Miscellaneous Hacks - Live Topic

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Live Demo:

Live Topic 1.07b Demo (you must be logged in, and the topic must be "live")

Videos: 1.00b 1.06b

watch the damn videos... ^_^

Description:

This product is different from anything you have seen before, it raises the bar for forums. It will make your forums much more interactive, and also reduce server load.

Technical Details:

If a thread has been posted in X seconds then its now Live, if other users are viewing the Live topic and are on the last page they will experience a clean ajax experience while talking to other members. Once the thread is older than X seconds its no longer Live and it will now act like a normal thread. Also if a user edits one of their posts that's inside of the thread, it will be updated too so there is no longer a reason to ever have to refresh.

There is also logic for the viewer, the viewer of the thread has to be in an active state to see responses. An active user state is determined upon the users actions, if no actions were made in X seconds then the user is marked as inactive.

Also you may wonder why this could save your server bandwidth and CPU. If a user is refreshing to talk to another members the queries on a normal thread load are way more intense than the ajax call that this modification makes. So if you have 5 people talking to each other none of them have to refresh the page, all they are doing is simple page requests and one intense request when there has actual change.

You can test Live Topic with two users, you will see how amaizing this is... And probably spontaneously combust.

Found a bug? Want to request a feature?

Live Topic - Project Manager

Installation:

This is take less than 3 minutes to install, takes longer to notice its amazing feature. (you need multiple people to be active in the same topic)

Upgrade:

[1.01b to 1.XXb] Uninstall the product, then reinstall it. Overwrite all old files with new files and you should be fine.

[1.02b to 1.03b] Overwrite files, upgrade product (dont install product)

[1.03b to 1.04b] Uninstall the product, then reinstall it. Overwrite all old files with new files and you should be fine.

[1.04b to 1.05b, 1.05b to 1.06b,1.06b to 1.07b] Upgrade the product. Overwrite all old files with new files and you should be fine.

Works With (FF2, FF3, IE6, IE7, IE8, SF2, SF3, CHROME):

vBulletin [3.8.X]

get the vBulletin [3.7.X] version here

INCOMPATIBLE HACKS:

• USC
• PassiveVid (1.x)
• gXboxLive
• Topic (incl. Blog) of the Week
• Marquee Text

Versions:

1.01b
1.02b

fixes

safari 2 support
safari 3 support
google chrome support
added live topic icon on new posts page
fixed security issue, strongly suggest upgrading!

changes

added live edit (to avoid a performance hit i had to add two rows to two tables in the database)
added external style sheet

1.03b

fixes

fix double post
phrase notification
fixed an edit bug for people with table prefixes

changes

ability to change interval in ACP

1.04b

fixes

javascript error for guests
fixed live topic activation (first poster to raise a dead topic)

changes

auto quick reply focus after post

1.05b

fixes

css flaw
js error for unsupported browsers (random)
fixed chrome issue

changes

edit notification - thanks to nso
rebuilding some of the original logic to hopefully prevent product conflicts

1.06b

fixes

fixed a little javascript issue that had to do with displaying posts
uses GPC cleaner now

changes

limit the number of ajax posts on the live topic (example 40) and fade them away.
changed the way the hooks are used
tightened up everything a bit

1.07b

fixes

fixed a bug where the live topic notification always making an ajax call

changes

support user ignore list
changed the way the javascript logic worked (hopefully there are less compatibly issues) added support for IE6 and IE8

1.10

hmm

{Mark As Installed}

{Don't forget to vote for Modification of the Month}

[Coders Shack]

of course it will make the response larger... but whats the difference if you refresh the page?

bandwidth wise on a active forum this should save you bandwidth.

CPU wise (there may be a hit, depending on your settings)

I still need to run benchmarking tests with various scenarios.

There are already about 10 big boards using this product, i haven't heard any bandwidth complaints. They did however have to tweak the default time settings, to find an equilibrium.

what were your server restrictions? actual data bandwidth, cpu usage, database cpu usage, or database connection limits?

[Coders Shack]

My goal is to provide the most functionality with the smallest performance hit.

I try to optimize as much as possible, there's always something that can be done

[Bawtneez]

Question~Any way to get this implemented on the forum? Like, threads that automatically bump up after posting, like posts?

[iBardia]

OMG! This is amazing!!

[Coders Shack]

Originally Posted by Bawtneez

Question~Any way to get this implemented on the forum? Like, threads that automatically bump up after posting, like posts?

it would be possible but it may be more intensive.

(at least with live topic every topic isn't live, but with a forum no matter what it would be making calls? Unless you can figure out a good way of determining whats going on. I guess you can change the user Idle time to be really small.)

Reason why i picked threads was because the normal user experience is a pain in the ass, when the other person is there and your both engaged in a conversation.

[AJ?]

Does this automatically move you to a new page?

[Coders Shack]

Originally Posted by AJ?

Does this automatically move you to a new page?

i could have made it do that but i noticed that its a better experience if it doesn't.

[LGKeiz]

this is the best ++++ing mod I ever had.

[Coders Shack]

Originally Posted by LGKeiz

this is the best ++++ing mod I ever had.

now that's what i like to hear

[Coders Shack]

also id like to share that actual user posting on one of the forums i manage went from 50 posts a day average 300. And another one went from 100 to 400. (this is 1 week avg per day)