Mini Mods - Subscribed Threads in Notifications [Archive]

MoMan

09-13-2010, 10:00 PM

As seen on www.pentaxforums.com/forums/ , I'm bringing you a handy mod that adds the number of new subscribed threads to the notifications area, as well as a link to subscription.php. This means that whenever someone replies to one of your subscribed threads, you don't have to check your user cp or your e-mail inbox- just click on the notification! Notifications can also be reset via the User CP (memcached version only*).

This mod is provided free of charge, but I ask that the copyright and contact information be retained within the SOURCE. There are no visible copyrights for this mod. Furthermore, I ask that you do not re-use this code without my permission.

Non-Memcached Version:
Time to install: <1 minute (upload 1 product file)
Current Version: 1.1.0
Queries: 1 per pageload for logged in users
Templates: 0
New Phrases: 1
Compatibility: vB 3.7.x-4.x

Love this mod? Support further projects by donating: http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/donations/

Enjoy and don't forget to mark this as installed if you decide to use it! Limited support will be offered to those who click install.

Note to owners of large forums: I also offer a version of this mod that does not add any global queries and instead utilizes memcached (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=248543). I can install this premium version on your site for an hourly charge, assuming your server already has memcached installed. Send me a PM for details.

MagicThemeParks

09-14-2010, 10:35 AM

Thanks for this MoMan :)

I'll be adding this for the coming weekend. How do your members enjoy this mod? Do they feel that it's useful or have you not received many comments about it on your own site?

MoMan

09-14-2010, 12:33 PM

They feel it's very useful- but requested a "notification reset" link, which I've now implemented. I expect to release the updated version shortly.

vijayninel

09-14-2010, 02:02 PM

Brilliant. Waiting for the new version to be released. :)

MoMan

09-14-2010, 02:33 PM

New version is out! Keep it mind that the new functionality is memcached-only, and further features will only be implemented in that version.

karlm

09-15-2010, 03:12 AM

Interesting... what would you need for a test board? I mean, I have one I use for testing various things and could loan you admin access for a while if needed...

MoMan

09-16-2010, 01:51 AM

I'd simply need to log in to the plugins system and see how notifications are handled in vB4. The same code should run no problem, but I bet that it needs to be put in a different place.

MoMan

09-16-2010, 01:52 AM

Update: try changing the hook location for the main code from global_complete to global_bootstrap_init_complete

That should make it work in vB4- let me know!

jscieza

09-16-2010, 06:43 AM

New version is out! Keep it mind that the new functionality is memcached-only, and further features will only be implemented in that version.

There are lots of people not using memcache but xCache. You should make a version compatible with xCache... just a suggestion.

Alfa1

09-16-2010, 09:55 AM

Please add an X-cache version. I'd really like to add this to my big board.

vijayninel

09-16-2010, 10:46 AM

And make one for Wincache as well please.

MoMan

09-16-2010, 03:25 PM

I currently don't intend on supporting any caching system other than memcached. If someone would like to adapt this to xcache/whatever other caching system, you have my permission to re-post the plugin in this thread. The adaptation is purely syntactical, and as such, should be quite easy to do.

jscieza

09-16-2010, 03:53 PM

What the "Notification reset" link does?

MoMan

09-16-2010, 05:11 PM

It removes the notifications currently being shown.

Taringa! CS

09-20-2010, 03:02 PM

Hi!

I've got a problem using memcache... the prashe on notification dropdown it's empty on all pages but subscription.php

Eduardo Leon

09-20-2010, 03:34 PM

well as i see ...

i know this mod have a problem

like "in ur DB" have got a problem.

just modify your DB in that "query" ,,,

PS :

Send me pm if you talk in spanish ....

MoMan

09-21-2010, 06:36 PM

I sent you a PM. No clue what you're talking about, though!

Taringa! CS

09-30-2010, 05:09 PM

Hi!

I've got a problem using memcache... the prashe on notification dropdown it's empty on all pages but subscription.php

Any updates on this?

