docs/features.md - infinitegforums - Gitiles

 [En español](features.es.md) • [Русский](features.ru.md)
 • [العربية](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QgMy4wQ0RNkreYJzaqJriXvR8xu9zI0vzoPfcDYMKU8/preview)

 # Features
 The TW Power Tools extension offers the following features/options:

 [TOC]

 ## Infinite scroll
 ### Thread lists
 > **Option name:** _Enable infinite scrolling in thread lists_.

 Enables infinite scroll in thread lists in TW. This feature has already been
 added to the Community Console by Google.

 ### Inside threads
 > **Option names:** _Automatically load batches of messages inside threads when
 scrolling down_, _Automatically load all messages at once inside threads when
 scrolling down_.

 Enables infinite scroll inside threads, both in TW and the Community Console.
 Both options are mutually exclusive, and depending on which one you choose, the
 feature will behave differently:

 - **Load batches of messages**: when scrolling to the bottom, some more messages
 will be loaded. If you scroll to the bottom again, more messages will be loaded,
 and so on.
 - **Load all messages at once**: when scrolling to the bottom, all the remaining
 messages will be loaded at once.

 ## Additional enhancements
 ### Community Console toolbar
 > **Option name:** _Fix the toolbar in thread lists in the Community Console_.

 Fixes the toolbar of thread lists in the Community Console so it doesn't
 disappear when scrolling down.

 ![GIF showing the feature](resources/fix_toolbar.gif)

 ### Redirect to the Community Console
 > **Option name:** _Redirect all threads opened in TW to the Community Console_.

 This feature is useful if you want the threads you open from the email
 notification link directly in the Community Console.

 ### Profile history
 > **Option name:** _Show a "previous posts" link in user profiles_.

 Both in TW and the Community Console, show 2 links in user profiles, which link
 to the list of threads that the user has created/replied to in the current
 forum, and in all the forums.

 ![Image showing the links](resources/previous_posts.jpg)

 ### Draft messages
 > **Option name:** _Activate the `enableLoadingDraftMessages` Community Console
 flag_.

 Enables a Community Console flag which, when opening the reply dialog in a
 thread in the Community Console, if a draft message was saved in the Google
 servers, it is loaded in the editor.

 Draft messages are saved regularly into Google Servers **even if the flag is not
 enabled**, so this flag can help you recover your work from a crash, for
 example.

 ### Contrast between read/unread threads
 > **Option name:** _Increase contrast between read and unread threads in the
 Community Console_.

 In thread lists in the Community Console, the backgrounds for read and unread
 threads are very similar. This option increases this contrast.

 ### Sticky drawer headers
 > **Option name:** _Make the headers in the Community Console sidebar stick at
 the top_.

 ![GIF showing the feature](resources/sticky_headers.gif)

 ### Dark mode
 > **Option name:** _Enable the dark theme in the Community Console_.

 This setting lets you load a custom-built dark theme for the Community Console.
 In the options page there is a selector which lets you choose how the dark theme
 gets enabled:

 - **Switch in the Community Console**: a button appears at the top of the
 Community Console, which lets you switch between the light and dark themes.
 - **OS dark mode settings**: when you enable the OS wide dark mode setting (not
 available in all Operating Systems), the dark theme is enabled in the Community
 Console. Note that after you change the OS setting, you should reload the
 Community Console in order to load the corresponding theme.

 ### Hide the Community Console drawer
 > **Option name:** _Always hide the drawer (left column) in the Community
 Console_.

 When opening the Community Console, the sidebar which shows the forums, filters,
 etc. will be hidden/closed by default. Useful if your screen is small.

 ### Drag and drop links to the text editor (Chrome-only)
 > **Option name:** _Allow to drag and drop links to the Community Console text
 editor while preserving the text_.

 In Chrome, when drag and dropping bookmarks or Omnibox links to the Community
 Console rich text editor, the bookmark/link title gets replaced by the URL.
 This option reverses this so the text gets preserved.

 ![Demo of the feature](resources/drag_and_drop_fix.gif)

 ### Batch lock
 > **Option name:** _Add the option to lock multiple threads from the Community
 Console thread list_.

 ![GIF showing how the feature works](resources/batch_lock.gif)

 ### More prominent announcements dot
 > **Option name:** _Show the announcements notification dot more prominently in
 the Community Console_.

