Preview the first post in a thread first.

Well after attempting to do this before I found that it was making too much of a load on the server so I redid it.

After getting advice from Chen, bira and wluke I have finally gotten this done.

It allows a member to preview the first post in a thread, in your forumdisplay page, by putting their mouse pointer on the thread title. A separate box pops up with the first 500 characters of that post in it so you can preview the message before going into the rest of the thread.

This only works with IE and Opera. It works partially with Netscape (what else is new!).

Upload the attached .php file to your main forum directory and run it. Then read the included readme.txt file for instructions on the modifications needed to your files and templates.

(I have updated the file and put in a later post)

Parker

[high]The hack's zip file can be found in post #7 of this thread[/high]

[bira]

Parker Clark, I love this. I am going to install it now on my BB - thank you.

[Hooper]

Thanks Parker. Works super. Nice Idea.

[bira]

Hope you don't mind, Parker, but this hack got me so excited, I wrote a little script that updates the preview for existing threads since whichever date you select.

Upload the attachment to your admin directory and run it there. Select the date limit for activity -- all threads which were updated since (note: UPDATED, not just CREATED) will have their preview added.

It's very quick. I ran it on my BB and it took some 8 seconds in all to update 8,000 active threads. I won't bother updating the rest cos they are inactive anyway.

[bira]

ooops, forgot to attach


oh, and by the way, here's what it looks like:



(I love this hack Parker, you can't imagine how much time it will save me!!!)

[Parker Clack]

bira:

Thanks for the kudos and the additions. I will add them to the
upload.

It is really wild as the edit function that you wrote is the exact one that I just got thru doing.

Thanks again for all your help.

Parker

[Parker Clack]

Here is the updated .zip file with all the latest additions and bira's update_preview.php file.

Parker

[FWC]

Parker, I agree with Bira. This is a wonderful hack. My users love it!

[Lionel]

Can that be used with those threads grabber (last 10 posts) hacks that we place on site homepage?

[Tommy Boy]

Damn, what a great idea! I almost couldn't stop myself from installing it!

The only problem with it is that it increases the pages size significantly. In my tests, it doubled the page size, and that's pretty significant for modem users, like myself. How about making it optional, on a per-user basis, in the control panel?

BTW: You should trim() the text before storing it in the database, and also maybe get rid of repeating spaces and line breaks. Oh, and how about previewing redirects as well?

Great job everybody!