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.

[ixian]

This is weird:

I just started noticing that this hack is repeating displays of certain threads, i.e. I'll have say "8" threads configured to show up, and two of them will be the exact same thread.

I even re-downloaded a fresh copy and re-configured it in case it was anything I did. You can see what I am talking about at http://ix.maximumgamer.com/forums/last10.php. That's the stock script, set to display 20 - notice how it repeats a couple threads. It does this consistantly.

Any ideas??

[vBHackz]

Hey, do we keep $path etc etc in there, and just put the path or url in front of it?

[Lucrecia]

I find that if I upload the last10 and the other one, the I just get a blank white page

[ixian]

Originally posted by ixian
This is weird:

I just started noticing that this hack is repeating displays of certain threads, i.e. I'll have say "8" threads configured to show up, and two of them will be the exact same thread.

I even re-downloaded a fresh copy and re-configured it in case it was anything I did. You can see what I am talking about at http://ix.maximumgamer.com/forums/last10.php. That's the stock script, set to display 20 - notice how it repeats a couple threads. It does this consistantly.

Any ideas??

Doh! Turned out to be another problem not related to the script. I had a problem with one of Tubedogg's hacks - stars - on my old board and members were being double-registered. This hack just read posts from members affected by this as two threads. Once I started clearing up that problem, the one listed above went away.

I have seriously modified this hack; those who want to see what it looks like in simple form can see it at my website, top right corner. I edited a lot of the code I didn't need, like forum parent, etc, out of the script to reduce queries, took all the table-generation stuff out, and added in my own code that calls my .css layout so the script integrates perfectly with the rest of my site. Couldn't have done any of it without the original script, particularly the code to exclude certain forums - had a bear of a time trying to write it on my own and finally decided just to modify this one. Thanks again Chen!!

[Anakin]

I have a problem at epiGamer in that the time for the last post is according to the server time, and not to the boards time (in this case UK time). Is there anyway I can adjust this?

[finkdawg5]

This is a great hack, nice job!!!

[finkdawg5]

I'm trying to get it to show the first post of the 10 latest threads, not just the ten latest posts. Is there any way I can modify this hack to do that? Thanks!! Again, nice job on this hack!! Very useful!!

[Mandi]

I attempted this hack last fall, and got a big white nothing; tried again (fresh files) and am having the same problem . . . last10.php is just a blank white page (and so, of course nothing is included on the non-vB.shtml page either.)

Because it's not generating any sort of error, I'm unsure how to begin troubleshooting this . . . my vB is pretty stock, if it matters.

http://www.cgspouses.net/community/forums/

http://www.cgspouses.net/community/forums/last10.php

...and the page I'm attempting it include it on, not public yet:

http://www.cgspouses.net/index_test.shtml

Thanks for any bright ideas !

[ixian]

You need to turn on error messages in your php.ini file. That's why no errors are displaying.

If you do that, it will tell you exactly where it's having a problem - php is much better than perl in that regard.

Make sure to turn show errors back off after you are done.

[Dean C]

hi,

i want to be able to include the last10 posts on my index.php file in a table on my index.php page outside of the forums...

how could i acheive this?

thanks in advance