Staff Tracker - Tags Posts Made By Staff With "Next Staff Post" Button

[GeekyDesigns]

This is Staff Tracker 1.0.0 Beta 1 for vB3.8 by GeekyDesigns!

As the version number states, this is a beta release. I've tested it myself and it should work, but there is only so much I can throw at it. Nothing bad should happen, but I can't guarantee that it'll work 100%. With that caveat out of the way, I'm sure you're wondering exactly what this does.

What this addon does it fairly simple. In vBulletin Options -> Staff Tracker, there are two important settings. You choose the groups you want to be tracked as "staff" (by default, the default administrator and super moderator groups) as well as choose whether or not those with can_moderate permissions in the forum the post is in are tracked as well. After you have set those to your liking and saved them, use the link below the settings to build the data for current posts, and check out the results!

On the thread list in forumdisplay, there will be a new icon if any of the staff members defined by the setting above have posted in the thread. The icon will link to the first staff post in that thread.
In the showthread, there will be an icon at the top if a staff member has posted in the thread linking to the first staff post.
In the postbit, there will be a new icon on staff posts linking directly to the next staff post in the thread. If it is the last staff post in the thread, it'll have a different icon to signify that it is the last staff post.

See the screenshots to see this product in action.

Installation instructions:
Upload the included images and import the XML. Modify the settings (admincp/options.php?dogroup=gd_stafftracker) and then use the "Rebuild Staff Posts" link to build the initial data from the current posts.

Now, as this is a beta, my top priority is squashing any bugs that come up. Feel free to post any feature suggestions, but my main goal here is getting enough testing to declare it stable.

Known Issues:
It is sorted by postid, not by the actual dateline of the post. This can cause confusion when a post is copied and merged into a thread containing posts that are newer by date but older by postid. I'll be working to fix this, but I feel it is minor enough and too complex to fix, so I feel it is safe to make the first release.

I don't think I've forgotten anything for this first post, so let's roll to the credits.

Images from: http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/

[Link14716]

Reserved.

[Dan]

Nice one! I like it!

[Link14716]

Going to toss this a bump.

To the 4 people who I don't know of that clicked "install" and the couple more that presumably gave this a download, is it running fine? I assume no real issues have come up, because otherwise I'm sure it'd have been posted about by now.

If there are no new known issues, I'm going to prod it a bit more and drop the beta tag.

[BigDog56]

Going to check it out. Thank you!

[BigDog56]

Can everybody see this? I would like to see it where only certain user groups can see it. So far, seems to work just fine.

[Link14716]

Anyone can see it, but a template conditional in the 3 templates should do what you want to do. (postbit_stafftracker, threadbit_stafftracker, and showthread_stafftracker)

Edit: Add this to the start of those templates with something like this:
<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, array(5,6,7))">

Replace 5,6,7 with a comma seperated list of the usergroupids you want it to show to, and don't forget to add </if> at the end of each of the templates.

[BigDog56]

Anyone can see it, but a template conditional in the 3 templates should do what you want to do. (postbit_stafftracker, threadbit_stafftracker, and showthread_stafftracker)

Edit: Add this to the start of those templates with something like this:
<if condition="is_member_of($bbuserinfo, array(5,6,7))">

Replace 5,6,7 with a comma seperated list of the usergroupids you want it to show to, and don't forget to add </if> at the end of each of the templates.

That will work, thank you!

[TheInsaneManiac]

An icon showing staff posts would be nice as well, so members who scroll through posts will know what content is trusted if it has a nice little staff icon next to it.

[Link14716]

An icon showing staff posts would be nice as well, so members who scroll through posts will know what content is trusted if it has a nice little staff icon next to it.

I'm confused. Isn't that what this addon already does?

[n_only]

thanks, it's working fine with me.

if there are any upgradeing in future : I would like to suggest haveing an option that only show staffs that they moderate only them forums .

for example :

staff 1>> forum 1
staff2>>forum 2

your hack showing staff2 that posting in staff 1 forum, and I need to track only staff 1 and activety on his/her forum only

I hope you catch my idea

[TheInsaneManiac]

I'm confused. Isn't that what this addon already does?
I meant like a message lol. A little icon wouldn't get very much attention.

