Last XX Posts on non-vB page

UPDATED! Not a new version number, but a bug fix.
Fixed another bug with using forum titles and included forums.
New update: *Actually* fixed the bug with the forums this time.
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It's my best work to date (if I do say so myself ) and I think you'll like it and like all the configuration you can do.

This image shows the script with all of the columns on, and parsing [code], smilies, and the post icon, as well as showing the forum title before the thread title.


This image shows the script with all the columns off except $lastpostdate, and the $tw (table width) set to 600, and $showdate set to 0 (to just show the last post time).


This image shows the same as #2, except $tw is blank (allowing the table to compact and remove the empty space automatically).


Hack version: 1.0.1

Changes since version 1.0.0: Fixed small bug.

Changes since version 0.1.0: Parses [ b], [ i], [ u], [ code], and [ quote] within the "last post". Displays the icon of the post, or the thread if there is no post icon. Parses smilies. New option to convert new lines to <br> so the post appears as the author wrote it (note: may cause problems if there are large breaks in posts).

Changes since version 0.0.2: New option to show the text of the last post of a thread (also option to limit the number of characters of the post displayed). New option to set the table width, as a percent, a number of pixels, or just let the table size naturally. New option to show just the time of the last post, instead of the date *and* the time. New option to show a thin line around the cells (cell spacing).

Changes since version 0.0.1: Include only specific forums, or set to allow all forums except certain excluded forums. New option to display a "Last post date" column with the last post date and time, formatted with your board's date & time setting. Fixed a bug with font and font size. Split the config into a separate file to make editing easier.

For version: v2 betas 3, 4, 5, RC1, RC2.

Files needed: last10.php, last10config.php (see attached zip file).

Files to edit: last10config.php (see attached zip file).

Possible file locations: Anywhere, as long as the relative path to config.php and the URL to your board are correct. Also, you must put last10.php and last10config.php in the same directory!

Instructions
1] Unzip the files last10.php and last10config.php to your hard drive.
2] Open last10config.php in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad (Windows), SimpleText (Mac), EditPlus, UltraEdit, TextPad, etc. (DO NOT use WYSIWYG HTML editors such as FrontPage, HotDog, DreamWeaver, etc. They will in all likelyhood screw up the file! I will not be able to support you if you edit the file in one of these programs.)
3] Edit the variables at the top. These are:

1. $path > path to your config.php file (usually in the /admin directory) - NO TRAILING SLASH! and DO NOT PUT config.php at the end of it! ( e.g. forums/admin )
2. $url > URL to your board - NO TRAILING SLASH! ( e.g. http://www.mysite.com/forums )
3. $urlimg > URL to your board's images - NO TRAILING SLASH ( e.g. http://www.mysite.com/forums/images ).
4. $maxthreads > max threads to show. will show less if $last24 or $last7 limits it to less results than this number
5. $ob > determines the sort order of the list. replycount and views are numbers, lastposter is a name, title is the name of the thread, and lastpost is the last posts' date. set to one of the following: replycount , views , lastposter , title , lastpost (lastpost is most popular. it's the thread most recently replied to, then the second-to-last most recent, etc.)
6. $obdir > set to "desc" or "asc". which direction to sort? "desc" goes from bottom to top (9 to 1, z to a, etc.). "asc" goes top to bottom (1 to 9, a to z, etc.)
7. $last24 > set to 1 to limit the possible results to the last 24 hours; 0 for no limit (must set this to 0 if $last7 is set to 1)
8. $last7 > set to 1 to limit the possible results to the last 7 days; 0 for no limit (must set this to 0 if $last24 is set to 1)
9. $bc1 > first alt color (for the alternating colored rows)
10. $bc2 > second alt color
11. $hc > head background color (title, last poster, etc.)
12. $lc > text link color
13. $tc > text color
14. $f > font face
15. $fs > font size in points. 6 is on the small side, 10 on the large side. Put only a number in this - no "pt", "pts", or anything else!
16. $lastposter > show the "last poster" column? 1 = yes; 0 = no
17. $views > show the view count for each thread? 1 = yes; 0 = no
18. $replies > show the reply count for each thread? 1 = yes; 0 = no
19. $lastpostdate > show the last post date and time for each thread? 1 = yes; 0 = no
20. $len > maximum number of characters of the title to show. e.g. if the title is 60 characters and this is set to 25, only the first 25 characters of the title will be shown (followed by ...)
21. $excludeforums > List certain forums to be excluded. Best used if you have a large number of forums you *do* want included and only a few that you want excluded. List them separated by commas, but without spaces - e.g. 1,2,3,4 - and DO NOT fill in both this and $includeforums! Use one or the other.
22. $includeforums > List certain forums to be included. Best used if you have a small number of forums that you want included and a large number you want excluded. List them separated by commas, but without spaces - e.g. 1,2,3,4 - and DO NOT fill in both this and $excludeforums! Use one or the other.
23. $showmessages > If you want to show the last post of the thread as well, set this to 1. You can limit the number of characters displayed in $lplen below.
24. $lplen > If you specify a number here, any post that has more than $lplen number of characters will be reduced to this number and "..." added to the end of it. If you don't want to use this feature, leave it blank e.g. "" - remember though that if $showmessages is set to 0, this won't do anything.
25. $tw > If you want to specify the width of the table, you can set it as a percent e.g. 95% or as a number of pixels e.g. 300 or just leave it blank and the table will size itself.
26. $showdate > If you want to show the date *and* the time, set this to 1. If you want to just show the time, set this to 0.
27. $cs > If you want a thin line around your cells, set this to 1 (or higher - experiment!). Set to 0 for no line.
28. $nb > if you want breaks in text to appear as such, set this to 1. otherwise set it to 0 (this may cause problems if there are large breaks in the text)
29. $showforumtitle > if you want to show the forum title, linked to that forum, for each thread also (forum title: thread title) then set this to 1. otherwise set it to 0.
30. $showicon > if you want to show the icon the author chose for their post, set this to 1. otherwise set it to 0.