 When this option is enabled, the "Alpha" banner in the upper-left corner of the
 Community Console is removed, and the notification dot which appears in the
 hamburger menu when there's a new announcement is enlarged and animated so you
 don't miss it.

 ![GIF showing the improved notification dot](resources/announcement_dot.gif)

 ### Reposition the expand thread button
 > **Option name:** _Place the "expand thread" button all the way to the left in
 the Community Console thread lists_.

 ![Picture showing the feature](resources/reposition_expand_thread.jpg)

 ### Avatars in thread lists
 > **Option name:** _Show avatars in thread lists in the Community Console_.

 When this option is enabled, in thread lists in the Community Console avatars
 will be shown next to each thread to show the avatars of the people who have
 participated in the thread.

 The extension retrieves the main message and the first 15 replies, and shows
 the avatars in order (the first avatar corresponds to the first person who
 joined the thread). If a user hasn't set an avatar, it is skipped, and only up
 to 3 avatars are shown.

 #### Known issues
 - Avatars aren't shown for threads in private forums, due to technical reasons.
 - Only the main message and the first 15 replies are considered in each thread,
 so if someone joins the thread after this limit, their avatar won't appear.
 - When going back from a thread to the thread list by clicking the "back"
 button, avatars take some seconds to appear.
 - If more than 3 people with avatar have posted a message, the extension will
 not indicate this in any way, it will just show the first 3 avatars.
 - Even if a PE is not badged in a forum, their avatar will be shown in the
 thread list (this is actually a feature, not an issue). The avatar won't show
 however inside the thread.
 - If a PE changes their avatar, you might still see the old one in the thread
 list, due to the fact that avatars are stored in a cache, and are only updated
 when a new reply is posted in the thread.

 ![Picture showing the thread list avatars feature](resources/thread_list_avatars.jpg)

 ### Notification when a thread list receives updates
 > **Option name:** _Show a notification in the Community Console when a thread
 list has new updates._

 This feature checks whether there are new threads in the current thread list
 every 3 minutes, and notifies you when there are new threads at the top of the
 list. The notification is a "soft notification": it notifies you by adding some
 exclamation marks (`[!!!]`) at the beginning of the tab title, and by showing a
 snackbar in the page, as you can see in the following screenshot:

 ![Picture showing the soft notification](resources/auto_refresh_list.jpg)

 It notifies you with a soft notification instead of an actual notification
 because this way you can control when you want to participate in the forums or
 not. If you're not paying attention to the Community Console tab, you won't be
 bothered.

 This feature only works in the Community Console, not in the public forums, and
 only when the sort settings are set to "Sort by: Last Updated" and descending
 order. The bell icon next to the sort settings will indicate whether the sort
 settings are correct (and thus this feature is working) or not.

 ### Limit the height of inline images
 > **Option name:** _Prevent inline images in messages from being taller than the
 current window._

 It is a common case that users upload high resolution screenshots of their
 phone, which results in a very tall image being shown in the forum. This
 feature adds a custom style to set a maximum height for images inside forum
 messages, so they aren't taller than the current viewport.

 ### Block draft messages from being saved in Google servers
 > **Option name:** _Block the sending of your replies as you type to Google
 servers in the Community Console._

 The Community Console has a feature which lets users save in Google servers
 regular drafts of the message they're typing in a reply box, so they can recover
 it later on (for instance if their computer crashes).

 In theory, this feature is controlled by the flag called
 `enableLoadingDraftMessages`, which is disabled by default. However, even if
 this flag is disabled, the Community Console keeps saving (and deleting) the
 draft message (see [this video](https://drive.avm99963.com/s/AdEBZRDCye15aU3)).
 Thus, the only thing that changes the flag is whether the saved draft message is
 attempted to be recovered or not.

 This option blocks all these requests to save/delete/retrieve draft messages, so
 the feature is effectively disabled.

 ### Per-forum activity in profiles
 > **Option name:** _Show per-forum activity in profiles in the Community
 Console._

 An image is worth a thousand words:

 ![Animated GIF showing the feature](resources/per_forum_activity_chart.gif)

 ### Thread page design in the Community Console
 > **Option name:** _Show the old/new thread page design in the Community
 Console._

 This option lets you force the old or new thread page design in the Community
 Console. The old thread page design was exclusive to the Console, while the new
 one has the same design of the public TW thread pages.