[KURTZ]

really interesting ... :)

[pvalderh]

Would it be possible to disable the text in threadbit "X staff posts" ? And just show the icon if the thread contains staff posts? In some forums it looks kinda spammy and cluttered with that text on alot of the threads.

[Brandon Sheley]

nice mod, I like it! :)

[Link14716]

Would it be possible to disable the text in threadbit "X staff posts" ? And just show the icon if the thread contains staff posts? In some forums it looks kinda spammy and cluttered with that text on alot of the threads.

That text is supposed to show when hovering your mouse over the icon. Is it not doing so?

Either way, just edit the threadbit_stafftracker template.

[kall]

OMG. I love you.

I described this to some people a month or 2 ago (having experienced it somewhere else), looked for it recently, then started coding it myself.

Yay for not having to complete it.

[Raug]

I would really love to use this, however, it seems to be clashing with how vBSEO Skin plugin has the alt colors flipped to work vertically vs horizontally. Also, some of my postbit template modifications might be preventing the link to the next post from appearing.

I also got this DB error after running the post rebuilder (I think). I didn't notice it until a bit later.

Database error in vBulletin 3.8.3:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE vb_thread SET gd_staffposts = '53977', gd_laststaffpost = '53977' WHERE threadid =;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Error Number : 1064

Nevermind. Just a suggestion: make sure to take care of orphan posts/threads before you try to rebuild staff posts :X

[kall]

Hang on. No functionality in search results? :(

That would be a good thing.

[punk23]

Hey there

Great Mod!! Would love to use it but I am getting a SQL Error when updating the Staff Posts...
Database error in vBulletin 3.8.1:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE vb_thread SET gd_staffposts = '272881', gd_laststaffpost = '272881' WHERE threadid =;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Thursday, October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26:11 PM
Error Date : Thursday, October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26:11 PM
Script : [REMOVED]/misc.php?do=updatestaffposts&startat=272830&pp=500
Referrer : [REMOVED]/misc.php?do=updatestaffposts&startat=272313&pp=500
IP Address : [REMOVED]
Username : [REMOVED]
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.0.81-community

[Link14716]

Hey there

Great Mod!! Would love to use it but I am getting a SQL Error when updating the Staff Posts...
Database error in vBulletin 3.8.1:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE vb_thread SET gd_staffposts = '272881', gd_laststaffpost = '272881' WHERE threadid =;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Error Number : 1064
Request Date : Thursday, October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26:11 PM
Error Date : Thursday, October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26:11 PM
Script : [REMOVED]/misc.php?do=updatestaffposts&startat=272830&pp=500
Referrer : [REMOVED]/misc.php?do=updatestaffposts&startat=272313&pp=500
IP Address : [REMOVED]
Username : [REMOVED]
Classname : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.0.81-community

Take care of orphan posts first. I forgot to take that possibility into account, but will fix it in the next version.

[punk23]

Ahhh ok, could you please tell me how to do that?

Thanks.

[Link14716]

Admin CP -> Maintenance -> Update Counters -> Remove Orphan Posts

or yourforums/admincp/misc.php?do=removeorphanposts

[punk23]

Hey thanks!

Is it dangerous to do this..or not?

[Link14716]

It gets rid of posts that aren't actually attached to any thread, so no. That's where the DB error comes from, it's trying to update a thread that doesn't exist (and thus has no threadid).

[LuBi]

Hang on. No functionality in search results? :(

That would be a good thing.

I've been waiting for a staff tracker for some time. While I like what this modification does I need a search output page generated more then anything else. Is there any chance on an addition or update? This is a much needed product and often requested modification.

here is a simple example:
http://forums.ddo.com/turbine_tracker.php?tracker=devtracker

this is an example of a very advanced version:
http://www.afraidyet.net/forums/wow-dev-tracker/?securitytoken=guest&pp=30&sort=lastpost&order=asc&daysprune=365

[MtEden]

Fantastic add-on, thanks! We're having a bit of an issue though.

If there are two staff posts on the same page of the thread then it omits a part of the URL, giving you a broken link.

Instead of:
http://www.xxxxxxxx.com/forum/showthread.php?p=151305#post151305

You get:
http://www.xxxxxxxx.com/forum/#post151305

Any ideas what I can do to fix this?

[CoffeeLovesYou]

lol, League of Legends uses this. See it in action on this thread.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=731379

But thanks. Im gonna install this on my board.