Post Edit History Viewer

When someone edits a post, the old message is stored in another table before the new one overwrites the old message.

Posts that have been edited will have "view edit history" displayed below the post count in the postbit.

Clicking "view edit history" allows previous versions of a post to be seen.

The postbit and postbit_legacy templates are altered using a similar method to the one used in the vbshout extension by Zero Tolerance, i.e. a search and replace. This means that no manual alterations to these templates are required.

Normally, everyone can see the post history for all the posts, however, the XML file post_hist_mods_only.xml restricts it to mods only (and the poster themselves). (Both versions should not be installed at the same time).

--------------------------------

Updated:

use post-hist_1_1b.zip

Changes

- Enable/Disable by forum
-- On/Off by forum

- Enable/Disable by usergroup
-- Can see own history: Yes/No
-- Can see everyone's history: Yes/No

- Indicates who made the edit (if it wasn't the original author)

- Workaround for unknown templates
-- Insert <<Insert Post History>> into postbit and postbit_legacy templates
-- (This is only for templates where the auto-match doesn't work)

The options are controlled by admincp.

By default, nobody can see any of the histories. At minimum, you should set the admin usergroup to see all histories.

Request

I don't know how 3.6.x products work, but if someone tries it on 3.6.x and it works, that would be good to know. I don't actually have 3.6 on our own forums, so can't test it.

Also, if you find out any bugs for < 3.6, that would be good to know too.

Install Info

The zip file contains:

bit_field_post_hist.xml -> XML for permissions
post_hist_1_1.xml -> product file

To install:

copy bit_field_post_hist.xml to /includes/xml

and install the product.

In theory, this should work as an upgrade to the previous version. However, I haven't tested that.

If you uninstall the old version and install the new version, you will lose any saved post histories.

Troubleshooting

bitfield cache
You might have to open:

yourserver.com/admincp/index.php?do=buildbitfields

This re-calculates the bitfields that have been altered. On some versions, the product installer will automatically do it.

Moderators
The postbits determine if a post is a person's own post by seeing if they have permission to edit the post. This means that if you give mods the rights to see their own post histories, then they will be able to click to see everyone elses post histories as they have the rights to edit all posts. However, the link won't have any effect as the actual viewer is restricted based on actual poster.

Usage

The XML file should add 2 options that can be set when setting up a usergroup and 1 new option for each forum.

New options for each usergroup:

Can See Post History (Yes/No)
---- Allows members of this usergroup to see all post histories

Can See Own Post History (Yes/No)
---- Allows members of this usergroup to see their own post history

New option for each forum:

Post History Displayed (Yes/No)
---- Shows post history for every post in this forum

[SIINSI]

Originally Posted by Lieva

Were you able to see the threads, or was it just other users ... it would be surprising if there was a usergroup dependant bug ?

It sounds like the postbit for showthread is broken somehow (and is crashing the postbit generator).

What version of vbulletin are you using and also have you changed the postbit template much ?

Another check that would be worth doing is to see if disabling just the plugin relating to showthread allows you to see normal threads.

If not, then check if disabling just the plugin relating to the postbit allows the you to see threads normally.

If you disable the postbit change, then it is still possible to view older versions of posts by typing in the link directly, you can use:

showthread.php?p=69841&prev_postid=69841&prev_edit num=0#post69841

to view the original version of a post that you have edited. You need to change 69841 to the postid of the post you have just edited.

Yes, I was able to see the threads, that's what made it so wierd. Supermods were able to see it also. Moderators and another usergroup I made with supermod permissions were not able to see it. I got alot of IM's about it so, I just de-installed. Any ideas? It is a great idea nad could surely be useful.

Miguel

[SIINSI]

Originally Posted by Totti

hmm,
doesn't rewuire this hack a lot of diskspace due to the double and higher saves of one post?!?

any way of deleting the saved edits after half a year or similar?

I would think you could just clean out the table it makes anytime you wanted to.

[ndamico]

Originally Posted by Lieva

I have fixed it. The problem is that PMs use the same postbit as posts. I just had to add a check so that it doesn't display unless $post[editnums] exists.

Yep, that did it. Thanks for a great hack.

Just a suggestion: How about recording the username that makes the edit and displaying it with each edit version somewhere. I'll probably modify my board with something of this nature.

[SnickersTK]

I love you for this hack

[Lieva]

Originally Posted by SIINSI

Yes, I was able to see the threads, that's what made it so wierd. Supermods were able to see it also. Moderators and another usergroup I made with supermod permissions were not able to see it. I got alot of IM's about it so, I just de-installed. Any ideas? It is a great idea nad could surely be useful.

Miguel

It sounds like the postbit for showthread is broken somehow. The only thing in there that is usergroup related is the "can_moderate" function. It might be worth trying the version that allows everyone to see old posts.

Another question, as admin do you use a different version of the postbit template ? Maybe you use postbit_legacy ? Also, if you use a different style that might be it as well.

Also, there might be a problem caused by other edits to the postbit template. Are you using the default version of the postbit template ?

There are two places where showthread could be being broken:

-- the plugin where the postbit is modified. This is the plugin using the "parse_templates" hook. It is called "POST-HIST: modify postbits". If you disable that, then the original postbit will be used, but you should still be able to view older versions of a post using the URL directly.

for example:
<forumname>/showthread.php?p=69841&prev_postid=69841&prev_edit num=0#post69841

allows you see the original version of a post before any edits. (change 69841 to the postid of the post you want to examine)

-- in showthread.php, this is where posts are replaced by older versions

The plugin is uses the "showthread_postbit_create" hook and is called "POST-HIST: update showthread"

If you can see the threads with this plugin disabled then this shows that this is where the problem is.

If not, then check if disabling just the plugin relating to the postbit allows the you to see threads normally.

Also, using guest login would probably allow you to replicate the problem

[bashy]

This is working 100% atm, well done

[Nathan2006]

Thank you Lieva

This is really cool

Just one thing I never understood in the other posts how would I be able to restrict it to admins only?

Thanks

Install

[Southpaw]

Is there a way to restrict this only to certain forums?

Originally Posted by Southpaw

Is there a way to restrict this only to certain forums?

I was wondering excatly the same.
Hope someone can help with a mod to the mod

Btw. Great hack!

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

oooOOooo.... does this work with 3.5.4?

also, how deep does the history go? this is would the necessary hack to make something like this:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ight=viki+wiki