MoMan

10-01-2010, 11:16 PM

Any updates on this?
Enable debug mode, then go to your phrase manager and change the phrase type of new_subscribed_threads to global.

Taringa! CS

10-02-2010, 10:16 AM

It's already on global

MoMan

10-03-2010, 02:47 AM

If it's global, then the phrase should be displaying properly.

jscieza

10-13-2010, 05:19 AM

When you get a bit of free time, could you please please please make a xCache compatible version?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

MoMan

10-19-2010, 07:20 AM

If I ever do get it installed on my server, I'll consider it. As I said earlier, it shouldn't be hard at all.

I've also developed an improved version of this mod for my purposes which uses an added database table instead of memcached to store read marking times. This is much more stable, and if I get time, I'll release it here as well.

Alfa1

10-19-2010, 08:58 AM

Thanks. I'll wait on that then.

jscieza

10-22-2010, 04:23 PM

Instead of making use of Memcache specific code why don't you simply make use of vBulletin cache, and if your vB uses xCache/Memcache/etc., then the hack will get advantage of this? Also if you go in this way you will not need two versions of your mod anymore as because if your vB doesn't make use of any cache then nothing will be cached.

Take in account that caching in memory is faster than storing the information on the database and both ways are stable.

My two cents :)

MoMan

10-23-2010, 04:50 AM

Is there any documentation on that? I'll gladly tweak the public version of this mod to use the vBulletin interface if such an interface is available.

On my forum, I don't use vB_Datastore_Memcached as the database is actually faster for simple select queries from the datastore than memcached. I use memcached for mods whose queries take > 0.1s, such as iTrader, LXT, latest threads on forum home, and vBulletin's showgroups page, and the database for mods which spit out information that rarely or never changes. I'd still need two versions of the plugin :p

jscieza

10-23-2010, 05:03 PM

Will be any noticeable performance impact if we use the non-cache enabled version in a busy forum? Let's say, 250 members and 2,250 guests at the same time with a cookie timeout of 30 minutes.

Thank you,
Jonathan

MoMan

10-24-2010, 12:45 AM

Probably not, as it doesn't add any queries for guests. It depends on whether or not mysql is the bottleneck on your site.

The queries in this mod are relatively light unless a user has hundreds of subscribed threads. It shouldn't add much load, but does add 1 query for all users, and 2 additional queries for users with subscribed threads. On my forum, the non-cached version of this mod added just under 0.01s to the generation time of each page. The memcached version, on the other had, doesn't add anything at all, since most of the time, the queries aren't run.

jscieza

10-24-2010, 05:18 AM

MoMan

10-24-2010, 05:15 PM

Hello,

Thanks for clearing things up.

I went ahead and installed the NOMEMCACHED version of your mod and it appears not to be working at all. There are two problems:

There is no phrase for the notification but in usercp.php or subscription.php. Same problem reported by another user here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2105185&postcount=18). I don't know if phrase new_subscribed_threads is declared as global or not. Demo: http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/609/nophrase.jpg
I'm not getting notifications when there are new replies to a subscribed thread.I'm running vBulletin 3.8.5. Could you please check this?

EDIT: tested on another forum running vBulletin 3.8.1, same issues.

Thank you,
Jonathan

You should probably add this to init_startup:

$phrasegroups[] = 'user';

OR add a new custom global phrase for the product with the correct key.

This will be included in the next version of the hack.

So you're getting notifications for new threads, but not for threads with replies? That shouldn't be the case. Let me try checking if there are any problems with the code in the simple version.

jscieza

10-24-2010, 05:21 PM

You should probably add this to init_startup:

$phrasegroups[] = 'user';

OR add a new custom global phrase for the product with the correct key.

This will be included in the next version of the hack.

I prefer to wait until you release a fixed version. Please update both versions the non-cache enabled and the cache-enabled one.

