JABP - Just A Bump Plugin

Table of contents:

JABP - Just A Bump Plugin

Description

JABP is a Question2Answer plugin that allows users to prioritize questions by bumping them to the top of the All activity section or pinning them in question lists.

Features

Bump questions to send them to the top of the All activity list
Pin questions to send them to the top of question lists
Display the bumped update in both: the question view and the activity list
Ability to pay per bump and pay per pin using points as a currency
Customize the amount of time to pin questions
Bump and pin amounts per user are displayed in their profiles
A flexible widget can be added to display the pinned questions
Highly customizable permission system
Plenty of settings to configure in the plugin admin page
Very simple installation
Full internationalization support: Every piece of text the plugin uses can be customized. Spanish translation included
Upgrade system support: The plugin will be able to properly upgrade from previous versions

Requirements

Q2A core version 1.7.*, 1.8.*

Limitations

This plugin does not support external users
Bumps will only be displayed on top in the All activity list as that is the only one that sorts questions based on latest update. Pinned posts do not have this limitation

Installation steps

Copy the pupi-jabp and the pupi-pr directories into the qa-plugin directory (replace any already existing directory).
If you are using a Q2A core version greater or equal to 1.8.*, then navigate to admin/plugins and enable the Just A Bump Plugin and the Point Recalculator plugins.
Perform a database initialization by navigating to admin/plugins and following the steps, if prompted.

Sample usage and screenshots

The motivation of this plugin is to bring attention to questions. This can be done by bumping or pinning them.

Bumping

Bumping works in the All activity section. The idea is to bring questions to the top of it without adding a forced comment, answer or even editing it. The idea is also to let others know that the user's intention was only to bring attention to the question. Let's see an example.

Suppose that the 3 last actions performed in your site have been adding 3 questions, then the All activity section would look similar to this:

All activity before bump

A user wants to bring attention to the first question created chronologically so, the user navigates to the question:

Question before bump

Then the user clicks on the Bump button and is asked to confirm the operation (in this case, paying with 5 points for the bump):

Bump confirmation

The page then refreshes and the state of the question now reflects it has been just bumped:

Question after bump

The question will reflect this state also in the All activity section sending it to the top of the list:

All activity after bump

Also note that the user's points are reduced by 5.

Pinning

Pinning is an alternative way of prioritizing questions. In the usual scenario, the idea of pinning is to stick questions on top of any question list. The two main differences with bumping are that, on one hand, it works in any question list (not only in the All activity section) and, on the other hand, questions are stick to the top, even if there are subsequent updates to other questions. Let's see how it works.

Suppose that there have been 3 questions asked lately in your site, then the Recent questions section would look similar to this:

Types of pins and pinned questions queue

One thing that is worth mentioning about pinning questions is that there can be a limit set to the amount of them that can be pinned at a given time. Suppose the Administrator configures the maximum amount of questions to be pinned at a given time as 3. Whenever a fourth question will be pinned, it won't be displayed as such until one of the previous slots is freed.

This queuing behavior does not make much sense if only permanent pins were allowed. However, if temporary pins are configured, then slots are automatically freed and new pinned questions from the queue are displayed as pinned.

The usual plugin configuration would be for Administrators to have the ability to perform permanent pins for free and the rest of the users would be able to perform temporary pins (either for free or paying points, depending on the duration of the pin). All of these permissions can be configured in the plugin.

Widget

This plugin includes a widget that displays the currently pinned questions. The widget can be displayed in any location, just as any other widget, and can be configured from the admin/layout section. This is what the widget looks like when it is displayed on the main section:

Widget in main section

This is what the widget looks like when displayed on the sidepanel:

Widget in sidepanel

Note the widget supports multiple pinned questions and it can scroll them automatically and manually.

Admin section

Here is a screenshot of the admin section:

Admin settings

Here is a description of the main settings the admin can change:

