Improved Thread Preview Hack

The idea for this hack was originally that of Parker Clack, a regular here on vBulletin.org.

What this hack does:
Basically, this hack pops up a little box/window when the mouse is run over a thread title that shows the first three hundred characters of the first post in the thread (that is, the post that started the thread).

Improvements to Parker Clack's hack:

• Far, far less code...
• Easier installation (one file edit, one template edit)...
• Less space usage...the beginning of the first post in each thread is not stored twice - only once now!...

Versions:
3.0: Overgrow's search page thread preview instructions.
2.1: Added some necessary instructions.
2.0 Reduced MySQL queries significantly.
1.0 Initial release.

Comments appreciated...

A version for vbHacker is available here - note: some files may need fixing afterward if they present parse errors!

How to Censor Previews (by nakkid)
See page seven of this thread.

A very important security fix is available here - I have not updated the ZIP, so install it after you install the hack

[stark]

Is there wa way to increase the amount of time the box shows up? A lot of my users are saying it goes away too fast to read the 300 characters.

[N!ck]

that's just Internet Explorer's timeout...nothing can be done about it...

[EvilLS1]

Nice hack!

Question: is it possible to show the first 300 charecters of the last reply to the thread instead of the first post?

[N!ck]

it would require you to make newreply.php update a new field called "lastpostid" in table "thread" with the reply id#. it would be a bit of work, but it's certainly possible.

[NuclioN]

Strange...after installing the threadstarter dates in forumdisplay are all set to 1 januari 1970 for all topics. (???)

[#01]

Originally posted by LS1 TA
Nice hack!

Question: is it possible to show the first 300 charecters of the last reply to the thread instead of the first post?

This would definatly be more useful to me. Can sombody make these changes and post em here?

Thanx

[Brahm]

Works and looks fantastic on my site. Thanks for the Hack!

[dotagious]

I'm running vbportal and noticed that the modification needed for the newthread.php file edits the same block of text that vbportal does. When the code is added over the vbportal code, I get an error when trying to submit a new thread.

I replaced the original file, and thread preview is working fine regardless. Could someone look at the following code and tell me what I need to do (if anything, considering it's working) to make this hack work with vbportal?

How my newthread.php looks with vbportal code:

PHP Code:

// vBPortal Begin
// create first post
//      $DB_site->query("INSERT INTO post (postid,threadid,title,username,userid,dateline,attachmentid,pagetext,allowsmilie,showsignature,ipaddress,iconid,visible) VALUES (NULL,'$threadid','".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($subject))."','".addslashes($postusername)."','$bbuserinfo[userid]','".time()."','$attachmentid','".addslashes($message)."','$allowsmilie','$signature','$ipaddress','$iconid','1')");
      $DB_site->query("INSERT INTO post (postid,threadid,title,username,userid,dateline,attachmentid,pagetext,allowsmilie,showsignature,ipaddress,iconid,visible,topic) VALUES (NULL,'$threadid','".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($subject))."','".addslashes($postusername)."','$bbuserinfo[userid]','".time()."','$attachmentid','".addslashes($message)."','$allowsmilie','$signature','$ipaddress','$iconid','1','$topic')");
// vBPortal End 


[dotagious]

*sigh*

[dotagious]

ttt