i really do like this code. I want to thank everyone for helping out. i have added some info about the user to this script...
Q
demo link follows: http://nalan.org/8.php can we say final release?
<?php
define('PUN_ROOT', './');
require_once PUN_ROOT.'include/common.php';
//Set the page title here
$page_title = pun_htmlspecialchars($pun_config['o_board_title']);
define('PUN_ALLOW_INDEX', 1);
require_once PUN_ROOT.'header.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'include/parser.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/index.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/common.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/topic.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/login.php';
require_once PUN_ROOT.'lang/'.$pun_user['language'].'/forum.php';
//----------------------------------------------------------------------//
//These are the forums from which the news is retrieved
$forumids = array(1,2);
//This is the overall limit for how many news items will be displayed
$master_limit = '10';
//This is the amount of characters above which truncation will occur
$trunc_chars = '100';
//----------------------------------------------------------------------//
if ($pun_config['o_index_message_show'] == 1)
{
?>
<div class="block">
<h2><span><?php echo pun_htmlspecialchars($pun_config['o_index_message_head']) ?></span></h2>
<div class="box">
<div class="inbox">
<?php echo $pun_config['o_index_message'] ?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------//
function close_tags($string)
{
if (preg_match_all ('/<([a-z]+)[ >]/', $string, $start_tags))
{
$start_tags = $start_tags[1];
if (preg_match_all ('/<\/([a-z]+)>/', $string, $end_tags))
{
$complete_tags = array();
$end_tags = $end_tags[1];
foreach ($start_tags as $key => $val)
{
$posb = array_search ($val, $end_tags);
if (is_integer ($posb))
{
unset ($end_tags[$posb]);
}
else
{
$complete_tags[] = $val;
}
}
}
else
{
$complete_tags = $start_tags;
}
$complete_tags = array_reverse ($complete_tags);
for ($i = 0; $i < count ($complete_tags); $i++)
{
$string .= '</' . $complete_tags[$i] . '>';
}
}
// Removes irrelevant tags
$xhtml_tags = array ('</img>', '</hr>', '</br>');
$string = str_replace ($xhtml_tags, '', $string);
return $string;
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------//
function truncate($string)
{
global $pun_config;
$trunc_chars = '100';
$length = $trunc_chars;
$append = ' ..... ';
if (strlen ($string) <= $length)
{
return $string;
}
else if ($length > 0)
{
preg_match ('#^(?:[\x00-\x7F]|[\xC0-\xFF][\x80-\xBF]+){'.$length.',}\b#U', $string, $matches);
$string = $matches[0];
$string = close_tags (preg_replace ('#\s*<[^>]+>?\s*$#', '', $string).$append);
return $string;
}
}
//----------------------------------------------------------------------//
$result = $db->query('SELECT t.id, t.subject, t.num_replies, t.last_post, t.last_post_id, t.last_poster, t.num_views, t.forum_id, u.use_avatar, u.num_posts, u.registered, u.title, p.poster, p.poster_id, p.message, p.hide_smilies, p.posted, g.g_title, f.forum_name FROM '.$db->prefix.'topics AS t INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'posts AS p ON p.topic_id=t.id AND p.posted=t.posted INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'users AS u ON u.id=p.poster_id LEFT JOIN '.$db->prefix.'groups AS g ON g.g_id=u.group_id INNER JOIN '.$db->prefix.'forums AS f ON f.id=t.forum_id WHERE t.forum_id IN ('.implode(',', $forumids).') AND t.moved_to IS NULL AND f.redirect_url IS NULL ORDER BY t.posted DESC LIMIT '.$master_limit) or error('Unable to fetch announcements', __FILE__, __LINE__, $db->error());
if ($db->num_rows($result))
{
while($cur_post = $db->fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo '<div class="block">';
if ($pun_config['o_avatars'] == '1' && $cur_post['use_avatar'] == '1' && $pun_user['show_avatars'] != '0')
{
if ($img_size = @getimagesize($pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.gif'))
{
$user_avatar = '<a href="profile.php?id=' . $cur_post['poster_id'] . '"><img src="'.$pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.gif" '.$img_size[3].' title="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" alt="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" /></a>';
}
else if ($img_size = @getimagesize($pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.jpg'))
{
$user_avatar = '<a href="profile.php?id=' . $cur_post['poster_id'] . '"><img src="'.$pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.jpg" '.$img_size[3].' title="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" alt="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" /></a>';
}
else if ($img_size = @getimagesize($pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.png'))