 #### Known issues
 The TW team is currently testing the new nested replies feature in some
 threads/forums. However, the way how threads with nested replies are represented
 internally is different than before, and this causes the old design to not load
 these type of threads correctly.

 This is why when the user chooses the old UI, the extension now shows a warning
 banner in these threads to make them aware of why the thread doesn't look right.

 A possible way to work around this is to load these affected threads via TW
 Basic instead of the Community Console. Otherwise, you might have to disable the
 old UI temporarily from the options page and reload the Community Console to
 view them via the new UI.

 ### Reduce whitespace
 > **Option name:** _Reduce the whitespace in the Community Console and TW._

 This option reduces excessive whitespace throughout the Community Console and TW
 Basic, as shown in the screenshots below:

 ![Picture showing the difference between the feature enabled or disabled when viewing a thread](resources/ui_spacing.png)

 It also reduces whitespace in thread lists in small screens so the titles fit
 better and can be read:

 ![Picture showing how whitespace is reduced in the thread list page in mobile](resources/ui_spacing_2.png)

 ### Flatten threads
 > **Option name:** _Show a toggle to enable/disable nested view in threads._

 This option shows a toggle in threads just below the main post which lets you
 switch between the vanilla nested view and a new view which shows all replies
 in a linear non-nested view, just like before.

 ![Animated GIF showing how the feature is used](resources/flatten_threads.gif)

 ## Indicator dot
 > **Option names:** _Show whether the OP has participated in other threads_,
 _Show the number of questions and replies written by the OP within the last `n`
 months next to their username_.

 This section includes options which are useful to determine whether an OP is a
 newcomer or has posted in the forums before. A full description of what each
 option does can be found at [docs/op\_indicator.md](op_indicator.md).

 These are the possible combinations of both options:

 - 1st option enabled, 2nd option disabled.

 ![Picture showing a colored dot next to the username](resources/op_indicator_1.gif)

 - 1st option disabled, 2nd option enabled.

 ![Picture showing a monochrome badge](resources/op_indicator_2.gif)

 - Both options enabled.

 ![Picture showing a colored badge](resources/op_indicator_3.gif)
	[En español](features.es.md) • [Русский](features.ru.md)
	• [العربية](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QgMy4wQ0RNkreYJzaqJriXvR8xu9zI0vzoPfcDYMKU8/preview)

	# Features
	The TW Power Tools extension offers the following features/options:

	[TOC]

	## Infinite scroll
	### Thread lists
	> Option name: _Enable infinite scrolling in thread lists_.

	Enables infinite scroll in thread lists in TW. This feature has already been
	added to the Community Console by Google.

	### Inside threads
	> Option names: _Automatically load batches of messages inside threads when
	scrolling down_, _Automatically load all messages at once inside threads when
	scrolling down_.

	Enables infinite scroll inside threads, both in TW and the Community Console.
	Both options are mutually exclusive, and depending on which one you choose, the
	feature will behave differently:

	- Load batches of messages: when scrolling to the bottom, some more messages
	will be loaded. If you scroll to the bottom again, more messages will be loaded,
	and so on.
	- Load all messages at once: when scrolling to the bottom, all the remaining
	messages will be loaded at once.

	## Additional enhancements
	### Community Console toolbar
	> Option name: _Fix the toolbar in thread lists in the Community Console_.

	Fixes the toolbar of thread lists in the Community Console so it doesn't
	disappear when scrolling down.

	![GIF showing the feature](resources/fix_toolbar.gif)

	### Redirect to the Community Console
	> Option name: _Redirect all threads opened in TW to the Community Console_.

	This feature is useful if you want the threads you open from the email
	notification link directly in the Community Console.

	### Profile history
	> Option name: _Show a "previous posts" link in user profiles_.

	Both in TW and the Community Console, show 2 links in user profiles, which link
	to the list of threads that the user has created/replied to in the current
	forum, and in all the forums.

	![Image showing the links](resources/previous_posts.jpg)

	### Draft messages
	> Option name: _Activate the `enableLoadingDraftMessages` Community Console
	flag_.

	Enables a Community Console flag which, when opening the reply dialog in a
	thread in the Community Console, if a draft message was saved in the Google
	servers, it is loaded in the editor.

