Updated/changed assets popup

Capybara

How do I disable the new pop-up notification that says something has changed on the forum and recommends refreshing the page? I make updates often, and the pop-up notification is annoying some users

ernestdefoe

Capybara I thought I was the only one seeing that. Glad to know I'm not going crazy.

navindra

Capybara I agree. I'd love to be able to disable this.

IanM

Capybara ernestdefoe navindra

it's not currently possible to disable it. The intention behind this is to ensure users do not see stale JS or CSS.

Why would you want your users to have stale assets after you've made a change?

Capybara

IanM Because changes don't always affect the user experience. Say I make changes to a specific extension that does nothing for users but improves the admin experience — Audit, for example. Why would I notify a user that something changed if nothing changed for them? Let them go on writing their post in the discussion 👀

IanM

Capybara I partially see where you are coming from, but even in your example, Audit also has frontend assets that change for moderators, etc.

If you don't mind me saying so, I do think it quite short sighted to want to blanket turn off something, rather than, for example, work towards refining and improving it. Just my opinion of course

KBExit

Perhaps a display: none !important custom CSS can be executed.

Capybara

IanM It might be worth adding a button in Admin > Tools that, when clicked, shows users this notification with a suggestion to reload the page. That way it won't pop up every time after a cache clear 👍

navindra

IanM Wouldn't they eventually get the update? Personally, I have no desire to disrupt their experience with a noisy UX.

If it's so important then why doesn't the UX auto-refresh if it can be done non-destructively?

ernestdefoe

navindra exactly especially if someone is using realtime it should auto refresh to show the new version anyways.

ernestdefoe

I don't know but to me seeing it as a member of a community if I saw that pop up constantly it would make me think something was wrong with the forum and make me not want to visit as much. I don't know maybe it's just me.

IanM

navindra If it's so important then why doesn't the UX auto-refresh if it can be done non-destructively?

We are talking about the loaded and probably cached assets here. Only a browser refresh will do.

ernestdefoe exactly especially if someone is using realtime it should auto refresh to show the new version anyways.

And if that auto refresh arrives whilst a user is typing, reading a long post, etc? Not very user-friendly IMO

The whole idea behind this feature was to improve the user experience, which I personally think it does, as it gives forum members a heads up that they need to reload (because for example, a new extension was enabled, a setting was changed, etc). Many, many "bug" reports that I and others have looked at over the years boil down to stale assets - which this toast covers.

I don't have the energy to explain this any clearer, so yes, I will add a way to remove the toast for forums that don't want to give their users the best experience.

ernestdefoe

IanM but that's the thing though you and others may feel it gives a better experience by having the popup while others may not feel this way. I know the first time I saw it on my forum I thought something was wrong and was trying to figure out what was going on. I will say thank you for adding for adding a way to remove it because some of us feel it makes the forum look broken when that pops up.

IanM

ernestdefoe makes the forum look broken when that pops up.

Yes, very broken.

I don't get it, I really don't. As I said, i will add a way to remove it when I have time. Probably best I leave this conversation here.

ernestdefoe

IanM I didn't say it was broken I said to some it may appear broken with that popup coming up a bunch. Normal users will have no clue whatsoever why it keeps coming up so they will think something is broken. I don't understand the attitude you are giving when people are saying they don't like something but hey whatever floats your boat I guess. We understand the reasoning for it being there but mentioned earlier in my response to the auto refresh you know somehow xenForo and I am sure Invision Community has it too a way to auto refresh so people don't even really notice it happening. Yeah they see a loading indicator but it doesn't hinder someone replying to a post or starting a new discussion. It can be done.

navindra

IanM I don't get it, I really don't. As I said, i will add a way to remove it when I have time. Probably best I leave this conversation here.

It's a bit like Windows asking you to reboot after an update with a pop-up. From admin's perspective this may be very important but from user's perspective it's very annoying.

It's much rarer to see this kind of UX on the web.

Thanks for the option!

huoxin

navindra It's much rarer to see this kind of UX on the web.

Actually Discourse also have such notifications to tell user to reload their page, if not user will be just using the old assets without knowing, and they may eventually ran into error

It should be possible to add a toggle to disable it, but I would agree with IanM that this should not be disable for most of the cases

ernestdefoe

huoxin or just figure out a way to auto reload without interfering with someone replying to a post or creating a new discussion. Maybe it reloads after the post/discussion is posted.

I mean it could be incorporated into realtime somehow and with @KBExit offering a free tier that most people would probably not even come close to on his service I don't see why everyone isn't using realtime now.

huoxin

ernestdefoe Actually that toast suppose to warn user to reload page before posting/replying
Auto reload might be quite complex to implement, also that means every post and reply will need to check if the assets are new and if a reload is needed? feels a bit overengineering it