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CaS Submissions Overhaul 2011; Now running on forms!
Topic Started: May 31 2011, 02:45 AM (394 Views)
C.T
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It has been hinted upon on another news thread and some of you may already have stumbled on it, nevertheless I'm here to announce that the CaS submissions system has gone through yet another significant and highly positive overhaul.

What exactly kind of overhaul?
Well, submissions are now entirely driven by forms! :yes:

Perhaps the ancients may think this isn't anything new, as in the earliest periods forms were used for submissions and requests on BWSCIIICG. However, the forms back then only allowed a single character submission per entry, lacked aesthetic appeal, and results were only published directly to a single e-mail account.

Only now have we been able to deliver both a robust form experience as well as publish results directly on the forums, which is an important necessity for a non-individual site team.

The new submission forms provides an easier, simplified and hassle-free way of character submitting with less opportunities for errors and confusion. Compared to the previous system where one had to post a new thread, then navigate their way through possibly confounding bits of pre-pasted text labels, the forms system effectively eliminates all of this.

So how do I access the submission forms?
Simple. Just head over to either the SCIII or SCIV submissions forums, then click the forum indicated "Submit Soul Calibur III Create-a-Soul Characters" or "Submit Soul Calibur IV Create-a-Soul Characters" and both shall redirect you to the respective submission form. After you fill out the form, the results will be published in the new database forums. Database forums are essentially the old giant submissions forums where all the submissions threads are held, worked on and taken care of by the site team.

Additionally things are made even easier, as there are now quick links to both the SCIII and SCIV submission forms on the front page under the Soul Calibur Submission forum.

Anything cool to be noted?
Two things:

* The submission forms lets you submit anywhere from 1 to up to 7 characters at once in a single entry. Furthermore it will also allow infinite submissions via resubmission of the forms as well. You simply choose how many characters you'd like to submit and the system does the work for you.

* Guests are now able to submit, however they will be tracked by IP and will only allow 1 single submission (1 per site) until they register and gain enough points. Hopefully this allows possibly more content on the sites while keeping the guidelines in check.

Demo or use the new form submission system:
Submit CaS for SCIII
Submit CaS for SCIV
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C.T
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Perseonn Balthasaar
Jul 4 2011, 06:22 PM
C.T, is it possible to drive the formula field on form as well? Some of the SC4 formula submission still use old field naming (e.g. "Torse" instead of "Upper Body". Or is it too much field if we use pulldown menu for all fields?

The discipline list in SC3 need to be sorted (at least alphabetically). Also, I propose we add Abyss, Olcadan, and Night Terror.
It's not possible due to Zetaboards web page length limit. Having separate fields for all formula parts would consume a large amount of extra HTML characters, providing pull down fields to list all the parts in addition is overkill. That's why I could only provide forms up to 7 characters instead of 10.

The only solution to separate the formula fields or provide pull down menus to list all parts is to eliminate the multi-forms. Personally I don't like having to use one submission form to submit multiple characters. It's harder for the submitter and we would have to go and merge the submissions into one thread.

Perhaps you can come with something that can change the old parts name to the new.

One more thing, I realize the incorrect formula part names are all due to the submitter submitting by posting a new thread in the database instead of using the forms. All the form submissions so far have the correct formula part names. You can tell form submissions apart from new thread submissions by the bolding - only submissions using the forms have bolding. Since I recently disabled the ability to submit by posting a new thread, there hopefully shouldn't be anymore issues with this.

I'll try alphabetizing the lists sometime.
Edited by C.T, Jul 4 2011, 09:38 PM.
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Kristof
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something i noticed on the SCIII submission forms is there is no place for stage preference, for pics or videos.
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C.T
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Kristof
Jul 4 2011, 09:57 PM
something i noticed on the SCIII submission forms is there is no place for stage preference, for pics or videos.
That's only because there is no field for stage like there is on ASoH.

Stage field on the site is not going to be added due to old characters and having no such data for them, however I guess it's fine to set a choice stage for screenshots and videos.

If there is enough limit, I will try adding such an option to the current forms.



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Perseonn Balthasaar
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C.T
 
It's not possible due to Zetaboards web page length limit. Having separate fields for all formula parts would consume a large amount of extra HTML characters, providing pull down fields to list all the parts in addition is overkill. That's why I could only provide forms up to 7 characters instead of 10.
Have you tried to fill in all equipment data? You can take them from my formula generator. I prefer we cut to 2 characters or single submission as long as I don't have scan every submission formula for errors. This might not a big issue is ASoH (will generate inconsistencies only), but big issue in BWSC3 since my formula parser have zero tolerance.
Edited by Perseonn Balthasaar, Jul 5 2011, 03:15 AM.

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C.T
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I'm going to try to find a way to shift all the pull down menu choices to a MySQL database using php, this would solve the character limit issue. However, I'm not sure right now Zetaboards allows php coding.

Meanwhile I experimented in having formula be separated into fields. This works, but you can only have type of input area for each part, any additional ones directly following it without a full break would mess the form up and result in not submitting the contents. This is an issue with the form script, and until the creator revises/improves it, there's no way out of it.

Here are the following possible solutions, and whether or not they work:

Example 1 - WORKS
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This is considered okay, but consumes a lot of extra HTML characters and would result in elimination of multi-forms. The only positive feature of implementing this would be to guarantee part names be correct upon submission. Is it really worth sacrificing multi-forms though, especially when all formula part names thus far are correct upon submission?

Example 2 - WORKS
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You are now left with no area to input the part colors, so this can't be used.

Example 3 - DOES NOT WORK
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Upon submission the entire formula contents are entered as blank regardless of what input has been typed/chosen.

Example 4 - DOES NOT WORK
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Same as above.

Example 5 - WORKS
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While this works, the formatting makes it very difficult and confusing to enter formula data. Not to mention parts can have up to around 6 colors each. Also upon submission, the formatting would appear very bad.
Spoiler: click to toggle

So the conclusion is that there is no real appropriate separate field option for formula right now for the forms, unless you want example 1, which I personally don't think is worth implementing because multi-forms are lost.

I will continue to research and find some different alternatives or methods to improve the forms, nevertheless.
Edited by C.T, Jul 7 2011, 08:59 PM.
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Perseonn Balthasaar
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Ouch :(

The example 5 could work by adjusting the parser a bit, but yeah, the initial formatting is bad.

Thanks for trying, though :)

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