26 Reply by trevor

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

I've been getting a lot of complaints on forum I'm running about the way that the "new post" indicator works. Personally, I think that the way things work is fine, but I'm trying to work with people a bit. I don't want to go through a bunch of crazy database modifications, so I came up with a "compromise" of sorts.

http://www.almosteffortless.com/files/p … -hack.phps

Basically, I'm allowing the user to pass a "last_visit" login to the search.php page as a GET variable. This requires a line added to search.php, but only one.

You can see this in action here: http://www.newathens.org/admin/

I'm wondering if this sort of thing might be worth adding to PunBB at the core. I'm thinking a fairly simple "show me posts since" thing could be pretty cool. My feeling is that people start reading a few posts, get caught up doing something else, and then get mad because the posts they didn't read are going to be marked read by the time they get back. In this case, that person could note the time they had to take care of other stuff, and then get back online with that date as the starting point.

This might also be better solved by allowing someone to revert back to their "last-last visit", which might be worth considering. In this case, I'm thinking you would save their current last_visit variable before replacing it, and then they could click something that would reset it to that temporarily saved one.

Anyway, I think it might be a good idea to add this "show me posts since" feature to the core. I've gotten the code most of the way there (perhaps the 24hr format isn't too popular?) and I'd be happy to iron out anything else that could make this better.

Like I said, I think the way PunBB works totally makes since. But, I'd like to find a way to make everybody happy. I'm sure you, too, would like to hear less bitching! Maybe this is a compromise...?

  • From: Washington, DC
  • Registered: 2004-09-23
  • Posts: 113

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Rickard wrote:

Don't forget about ShawnBrown's PunJS New Posts. It's a drop-in Javascript solution. I don't know if it works with 1.2.5, but I can't see any reason it wouldn't.

Ahh, I didn't see this post when it was new:

Some people at punres have reported that PunJS New Posts doesn't work with the newer versions of PunBB. I want to release an update but I haven't had the time. Miles' mod is better maintained at this point.

erissiva wrote:

I'm not sure I want a JS getting loaded every time that a page is loaded.

A side note:

The script is ran with every page load but it isn't downloaded every time. When you include a .js file with the SCRIPT tag, it's only downloaded once (like a .css file). After that, the server returns a "304 Not Modified" status and the browser uses a locally cached copy. This is partly how GMail gets away with it's 20,000 line/230k+ JavaScript (though they're using IFRAME tricks too).

Latest Open Source project: [img=Templar PHP]http://code.google.com/p/templarphp/logo?logo_id=1251758459[/img]

TemplarPHP - A cascading template framework for PHP.

ShawnBrown's Website

28 Reply by trevor (edited by trevor 2005-10-18 16:27)

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

What I'm proposing doesn't try to solve the "real" "problem" (scare-quotes) here, because I don't that that users actually want to read every single post.

I'm basically just giving the user a choice to see posts that are new since X date/time. I think that this simple addition to the searching capabilities (search.php) would provide a lot of benefit for users that are requesting a way to mark posts as read when they're read.

Not that I think the javascript idea is a bad one - but I don't want to rely on things that may or may not work with future versions. I also am not interested in radically expanding PunBB's feature set. However, I think that adding this extra small feature will result in less worry about this other, larger, "feature" or change in behavior.

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

30 Reply by hcgtv

  • hcgtv
  • hcgtv
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • Registered: 2004-06-25
  • Posts: 1,991

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Rickard wrote:

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

Awesome, good to hear this.

PHPCrossRef . TXP Make . TXP Themes . TXP Tags . TXP Planet . We Love TXP

hcgtv's Website

31 Reply by trevor

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

i think i just saw a pig fly by my window...

  • Connorhd
  • Connorhd
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Leeds, UK
  • Registered: 2004-06-13
  • Posts: 4,195

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Rickard wrote:

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

So from this we can understand if we bug you enough you will add anything? wink

FluxBB.
Connorhd.co.uk.

Connorhd's Website

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Connorhd wrote:
Rickard wrote:

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

So from this we can understand if we bug you enough you will add anything? wink

Either that or pay me a lot of money smile

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • From: Washington, DC
  • Registered: 2004-09-23
  • Posts: 113

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Rickard wrote:

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

Now we need a volunteer to make the PunBB 1.3 mod that restores classic new-message indicator behaviour.

Latest Open Source project: [img=Templar PHP]http://code.google.com/p/templarphp/logo?logo_id=1251758459[/img]

TemplarPHP - A cascading template framework for PHP.

ShawnBrown's Website

35 Reply by trevor

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

I'd imagine that the old behavior will still be the default, and that the ability to have topics marked as "new" until you actually read them would be a per-user option...?

36 Reply by blizeH

  • Registered: 2005-11-01
  • Posts: 47

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

Rickard wrote:

1.3 will have proper "mark as read" functionality. Yes, I give up smile

Fantastic to hear that, thanks Rickard! ;-)

Only just found out about this forum script today, set it all up and absoluely love it, but this is the one thing I've got problems with, and lots of others do too, one person even saying "I just clicked on the same post four times accidently" becuase they thought it had a new post, heh. Doesn't say a lot for the intelligence of our forum users, but hey, what ya gonna do? ;-)

Cheers again, fantastic software!

37 Reply by sparq

  • Registered: 2006-03-12
  • Posts: 27

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

trevor wrote:

Anyway, I think it might be a good idea to add this "show me posts since" feature to the core.

Do you mean like the link "Show recent posts" at the bottom of Index, but with the ability to change how long back in time you want to go?

38 Reply by trevor

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

sparq wrote:

Do you mean like the link "Show recent posts" at the bottom of Index, but with the ability to change how long back in time you want to go?

Funny... I actually whipped this up for a site I maintain:

http://newathens.org/admin/

Look at the bottom, there's a set of drop-down menus that allows you to specify a date range.

39 Reply by sparq (edited by sparq 2006-05-26 16:04)

  • Registered: 2006-03-12
  • Posts: 27

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

I thought it was in the forum but it was at the page the link directed me to.

Cool

Was this what you were talking about in the post I quoted? wink

Have you been thinking about implement  it into the show-recent-posts-page in the forum?

40 Reply by trevor

  • Registered: 2005-05-16
  • Posts: 61

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

I could put that code into the forum itself, but I don't like to hack up the source if I can avoid it. I tend to blow changes away when I upgrade. Even having the avatars under /img/avatars/ has caused me some trouble smile Perhaps when there is a proper plugin system I'll turn it into a plugin, but I'm holding off until then.

41 Reply by sparq

  • Registered: 2006-03-12
  • Posts: 27

Re: 'Read' topics not marked as read

trevor wrote:

I could put that code into the forum itself, but I don't like to hack up the source if I can avoid it. I tend to blow changes away when I upgrade. Even having the avatars under /img/avatars/ has caused me some trouble smile Perhaps when there is a proper plugin system I'll turn it into a plugin, but I'm holding off until then.

Maybe a plugin, sounds good wink