	Draft messages are saved regularly into Google Servers **even if the flag is not
	enabled**, so this flag can help you recover your work from a crash, for
	example.

	### Contrast between read/unread threads
	> Option name: _Increase contrast between read and unread threads in the
	Community Console_.

	In thread lists in the Community Console, the backgrounds for read and unread
	threads are very similar. This option increases this contrast.

	### Sticky drawer headers
	> Option name: _Make the headers in the Community Console sidebar stick at
	the top_.

	![GIF showing the feature](resources/sticky_headers.gif)

	### Dark mode
	> Option name: _Enable the dark theme in the Community Console_.

	This setting lets you load a custom-built dark theme for the Community Console.
	In the options page there is a selector which lets you choose how the dark theme
	gets enabled:

	- Switch in the Community Console: a button appears at the top of the
	Community Console, which lets you switch between the light and dark themes.
	- OS dark mode settings: when you enable the OS wide dark mode setting (not
	available in all Operating Systems), the dark theme is enabled in the Community
	Console. Note that after you change the OS setting, you should reload the
	Community Console in order to load the corresponding theme.

	### Hide the Community Console drawer
	> Option name: _Always hide the drawer (left column) in the Community
	Console_.

	When opening the Community Console, the sidebar which shows the forums, filters,
	etc. will be hidden/closed by default. Useful if your screen is small.

	### Drag and drop links to the text editor (Chrome-only)
	> Option name: _Allow to drag and drop links to the Community Console text
	editor while preserving the text_.

	In Chrome, when drag and dropping bookmarks or Omnibox links to the Community
	Console rich text editor, the bookmark/link title gets replaced by the URL.
	This option reverses this so the text gets preserved.

	![Demo of the feature](resources/drag_and_drop_fix.gif)

	### Batch lock
	> Option name: _Add the option to lock multiple threads from the Community
	Console thread list_.

	![GIF showing how the feature works](resources/batch_lock.gif)

	### More prominent announcements dot
	> Option name: _Show the announcements notification dot more prominently in
	the Community Console_.

	When this option is enabled, the "Alpha" banner in the upper-left corner of the
	Community Console is removed, and the notification dot which appears in the
	hamburger menu when there's a new announcement is enlarged and animated so you
	don't miss it.

	![GIF showing the improved notification dot](resources/announcement_dot.gif)

	### Reposition the expand thread button
	> Option name: _Place the "expand thread" button all the way to the left in
	the Community Console thread lists_.

	![Picture showing the feature](resources/reposition_expand_thread.jpg)

	### Avatars in thread lists
	> Option name: _Show avatars in thread lists in the Community Console_.

	When this option is enabled, in thread lists in the Community Console avatars
	will be shown next to each thread to show the avatars of the people who have
	participated in the thread.

	The extension retrieves the main message and the first 15 replies, and shows
	the avatars in order (the first avatar corresponds to the first person who
	joined the thread). If a user hasn't set an avatar, it is skipped, and only up
	to 3 avatars are shown.

	#### Known issues
	- Avatars aren't shown for threads in private forums, due to technical reasons.
	- Only the main message and the first 15 replies are considered in each thread,
	so if someone joins the thread after this limit, their avatar won't appear.
	- When going back from a thread to the thread list by clicking the "back"
	button, avatars take some seconds to appear.
	- If more than 3 people with avatar have posted a message, the extension will
	not indicate this in any way, it will just show the first 3 avatars.
	- Even if a PE is not badged in a forum, their avatar will be shown in the
	thread list (this is actually a feature, not an issue). The avatar won't show
	however inside the thread.
	- If a PE changes their avatar, you might still see the old one in the thread
	list, due to the fact that avatars are stored in a cache, and are only updated
	when a new reply is posted in the thread.

	![Picture showing the thread list avatars feature](resources/thread_list_avatars.jpg)

	### Notification when a thread list receives updates
	> Option name: _Show a notification in the Community Console when a thread
	list has new updates._

	This feature checks whether there are new threads in the current thread list
	every 3 minutes, and notifies you when there are new threads at the top of the
	list. The notification is a "soft notification": it notifies you by adding some
	exclamation marks (`[!!!]`) at the beginning of the tab title, and by showing a
	snackbar in the page, as you can see in the following screenshot:

	![Picture showing the soft notification](resources/auto_refresh_list.jpg)

	It notifies you with a soft notification instead of an actual notification
	because this way you can control when you want to participate in the forums or
	not. If you're not paying attention to the Community Console tab, you won't be
	bothered.

