The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

PM RedAlert - show unread PMs on every page · **Released**: 03-01-2002

Disclaimer:

-No support is offered for this hack. If you PM or email for support, it will be joyfully ignored. When I have time, I will answer questions in this thread.

PM RedAlert

Problem: PM Popups are OK but not everyone likes them or uses them. Sometimes you'll cancel them and forget you have new ones to read.

Solution: If your site has a "Private Messages" link on every page, like mine, then an effective way to notify people that they have new PMs is to subtly change that link. PM Popup will still work if they have that activated.. and this is not like Chen's hack since that is only concerned with the index page. This hack is meant for site wide private message links that you would likely have in the header. (See attached screenshot)

Design Spec:

Alert users that they have new PMs on every page by subtly
changing a link style.

Steps for installation:

-add one field to table user 'unreadpm'
-edit two files 'private.php' 'private2.php'
-upload the two files
-edit header

Tested on: 2.2.1

Kumaro · #12 03-03-2002, 01:05 AM

excellent hack! i'll test it later when i get time, but it sounds really good.

Kumaro · #13 03-03-2002, 01:19 AM

Is it absolutly mandatory that we shut down our vb to run the query?

Overgrow · #14 03-03-2002, 03:23 AM

>>Is it absolutly mandatory that we shut down our vb to run the query?

hahah no, that is your choice! It's advised but not mandatory.

Kumaro · #15 03-03-2002, 12:18 PM

I get this error after running the query:

Error
SQL-query : [Edit]

ALTER TABLE 'user' ADD 'pmunread' SMALLINT(6) DEFAULT "0" NOT NULL

MySQL said:

You have an error in your SQL syntax near ''user' ADD 'pmunread' SMALLINT(6) DEFAULT "0" NOT NULL' at line 1

Overgrow · #16 03-03-2002, 02:27 PM

Sorry, extra quotes got in there somehow. This is the correct query:

ALTER TABLE user ADD pmunread SMALLINT(6) DEFAULT "0" NOT NULL;

That works and I've updated the text file. Thanks.

TECK · #17 03-03-2002, 03:09 PM

this is a great hack..

i think a good mod would be to have it blink in a little table, right beside the nav bar. alot more visible. just a suggestion.

regards,
nakkid.

Overgrow · #18 03-03-2002, 03:12 PM

Thanks man. Nice new logo up top there.. If you want to make your site blink, more power to ya

Most people use image buttons and not text links like I do, so substituting a GIF with an animated new PM gif would be the way to go.

TECK · #19 03-03-2002, 03:14 PM

excellent point.. and thanks for the logo thing..

Kumaro · #20 03-03-2002, 09:42 PM

this works great! thanks overgrow!

streamzone · #21 03-03-2002, 11:58 PM

i like the looks of this. i did everythin up til this point here:
"4) Change your site-wide Private Messaging link. Mine is located in my PHP
parsed header file and I do something like this:

if ($bbuserinfo[userid] > 0 and $bbuserinfo[pmunread]==1)
$pmstyle=" style=\"color:#ffdc00;\"";"

I am terribly n00b on that. I honestly have no clue what that means or where to look for it.

<shame>
haha

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.08939 seconds Memory Usage 2,297KB Queries Executed 25 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (6)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (3)pagenav_pagelink (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
Messages:

The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

It is not a VB3 engine, just a parsed copy!