JABP enabled: Enables or disables the plugin. Although disabling the plugin does not erase any previously stored data, the ability to perform bumps and pins will be removed and all bumps will be replaced with the latest update to the question. This setting is redundant in Q2A core versions greater than or equal to 1.8.*.
Enable bumps: Enables or disables all features strictly related to bumps. For example, the Bump button is not displayed in questions.
Users can only bump their own questions: If this option is selected users will not be able to perform bumps on other user's questions.
Maximum bump frequency per user in hours: This value controls how often a user is allowed to perform a bump. If this option is set to a value greater than 0 it specifies the amount of hours that have to pass since the last user's bump in order for the user to be able to perform another one. If this value is set to 0 there will be no limit in the bump frequency.
Time that has to pass since the creation of the question in minutes: Controls the amount of minutes that have to pass since the creation of the question in order for it to be able to be bumped. It can not be less than 5 minutes.
Minimum user level required to bump: Determines which is the minimum user level that is allowed to perform a bump. Only users with this user level or higher will be able to see the button.
Enable bump redirection after performing a bump: If this option is not selected, immediately after performing a bump, users are redirected to the same question they bumped. If this option is selected, users will be redirected to the relative URL set in the Redirect to field. Most likely it should be set to activity as that section displays questions based on most recent question, comment or answer update.
Redirect after bump to: URL the user will be redirected to after performing a bump when the redirection is enabled.
Show bump count in user profile: Whether to show the amount of bumps a user has performed in their user profiles.
Points per bump: Amount of points to assign to a user who made a bump. It can be either a negative or a positive number. If the number is zero then no confirmation popup is displayed when performing the bump. After changing this value it is needed to recalculate points by means of the Point Recalculator plugin.
Enable pins: Enables or disables all features strictly related to pins. For example, the Pin button is not displayed in questions.
Users can only pin their own questions: If this option is selected users will not be able to perform pins on other user's questions.
Maximum pin frequency per user in hours: This value controls how often a user is allowed to perform a pin. If this option is set to a value greater than 0 it specifies the amount of hours that have to pass since the last user's pin in order for the user to be able to perform another one. If this value is set to 0 there will be no limit in the pin frequency.
Time that has to pass since the creation of the question in minutes: Controls the amount of minutes that have to pass since the creation of the question in order for it to be able to be pined.
Minimum user level required to perform a pin: Determines which is the minimum user level that is allowed to perform a pin. Only users with this user level or higher will be able to see the button.
Minimum user level required to perform a permanent pin: Determines which is the minimum user level that is allowed to perform a permanent pin. Only users with this user level or higher will be able to see the option in the combobox that allows to perform this kind of pins.
Minimum user level required to perform a free pin: Determines which is the minimum user level that is allowed to perform a free pin. Only users with this user level or higher will be able to see the option in the combobox that allows to perform this kind of pins.
Minimum user level required to perform an unpin: Determines which is the minimum user level that is allowed to perform an unpin. Only users with this user level or higher will be able to see the button.
Enable pin redirection after performing a pin: If this option is not selected, immediately after performing a pin, users are redirected to the same question they pinned. If this option is selected, users will be redirected to the relative URL set in the Redirect to field.
Redirect after pin to: URL the user will be redirected to after performing a pin when the redirection is enabled.
Show pin count in user profile: Whether to show the amount of pins a user has performed in their user profiles.
Maximum simultaneous pinned posts: Maximum amount of questions that can be pinned at a given point in time. Note this does not limit the amount of questions that can be added to the queue. The minimum value is 1.
Show pinned posts in question lists: Determines if the question lists should display the pinned posts on top. This setting is useful in case the pinned questions widget is used because Administrators might find it redundant to display the pinned questions on top of the question lists and also display them in the widget.
Configure pin points: This setting opens the following modal window:

In there it is possible to configure the items that will be displayed in the pin confirmation combobox. Each item in the combobox is composed of an Hours and Points pair:
- Hours: Represents the amount of hours that the question will be pinned. If the value is 0 then it is considered to be pinned permanently.
- Points: Represents the change in the amount of points that the user will incur in order to pin the question. If the value is set to 0 then it is considered to be a free pin.
It is important to note that the Administrator can add two different records with the same hours and different points. For example, setting Hours to 5 and Points to 0 and in another record setting Hours to 5 and Points to -20. This would make sense in case the Minimum user level required to perform a free pin setting is set to Administrators. If that was the case, the Administrator would only see the record to ping for 5 hours for free and a registered user would only see the option for which they will have to pay 20 points.

Point Recalculator

This plugin is shipped with the Point Recalculator plugin. This is a support plugin that you should only use under any of these circumstances:

You have recalculated points in the admin/stats section
You changed the Points per bump setting
You are upgrading from version 1.x to 2.x (in this case remember to first set the value for the Points per bump setting and then recalculate the points)

Recalculating points this way will make sure all users have the points properly set.

Support

Technical support must all go through the issues section on this site and be in English.

Bugs: if you find a bug or error in the plugin, create a bug issue detailing the steps needed to be performed in order to reproduce the issue. Provide the steps from scratch, i.e., starting just after a clean Q2A setup. Attaching screenshots might be useful too. Also include your PHP, MySQL, Q2A and plugin versions. Make sure you have no other plugin in the qa-plugin directory while reproducing it and that you are using the default Q2A theme.
New features: feel free to request features using the issues section. Select the enhancement kind in the combobox and explain in detail the feature and why you consider it would be useful to others.
Questions and other technical support: create a task issue explaining the situation in detail.

Administrative (all non-technical) issues should go through private message to my profile in the Q2A site. Make sure to provide your email address.

FAQ

Do you give refunds in case I end up not liking the plugin?

No. The reason for this is that not only this wiki is quite descriptive but also the plugin can be seen and interacted with live in the demo site. You can fully test the plugin before buying so there are no refunds.
Is it possible to set a question list to display the bumps different than the All activity one?

No. Only the All activity section can display bumps.
Do the point changes affect in any way the ability to use bonus points?

No. Bonus points can be used normally.
Will this plugin work in my theme?

This is impossible to tell. If your theme only modifies CSS, most likely, it will. However, you might need to make this plugin's CSS match your theme. No support will be given on that. This plugin works well with the SnowFlat theme released with Q2A 1.8.0.
Are bug fixes charged separately?

No. Bug fixes are already included in the price. New features, however, might not be free.
Would you mind doing some customizations to this plugin?

Sure. Feel free to get in touch as explained in the Support section.

Get the plugin

Click here to navigate to the main plugin page. From there, you will be able to buy the plugin.

Wiki

q2a-just-a-bump-plugin-public / Home