how to display Recently Updated Albums in random order

[Marcel Lee]

How can I make it so that the Recently Updated Albums list, the one on the "album.php" page, is displayed in random order as opposed to the newest-to-oldest default?

[Lynne]

Where is this "recently updated list" - I'm not sure where you are talking about.

[Marcel Lee]

It's on the "album.php" page that I assume comes with every 3.8 version of vBulletin.

You can view it on the vBulletin.com Community Forum (here (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/album.php)) if you're a member.

[Lynne]

Ah yes.. I've got a mod installed and that doesn't show for me.

Anyway, it's done in includes/class_groupmessage.php in the function filter_sort_field. It looks like there is a hook to affect that area called album_sort_field. So, you can play with that if you want to change what it is sorted on. The DESC and ASC are options that are passed, I think in album.php around line 1789:
$collection = $collection_factory->create('album', false, $vbulletin->GPC['pagenumber'], $perpage);

You could pass a fifth paramenter, the default is DESC (which is why they didn't pass it since that is what they want).

[Marcel Lee]

Thanks for the help, but can you be more specific on what it is I have to do?

I've opened both the "includes/class_groupmessage.php" and album.php" files and I see the lines you're referring to, including the code you put in quotes, but I need you to tell me exactly what I have to do (add/edit) because I'm a novice when it comes to hooks and such. I'm not even sure what you mean by "pass".

I'm also wondering, am I supposed to make these changes by editing the php files and uploading them back to the server or is there a way to do this via the admin control panel?

By the way, just so you know more specifically, what I want to do is make it so that the aforementioned picture album list appears in a different (random) order at every page view or refresh.

[Lynne]

I can't be more specific because I've never done what you want to do. I only know that those are the areas you need to look at and change.