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

[mxtabs9]

Never mind, found out the site was down due to the queries caused by this thing. Not sure why

[MPDev]

See previous posts about add an index to the post table.

[evesve]

I really like this!

One suggest:
Is it possible to get post I already read to be normal font an unread bold?
(Or some other sign..)
To next version?

[MPDev]

Updated to include support for Opera browsers, etc. (see version 1.08 notes at top).

[djwins]

Upgraded to the latest version. Congrats again on the great mod!

It looks like the font got smaller.
Very much looking forward to the templated version and future improvements.

How about the option for mods/admins to change thread titles using Ajax? That would be hot.

p.s. finally clicked install and nominated for m.o.t.m

oh, and in phpmyadmin, under INDEXES, it is showing a dateline index already, despite me not adding it manually. Do I have to do anything additional?

[MPDev]

It's using the smallfont tag (which is was using before); there is a reason that the "template" version is not a big push - it's misleading. The formatted html is in the javascript and cannot be templated; the index page can be templated, but changing the columns and such on it does not change how the data itself is displayed.

If you have a dateline index, you are good to go.

[djwins]

I'm having an issue where iSpy will occasionally get the thread title wrong.
It will assign a thread title that is not the actual thread title of the post.

Picture attached:

[MPDev]

I'm not sure why it would only do it occasionally and not consistantly; unless we can identify a common reason, I'm not sure where to look.

[djwins]

Could it have something to do with the same user posting within 60 seconds?
That seems to have been the case in the photo above.

[MPDev]

I don't think so; maybe just a fluke... Is it consistant in any way?