I'm still interested in this if anyone has figured out how to do it. I'd like to be able to pinpoint if a member has read a post after additional information was posted for them. Right now I can only determine if they read the post at all. Thanks. :)

I have a really great idea for a way to improve this hack.


The basis is this - it's nice to be able to see who has viewed a particular Thread. But once that Thread gets going - it becomes next to useless if you need to ask "Okay, who has viewed this Thread since Post #13 was made?"


I would recommend, for Admins only, that the functionality be added so that they can see who last viewed a given thread since a particular date and time.


This can be done in a number of ways with varying levels of functionality:




Method 1


Underneath the current "Already viewed this thread" section, a second section would be added - "Viewed this Thread since..."

This section will be updated just like the first one. However, this section will have a Reset button. When an Admin clicks on the Reset button - it clears all users from that section. The section will list the new Date/Timestamp - and will start collecting User View information from that point on.

So that it will now show, for example, "Users who have viewed this Thread since 6/2/2004 10:31pm:"

Effectively, it works like your car's Trip Odometer.


This method would (I think) only require an additional field in the database for a second set of User View data. It would get updated just like the first one - it's just that there is a Reset button in each ShowThread page that allows Admins to clear this second set of data and set a new Date/Timestamp to be shown.

I would think that this first method should be very easy to implement. But Gary would have to chime in here to confirm. :)



Method 2


Add the ability for this hack to store Date/Timestamps for each user who views any given thread. It only needs to store the Last Viewed date/time.

Then, add a second section (similar to example 1) - however, this one has an Input Box that allows you to type a date (and possibly a time) in. Then, you can refresh the page and that second section will show all users who have Viewed that Thread since the date/time you entered.


As a secondary benefit/implementation - since under this method, the date/time of Last Viewed will be stored for each user, it should be easy to make it so that by hovering your mouse over a username in the first section (the "Already viewed this thread" section), you can get a tooltip with the date and time that that user last viewed this thread.


The advantage of this method over Method #1, is that you can check for Last Viewed data retroactively.

The disadvantage, of course, is the complication of implementing this. And perhaps, a performance concern.




So, what do you guys think? Would this be useful to you? :)


Gary, do you like this idea? Is either Method practically doable?

I'd personnally find that very useful. I have a thread where I update the progress of certains items on the website. At the moment I have to delete the thread and re-create it, if I want to see who's viewed it again, since I last made any updates.

Option 1 is probably more work than option 2. The timestamp from my perspective would be the one to go for. It would be great if someone could implement this change.

The original version of this hack only adds one Field ("whoviewed") to the "threads" table. It stores a list of UserIDs, and that's it.

Method 1 would only add another Field (i.e. "whoviewedsince" ), which would be handled in exactly the same manner.


If we go with Method 2, some way needs to be found to efficiently store a date/timestamp with each UserID for each thread. To my mind, that makes Method 2 more complicated to implement - although I agree that it would be the more useful option. :)

this should be updated for 3.0.1

no update i take it ?

Will this hack be udated to work on vB3.0.3 please ... thanks in advance guys, keep up the excellent work ;)

I have this working on a 3.0.3 installation. Is there a reason why you think that it needs to be updated for 3.0.3?

:) because the hack said to work with version 3.0.0, and some people dont want to give it a shoot in other versions.

update would be adding a line, saying it works with ... some versions :D

@ Ocean .. thanks for the reply, after reading that it worked for you, I checked again .. it was my bad application of the hack .. when copying I had missed off the last } .. all working fine now .. thanks ;)