Real "read/not read" threads and "new messages in forum" highlighting 1.1

Hello !

Think that i finished testing and optimizing beta hack from
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=47035


Features:
- Thread on forumdisplay highlighted for user as read only if that user saw last post in that thread or if last post in that thread is older then user defined (from user CP options) amount of time (from 1 to 999 hours and infinity)
- Forums on index page and subforums on forumdisplay pages will be highlited as "have no new posts" only if user saw last post in that forum or subforum
- Highliting system is completly cookie-free
- System will require extra Database space (2-4% on large forums and 5-6% on small)
- Sytem will add some extra queries to scripts

-one addditional UPDATE is showthread.php
-one additional SELECT (of 2 fields only) for each subforum on forumdisplay.php
-one addditional UPDATE in newthread.php
-two addditional UPDATE in newreply.php
-"mark forum read" works using one extra SELECT and one extra UPDATE
-and "mark all forums read" using one extra SELECT and one extra UPDATE for each forum


Few words how it works
As you know vb "marking threads and posts read" system is time and cookie based. This hack is based on adding to "thread" table one extra field - "view" (suppose that it must work fine with TEXT type, but for really large forums we can make it LONGTEXT
Now when somebody open thread, his usedid will be added to that "view". After several users (who open that thread) string in that field may look like
37 298 16879 7287 29087 28 298
So it will be just a long string with userid-s separated by space
Now then user open forumdisplay.php script will check string in that view field of each thread for part of string
[space userid space]
and if is will be found thread will be marked as read. If you think that it will use too much database space, i can say that it will use some place of course, but not too much, because after each reply in thread (new last post in thread) all old data in "view" field of thread will be deleted.
On forum home page script looks for userid number in "view" field of last post in each forum and if it found, display that there were no new posts in that forum.
To make it work faster (with less database requests) was added new "view" field in thread table
Additionally read\unread marking can be time based (new field ) "marktime" in users table. And users are able to select number of hours (all posts older then that number of hours will be marked as read) in their CP options.
And at last to mark forum (or all forums) read we just mark read last thread in that forum (or in all forums
Sorry for my English and please ask questions if you don't understand something

[Paul]

I will be testing this myself. We've gotten a number of complaints from a few users that have been missing new threads and who have been asking for a better way to manage what they've read.

I will post the results here in the next few days.

Best wishes,
Paul

[MacKenzie]

Just a question, perhaps it was in the hack description and I missed it...

But will this hack allow to un-read threads to be marked as new indefinately, or will they still eventually be marked as read?

[JohnWoo]

Hello !

Not sure that i understand this question correctly - sorry
But to marked as read thread need:
- user opened showthread page after last post in that thread
- or last post in forum was in that thread when user desided to "mark read" that forum or all forums
- or last post in thread older then number of hours specified by user in his CP options and if that number of hours is not zero

under any other condition thread will be marked as unread

[MacKenzie]

let me rephrase the question....

How long will unread posts stay unread when user does not read the thread, does not open the thread, and just reads other threads instead?

[Icheb]

It will be marked unread until the user reads the thread, not a second earlier.

[MacKenzie]

thanks

[Taco John]

I've been looking for a hack like this all week... Funny how I run into it on accident...

I'll install it right away and report back after some testing...

[JohnWoo]

Originally posted by MacKenzie
let me rephrase the question....

How long will unread posts stay unread when user does not read the thread, does not open the thread, and just reads other threads instead?

Icheb is right in case of zero in user CP "Highlight as read threads without new posts last" settings If there is some other number, unread threads will be marked as read after that number of hours

[MacKenzie]

Thanks.

Excellent hack. We've been needing this feature on my forums. love VB... just hate 2.X.X's method of timing out new posts.... especialy when I tend to spend a half hour to hour making a response post to any number of threads in my debate category

[MetroSports82]

screenshots?