vb.org Archive - Latest announcement on forum home

vb.org Archive (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/index.php)

- vBulletin 3.5 Add-ons (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=113)

- - Latest announcement on forum home (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=97403)

Latest announcement on forum home

This is my first hack which I created out of necessity. It's is so simple, it adds "Last Announcement" in the forums home. This is done by selecting the latest thread created in a given forum to be displayed.

See the screenshot attached.

1.2 Update:
- The hack now uses the plugin system, no more code changes ;).

1.1 Update:
- Code is now more optimized, compatible with non-cookied and clustered boards. (Thanks for KirbyDE)

1.01 Update:
- Now it works if you use prefix in database.

Enjoy :)

Nice work, I shall most certainly use it. :)

I get this error when I made the changes...any1 know what the problem is?

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_WHILE in /home/illusion/public_html/forums/index.php on line 101

Works great thanks. *installed*

Quote:

Originally Posted by illusions

I get this error when I made the changes...any1 know what the problem is?

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_WHILE in /home/illusion/public_html/forums/index.php on line 101

Are you sure you have vB 3.5 Final installed? I never tested this code on any Betas or RCs. And try the updated hack, as your problem may be with table prefix?

Welcome FleaBag & thedvs :)

and possible to have it of different color more and than an announcement

:squareeyed:

Nice hack. Installed!

Some suggestions
- Use Hook forumhome_complete to avoid file edits
- Use query_read instead of just query to avoid overhead and make the hack compatible with splitted (master/slave) mySQL servers
- Use $db->fetch_array instead of mysql_fetch_array() to make the hack compatible with vBulletins Database Abstraction Layer
- The generated link is missing the Session ID ($vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl']), so it might not work for non-cookied users
- ++$lnsnbsp; seems to be unnecessary

Furthermore, if you just want 1 record, it's easier to use $db->query_first()

Last but not least: A setting to select the Forum ID (rather than having the User edit the Plugin) would be perfect :)

Thanks a lot KirbyDE!

I have updated the hack following your suggestions, but I really don't know how to make a plugin and I don't really have time to :(, I'm not considering myself a pro vb coder or something :) just created this little hack out of necessity and liked to share it. Anyone is welcome to port this hack into a plugin without crediting me even :)

Thank you again for your valuable tips.

Thankyou i've been looking for something like this!
/me installs

So this adds 1 query to forumhome? Or more?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien

So this adds 1 query to forumhome? Or more?

Only one.

Thanks! I've always wanted something like this... why don't users ever read the annoucement forum, anyway???
But this fixes that...
*goodwillstacy clicks install

almost essential for every forum, ive been DESPERATE for this hack! Thank you!

10/10 install it NOW! (easy to use)

Updated and now it's a plugin :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by tantawi

Updated and now it's a plugin :D

Thanks!

I got a XML-Error when try to install.

Quote:

Originally Posted by klaush

Thanks!

I got a XML-Error when try to install.

Oh sorry. Fixed by now.

I don't seem to get how this works. I have installed it twice and removed it twice. I can't seem to find where I insert my text for it to appear in the latest announcement area. Where do I go to add my text?

Thanks,
~Mr. Bone88

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Bone88

Please, i can't find it too :ermm:

Nice plugin.

But I would need some additional features.
-) I have a multilanguage forum. So I would need that the Announcement changes depending on the forum language (so that I can enter for each language a forum where the last topic is taken for the annoucement).
-) I want that I can change the number of topics displayed in the annoucement field.

This is a cool and simple hack. Could use a bit more functionality but I'm going to try to edit that in myself. I'll post the results here if I come up with something good.

Edit: Alright, I've been playing around with this. It's probably nothing remarkable but I'm pretty proud of myself as I don't know mySQL or PHP and I had to do this via trial/error and am learning my way around.

This is my first experience in actually coding something in mySQL/php - all I've ever done before was move stuff around or follow file edit instructions.

Anyway - here's what I've gotten so far:
Attachment 51050

I did all this by editing the plugin code and the template code. Here is what I have for both:

Code:

<!-- Latest Announcement -->

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">

<thead>

        <tr>

                <td class="tcat" colspan="2"><a href="http://www.pokerealm.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28">Latest News and Announcements</a></td>

        </tr>

</thead>

<tbody id="collapseobj_forumhome_events" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_forumhome_events]">

        <tr>

        <td class="thead" width="3%">&nbsp;</td>

        <td class="thead" width="97%">Recent Headlines</td>

        <tr>

        <td class="alt2" align="center"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/announcement.gif" alt="News Icon"></td>

        <td class="alt2">$lns_show</td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

        <td class="alt1" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont">$lns2_show</div></td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

        <td class="alt2" align="center"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/announcement.gif" alt="News Icon"></td>

        <td class="alt2">$lnsb_show</td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

        <td class="alt1" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont">$lnsb2_show</div></td>

        </tr>

</tbody>

</table>

<!-- /Latest Announcement -->

Code:

// ### LATEST NEWS BY TANTAWI ############################################

                $latesta = $db->query_first('SELECT title,threadid,views,replycount FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'thread WHERE 1 AND forumid = 28 ORDER BY dateline DESC  LIMIT 0 , 1');

                $lns_show = "<a href=\"showthread.php?"  . $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'] . "t=$latesta[threadid]\">$latesta[title]</a>";

                $lns2_show = "<b>Replies:</b> $latesta[replycount] <b>Views:</b> $latesta[views]";

                $latesta2 = $db->query_first('SELECT title,threadid,views,replycount FROM ' . TABLE_PREFIX . 'thread WHERE 1 AND forumid = 28 ORDER BY dateline DESC  LIMIT 1 , 1');

                $lnsb_show = "<a href=\"showthread.php?"  . $vbulletin->session->vars['sessionurl'] . "t=$latesta2[threadid]\">$latesta2[title]</a>";

                $lnsb2_show = "<b>Replies:</b> $latesta2[replycount] <b>Views:</b> $latesta2[views]";

You can get an idea of how to edit the plugin once you compare my code to the original. Have fun guys.

I plan on adding a lot to this - I'm even thinking of asking someone how to trim phrases in PHP so that I can draw from the database and get the first post then trim it to 150 characters or so and display it right there under the title then a link "Read more...".

-Whoops, didn't mean to double post. I thought it would auto merge my posts.

OK, I finally finished tinkering around with it and here is my finished product. If you have any questions, you can PM me. I'm not going to post it as a hack because I don't know how to write the admin CP plugin, etc. My code is probably very inefficient as well.

Attachment 51182

This won't work for 3.6 - anyone have any ideas what changes I need to make to get it working? The Latest Announcement box will show but it's empty even though I have put in the correct forumid.

mshadows, It works for me on on 3.6, nothing changed, you may need to rebuild threads info.

Regards.

What do you mean by rebuild threads info? Sorry I'm a bit of a newbie with this kind of stuff.

From your admincp, select Maintenance > Rebuild thread info.

Regards.

Anyone got a 3.7.3 version ?

Do you have this in 3.8.4?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmoh (Post 1983570)

Do you have this in 3.8.4?

Yes I use this mod in 3.8.4 - no problems

How can you make this work in vb 4?

What would the variable need to look like?

At the moment it's this:
$lns_show

But Vb 4 has those curly braces. Any ideas?

Phrase Groups Available:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.01173 seconds Memory Usage 1,805KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (2)bbcode_code_printable (6)bbcode_quote_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (33)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
Messages: