[Craig]

First I just wanted to thank you for your continued support and constant updates to this already amazing plugin. Adding additional extensions like the Hours plugin at no extra charge for existing pro pack purchasers is just another reason why I can’t recommend this plugin highly enough to anyone considering purchasing it.

Having said that, I recently installed the hours extension, and while it’s a very nice addition to the package, as a 1.0 release it definitely has some issues that might need some adjusting.

The most glaring problem with it is that once the extension is installed it appears to be all or nothing. If it’s enabled, ALL entries are forced to use it, and by default the business is marked as closed unless the fields are filled out. This field should be optional, and like all other fields disabled unless it’s filled out. Additionally, it would be great if there was an easier way to fill it out instead of using the very limited slider input method. It doesn’t allow for anything other than full hours, requires you to do every day manually when the vast majority of businesses have the same hours Monday through Friday, and it has no flexibility for other options like limited hours or even times like 5:30pm. An option to type text into these fields would be helpful, as it would allow for custom values as well as copying and pasting hours for multiple days.

Also, it doesn’t appear to account for time zones, so for any directory which has listings in multiple time zones (Which I’m assuming is most), there needs to be a way to establish what time zone the business is in.

Obviously this is a 1.0 release, so I don’t expect it to be perfect, and I’m confident that these problems will be resolved soon enough.

One last thing. There is currently no way to know when new extensions and templates are released or updated. The Connections dashboard has a section for this, but they do not seem to be getting updated. Is there another way to find out about updates that I’m missing?

Thanks!
Craig

[Craig]

Quick update. I don’t know how I missed the minutes slider, so obviously there is a way to adjust to any exact time – and I also found that with current updates of extensions and templates there is now a way to add your license key to your settings to get automatic updates, which doesn’t resolve the problem with finding out about these new updates, but definitely appears to resolve the problem permanently for new extensions and templates so thanks!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Craig

Thanks for the kind words and the recommendations. Truly appreciated!

re: ALL entries are forced to use it, and by default the business is marked as closed unless the fields are filled out.

This shouldn’t be the case … if all fields are left blank nothing should show for that entry … even the closed message. Can you repeat this issu reliably? And if you can, can you let me know the exact steps you take? That’ll help me track down where the bug may lie.

re: Additionally, it would be great if there was an easier way to fill it out instead of using the very limited slider input method.

I agree that slider isn’t the best. The alternatives are worse. I spent a fair amount of time researching. They’re either too restrictive in the time selection, ie fixed intervals or more difficult to use. Free text input isn’t much of an option either because I need valid time formats in order to reliably determine time ranges for the open/close messages.

re: copying and pasting hours for multiple days
I do want to add a way to copy but I can not think of an easy/elegant way to do this. Maybe adding a copy previous button after the +/- buttons? Suggestions welcome.

re: it doesn’t appear to account for time zones, so for any directory which has listings in multiple time zones (Which I’m assuming is most), there needs to be a way to establish what time zone the business is in.
Since I’m working with real times and not simple strings, I might be able to come up with something. Honestly though, with my experience supporting users of Connections needing timezone support would be the exception, not the rule.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Craig

re: updates
Honestly, I did give up on posting update notices because very few ever referenced it, however, maybe I should be a little more diligent for the few that do. I think that license key and in-admin updates should help a lot though.

[Craig]

Yes, it’s easily repeatable. My database has over 4,000 entries – all of which were created without the hours extension. If I ever edit an existing entry, without touching the hours section, it will add the hours section showing all days as closed.

Also, by default, all new entries show all days as closed unless you put hours in. I’m assuming this is because you use blank entries as CLOSED. A better method would probably be to require you to actively specify closed days, and blank would leave the entry disabled.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 2 months ago by Craig.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Craig

Ahhh… ok I see, The content block show up as all closed when simply updating an entry, but only with the content blocks, the widget is fine. Both the content blocks and the widget use the exact same code for display with the exception if it should be shown or not. Apparently there’s bug with if it should be shown in the content block or not.

Ok… I see the difference….

In the widget I added an option for the use to “Show the operating hours if there are no open days or periods in the week. All days will be shown with a “Closed Today” message only if the show “Closed Today” message option is enabled.” which is off by default.

The content block has no such option… perhaps I should add the check if an entry has no open hours, not to show anything by default. Yes, no? The reason it does not show for pre-existing entries because there is no data. When you add or edit an entry, blank periods are considered closed hours which is why it shows, even if all periods are empty. Whether this is a bug or or feature is a matter of perspective.

[Craig]

The content block has no such option… perhaps I should add the check if an entry has no open hours, not to show anything by default. Yes, no? The reason it does not show for pre-existing entries because there is no data. When you add or edit an entry, blank periods are considered closed hours which is why it shows, even if all periods are empty. Whether this is a bug or or feature is a matter of perspective.

I would qualify it as a bug, because it forces you to put hours into any entry that already exists where there is currently none if you want to edit the entry for any other reason. Having the ability to turn it off, or at least leave it off it it isn’t already on would be a huge help. Many listings don’t have hours, and so I can’t really update them without putting something in, and in the case of a business that’s a website open 24 hours a day it’s even more awkward to enter, would be much easier to have a way to disable it entirely or at least have a simple way to enter default options like open 24/7 or 9-5 monday through friday.

[Steven Zahm]

@ Craig

I just uploaded version 1.0.4, the only change is if there are no open periods, the Hours will not display anything in the content blocks. I think I might get bug reports because of the change, we’ll see. If need be, I can add a shortcode option to switch this on/off.

[Author]

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