vBCron and Pruning
 

From what I was reading at vB, vB3 almost had this.

I would like to have vBCron prune threads older than xx days in selectable forums/catagories. Not worried about resetting counts, etc. since I do this manually every once in a while when I turn off the forums for maintenance.

I have a couple of FSOT type forums and we try to keep them pruned, but don't always do it!

Thanks!
Dan

I'm interested in this also - as I'm running a Usenet gateway and don't really need to keep more than six months' worth of posts.

I'd also like to see this incorporated with a cron job to flush and rebuild the search index. Anybody got ideas?

I think this is much needed but have never really found anyone in the VB arena to take the time to make something for the bigger boards. I've been waiting for years.

@Indyshooter
Try this:

1. [sql]ALTER TABLE forum ADD pruneafter INT DEFAULT 0 NOT NULL[/sql]
2. In admincp/forum.php FIND
   
   PHP Code:

   ---

   print_yes_no_row($vbphrase['warn_administrators'], 'options[warnall]', $forum['warnall']); 


   ---

   BELOW that ADD
   
   PHP Code:

   ---

   print_input_row("Prune After<dfn>Stetting this to a value > 0 will automatically prune all threads from this forum where the last reply is older then the set amount of days</dfn>", 'forum[pruneafter]', $forum['pruneafter']); 


   ---

3. Place the following as prune.php in includes/cron
   
   PHP Code:

   ---

   <?php
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

if ($DB_site == NULL)
{
    exit;
}

require_once('./includes/functions_databuild.php');
$forums = $DB_site->query("SELECT forumid, pruneafter FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum WHERE pruneafter > 0");
while ($forum = $DB_site->fetch_array($forums)) {
  $threads = $DB_site->query("SELECT threadid FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread WHERE forumid=$forum[forumid] AND lastpost <= " . (TIMENOW - ($forum['pruneafter'] * 86400)));
  while ($thread = $DB_site->fetch_array($threads)) {
    delete_thread($thread['threadid'], 0);
  }
  build_forum_counters($forum['forumid']);
}

log_cron_action('Forums pruned', $nextitem);

?>

   ---

4. Go to Forum Manager, Edit the Forums you want to be pruned automatically and set the number of days
5. Create a Cron Job for prune.php

Use AS-IS, no warranties.

Many thanks Kirby, this is just what I was looking for :) I just have a few questions.

1) If I add a new forum later do I have to rerun the query?

2) Will this ignore sticky topics? If I have something as a sticky I'd like it to be exempt from any/all pruning functions including this auto-prune.


I have this installed and I've setup a few "tests" to confirm that it is working. I ran the task manually and it appears to work, I'll know more tomorrow after the scheduled task runs :)

No. You will just have to set the amount of days in forum manager.

No, it will also delete sticky threads. But this can be modified easily:

Replace
With
Then it should ingore sticky threads.

Thank you! :)

Just wanted to say thanks again Kirby, the script passed all of my tests :) All of the expired posts (open and closed) were automatically deleted and the sticky posts were unharmed https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2011/01/19.gif Excellent!

Modyfication by Pogo

http://www.vbulletin-germany.com/for...&threadid=9253

Limitter

KirbyDE, I would encourage you to release your post as a hack. People will appreciate this information because it is useful for many large boards. I have to spend at least five hours a month sitting at my computer to manually do the prunes and it is very annoying.