A census plugin?

[killz4food]

Hi! I was wondering if there is a census plugin just laying around that I haven't been able to find. Does anyone know of where one is, and if not, could some one craft one?

[amboyscout]

I like this idea!

[Chris]

I'm not too sure what the idea is actually...
If by census you mean a full count of all the members on your forum then the infocenter and members page handles that
If by census you mean taking a survey then there is the poll feature or custom profile fields
If it is something else then then it might help if you gave a more detailed description.

[killz4food]

Alright. On a good portion of forums I've seen a little side table. In that side table it was a census of the "character types." For instance, on a Mortal Instruments site the table had Shadowhunters and then a male and female count. It's all updated by admin so none of it's automatic, but I was wondering if there was a way to get the plugin for the table it's self. Kind of where you can set the text for the group your keeping a population count on and then a male and female sign with numbers next to them.

[Chris]

killz4food, you wouldn't need a plugin/code for a purely presentational purpose such as that in V5 since we have complete control over the HTML through the layout templates in the admin panel. All you need to do is edit the layout and place table wherever you want it to appear.
If you're looking for someone to design one for your forum then I'll leave that up to someone with a bit more fashion design savvy than myself. Plus with the rash of posts regarding kitchen designs I'm sure one of those designers would also consider a limited edition redesign for a forum perhaps with a cupboard motif concession.
One thing for sure, nobody will be able to act on an idea that is still stuck in your head instead of on paper/screen so if you could post a mockup of what you're looking to create others may get a better idea and jump in.

[killz4food]

Will do! Thanks!

[killz4food]

Something along the lines of this, except with a zombie theme, not a shadowhunter one. 

[RavenFlames]

Was this ever worked on? I might be interested in using something like this on my site as well.

[Wormopolis]

it was never really a plugin. its just some HTML in a table somewhere. a plugin isnt going to be able to scan through all the members and collect data, the numbers would have to be entered manually.

[Tohsaka Rin]

If the members are assigned to usergroups couldn't it pull the numbers from the usergroups?

I believe I discussed this before somewhere as far as what someone might need for the plugin if it was possible. You would need a portion of the plugin to assign the dimensions of the box itself, as well as what you want displayed (including options of the following):

Tab 1: (Settings)
[ ]Title: (name) - Optional: Depends on if you are using a sidebar or not.
[ ]Use Image for Title: (url) - Optional: Depends on if you are using a sidebar or not.
Dimensions of sensus box: ____ x ____ px
Display Options:
[ ]Usergroups
[ ]Gender - By default shows both, but can select a specific to show only male or female.
--- Male [ ]
--- Female [ ]
[ ]Group Total
[ ]Complete Census Total
Background Color:
Text Color:
[ ]Collapse

Tab 2 (Usergroups):
Select which Usergroups you wish to display on your census:
[ ]Usergroup 1
[ ]Usergroup 2
- So on and so forth.

CSS Options:
census.table (example)
census.table.border (example)
census.table.font (example)
- likely the variable needed for borders, and the table itself, so that people can adjust their margins and whatever else they want to customize in the Advanced CSS area of proboards.

This would then require the admin of the plugin to select which usergroups they want displayed, if they want to show "male" and/or "female" options and/or "total" option. There would need to be a variable for them to place either in a sidebar plugin for the table to show up, or have them put it on a specific board page for it to be displayed.

So if you wanted it only on the main page you could use, say, the plugin (Sidebar Redux) and a specific tab, to put the variable.

---

In either accord, its a pain to manually create a census. Even I hate doing it.. because once you start getting so many members(or member groups) it is constantly changing depending on gaining new members and losing old ones. You end up updating that thing how many times a month to manually put the data in where its easier to have the data fetched via membergroups of members currently registered.

Not only this, but many people have extreme difficulty attempting to code a table... You have to manage all the padding and margins when you cold-code it into a sidebar rather than having a basic (premade via dimensions) box dropped in.

Another case, and point, to this is the fact that I have seen many websites get new members which actually look to the census when choosing characters. They want to see what is popular, how many a group has, and if there is an overabundance on a certain gender. My site, for example, always gets members wanting to know "Do you need girls more than guy characters?" as a question on their willingness to fill that shortage.

Or even this "How come you guys don't have any of X group; or so few" gives a good indication if you need to maybe go back and review information on if a group is poorly balanced.

Anyway, there are my thoughts!

I am willing to help test this out if it IS actually possible to pull usergroup numbers - I absolutely ABHORE updating my census.

[Wormopolis]

there still isnt a way for a plugin to run through the entire member list and get data. it would have to be served up by the base code itself to access it.

[Tohsaka Rin]

It would have to do that?

How does the usergroup list fetch it's value to display how many people are assigned to it then? I am curious...since regardless of the amount of members it only totals the ones you specifically signed up to the group. So if you have 40 members yet only 2 belong to humans... then those two show up as:
Humans|2|(leader of group) in the group list.

Yet it has to go through the user list to get all that info rather than the specific person who's account name was added to the registry  of that particular user group?

Would love to have it explained to me.

So...
Members list<Usergroup
                   ^Plugin

And not...
Member list>Usergroup>Plugin

[Wormopolis]

are you talking about widgets on the custom pages?

[Tohsaka Rin]

No, the "group" tab under "profile" or "staff options" for a member's account. (I actually never used any widgets on custom pages before, hahahaha.)

In that area you not only add a member to a group but it auto-totals/lists the members located within it all on it's own. It ALREADY is technically a "census table", however people want that information displayed in a smaller box on their front page on a side bar....

[Wormopolis]

it gets initial number from server. then as each link (add/remove) is clicked, it just updates the number in the box by adding or subracting 1. it doesnt re-fetch a new number.

you can verify this yourself. open two tabs looking at two different members. add one to a group. now add the other one to a group. see what happens.