it where you want root to be, so naturally, I started it in the examples directory and went to localhost/index.html and saw no errors and no data.
• Chrome devtool console said $.fn.dataTable.Editor is not a constructor. I would have expected your example page to report something useful to the user. Not silently error on the console and display like it is all working.
• Terminal console was showing 'No such file or directory' for css files and then I noticed also on .js files. Ah HA!
• Apparently setup to use examples parent directory as the root and non - relative links. So moving my document root to the OUTSIDE of examples allowed it to load its own resources.
• Now get an actual alert that something is wrong with the connection. sheesh

To me there are 2 BLARING red flags evaluating this solution so far.
1.) Forum more focused and policing duplicates than providing answers. And to that end sets the user up for abuse by not allowing specific searches on specific forums for specific questions.
2.) Examples seem to be for people that don't need them. Not meant for someone trying to learn them for the first time. Why not show an error to the user if it can't find its own resources? If you're using non relative urls, make a note in the install docs where SPECIFICALLY to root needs to be to have it work.

BradleyB

@kthorngren - Sorry. You are not a clone. Or at least you're not supposed to know anyway...

Starting your post with "As XXX said..." to tell me it is a duplicate caused a hip shot reaction that was half meant to be humorous. Without knowing me or otherwise having it in context, I don't believe it came across in any meaningful way. I'm sorry. I take it back. I would have literally taken it back accept my 15 mins ran out before my conscience kicked in. B-)

kthorngren

Forum more focused and policing duplicates than providing answers

Duplicate posts on this forum is a problem. Some occur because of a mistake where someone will post the same question twice within seconds. Others are that someone posts a question in another's thread then immediately post the same question in a new thread. Sometimes people get impatient for answers and repost their question in a new thread.

The policing of duplicates is done in order to:
1. Keep the focus on one thread so others aren't answering the same question in another thread.
2. Provide a link to the duplicate thread so when folks like you search they can move to the thread that hopefully has something useful.
3. Help those who post duplicates understand that it is more difficult and confusing for those trying to help or finding information.
4. There are two developers working on this large project. Noting duplicates will help them not waste their time. Oops dup of number 1 - sorry couldn't resist

Why not show an error to the user if it can't find its own resources?

Specific to the $.fn.dataTable.Editor is not a constructor and errors like it. They are Javascript errors that occur before Datatables or Editor apps are loaded. There is not an opportunity for the application to provide an alert since its not loaded.

I can't comment on the rest as I don't use PHP nor have tried the examples locally.

First 2 posts themselves duplicates, telling me not to duplicate post. Irony??????

Sorry if the duplicate comment caused a reaction. Wasn't meant to. But you can see the frustration of duplicate posts from those of us who regularly answer questions on the forum.

However in both responses there were questions and comments asking for more information.

Site wide search WAS NOT HELPFUL.

Yes, i agree that searching this forum is not always easy. There are times I don't find what I'm looking for. I also find it frustrating when the thread doesn't contain the solution. This a problem from the community not providing their solutions, not the developers.

Sorry. You are not a clone.

Thanks!

I think you will find excellent help on this forum. The developers are knowledgable and very open to the sort of comments you made. Given the time they try to address issues they can to improve their site and products.

Kevin

BradleyB

• If you are having problems with duplicate posts, it most certainly isn't solved, or even helped, with more ('this is a duplicate post') duplicate posts. Adding noise to keep the piece... How about do a SPECIFIC search for the question on submit and offer the user the top 5 'hits' to look at and reply with 'no, still not answered, post the question'? But I repeat myself.
• There are plenty of ways (or opportunities) for the application (page) to provide an alert. Try / Catch comes to mind. If I wrote a web page to provide an example use of XYQ, The first thing I would write is, is my XYQ I'm supposed to show loaded?????

Why is it when you explain how something doesn't work as expected and how it can be improved, the most common occurrence is to have them explain why they do it the way it is being done and not working?

kthorngren

Good points. Will leave it to the developers to answer your questions.

Kevin

allan

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll answer your questions about getting the demo working in the other threads, but you've got two specific questions in your last post here which I'll address:

How about do a SPECIFIC search for the question on submit and offer the user the top 5 'hits' to look at and reply with 'no, still not answered, post the question'?

The real difficulty with search on this site is the individual nature of the questions asked. e.g. someone might write a post about deleting joined data, while another might refer to is as cascading, while another might say "my user's table isn't updating when I delete an address". They are each (probably!) the same thing, but the search will have a nightmare finding it. Its also very difficult to say when a question is answered - there is the "Did this answer the question" option and that is used in the ranking, but it isn't always correctly used, or even questions asked as a question.

I've got the search on the site setup into two indexes - the forums and everything else. When you do a search it will search both indexes and present results from the docs / examples / reference on the left, and forum results on the right. The forum index has its own ranking, but you can specify for it to be date sorted. Having the ability to search either the docs or the forum is a good idea (thank you), but I'm keen to make sure that the docs are actually useful. I haven't read your other threads yet, so I don't know what's gone wrong with the install from when following the install instructions, but I do update the docs based on feedback .

There are plenty of ways (or opportunities) for the application (page) to provide an alert.

To some extent. You mentioned $.fn.dataTable.Editor is not a constructor - that's most likely caused by the Editor JS file not being loaded. Yes, I could put a try / catch or a test into the code for it, but 1. that would be ugly, 2. people would copy it into their own code needlessly and 3. it shouldn't be needed!

As I say, I'll look at your other threads now.

Allan