Display count of unread posts in welcome box

This modification is no longer available or supported.

* This hack only works if you use the new database thread marking system, if you don't, then you probably should be. *

With the new marking system I have found a simple count of the new posts since your last visit to be less informative and useful than it used to be - esp as the GetNew function now excludes threads you have read, but includes threads from before your last visit. Therefore I decided to try a new system that counts the actual number of posts that are still considered unread by you, and will show up in a GetNew search.

In fact this hack gives you two options (with a new setting in the vBulletin Options > General Settings). If set to yes, it will only count the unread posts since your last visit, if set to no it will count all posts considered unread. This setting reflects the divider in the GetNew display.

To install this hack simply download the xml file to your pc and then import it into vbulletin as a product - then alter the ACP setting to your preferred option (the default is 'no' (i.e. all unread posts).

Note: This hack injects the result direct into the navbar template during page construction, thus avoiding the need for a template edit. This requires that a certain text combination exists in your template. This will be fine for most boards that use a navbar based on the vB default, but you should bear this in mind if you have a totally custom navbar.



History:

v1.01 : First Release.
v1.02 : Minor changes, no update necessary.

[dead7]

This is a great hack and it's been working great so far!

Recently i edited my navbar and removed the welcome/pm/post count because i added a right column to every page of the forum. I updated this new right column in header and footer templates in the style manager for my style.

I pasted the exact same navbar bit that had the unread postcount (that previously worked great) into it and now it won't show the count?

I haven't changed anything except where i display the actual unread post count, it shows the rest of the phrase just not the physical # of actual posts unread now.

Is it sensitive where its being displayed?

Basically i cleaned up our design and put that type of info on the right column thus bumping the forums up .. any help is appreciated

[Paul M]

TBH, I don't really follow what you are describing - can you post a sceen shot, or better still, a link and test login.

[dead7]

I'll try to post a screenshot here in a bit. This is a temp design so a login won't work since its not active to show.

Basically you're familiar with navbar and how your hack goes into that template to display X Unread Posts.

I have removed everything from navbar except the breadcrumb portion which gives the breadcrumb nav as people use the forums.

I then added a right column to the entire forum. I took the Welcome/PM/Unread Posts from the navbar and added it into my right column on the top.

Therefore what navbar had, i removed, and put inside of my right column.

Basically in the end, all i did was move $newposts to my right column and removed it from navbar template. Everything the phrase has displays just fine, just the actual count of how many posts are unread doesn't show up.

For instance i changed mine to say

# Unread Posts since your last visit.

It now says

Unread posts since your last visit

It doesn't even render that $newposts variable to show the actual number of posts.

If this still isn't clear let me know and i'll find a way to get a good screen shot in the half_done design that we're trying this in.

Thanks for your help on this support issue Paul, its truly appreciated.

[dead7]

Shouldn't I be able to take this:

<if condition="$vbulletin->userinfo['userid'] != '0' AND THIS_SCRIPT == 'index'">

<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/search.php?do=getnew"><strong>$newposts unread posts</strong></a> since last visit.

</if>

And put it anywhere I want it? Right now I use the Right Column hack which adds a quick snip to the header template and footer. In the footer template is where the code above is.

[Paul M]

There is no such variable as $newposts, I'm not sure where you got that from, try $postcount[unread].

[dead7]

Ah sorry thanks, i meant to use that variable.

I believe what it was is the end of the if condition ='index'. I removed that if condition and it seems to show up great on all the other pages now.

[flynnibus]

*install*

Thanks PaulM!

[LjubavnaZona]

Thank you so much for this I love it. Installed.