Add-On Releases - Feature Threads

Feature Threads
By Adrian at Dreamit.co.uk
Tested on 3.6.1.

Note: This modification is v0.10, It seems to be working fine.
To see why it's not V1, scroll down to the Q&A.

About:
Feature Threads allows you to "Feature a thread", and that thread will then appear on the forumhome.

It's a very useful mod' to get those important, special threads noticed.

Installation:

Download Feature_threads.zip.

• Upload feature.php and unfeature.php to your forums root folder.
• Import product_feature.xml.

Template Edits:
Open Forumhome Templates > FORUMHOME
Find:

<!-- main -->

Add after:

$feature_threads

Save.

Open Showthread Templates > SHOWTHREAD
Find:

	<tr>
		<td class="thead">$vbphrase[thread_tools]<a name="goto_threadtools"></a></td>
	</tr>

Add after:

<tr>
		<td class="vbmenu_option"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/subscribe.gif" 

alt="Feature Thread" /> $feature_status
<input type="hidden" value="$threadinfo[threadid]" name="tid"></td>
	</tr>

Save.

Done.

Easy to install.

Q&A
1. Why is it V0.10?
Well, when i started this mod', i had some good ideas with it, and i started to loose intrest after a while.

I got the "base" made, so i thought, "why not release it?"
So, i have. If i get enough installs, or a positive response to the mod', i will glady spend more time, adding the features i wanted.

2. Oooh...What new features?
Not too many features...things such as...

Featured Thread ordering

• Order by thread date
• Order by by date featured
• Order by amount of replies
• Custom ordering

The ability to show the featured threads on the forumhome, or on everypage.

Ability to show what information is displayed in the features thread box.

Yeh, these are pritty easy to do, i just don't have the dedication i need to make them, like i said, if i get a good response, expect to see them soon.

3. How many usergroups...?
The option, that allows you to choose certain usergroups to access this mod', is limited to 12 different usergroups.

Not because i'm being mean, i just did the usergroup permission, in my code useing explode and arrays.

Don't ask why, i just did. : /
That will be improved when/if V1 is released.

Changelog
0.10 - Release.

0.11 - Set default value on "Show x" option to 4, to stop confusion with mysql_errors

0.12 - Edited Enable/Disable option from Radio buttons, to a simple Yes / No boolean to avoid errors.

---

If you installed this modification, please click install.

Thanks.

Adrian

[Malibu]

awesome hack...thanks for this...works great.

[Smoothie]

Is anyone available to take over this mod and bring some new features onboard? It would be great to be able to show last post by, time, replies, views, etc.

[MetalAges]

This is a great idea. I was searching for a hack to show multiple announcements but this is even better. I for one would love to see the other features added (especially the adding to every page).

[Smoothie]

anyone else able to get this to work w 3.6.4? It does not work for me, nothing shows. All edits done, files uploaded and product imported.

[Smoothie]

nevermind, I'm a dummy, forgot to enable it. :P

[Smoothie]

There must be a way to show date posted of the featured threads. Can someone with a bit more knowledge in this area help?

[xopek]

I've installed the hack but all I'm getting on a main forum page is "No database selected".

I traced it back and that's a part of 'Feature' hack when tries to do

$merge=mysql_query($query);

I guess it's doesn't have a database selected at this point, huh? Weird but that's what says. Any suggestions?


On a separate note, I've slighly enhanced the integration on 'feature thread' item into the menu. I suggest changing the second step of template editing to:

Open Showthread Templates > SHOWTHREAD
Find:

        <tr>
                <td class="thead">$vbphrase[thread_tools]<a name="goto_threadtools"></a></td>
        </tr>

Add after:

	<if condition="$show['adminoptions']">
        <tr>
                <td class="vbmenu_option"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/subscribe.gif" alt="Feature thread" /> $feature_status <input type="hidden" value="$threadinfo[threadid]" name="tid"></td>
        </tr>
        </if>

This was it does not come up with empty line in the menu for users who don't have right to feature threads.

Denis

[perfphysio]

Originally Posted by Smoothie

anyone else able to get this to work w 3.6.4? It does not work for me, nothing shows. All edits done, files uploaded and product imported.

Yeah it works for me fine in 3.6.4 but I installed it when I was on 3.6.3.

[carphead]

When I install this hack on our board as soon as I put the code into forumhome it stops the page from loading. If I disable it the forumhome loads fine. I've tried it on four different skins (including the VB Default) and it fails.

Any ideas? I really want to install it.

Thanks.

[Smoothie]

One of the draw backs to this is when you feature a thread and the limit for featured threads is already reached, you get no error page, it just says the thread is now featured, but it's not. It doesn't bumb off the oldest thread, it does not show an error, nothing.