Statistics Modifications - [BetoPho] Trending Threads

[Important Note: This product won't work properly (or won't work at all) on PHP version below 7.0.0!]
*product PHP version requirement has been added so this can only be installed on server with PHP version at least 7.0.0.


This is something I want to contribute to make the board more useful while leaving room for future enhancements. Having seen the similar one on many other platforms but not sure why vBulletin doesn't have one (until vBulletin 5 that they implemented it I guess).

Product Information
Providing simple 'trending' block for fetching popular threads that are defined by some conditional settings.

Main Features

• Easy configuration to generate 'trending' blocks around the forum.
• Ability to set the number of threads' replies within a timeframe for the threads to be determined as 'trending'.
• Ability to include usergroups/forums to get the threads for trending calculation, avoiding spammy posts and test forums' threads to be calculated.
• Multiple block locations supported: Forum Homepage, Forum Display page, Thread page, first/last postbit, after the X number of posts in each thread.
• Using CSS3, adapted to default forum template, editable CSS.
• Lightweight, translation ready.
• Simple installation: Install - Configure the conditions - Set the places to show - Done.

Future Versions Planning

• Adding more conditions support, eg. X views on 24 hours.
• Expanding integration with other conten types, eg. Post, Poll, Album, etc.
• Expanding support for vBulletin Forum Block system (sidebar blocks).
• Allowing multiple blocks creation with different settings for each one.
• Support for vBulletin 3.
• Making it fully responsive, that will be supported with a full responsive style that I will be releasing here soon for free.
• Why not PHP5.6? Most of the codes here are optimized for modern PHP version, and it should be that way, so I suggest switching to at least PHP 7.0.0, which vBulletin 4.2.5 works pretty well on it.
• You name it.

Details

• Files upload: none
• Plugins: 11
• Templates: 2 (1 template, 1 CSS template)
• Phrases: 2

Instructions

1. Import the product XML file using Product section.
2. Go to Options > [BetoPho] Trending Threads.
3. Configure and start using.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thank you

Changelog
1.0.0 - Jul 19 2019

• Initial Release

[jokergameth]

Thanks for sharing

[SilverBoy]

Thank you for creating this long waited product.

I have a question, as the screen shot displayed you compared the thread by posts that made in the last x (criteria), so I wonder if this product check all threads for this criteria or only threads that created in that criteria period? you know some times a very old thread suddenly get a lot of replys in one day, so it is logically must be a trend in that day.

Another note: could you please explain the sorting algorithm here? because the screen shot shows threads with different cont of replys without logical sort!!

Feature suggest:
I wish you add another trending dealing with tags not only threads, for me I using a product here to use hashtags and convert them to tags, so I hope there is a way to display trending hashtags/tags.

Thanks again.

[BetoPho]

I have a question, as the screen shot displayed you compared the thread by posts that made in the last x (criteria), so I wonder if this product check all threads for this criteria or only threads that created in that criteria period? you know some times a very old thread suddenly get a lot of replys in one day, so it is logically must be a trend in that day.

The product will check for all the posts posted in a timeframe, so, yes, if an old thread suddenly gets a lot of posts, it will be in the trending list too.

I will add another condition in the next update that allow admin to specify the timeframe for the thread too (currently it's only for posts of the thread), so you have the choice to capture old threads or not.

Another note: could you please explain the sorting algorithm here? because the screen shot shows threads with different cont of replys without logical sort!!

I planned to let admins choose the sorting that they wanted, but haven't implemented it yet due to other planning for additional conditions (eg. X views in last X) and additional content types. It will be added in the next update.

Feature suggest:
I wish you add another trending dealing with tags not only threads, for me I using a product here to use hashtags and convert them to tags, so I hope there is a way to display trending hashtags/tags.

Thanks I will definitely put that in mind for hashtags/tags in the next release. Which product are you using for dealing with hashtags?

[iA1]

Installed and tested, but as SilverBoy mentioned, there was an old thread which had several replies in the past and only 1 post yesterday. I choose the criteria as 5 posts within 1 day and that particular thread was also listed in trending threads. It shouldn't have been there because it had only 1 post within last 1 day.

[SilverBoy]

Originally Posted by BetoPho

Thanks I will definitely put that in mind for hashtags/tags in the next release. Which product are you using for dealing with hashtags?

You welcome

Actually I have not yet decided on a specific option, for now there are 2 options available ..
First one is BirdOPrey5 product that you can find here
https://vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=271543

The second is DragonByte Pro product for this one
https://vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=242733

Best Regards.

[BetoPho]

Originally Posted by iA1

Installed and tested, but as SilverBoy mentioned, there was an old thread which had several replies in the past and only 1 post yesterday. I choose the criteria as 5 posts within 1 day and that particular thread was also listed in trending threads. It shouldn't have been there because it had only 1 post within last 1 day.

Thanks for letting me know. As I mentioned in the previous comment, the next update will let you choose whether the old posts should be counted toward trending calculation. I will just let forum owners decide if such cases would be still marked as trending or just old thread digging and should be ignored

Originally Posted by SilverBoy

You welcome

Actually I have not yet decided on a specific option, for now there are 2 options available ..
First one is BirdOPrey5 product that you can find here
https://vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=271543

The second is DragonByte Pro product for this one
https://vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=242733

Best Regards.

Thanks! The above add-ons are great! However, I will be implementing my own tags/hashtags system along with user mention system that I think would be more fitting with newer coding standards and design as well. Hopefully I could make it around the next week .

[SilverBoy]

Originally Posted by BetoPho

Thanks! The above add-ons are great! However, I will be implementing my own tags/hashtags system along with user mention system that I think would be more fitting with newer coding standards and design as well. Hopefully I could make it around the next week .

Good news, I'll waiting for you.

[furnival]

Thank you for sharing this. It looks like a great 1st version of this mod but I am worried that it has to do a lot of database queries each time it loads. In a future version could you add a cache so that it only does the calculations once every 5 minutes via a scheduled task, please?

I would also be interested in any alternative to DBTech's "Advanced User Tagging" mod, which is badly coded, as you mentioned. I'd be happy to pay for a mod like that and I'm not the only one. That mod is the curse of my forum, it slows the whole thing down, and is always showing up in the slow queries log.