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POSTS FOR TOPICS:
The following displays the content of a post:
Clicking on the 'Main Topic' link on the uppermost
corner will take us back to the discussion topic itself. Let's try to post
something of our own in the topic window. Click on 'Main Topic' to go back,
and then click on 'Post Reply' button at the bottom of the topic window. A
message indicating that we may not do that should appear:
"Sorry, in order to
take this action, you have to log on first!"
That is because up until now we were just a visitor,
and did not have a login Id. Since this application does not allow anonymous
posts, it seeks for a login Id to exist.
Using the 'Login' link on the left-nav menu (LeftNav->Login), let's log
on as a member. The account, username
'member', password 'member' will do just that. You may select to start in
'Forums', or, after the login, you may use the 'Discussion Forums' link on
the left-nav menu (LeftNav->DiscussionForums). Choose the forum 'Bora Applications',
then choose the topic 'Missing functionality in TT'.
Let's try to post something of our own; click on 'Post Reply' button, a window
that looks like this should appear:
Your username should show up right across the 'Author' field. Type a title
in the title field, say, "What is TT?", and put some content in
the text area underneath. Finally click on 'Submit'. Two things will happen:
- Your post will be entered into the database,
- You will be put back into a window that displays your post:
Note that these two actions are exclusive, and in most implementations it
is difficult to take both in a single step. Many applications would return
with a "Thank you" message after the posting, and require you to
go to do post window by yourself.
At this point, take a look at the URL field in your browser. It should be
something like:
http://localhost:8080/bora/forum/NewPost?tid=...
Before doing anything else, let's try to refresh or reload the browser. Click
on 'reload' or 'refresh' button on your browser. It should pop a window inquiring
if you want to repost the form data.
It is usually not a good idea to re-post a form data since it will take the
form action once again. In this particular case, that is the "insertion
of your posting" into the database. If you click on OK, you'll end up
with two identical posts under the topic, --with different timestamps of course.
This problem would normally happen in the "Thank you for your posting"
window in many other applications.
Click on the "Main Topic" link on the upper-right corner to go
to the discussion topic; you should see your posting listed as the very last
one in the posts list, --unless of course someone else just sent a posting
right after you.
There are times you may want to cut and paste your posting from another document.
The underlying windows manager (X for Unix, or Windows in Microsoft OSes)
should allow you do so.
In big postings where you cut and paste articles you may want to review your
post content prior to submitting it. Remember your posting will be displayed
in a browser, hence it needs to be formatted for HTML. Otherwise the pure
text would be smashed into a single paragraph without any formatting. The
application will automatically do the formatting for you; hence you may want
to review what it will eventually look like.
Lets try that as well: Click on 'Post Reply' in a particular topic window,
and cut-and-paste an article into the content area of the new post window.
Now, rather than 'Submit', click on the 'Preview' button:
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