So you're getting notifications for new threads, but not for threads with replies? That shouldn't be the case. Let me try checking if there are any problems with the code in the simple version.

I have installed this and then added subscriptions to some threads... when someone replies to these subscribed threads I'm not getting the notification in top right corner (drop down). It's always (0) even when there are new replies to my subscribed threads. In other words, this product isn't working at all for me and I don't know why.

MoMan

10-25-2010, 02:26 AM

When I get the time, I'll be willing to log in to your site and try to debug this. It could be the case that there are other plugins on my site not present on yours that are otherwise required. However, please note that I am pretty busy with other things at the moment and am not planning on actively maintaining the non-memcached version beyond the one released here, nor will I be releasing a single version that includes an option to enable/disable memcached.

Version 1.2.1, which I use on my site, is working flawlessly. I will do my best to release it here as well, but haven't had the time to write the install/uninstall queries needed for it to work. As I mentioned earlier, it uses the database to store marking times, so that even if memcached is flushed, threads beyond the user-set cutoff will not be displayed.

If you'd like to install memcached on your server, try the following command:
pecl install memcached

MoMan

10-25-2010, 06:01 AM

I've now updated the non-memcached version to 1.0.1 final. This includes the missing phrase. Try that- do the notifications work for you?

jscieza

10-25-2010, 06:17 AM

Thanks for the update!

The missing phrase issue is now fixed but unfortunately notifications aren't working.

MoMan

10-25-2010, 01:32 PM

I've just realized that this mod requires DB-based thread read marking to work. Make sure that's enabled in your vB options. By default, the cookie-based method is used.

I've now added this to the OP.

jscieza

10-25-2010, 04:48 PM

Yes, that was the problem. I changed from cookie based to DB based and now the product is working fine. However I prefer to continue using the cookie based method. Is there any way to adapt your product to work in a cookie based enviroment? Hope it can be possible as because most people use the default method in their forums.

Thank you,
Jonathan

MoMan

10-25-2010, 10:04 PM

If the threadread cookie stores your latest thread read times, then yes, it would be possible, as that's the only piece of information that this mod needs to work. AFAIK, though, there's a 15-day expiration or something like that, so I'd recommend you make the permanent switch to the DB-based system, as it really doesn't add any load to your board.

I'm willing to adapt this to use the cookie info on a freelance basis, if you'd like to go down that road.

jscieza

10-26-2010, 05:05 AM

asd_ra7la

10-26-2010, 08:25 AM

Fatal error: Class 'Memcache' not found in /home/XXXXX/XXXX/global.php(400) : eval()'d code on line 588

MoMan

10-26-2010, 05:18 PM

Yes, I'll love to be able to use this product while using the cookie-based method. Hope you can do it when you get a bit of free time.

Again, take in account that most people are using the cookie-based method.

Thank you,
Jonathan
I won't be doing that as part of this plugin. As I mentioned earlier, this would be something that I could consider for freelance work.

MoMan

10-26-2010, 05:19 PM

Fatal error: Class 'Memcache' not found in /home/XXXXX/XXXX/global.php(400) : eval()'d code on line 588

Install memcached on your server (pecl install memcached via SSH), or use the non-memcached version of this hack.

jscieza

10-27-2010, 06:48 PM

I've now updated the non-memcached version to 1.0.1 final. This includes the missing phrase.

Maybe a good idea do the same (fix the missing phrase bug) in the memcached version :)

jscieza

10-28-2010, 03:40 PM

Okay I went ahead and changed my thread/forum read marking type from cookie to database and installed the NOMEMCACHED product on my forum and it's working fine.

Only one issue. There aren't notifications for email subscriptions. I mean, members only get notifications of threads subscriptions made with the option "without email notification".