	This feature only works in the Community Console, not in the public forums, and
	only when the sort settings are set to "Sort by: Last Updated" and descending
	order. The bell icon next to the sort settings will indicate whether the sort
	settings are correct (and thus this feature is working) or not.

	### Limit the height of inline images
	> Option name: _Prevent inline images in messages from being taller than the
	current window._

	It is a common case that users upload high resolution screenshots of their
	phone, which results in a very tall image being shown in the forum. This
	feature adds a custom style to set a maximum height for images inside forum
	messages, so they aren't taller than the current viewport.

	### Block draft messages from being saved in Google servers
	> Option name: _Block the sending of your replies as you type to Google
	servers in the Community Console._

	The Community Console has a feature which lets users save in Google servers
	regular drafts of the message they're typing in a reply box, so they can recover
	it later on (for instance if their computer crashes).

	In theory, this feature is controlled by the flag called
	`enableLoadingDraftMessages`, which is disabled by default. However, even if
	this flag is disabled, the Community Console keeps saving (and deleting) the
	draft message (see [this video](https://drive.avm99963.com/s/AdEBZRDCye15aU3)).
	Thus, the only thing that changes the flag is whether the saved draft message is
	attempted to be recovered or not.

	This option blocks all these requests to save/delete/retrieve draft messages, so
	the feature is effectively disabled.

	### Per-forum activity in profiles
	> Option name: _Show per-forum activity in profiles in the Community
	Console._

	An image is worth a thousand words:

	![Animated GIF showing the feature](resources/per_forum_activity_chart.gif)

	### Thread page design in the Community Console
	> Option name: _Show the old/new thread page design in the Community
	Console._

	This option lets you force the old or new thread page design in the Community
	Console. The old thread page design was exclusive to the Console, while the new
	one has the same design of the public TW thread pages.

	#### Known issues
	The TW team is currently testing the new nested replies feature in some
	threads/forums. However, the way how threads with nested replies are represented
	internally is different than before, and this causes the old design to not load
	these type of threads correctly.

	This is why when the user chooses the old UI, the extension now shows a warning
	banner in these threads to make them aware of why the thread doesn't look right.

	A possible way to work around this is to load these affected threads via TW
	Basic instead of the Community Console. Otherwise, you might have to disable the
	old UI temporarily from the options page and reload the Community Console to
	view them via the new UI.

	### Reduce whitespace
	> Option name: _Reduce the whitespace in the Community Console and TW._

	This option reduces excessive whitespace throughout the Community Console and TW
	Basic, as shown in the screenshots below:

	![Picture showing the difference between the feature enabled or disabled when viewing a thread](resources/ui_spacing.png)

	It also reduces whitespace in thread lists in small screens so the titles fit
	better and can be read:

	![Picture showing how whitespace is reduced in the thread list page in mobile](resources/ui_spacing_2.png)

	### Flatten threads
	> Option name: _Show a toggle to enable/disable nested view in threads._

	This option shows a toggle in threads just below the main post which lets you
	switch between the vanilla nested view and a new view which shows all replies
	in a linear non-nested view, just like before.

	![Animated GIF showing how the feature is used](resources/flatten_threads.gif)

	## Indicator dot
	> Option names: _Show whether the OP has participated in other threads_,
	_Show the number of questions and replies written by the OP within the last `n`
	months next to their username_.

	This section includes options which are useful to determine whether an OP is a
	newcomer or has posted in the forums before. A full description of what each
	option does can be found at [docs/op\_indicator.md](op_indicator.md).

	These are the possible combinations of both options:

	- 1st option enabled, 2nd option disabled.

	![Picture showing a colored dot next to the username](resources/op_indicator_1.gif)

	- 1st option disabled, 2nd option enabled.

	![Picture showing a monochrome badge](resources/op_indicator_2.gif)

	- Both options enabled.

	![Picture showing a colored badge](resources/op_indicator_3.gif)