Hello

idea number 8: tabbed settings page

Since the selection of settings, that are accessible on the main-settings-page, is a bit arbitrary and further settings are more or less hidden on the enhanced-settings-page (even many administrators doesn't take notice of the link to the enhanced-settings) my idea is to display all settings in a tabbed page grouped by their meaning.

I implemented this anciently for MLF1 but it was never released. As example a screenshot of the MLF1-settings-page, tab "postings" (reduced colour table).

I am willing to implement it again for MLF2. It will need enhancements to the structure of the settings table and will result in massive enlargement of the language files because of the need of strings (name and description) for every possible setting.

Current structure of the settings table with only two fields:

CREATE TABLE `mlf2_settings` (
    `name` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    `value` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
    PRIMARY KEY (`name`))
ENGINE=InnoDB CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_general_ci;

As a comparision the settings table form the rework of MLF1 from the repository (latest touched three years ago):

CREATE TABLE `mlf1_settings` (
    `name` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,                   -- same as in MLF2, name of the setting
    `value` VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',       -- same as in MLF2, value of the setting
    `type` VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',         -- form field type name
    `poss_values` VARCHAR(160) NOT NULL DEFAULT '', -- NULL, or list of allowed values
    `standard` VARCHAR(80) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',     -- default value
    `cat` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',          -- category of setting (determines tab of the setting)
    UNIQUE KEY `setting` (`name`))
ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

I introduced this idea once two years ago and Milo gave me then his o.k. @Alex: would it be ok to change the settings that way?

Tschö, Auge