MoMan

10-30-2010, 05:04 AM

I've updated the phrase. Also, I'm pretty sure it'll work for all kinds of notifications, as they're all stored in the same database table.

grey_goose

10-30-2010, 05:29 AM

Tried to install nonmemcached version:

Fatal error: Class 'Memcache' not found in /home/user/public_html/forum/global.php(400) : eval()'d code on line 255

jscieza

10-30-2010, 05:18 PM

@grey_goose: double check that you have downloaded the NOMEMCACHE.xml version.

@MoMan: unfortunately it appears that it isn't working for all kind of subscriptions. As I already said, this isn't displaying notifications for subscriptions made with email notification but with no email notification it's working fine. I'm talking about the NOMEMCACHE.xml version.

Thank you,
Jonathan

jscieza

11-04-2010, 08:28 PM

@MoMan: unfortunately it appears that it isn't working for all kind of subscriptions. As I already said, this isn't displaying notifications for subscriptions made with email notification but with no email notification it's working fine. I'm talking about the NOMEMCACHE.xml version.

Any update regarding this matter? Thanks.

MoMan

11-07-2010, 03:33 AM

It does work for all types of threads- have a look at what the query does. It doesn't discriminate by subscription type.

jscieza

11-07-2010, 03:56 AM

I'm not a programmer so I don't understand queries but I'll be more than happy if you can perform a quick review of the code of the NOMEMCACHED version to see if there is something wrong.

Thanks.

jscieza

11-08-2010, 03:31 PM

Something strange is happening.

I have some thread subscriptions and I'm getting the notifications without any problem (except for the one mentioned here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2118044&postcount=47)) but after marking all forums read the notification is still present! Please take a look at these screenshots for further reference:

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/7015/crazy1.png
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9316/crazy2.png

I remember it was working fine (without this issue) but now this strange behavior is driving me crazy :(

Any idea?

MoMan

11-08-2010, 05:00 PM

I've updated the original post with the latest version of the memcache version of this modification, which uses memcache for both count tracking and thread read times. In the future, I may release the further-improved version which uses memcache only for count tracking.

The non-memcache version of this mod is provided as-is and is not supported. It uses the same queries as the other version, however, so it really should work. I had a look at the code, and saw no problems. There must be something wrong with your forum's read marking- it must not be properly updating the threadread table.

jscieza

11-10-2010, 04:31 PM

Well, there are two bugs in this product:

Bug #1
There aren't notifications for email based subscriptions. I mean, members only get notifications of threads subscriptions made with the option "without email notification". If someone has a thread subscribed with instant/daily/weekly email notification then they will not receive notifications in the top right corner but email notifications will be dispatched to the member's inbox as usual.

Bug #2 (strange)
After marking all forums read the subscribed threads notification is still present (it's always 1). I remember it was working fine but now it isn't. That's why I'm marking this bug as strange.

I'm talking about the NOMEMCACHED version running in a vB 3.8.5 forum. The programmer already said that that version is provided as-is so we can't expect any further updates :(

MoMan

11-10-2010, 05:47 PM

I don't believe this is an issue with the plugin itself. I've tested both of these things successfully on two separate forums. All I can think of is that other settings/plugins are conflicting with it. I also use is on my own site, on which the users aren't reporting any problems (at least after I introduced the "clear notifications" feature ;))

To debug bug #2, go into the threadread table and see if all records for your username have the same timestamp. If not, then the discrepancy is what the system is picking up as a new thread.

Try the memcached version- it's a lot better!

jscieza

11-10-2010, 06:19 PM

To debug bug #2, go into the threadread table and see if all records for your username have the same timestamp. If not, then the discrepancy is what the system is picking up as a new thread.

Hello,

First of all thank you for the useful info.

I went ahead and performed the following SQL query:

SELECT *
FROM `threadread`
ORDER BY `threadread`.`userid` ASC
LIMIT 0 , 30

And this is what I got: http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/9169/readtimes.png

Is 'readtime' the timestamp that you're talking about? If so, is there anything wrong with my threadread table? :(

MoMan

11-11-2010, 11:00 PM

Now you should run a similar query on the subscription table to see which threads you're subscribed to. Then we can take a look and compare.

jscieza

11-12-2010, 03:33 AM

I ran this:

SELECT *
FROM `subscribethread`
ORDER BY `subscribethread`.`userid` ASC
LIMIT 0 , 30

And got this (http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/2180/subscribed.jpg).

