vBISpy - AJAX real-time feed of new posts/threads (for vB3.5)

After seeing the http://www.digg.com/spy application; I wondered if this could be done for vBulletin as well. I came across this webpage which had a "how to" on how they built a similiar application to do the same thing. Taking a page from their book (i.e. the code), I modified it for use with vBulletin.

During development, I also came across this post here on vBulletin.Org where the very subject had already been discussed.

So I put this together; a simple ZIP file with a single PHP script, three javascript files and 4 images.

Installation

. UNZIP the file into your forums directory
. That's it!

Virtually all the code to customize the page is in the vaispy.php script; there are no plugins, no templates and no phrases. You do not need to do anything further; this should work right out of the box.

In your browser, open the URL:

http://www.yourforum.com/forum/vaispy.php

You can see examples of this at:

http://www.viperalley.com/forum/vaispy.php
http://www.extremefitness.com/forum/vaispy.php

Note: I claim no ownership of this code except for the file vaispy.php - the rest of the files were using 'freely distributable' sources. As such, you may use these files as you wish, but please do not remove the copyrights.

This version is for vBulletin 3.5 users only, for vBulletin 3.6 you will need to download the 3.6 version located here.

JOIN THE vBIspy Network!
Once you have this mod installed, you can join the vBIspy network to have your threads appear on this site; the vBIspy Network is a great way for people to see what's going on in various vBulletin communities and for forum owners to promote their sites and generate new traffic.

Optional add-ons

Who's Online mod for this: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126209

vBAdvanced Module: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126421

UPDATES
1.0.2
Added buro9's code from here

1.0.3 - 9.9.06
Modified some JavaScript in va_spy.js to remove split strings

1.0.4 - 9.10.06
Added date cuffoff code from here and changed init() to spyinit() - changed vaispy.php and va_spy.js files.

1.0.5 - 9.11.06
I've changed the query to grab the preview text from the last message; the downside to this change is that people with very large "post" tables will want to add an index to their table to significantly improve the performance on this script.

ALTER TABLE `vb_post` ADD INDEX ( `dateline` )

1.0.6 - 9.12.06
va_spy.js: Added a forum url variable to allow for integration with portals or other products outside the forum directory
va_spy.js: Added xmldelay variable at top of script for easier configuration or repolling
Updated files: vaispy.php, vb_spy.js

1.0.7 - 9.13.06
vaispy.php - changed code for checking for forum permissions to include password protected forums, added javascript tag for script code
va_spy.js - changed link to use goto=lastpost to fix links

1.0.8 - 9.16.06
vaispy.php
va_spy.js
va_effects.js
- modified to allow for proper display in Opera browsers and moved more html into vaispy.php to allow for stylevars, trimmed va_effects.js to remove unused code (ForumDog's suggestions, except not using templates yet), changed way threads are parsed (removes html as well)

1.0.9 - 9.17.06
va_prototype.js - removed 20kb of unused code

[america2]

Hey mxtabs9.

Im not sure if we have the same problem but on my site it takes upto almost a minute for a post to show up. I dunno why...

[glorify]

I love this, but the initial refresh is quite awhile in 3.5.0

Any ideas--I'd love to use the vba block, but not if it takes a long time to load.

http://www.glorifythepast.com/forums/vaispy.php

[glorify]

Looks like the same problem everywhere. Maybe after the last update?

[america2]

could be. I really like this. hope theres a fix to it

[MPDev]

mxtabs, your site doesn't load for me at all - connection timed out.

america2, did you add the index mentioned in the first post?

[america2]

Hey, Im not sure which index is that and what to do with it. My apologies.

[djwins]

ALTER TABLE `vb_post` ADD INDEX ( `dateline` )

Is this code something we can just run in PHPmyadmin?

From a server load standpoint, how has this script been running on viperalley?
I have about 500-600 users online at peak times, can I use this mod without a server meltdown?

[MPDev]

Yep, phpmyadmin is fine.

It's works great on viperalley.com - a slight increase in overall server load, but I'm running this on a couple sites and also have vbispy.com running on the same server.

In antication of the growth of vbispy.com I have a new dual core Dell 2950 being installed tomorrow.

Unless you have 500-600 people using vbispy.com at the same time, I don't see it as taking your server to a crawl (assuming you have a decent server in place with that many users already).

[djwins]

I just checked phpmyadmin and it seems as if I already have a dateline index in the post table.

[mxtabs9]

Sorry about the downtime, the site is up now, still nothing

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/vaispy.php