Quick PM Reply Box
 

Quick PM Reply Hack Version 2.4 - by Dr. Erwin Loh
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Inspired by Firefly, Neo, Vincent "MW" Chan


Version 2.4 for vBulletin 2.3.0 - 23rd of March 2003
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This is a simple hack that puts a "Quick PM Reply" box underneath a PM that you have received, with the username, subject and message in quotes already inserted. All you need to do is to just type the reply and click send. In the new version, you also have the option of deleting the original PM when you send the reply, as well as multiple options like saving the copy, and message tracking.

Upgrading from version 1.x - just make the 2nd PHP file changes, and copy and paste the the new template changes over the old one.


Version 2 additions:
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Added options using checkboxes to:

1) Delete original: Delete original PM from PM box when you send reply
2) Automatically parse URLs.
3) Show Signature.
4) Save a copy: Also save a copy in the 'Sent Items' folder.
5) Request Read Receipt: Choose message tracking.

Version 2.1 - minor bug fix to make the icon change after a message is sent.
Version 2.2 - minor bug fix to make sure the delete tickbox works.
Version 2.3 - fixed a minor template issue
Version 2.4 - fixed the multiple RE: bug

NEW: Added minor addition to make cursor go automatically to the PM Quick Reply Box. :)

NOTE: To get the newest attachment, you need to clear your browser cache - otherwise you may download the previous version text file.

This is a screenshot of what it would look like - this Quick PM Reply box will be located under the PM message that you have received and are reading.

The username, and subject will be automatically added. The PM message that you are reading will automatically be included in the textarea in quotes.

New version screenshot - you can now see the checkboxes that you can tick to automatically delete the original PM when you send the reply, or to enable URL, signature, save to sent folder or message tracking.

EDIT: This hack has been installed in vB.org. Just try it out here. :)

Screenshot:

Good job, although I doubt i'll use it.

Same but good idea.

nice hack

good job

very nice ! Thank you !

Good idea, nice job, it's great! :glasses:

We are looking into it!
When we might apply the Quick Reply Hack in the upcomming month(s), we will take this one under consideration too!

A fine hack :)

It'd be nice if it followed proper colour formatting though

nice hack Erwin

thanks :)

LORD

For some reason vbulletin.org changed all my firstaltcolor and secondaltcolor variables to the ones that they use on this site.

I have updated the install text file with the generic variables - although I have uploaded the new file up, when I try to download it, the cache still shows the previous file.

Try to clear your cache and download the text file again. Make sure the file you download is quickpmreply2.txt (not quickpmreply.txt)

The color formatting should automatically reflect your own forum's style.

Thanks for the hack.

One minor issue, you have an extra <TR> in there.....near the top....

And a weird double border on the right hand side, which I haven't looked at just yet.....

I'll post the cleaned up HTML unless someone beats me to it.....wink wink.... :)

JC

Thanks - I've removed the extra <tr> tag - no idea how it got there! :)

thanks alot erwin, nice hack.

Erwin,

Great hack simple and takes about 2 mins to install.

phil

Thanks for the compliments. :)

Btw, you can use this hack easily as a quick forwarding function as well - I have made it so that you can change the username of the recipient easily so that instead of a quick reply, you can do a quick forward too.

Hummm...Bug? Every time I use the quick reply to send a PM I get a JavaScript error saying something along the lines of "Validate is not an object", in both IE6 and Netscape 4.x. I looked at the code and the problem is that the <form> tag has a line that reads...

onSubmit="return validate(this)"

but there isn't a function anywhere called validate.

If this line is unintentional, then I think simply removing it will get rid of the problem. If it's suppose to do something I would like to know what.

PLEASE ADVISE

great hack, thanks.. 1 question though why is the border so thick? its not a prob, im just curious

I think that's meant to validate the length of the text box, but don't quote me on that. The function may be located elsewhere. I'm not getting any script errors for mine - it works fine, and no one else seem to have that problem... I'm at work at the moment, but I will check it out when I get home. Make sure you have script switched on in your browser - check your browser security settings.

Sorry...this is an issue (thought not forum or hack stopping) for their is NO SCRIPT to call in the file that was modified. "validate(this)" is no where in the PM code thus the error is their and will be as mentioned above. It is not just me...it was reported by my users. (we see over 30,000 unique visitors a day.)

You could be right on the reason seeing the code was taken from the other Quick Reply hack.

You missed out on the whole Javascript function that should be placed above the form tags. It is in the installation text file.

Please look at the installation text file again, and make sure you place the Javascript function before the form tags.

I checked - for some reason the Javascript function was missing in the 2nd version of the installation text file.

I have fixed this now - sorry to those who installed the 2nd version. For those who have installed this already, just copy the Javascript function and paste it ABOVE the form tags. It should work fine now.

It works great, thanks! The wife loves it! (You done good :)). I still have the double white line on the right. What do I need to take out and where? I just downloaded the file about 20 minutes ago.

Mmm... it's to do with the table alignments... I did it and it works for my forums, but obviously not aligning correctly with others.

Try to play around with the tables in your templates, and see if you can make it look better. :)

If I could do that then I wouldn't have bothered you with it. :) Can you make it like the Quick reply Box as far as the box itself goes? I noticed you have a border around the inside of the box, too. Is that supposed to be there?

Is there any way to have it save a copy (to your sent folder) of the message you are replying to or forwarding (if you have it set to save a copy), when you use the quick pm reply box?

Boofo:

Change this line:

to this:


As for the table alignment, I will try to find time to fix it up for you - if you have a web editor, just plug the tables in there and change it to however you want it to look. :)

I guess if I would have looked closer, I would have found that. :) Thanks! As far as table alignment goes, thanks and let me know when you have some time. :)

Just found something interesting. If the message contains a quote box inside of a quote box, the whole message is not transferred to the Quick PM reply Box. It stops after the first [/quote], so there are two [quote] and one that ends it. :)

I sent you a PM, Boofo, regarding the table alignment change. See if it works better.

very nice idea mate.. like it

cheers for your work

Erwin,

After taking the box apart and reassembling it, I finally got it worked out. I just followed Firefly's Quick Reply Box hack and the box looks like it should now. Thanks for all of the help. If you want my code for the box, let me know. I added a few things to it that make it much easier to use, like the Verify User accepts PMs hack and the Find User Name feature along with a drop down box for the message icons.

By the way, how did you get the Automatic smilies and Fonts in the left side of your box? Can you post the code for that here? :)

thanks I'll install it.....

It's just a link to the "Reply PM" page. It's for my members who like using the automatic smilies etc.

Great idea...would you mind sharing the code to put it in? :)

thanks, works great!

It's just the URL to the private message reply page - here it is:

Thanks. I guess I should have known that. DOH!!!

Is there any way to have it put the message recipient, subject and the quote into the reply (the regular one) after clicking on that link? That would be great to have it be able to transfer that information if a user wanted to do that. :)