Forum Display Enhancements - Adds Thread Date/Time Started to lists of Threads

There is a site www.WetCanvas.com that shows in its thread lists when a thread was started -



See http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=133 for live example

I have no connection with the admins of the above WetCanvas site. The following is not their code it is a mimic of their feature, much requested by users of our board.

To be honest I do not understand why this is not a standard feature. You can even sort the various thread lists by "thread start date" but you can't see the field that has just been sorted on! - OK, I know no product can have everything.

The Mod is in two parts

PHP file part
=========

FTP (download) the file forums/includes/functions_forumdisplay.php

Find the string

// thread last reply date/time

it will be around line 187

Before this line insert the following block

// BEGIN 2008-06-11 vb 3.7.1 MOD - Show Thread Start Date and Time by RogerPf
// thread first reply date/time
$thread['firstpostdate'] = vbdate($vbulletin->options['dateformat'], $thread['dateline'], true);
$thread['firstposttime'] = vbdate($vbulletin->options['timeformat'], $thread['dateline']);
// END 2008-06-11 vb 3.7.1 MOD - Show Thread Start Date and Time by RogerPf

Save the file and FTP it back


Template Edit
===========

Edit your - Your Template - Threadbit Templates - threadbit

Do a Find on the string

_self')">$thread[postusername]</span>

Insert following between that string and the </if> that comes next

<span class="time"><i>&nbsp;started: </i>$thread[firstpostdate]<if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"> $thread[firstposttime] </if></span>

Click Save and you are done

Additionally you can also add this line to the threadbit_deleted template to show the same info for deleted threads, but who spends time looking at deleted threads.

The mod is not supported but I would be delighted if it was absorbed into the standard offering or taken up by anyone else and supported.

The mod may to be 100% efficient as it could be but it does follow the current date manipulation approach that I see in 3.7.1.

I have (unlike the WetCanvas version) included the text started: in the .time format span. Yes the date is included in the .time format span believe me this is REALLY the way you want it to look.

Enjoy.

Edit time - I have just seen another mod that does this -
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=111949
I guess I should have looked much harder before I wrote my own.

Anyway I will leave it to others to compare the two and decide between them.

Oh and here is another - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=182117

[KURTZ]

Originally Posted by Boofo

The best one is the one I did for my site, but that one will work, too.

but you haven't released it here ... ops now i remember and i know why ...

[verino]

Originally Posted by Boofo

The best one is the one I did for my site, but that one will work, too.

Originally Posted by KURTZ

but you haven't released it here ... ops now i remember and i know why ...

I don't get it

Any link to boofo's mod about this ?

[maxicep]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=182117" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=182117</a>

This mod perfect, and working same as your mod which made with file edits.

[RogerPf]

To those who have installed it. I am glad you got the benefit. Many thanks for reporting back.

To those who moaned and voted 1 star.

Well what can I say. You certainly know how to make someone feel welcome NOT. If you want to get on with people in a collaborative environment, I suggest that a more supportive approach would pay dividends.

BTW there is a security aspect of MODs (to any system) that the user has to do by hand. IMO a small mod of a few lines that an implementer can inspect is much more secure than an "automatic" 100k patch.

Originally Posted by Boofo

You can do this as a product with no file edits.

No, honestly you are wrong, Boofo, maybe you could do this as a product with no file edits but I can not. Again, might I suggest that a more supportive tone might have encouraged me to try and find out how, but after your response why should I, or anyone else for that matter, bother.

Have a nice day.

[Boofo]

That was meant to be informative and nothing else. It was not a slam of any kind. You really need to learn not to take everything said to you as some sort of criticism if you want to get on with people.

[Zachariah]

Ya I did one back in 05.13.07

[JamesC70]

I like this mod, as it shows what time of day polls were started..... really handy if you're looking at thread listings just a couple of minutes before polls end.

The users, however, seem to either love it or hate it, so I ended up making it optional.

==== How to make this optional ====

1. Install the product as instructed.
2. In AdminCP, go to User Profile Fields -> Add New User Profile Field.
3. Select "Single-Selection Menu" from the dropdown, and click Continue.
4. Populate the fields on the following screen as follows:

Title: Display Start Dates on Forum Listings
Description: This setting controls whether the starting date of a thread is displayed after the user who started the thread, in forum listings and on Today's Posts.
Options: Yes (on the first line), No (on the second line)
Set Default: Yes, but no first blank option
Display Order: Whatever you like, this just affects where this option is in relation to other options on the users' Edit Options screen. I set this as 10 initially, then adjust later on the "User Profile Field Manager" screen.
Field Required: Yes, Always
Field Editable by Users: Yes
Set the last 3 options to no, and set Optional Input's radio button to no.
Display Page: This affects which grouping our on/off setting appears in on the Edit Options screen. I put this in Login/Privacy since that's at the top of the screen when the users go there, but it could also logically go under Date/Time.

5. Click Save. On the next screen, note the field number assigned to your new field. For my forum, it's field 11, but could be different for yours.
6. Go to Styles and Templates -> Search in Templates, and locate the Threadbit that you edited when you installed the product.
7. Add these two conditionals just before the code you added during installation:
<if condition="$show['member']">
<if condition="$bbuserinfo['field11'] == 'Yes'">
Where ['field11'] appears, substitute the field number from step 5 above.
8. After the code you added during installation, add two more closing "if" statements. Now your installed code should look like this (including the code we just added in steps 6 and 7):

_self')">$thread[postusername]</if></span>
<if condition="$show['member']">
<if condition="$bbuserinfo['field11'] == 'Yes'">
<span class="time"><i>&nbsp;on $thread[firstpostdate]<if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"> at $thread[firstposttime]</if></i></span></if></if>

9. Save your changes.

Note that the feature is off by default, and the users will have to turn it on if they want it. I've made a screenshot and posted it with instructions for the user, showing them how to turn it on and what they're actually doing. The screenshot is attached here so that you can see what your users would see if you make these changes.