Signature limit 255 characters

[critter]

Hi, firstly, i can't believe my username still works, last time i logged in was five years ago (still been using the script all that time though)

anyways...

I was wondering if it's possible to alter the signature charactor limit. It's set at 255 and i'd like to be able to reduce it.

As far as i can see, the only option is to turn it ON or OFF.

cheers!


PS. Also, is it possible to not allow [ img ] tags in the signatures?

[NanoCaiordo]

WELCOME critter, I take it as your websites still runs smoothly.
If that is the case (better it is ahaha) then it is best compliment our team could ever get.

[img] tags are allowed but if you use this tag you will really need 255 chars.

[critter]

Hi NanoCaiordo, yes the site is still running smoothly and is pretty popular I have other websites using other scripts/CMS but i still like Dragonfly. I have still visited this Dragonfly forum over those years to search for information but have not logged in.

I was just wondering if it was possible to change the character limit because we get a few people putting big images or lots of text in their signatures and it can be annoying. It's not really that important but it'd be good to have control over what they can put in their signatures.

[NanoCaiordo]

Even if you limit the number of character users can still use huge images.
Limiting the signature wont fix the problem, you should apply strict forums rules instead.

If you want to limit the number of characters you will have to use phpMyAdmin or similar and force prefix_users -> user_sig length to whatever number you prefer.
This will truncate all users' signature exceeding the value you just set, thus creating issues to some.

Forum rules is the fix, forcing a shorter length is a workaround and users can easily go around it.

[greenday2k]

Check this
dragonflycms.org/Forum...85/#152185

It works well on my forum centred site.

[critter]

Thanks NanoCaiordo, yes we do have some rules but we try to have a pretty relaxed forum. If people have the option to do something they will do it and then we have to do work to tell them not to do it, so that creates work for us

So i find it easier to not give them the option and if it's not there they wont miss it

Thanks for that suggestion with the user_sig, i have never looked in there before, and there's some interesting things. I should explore the database more really but i never like to touch it too much incase i break it.

[critter]

yeah, i think you can see how that could get annoying to forum members having a big signature written under each persons post, and then multiply that by a thread full of annoying signatures is pretty ugly, but if each person only had a short signature it'd be nicer

[layingback]

Haven't looked at the code, but it's likely that any change you make to the length will only affect NEW signatures being created. To change current ones, you'd either have to edit the db yourself (awkward), or rig up some code to force users to update their signatures (and fall under the shorter limit if that indeed works for new/edited sigs.).

[critter]

yeah when i changed it to 100 i cancelled my signature and entered a new one and it didn't seem to have any effect.

and like the sginature lengths here in mine, i think there's more than 255 charactors in it anyway

[NanoCaiordo]

Ok just noticed that users->user_sig is type of TEXT.

Sometime 4 years ago, I presume around version 9.0.8, the field type was changed from VARCHAR to TEXT.

You need to change the users->user_sig from TEXT to VARCHAR, specify the length, say 50, and then update users_fields->user_sig | length to 50 too.

This WILL cut off currents signatures as well, however next upgrade it will go back to TEXT.

[critter]

Thanks for the help NanoCaiordo, i fixed my server specs up.

I went through each drop down box menu and can't see any TEXT or VARCHAR. I think i'm looking in the right location?

I've attached an image of what i am looking at.

[layingback]

Try db file {cms}.users (not {cms}.users.fields)

[critter]

layingback wrote:

Try db file {cms}.users (not {cms}.users.fields)

Excellent!! Thanks, i found the right spot! There's so many ways to look at the same thing isn't there.

I also shortened the Location to 20 characters. Some people write whole stories in there sometimes

Thanks again... hah i'm still laughing because some people are going to freak out that their signatures have been choppped off