{
$user_avatar = '<a href="profile.php?id=' . $cur_post['poster_id'] . '"><img src="'.$pun_config['o_avatars_dir'].'/'.$cur_post['poster_id'].'.png" '.$img_size[3].' title="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" alt="'.$cur_post['poster'].'\'s Avatar" /></a>';
}
}
else
{
$user_avatar = '<a href="profile.php?id=' . $cur_post['poster_id'] . '"><img src="img/noimage.gif" alt=""/></a>';
}
$news_message = parse_message($cur_post['message'], $cur_post['hide_smilies']);
if (pun_strlen($news_message) > $trunc_chars)
{
$news_message = truncate($news_message);
$read_more = ' | <a href="'.$pun_config['o_base_url'].'/viewtopic.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'">Read More</a> | ';
}
else
{
$read_more = ' | ';
}
if ($cur_post['num_replies'] != '0')
{
$replies = ' <a href="'.$pun_config['o_base_url'].'/viewtopic.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'#p'.$cur_post['last_post_id'].'">Replies</a>: '.$cur_post['num_replies'].' ';
}
else
{
$replies = ' Replies: '.$cur_post['num_replies'].' ';
}
echo "\t\t\t\t\t\t\t".'<h2><strong><a href="forum.php">Forum</a> » <a href="viewforum.php?id='.$cur_post['forum_id'].'">'.pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_post['forum_name']).'</a>'.'</strong></h2>'."\n";
?>
<div class="box">
<div class="inbox">
<ul><li>
<table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="100%" border="0">
<tr>
<td style="border: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 7px 7px;"><a class="news_subject" href="viewtopic.php?id=<?php echo $cur_post['id']; ?>"><strong><?php echo $cur_post['subject']; ?></strong></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="100%" border="0">
<tr>
<td align="left" style="white-space: nowrap; width: 8em; padding-left: 7px; padding-top: 6px; padding-bottom: 30px; border: 0px;" valign="top"><?php echo $user_avatar ?><p></p><strong><?php echo pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_post['poster']) ?></strong><p></p><?php echo 'Title: '.$cur_post['g_title'] ?><p></p><?php echo 'Total Post: '.$cur_post['num_posts'] ?><p></p><?php echo 'Registered Date: '. format_time($cur_post['registered'], true) ?></td>
<td style="text-align: left; border: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" valign="top"><?php echo $news_message."\n" ?></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="news_footer" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<?php
echo "\t\t\t\t\t\t\t".'<span class="user" style="float:left">Posted: '.format_time($cur_post['posted']).' by:<span class="user'.(isset($cur_post['g_title']) ? ' '.strtolower(str_replace(' ', '', $cur_post['g_title'])) : '').'"> <a class="poster" href="profile.php?id='.$cur_post['poster_id'].'">'.pun_htmlspecialchars($cur_post['poster']).'</a>'.$read_more.'Views: '.$cur_post['num_views'].' |'.$replies.'</span></span>'."\n";
if ($cur_post['poster_id'] == $pun_user['id'] || $pun_user['g_id'] < PUN_GUEST)
{
echo "\t\t\t\t\t\t\t".'<a href="viewtopic.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.pun_htmlspecialchars($lang_portal['Visit_Topic']).'</a>'.'<span style="float:right">'.'<a href="misc.php?report='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.$lang_topic['Report'].'</a>'.' | <a href="delete.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.$lang_topic['Delete'].'</a> | <a href="edit.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.$lang_topic['Edit'].'</a>'.' | <a href="post.php?tid='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.'Reply'.'</a>'.' | <a href="post.php?tid='.$cur_post['id'].'&qid='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.$lang_topic['Quote'].'</a>'.' | <a href="'.$pun_config['o_base_url'].'/viewtopic.php?id='.$cur_post['id'].'">'.'Read More'.'</a>'.'</span>'."\n\n\n\n";
}
?>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</li></ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<?php
}
}
?>
<div align="center">Theme Designed by: Shedrock - <a onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" href="http://shednotes.com">shednotes.com</a></div>
<br/>
<?php
require PUN_ROOT.'footer.php';
?>
My stuff or my style might sux, but atleast I'm willing to help when I can.
Don't be stupid and help ! We are the stupid one's !!!
Btw, totally agree on the lookup/query bit. This only started out as helping on the truncation feature, however, not a full rewrite. 
I'll have a go at getting it doing what you want when I have chance, but the more specific you can be, the better. With that example you gave above, would you want specific totals per forum with no overall total, or an overall total that would override forum totals if it was exceeded, or vice-versa?