It looks like the subscribethread table doesn't have a timestamp column so how to compare against the threadread table?

If I read the thread then the notification disappear (as designed). Issue here is that after marking all threads as read (mark forums as read) the notifications for subscribed threads don't disappear.

jscieza

11-12-2010, 06:26 PM

I even performed the following SQL queries:

DELETE FROM subscribethread;
DELETE FROM threadread;

And the problem obviously disappeared but as soon as I added new threads subscriptions to my account and then marked all forums as read there is still one thread subscribed notification in the top right corner. I'm getting crazy, trust me :mad:

MoMan

11-14-2010, 05:05 PM

If I read the thread then the notification disappear (as designed). Issue here is that after marking all threads as read (mark forums as read) the notifications for subscribed threads don't disappear.

You're right, that indeed seems to be the behavior for the non-memcached version. That's because, unlike I thought, the threadread table is never updated.

I see two solutions:
1. Checking the last time the forum was marked read before running the subscribed thread query
2. Updating threadread where userid = $vbulletin->userinfo['userid'] with TIMENOW when $_REQUEST['do'] == 'markread' by adding code to the plugin

MoMan

11-14-2010, 06:04 PM

Since forumcache doesn't store the forum read time, I went with #2 and implemented that. Note that now the notifications will clear when you mark all forums read, but not when you mark an individual forum.

jscieza

11-14-2010, 06:49 PM

Thanks for the workaround. I'll try it soon.

Uhm... the memcache enabled version doesn't have this issue, right?

MoMan

11-15-2010, 04:39 AM

No, because the last read time is stored in memcache, and updated when you mark forums read :)

jscieza

11-16-2010, 11:52 AM

I do have another question regarding your memcache enabled version. You said:

The memcached-enabled version caches the new thread count for 5 minutes

So do it means that the notifications aren't going to be in "real time" and there could be a delay of 5 minutes?

MoMan

11-16-2010, 03:01 PM

Right, it can take up to 5 minutes for a notification to pop up after a reply has been made to a subscribed thread. However, once you open the thread, the notification is cleared immediately.

jscieza

11-21-2010, 01:42 PM

There is another annoying bug in the NOMEMCACHED version.

Sometimes the product is adding notifications properly but sometimes when a subscribed thread gets updated (someone replies to it) the product isn't adding notifications. So in other words, sometimes it work and sometimes it doesn't. It appears to be a random behavior.

I don't know if the memcache-enabled version of your product is better or doesn't have this bug and I'd like to use the memcache-enabled one instead of the NOMEMCACHED version but as I already told you I'm running xCache not Memcache so let allow me to insist with this:

Instead of making use of Memcache specific code why don't you simply make use of vBulletin cache, and if your vB uses xCache/Memcache/etc., then the hack will get advantage of this? Also if you go in this way you will not need two versions of your mod anymore as because if your vB doesn't make use of any cache then nothing will be cached.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2112838&postcount=25

Is there any documentation on that? I'll gladly tweak the public version of this mod to use the vBulletin interface if such an interface is available.
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2113062&postcount=26

I was talking about this (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2098649&postcount=9).

jscieza

11-21-2010, 01:56 PM

Just updating the bugs in the NOMEMCACHED version for anyone interested:

Bug #1 - Status: the bug is still present. Note: programmer is unable to reproduce this bug.
There aren't notifications for email based subscriptions. I mean, members only get notifications of threads subscriptions made with the option "without email notification". If someone has a thread subscribed with instant/daily/weekly email notification then they will not receive notifications in the top right corner but email notifications will be dispatched to the member's inbox as usual.