4] Upload both last10.php and last10config.php to your website. You can include last10.php as follows. To include it on a PHP-parsed page (.php, .php3, .phtml, etc.):
<? include("last10.php"); ?>
To include it on a server-parsed page (.shtml, .shtm, .ssi, etc.):
<!--#include file="last10.php"-->

Instructions are also included in the zip file (last10.txt).

FEEDBACK WANTED! Likes/dislikes/modification requests all gladly accepted!

Please DO NOT contact me via IM or PM about this hack. Post your problem/question here and I will try to help you.

[Evoir]

Tubedogg,

great hack!! I finally got it to work. (was having netscape troubles, but it seems to be cool now.)

I do have a question/suggestion.

I noticed that you gave us the option of having the table header color be different than the alt 1 and alt 2 columns. I changed the text in the table header be a different color than the text within the rest of the table.

I defined another variable in last10config.php:
$htc = "#FFFFFF";// head text color

Then in last10.php I simply changed the font color (for the header fonts to:
color:$htc;

worked like a charm.
Thanks Kevin.

p.s. I also changed (in last10.php)
$fs .= "pt";
$hfs .= "pt";

to

$fs .= "px";
$hfs .= "px";

so it works better in netscape.

[Evoir]

Ok, I tested this and it worked great (see above post) and when I went to put it into my home page, I go a weird output (like it isn't reading the font tags)

Here is the page (it is a test page) http://www.curvemag.com/index2.html

What happens is that if I put the include in the right hand column, it doesn't work properly, but anywhere else on the page, it works great.

p.s. it "works" in both places, just the styles don't work in the right hand column.

The text in question says:

"Join the conversation
thread one
thread two
thread three"

(I changed some of the language to suit our site.)

Can anyone explain what is wrong in my html that is making this happen in the right hand column? Please?

[Evoir]

Just to let whoever is interested know: for whatever reason, it was stuff about the column that effected this formatting problem.

<td valign="top" height="215" width="147">
The column was defined with a width of 147, which the script didn't like. It output weird formatting of the text in Netscape on a mac.

Eventually, I figured out a solution, weird as it may be - was to change the width attribute by a few numbers, and it worked. I had tried this also on another page, and the wisth of 147 was the problem. Perhaps the numbers didn't add up... I donno. It's a weird thing, but it is now solved, by using:
<td valign="top" height="215" width="150">

That in combination with removing a <nobr> in line 226 of last10.php fixed it.

[john2k]

I've been trying for short while today to get this script working using the <!--#include file="last10.php"--> call from within an SSI file on Windows 2000 Server / IIS 5. All this does is inserts the text of the last10.php script directly into the SSI file, instead of parsing the php script first. I read this entire thread looking for a solution to this, but only found that other people using Win2k / IIS5 were having similar problems.

I did finally figure it out, though. This is what worked for me, instead of using <!--#include file="last10.php"--> to call the script I'm using <!--#exec cgi="last10.php"--> & it is working fine now.

Tubedog, I haven't had a chance to really play around with this script but it does look like it will be very useful - thanks in advance! You may also want to add a note for Win2k / IIS 5 users in your installation directions about the <!--#exec cgi="last10.php"--> command as there seems to be a number of other people who have this similar problem.

Best,

- John

It's great dude.. easy to setup.

Only problem is.. sometimes people might want a different text colour for the heading.. may I suggest a heading text colour param. That and a cellspacing one, because... I didn't want a HUGE gap between my posts and had to edit the last10.php file.

So yes, thanks heaps... mine's at http://www.buffydownunder.com

Cheers.

[VAN]

Well, I am reinstalling this hack since i recently upgraded.

I am going to be using this hack on its own page, rather than included in a small portion of an existing page.

Can anyone tell me how to get this to utilize a users chosen style set?

Hi,

There is what i got when i enter last10.php...

Warning: Unable to access /config.php in /last10.php on line 13

Warning: Failed opening '/config.php' for inclusion (include_path='.') in /last10.php on line 13

Fatal error: Failed opening required '/config.php' (include_path='.') in /last10.php on line 13

What do i have to do ??

Plz Help me

Thx in Advance

[dxb]

thanks Kevin for this hack

I hope I'm not too late to get an answer for my question

anyway this is what I'm looking for

how can I show only one thread from the forums I included

.................................................. .

the problem I'm facing is I included 10 forums and my $maxthreads is set at 10 one of the forums is the most active forum I get 7 threads from that forum only where I want a thread from each forum

and thanks in advance

awesome hack!

one question tho - when a user have included a smilie they dont show up.. im just getting the "X"..

this is how the url to the image looks:

http://www.mysite.com/forum/http://www.mysite.com/forum/images/smilies/up.gif

i have pointed the imagepath to the correct image folder but it just wont work

also if possible - how do i make the links open up in a new window?? ive got the script in an iframe...

any ideas??

I installed the last10.php easily and it works. But, there seems to be a problem when an unregistered user posts a reply to a new discussion.

When the new thread has been submitted, it appears on the front page. When an unregistered user replies to that thread, then the link disappears from the front page.

Using it on this site :

http://www.bbfc.org.uk/

Regards,

Jamie.