Add-On Releases - vBISpy - AJAX real-time feed of new posts/threads

After seeing the http://www.digg.com/spy application; I wondered if this could be done for vBulletin as well. I came across this webpage which had a "how to" on how they built a similiar application to do the same thing. Taking a page from their book (i.e. the code), I modified it for use with vBulletin.

During development, I also came across this post here on vBulletin.Org where the very subject had already been discussed.

So I put this together; a simple ZIP file with a single PHP script, three javascript files and 4 images.

Installation

. UNZIP the file into your forums directory
. That's it!

Virtually all the code to customize the page is in the vaispy.php script; there are no plugins, no templates and no phrases. You do not need to do anything further; this should work right out of the box.

In your browser, open the URL:

http://www.yourforum.com/forum/vaispy.php

You can see examples of this at:

http://www.viperalley.com/forum/vaispy.php
http://www.extremefitness.com/forum/vaispy.php

Note: I claim no ownership of this code except for the file vaispy.php - the rest of the files were using 'freely distributable' sources. As such, you may use these files as you wish, but please do not remove the copyrights.

This modification is for vBulletin 3.6 only, if you are running vBulletin 3.5 you will need to see this thread.

JOIN THE vBIspy Network!
Once you have this mod installed, you can join the vBIspy network to have your threads appear on this site; the vBIspy Network is a great way for people to see what's going on in various vBulletin communities and for forum owners to promote their sites and generate new traffic.

Optional add-ons

Who's Online mod for this: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126209

vBAdvanced Module: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126421

UPDATES
1.0.4
Added buro9's code from here

1.0.5 - 9.9.06
Modified some JavaScript in va_spy.js to remove split strings

1.0.6 - 9.10.06
Added date cuffoff code from here and changed init() to spyinit() - changed vaispy.php and va_spy.js files.

1.0.7 - 9.12.06
va_spy.js: Added a forum url variable to allow for integration with portals or other products outside the forum directory
va_spy.js: Added xmldelay variable at top of script for easier configuration or repolling
Updated files: vaispy.php, vb_spy.js

1.0.8 - 9.13.06
vaispy.php - changed code for checking for forum permissions to include password protected forums, added javascript tag for script code

1.0.9 - 9.16.06
vaispy.php
va_spy.js
va_effects.js
- modified to allow for proper display in Opera browsers and moved more html into vaispy.php to allow for stylevars, trimmed va_effects.js to remove unused code (ForumDog's suggestions, except not using templates yet), changed way threads are parsed (removes html as well)

1.0.10 - 9.17.06
va_prototype.js - removed 20kb of unused code

1.1.11 - 9.25.2006
vaispy.php
va_spy.js
- added SirAdrian's mods for thread status icons and alternating row colors
- added code to prepopulate the first 10 rows with existing threads allowing for 5 new ones to be added in scrolling mode (versus scrolling starting from the first thread).
- added option to display subscribed threads only

1.1.12 - 9.26.2006
vaispy.php
- added code to add empty rows if initial pull has less than 20 rows.

[styleforum]

Is there any way to have this run in a frame on the side of the forum page, or in an IFRAME of some sort, so it will continually update while people do whatever they are doing?

[PyroMarkus]

Thanks for this great thing!

Is this possible to move to an htaccess protected directory? Great thing but I would like to prohibit my normal users and all the spiders out there to start it. Is it more than just replacing all src=" within the php-script to corrected paths?

Or can I simply put some lines in the php-code to just allow my admins and moderators to open it?

[PyroMarkus]

It seem to work good but not perfect in 3.7.2
Some messages in some threads are not listed, although they should be listed in the shown time frame. Some messages before and afterwards are listed but some not.

Its not a question of rights, I am admin and see the other messages in the threads...

[Daniel_HBK]

really very good hack , i need to change the direction because my forum in Arabic so i need to make it from Right to left and how i can change phrases ?

..

[Busterking]

Some of my forums have custom fonts, anyway of fixing the Forum row on the right side so that it doesn't show the code:

http://www.10-78.com/forums/vaispy.php

Thanks

[mikkitine]

Originally Posted by fordsho

Ok, if I want to exclude specific forums from ispy, would you explain how to do that? I'm still not clear. (I did install it successfully, and it works great, I just have some things I dont want going through spy)

Originally Posted by MPDev

Yes, forum permissions are checked. You can also exclude specific forums by changing the line:

    // Do not list these forums even if they have permissions (test categories, etc)
    $blockforums = "26,13";

in vaispy.php - I use this to block test post forums and such.

.

[Julrou]

Originally Posted by SecondV

Your problem seems to be your decimal sep ($vbulletin->userinfo['lang_decimalsep']).

Although, to fix it, you could try editing your vaispy.php file:

FIND

PHP Code:

$thread['views'] = vb_number_format($thread['views']); 


REPLACE WITH

PHP Code:

$thread['views'] = vb_number_format($thread['views']);
$thread['views'] = str_replace(' ', '', $thread['views']); 


I've just read it and...

it totally works !!!
You're the man ! :up::up::up:

One more question : at this time, it only shows the last post for each thread. Is there a way to show the really last 20 posts, even if some are posts of a same thread ?

[komirad]

Do you know where to get the time interval variable?
I want to adjust the rate the script requests for new posts.

[ymy]

it worked with me from 3.6.5 to 3.6.11

and Installed on new VB 3.7.3 it worked perfectly

thanks

[wtrk]

mine just suddenly stopped working. it was wokring fine on 3.7.2 ?? no changes to my site have happened in months.