End-User Options - Starred Posts

Overview:

This product is designed to give your users the ability to create/manage a list of starred/favorite posts so they can easily locate them in the future. Some users may have limited time when browsing your site, and wish to earmark posts to which they will want to reply later when they have more time. This product will allow them to tag these posts and easily find them later.

Upon installing the product a new table is added to your database to store the data pertaining to the user lists, and a new column is added to your user table to store the number of posts in each user's list.

Users with permission to use the system will see a star icon in the postbits just above the signature and to the far right that allows them to add the posts to their list. Once a post has been added, a checkmark appears next to the star icon to indicate that that post is already on their list, and if this is clicked the post is removed from the list. The icons have tooltips to indicate what will happen upon clicking them, as do all buttons and checkboxes used by the system.



In the search results and forum thread listings, an icon is shown to users to indicate which threads have posts in their starred list, and the icon has a tooltip indicates how many posts in the thread are in the user's starred list.



Under the "Quick Links" menu, users who have permission to use the system, will find a link titled "My Starred Posts" which will take them to a custom page which displays their starred posts and allow for posts to be removed. Each post has detailed information regarding the post, with links to the forum, thread and to the post itself. There are controls that allow the user to select posts for removal from the list, and to expand the post content so they can review the entire post(s) right there and to reply to the post with a quote. Post content can be expanded/collapsed one a per post basis, or all at once. Each postbit can be collapsed as well.



Users who have a limit imposed on the number of posts in their list will be shown additional information in the redirect messages that tell them how many additional posts they can add to their list. Once a user has added the maximum number of posts in their list, they will no longer see the star icon in the postbits with threads to add posts...they will only see the icon fro removing posts from their list.

In the product settings, you may select the usergroups that have permission to use the system, set a limit to the number of posts a user may have in their list, excempt usergroups from this limit, give limits based on usergroups, and set the persistence of user lists so that users who are inactive for longer than the number of days you have set will have their list removed from the database via a daily cron job. You may also set the maximum height of the elements containing the list of posts, and the post content within each list postbit.



This product is fully phrased, and stylevars are used so that the CSS for the custom page can be customized per style.

Updates:

Version 1.1:

• Added reply button.
• Online location processed.

Version 1.2:

• Fixed issue with postbit star icon not displaying.
• Added icon to threadbits to show users which threads haev posts in the starred list.

Version 1.3:

• Fixed Reply Button height inconsistency issue.
• Added StyleVar for position control of collapse button.
• Fixed issue causing PHP deprecation warning.
• Added support for displaying inline attached images in post content.
• Added support for BBCode For Username HTML Markup [v1.2.1].
• Added support for Abbreviations/Acronyms (MathJax Compatible) [v1.3].

Version 1.3.1:

• Fixed Thread/Post authors in postbits.

Version 1.4:

• Deleted posts removed from the lists of all users.
• Posts moved to areas where users do not have permission to view are removed from the lists of those users.
• User lists are updated when posts/threads are merged.
• Unapproved posts and posts within unapproved threads are removed from the lists of users who are not moderators of the forum in which the affected posts reside.
• Stylevar added for the margins of the postbit icon.

Version 1.5:

• Usernames escaped to avoid db errors.
• Postbit icon now appears at the lower right of the post content element when using legacy postbit, regardless of the post length.
• Postbit icon CSS moved to template.

Version 1.6:

• Added setting to allow for limits per usergroup.

Version 1.6.1:

• Guests shown no permission message if trying to access the external script.

Version 1.6.2:

• Users not part of the allowed usergroups shown no permission message if trying to access the external script.

Compatibility:

Tested and working on VB 4.2.x and may work on all 4.x versions of vBulletin.

Backup/Warning:

This product does alter your database, however it is always good practice to make regular backups and you should make a backup before installing ANY new mod.

As always, products are USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I will provide support and do my best to help but no absolute guarantee is offered.

To Install:

1. Download and extract the attached .zip file.
2. Upload the files from the "upload" folder to your root folder on your server.
3. Follow AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product.
4. Click on "Choose File" and browse to the product .xml file that was packaged in the .zip file.
5. Click "Import."
6. You MUST enable the product in the settings before it will function.
7. Configure the remaining settings to your liking. Each setting has a detailed explanation of its use.