Bug #2 - Status: this has been fixed (check here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2121823&postcount=58) and here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2121847&postcount=59))
After marking all forums read the subscribed threads notification is still present (it's always 1).

Bug #3 - Status: Awaiting reply from the programmer
Sometimes the product is adding notifications properly but sometimes when a subscribed thread gets updated (someone replies to it) the product isn't adding notifications. So in other words, sometimes it work and sometimes it doesn't. It appears to be a random behavior.

MjrNuT

11-30-2010, 03:20 PM

I can confirm Bug #2 in the one day of using the Non-memcached version.

I tried the memcached version but do not have a memcacher server available to me.

uninstalled

jscieza

11-30-2010, 08:03 PM

Bug #2 has been already fixed by the programmer.
Note that now the notifications will clear when you mark all forums read, but not when you mark an individual forum.

And it's working fine now.

Issue here are bugs #1 and #3.

MoMan

12-01-2010, 03:47 AM

I'd like to remind you that the non-memcached version isn't supported, and that I use the memcached version of this on my own site with no problems. If there were bugs, my members would have complained.

Perhaps there's some sort of setting conflict with your particular installations (this goes back to the cookie-based vs database thread marking), I'm not sure.

MoMan

12-14-2010, 11:49 PM

I've updated both versions of this mod:

If a soft-deleted thread was still unread, a notification would be shown even though the thread wouldn't be visible to the user. I've now added an AND visible = 1 statement to the query to avoid such conflicts. I recommend you upgrade to 1.0.3 if you're using the non-memcached version of the mod.

jscieza

12-15-2010, 01:17 PM

Hi MoMan,

Now all the bugs listed here (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=2124200&postcount=65) are resolved.

Thanks for updating your hack :)

Regards,
Jonathan

MoMan

04-20-2011, 12:51 AM

I've updated the non-memcached version: it now only uses 1 query, rather than 3, and the overall quality of the code has been improved.

I currently don't have the time to update the memcached version, although this shouldn't matter as much due to the caching.

8thos

07-09-2011, 09:53 PM

Non-memcached version of this working fine in vb4.1.4

MoMan

07-24-2011, 10:45 AM

Great to hear! I can re-release this in the vb4 section, then.

MoMan

08-11-2011, 01:30 PM

I've updated this thread with the latest version of this mod. I've also removed the memcached version, as it seemed it was caused more confusion than it did good. If admins of large forums are looking for a more efficient version of this hack, please contact me via PM.

Amenadiel

11-19-2011, 10:23 PM

I tried the memcached version when it was still free. Now I regret not keeping the xml back then :P

Pvtiste

01-25-2012, 06:33 PM

Is there a way to disable this notification via usercp?
Thanks

Pvtiste

01-27-2012, 01:00 PM

Ok here the modification in order to enable/disable the notification via usercp :

Create a customfield and remember the ID then modify the .xml

Line 27:

if ($vbulletin->userinfo['userid'] > 0 && $vbulletin->userinfo['xx'] == "Disable")

That's it

Donkey11

04-15-2013, 04:18 PM

Hi

After installing when click "Today's Posts" an error

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in [path]/search.php on line 2501

Help me

Tyran1

05-10-2013, 09:26 PM

jgrakowski

02-16-2014, 09:19 AM

I have a problem with this mod.
i have added this (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=224997) mod (sound plays when page loads if notification exists) to my forums, using this (http://typhoonguild.com/forums/mail.mp3) sound.
So when someone replies to a subbed thread, notification sound plays.

The problem is, when YOU post a reply in a thread that you are subscribed to, you get a notification, until it becomes marked as read.

with both of these mods the way they are, when you post in a subbed thread, you hear the notification sound.

I was wondering if there is a way to alter this mod so that your own posts in a thread you are subbed to never cause a notification.

jgrakowski

02-17-2014, 03:55 AM

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?p=2481728#post2481728" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showt...28#post2481728</a>

OUTL4W

03-26-2015, 11:59 AM