Special acknowledgement goes to the administrators of Christianity Haven for the general idea of this product and for their feedback and testing through all phases of development. :up:

Support for this product can be found here:

• MHB - Starred Posts
• TAZ - Starred Posts

[jjohns12]

What vB and PHP versions are you running?

PHP Version 5.4.35

vBulletin version 4.2.2 Patch Level 5

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by jjohns12

PHP Version 5.4.35

vBulletin version 4.2.2 Patch Level 5

After reviewing that line of code, I have no idea why your site (and no others I know of) is throwing that warning.

[mikez006]

got it working, thanks MarkFL.

My main concern now is having redundant systems. This is similar to the "thread subscription" feature, but much better, only it doesn't include notifications.

I think having both would be confusing to members who want to keep track of their threads. They need to both star the thread and subscribe to it if they still want to get notified.

I would like to disable thread subscriptions completely and use this exclusively, but that would require notifications to be added so the same options are present.

I would like to suggests email notifications and control panel notifications be added as options.

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by mikez006

got it working, thanks MarkFL.

My main concern now is having redundant systems. This is similar to the "thread subscription" feature, but much better, only it doesn't include notifications.

I think having both would be confusing to members who want to keep track of their threads. They need to both star the thread and subscribe to it if they still want to get notified.

I would like to disable thread subscriptions completely and use this exclusively, but that would require notifications to be added so the same options are present.

I would like to suggests email notifications and control panel notifications be added as options.

I see this product as being complementary to the thread subscription feature. Thread subscriptions allow you to keep track of entire discussions, with notifications of replies while this product allows you to bookmark individual posts, where you are solely interested in returning to that post at some point in the future mainly to reply after having time to think about how you wish to reply.

When I was first approached about this idea by one of the admins at Christianity Haven, my reaction was that the thread subscription feature built into vBulletin already does this, but after more discussion I realized she had something else in mind, and once I realized what that was, I thought it to be a great idea, and began coding.

[DSemen]

Beautiful and very useful product! But, unfortunately, in my version 4.1.3 does not work. It is possible to adapt to the version 4.1.3?

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by DSemen

Beautiful and very useful product! But, unfortunately, in my version 4.1.3 does not work. It is possible to adapt to the version 4.1.3?

I don't have access to vB 4.1.x...I would highly recommend updating your vB.

[MarkFL]

Update - Version 1.3:

• Fixed Reply Button height inconsistency issue.
• Added StyleVar for position control of collapse button.
• Fixed issue causing PHP deprecation warning.
• Added support for displaying inline attached images in post content.
• Added support for BBCode For Username HTML Markup [v1.2.1].
• Added support for Abbreviations/Acronyms (MathJax Compatible) [v1.3].

[mikez006]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

I see this product as being complementary to the thread subscription feature. Thread subscriptions allow you to keep track of entire discussions, with notifications of replies while this product allows you to bookmark individual posts, where you are solely interested in returning to that post at some point in the future mainly to reply after having time to think about how you wish to reply.

When I was first approached about this idea by one of the admins at Christianity Haven, my reaction was that the thread subscription feature built into vBulletin already does this, but after more discussion I realized she had something else in mind, and once I realized what that was, I thought it to be a great idea, and began coding.

My site is a marketplace forum, so sellers like to keep track of their own threads. I know many sellers would love this addon, but they also want notifications so they can reply to customers right away.

Having to go to two separate pages to accomplish this is just clunky to me, it would be more streamlined if they could star, setup and keep track of notifications on the same page.

It might not be useful to other sites, but for marketplace forums, it would be an awesome addition to make everything simpler and more user friendly. I can make a donation to have this functionality added, just message me your Paypal email and a price

[babyv0x]

Thanks MarkFL for useful product .

i test version 1.3 on vBulletin 4.2.2 Patch Level 4

I get error when go to quick link/My starred posts

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 172

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 173

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 172

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 173

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 172

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 173
.....

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by babyv0x

Thanks MarkFL for useful product .

i test version 1.3 on vBulletin 4.2.2 Patch Level 4

I get error when go to quick link/My starred posts

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 172

Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in ................/mystarpost.php on line 173...

Okay, try the latest update:

Update - Version 1.3.1:

• Fixed Thread/Post authors in postbits.

Note: Make sure you upload the new copy of mystarpost.php.