Forum Home Enhancements - Site Life Status for vB 4

Site Life Status for vB 4
Version 1.0.4
(By Boofo)

What does this product do?
This product will add a Site Life Status info area, including Site Startup Date, Site Age, Site Location, Pagehits counter and Average visits, to your forumhome What's Going On box.

NOTE: The maximum counter value will depend on your system. The maximum signed integer value for 32 bit systems is 2147483647 (or 2,147,483,647), while the maximum signed integer value for 64 bit systems is 9223372036854775807 (or 9,223,372,036,854,775,807). These are the highest numbers this counter will be able to count to, depending on your system.

Version Information:
Version 1.0.0 --Initial release for vB 4
Version 1.0.1 --Added Site Life Status Date Display Format option to settings.
Version 1.0.2 --Added Site Life Status Locale option to settings. This will allow you to display the Site Life Status Date Display Format day and month name in your local language.
Version 1.0.3 --Fixed for WGO style changes in vB 4.0.8. (Site_Life_Status_vb4.08.zip only)
Version 1.0.4 --Reverted back to the original js file because of the timer messing up with the added leap year code.

Credits:
A thank you goes out to Shawn Dean for supplying the original javascript code for the Site Age counter.

Installation overview:
-------------------------------
1 Product XML (5 Plugins, 36 Phrases, 1 template, 7 settings and 1 file)

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Installation Instructions:
-------------------------------
1. Upload site_life_status.js to the forums/clientscript folder on your site.

NOTE: You will need to delete the old site_life.js file as the new one has been renamed.

-------------------------------
2. Go to your Admin CP
Scroll down to 'Plugin System'
Click 'Manage Products'
Click 'Add/Import Product'
Click the 'Browse' button, and locate the product-boofo_site_lifestatus.xml file on your computer

3. Go to your Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Site Life Status and set the following options:
--Site Life Status Enable: Enable/Disable the Site Life Status.
--Site Life Status Startup Date: Enter your site startup date.
--Site Life Status Location: Type your site location in here. If you do not wish for your location to be shown, leave this option blank.
--Update the page views counter to the value below? If you want to change the current page views counter value on forumhome to the value provided below, set this to "Yes" - it will automatically be reset to "No" once the new value has been set (at the next page view).
--Site Life Status Forumhome Page Views Counter: Enter the number of page views, without commas, to start the page views count at. (Example: 16897)
--Site Life Status Locale: Set your system locale here. This will allow the Site Life Status Date Display Format below to display the month and day names in your local language.
--Site Life Status Date Display Format: Enter the date and time format you want the Site Startup Date to display on the forumhome.
-------------------------------

Done!
Enjoy!

if ($mark_as_installed != 'clicked')
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else
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	$you_get = 'support';
}

[Boofo]

I have a stripped down version ready for vb 3 but haven't decided if I want to post it yet as I am running vb 4 so vb 3 support would be spotty for me.

[Alan_SP]

Originally Posted by Boofo

It DOES work when you have xcache enabled. It just doesn't update the counter on the forumhome until the cache gets updated. The counter is being updated on every page refresh in the datastore, and if you will check the datastore, you will see that. None of your counters will update any more than this one will when you are using a server cache. You're not understanding how caching works.

I understand caching, but I had problems, counter didn't changed even after ttl and max ttl and gc interval expired. Cache items should be forced to renew, but it didn't worked for me. Maybe I need to test it further? Will see, and I report here if I manage to have it working with xcache.

EDIT:

Still not working.

If someone knows better how to setup xcache, here's my xcache ini:

xcache.shm_scheme =        "mmap"

xcache.var_size  =            64M
xcache.var_count =             4
xcache.var_slots =            8K
; default ttl
xcache.var_ttl   =             60
xcache.var_maxttl   =          60
xcache.var_gc_interval =     60

xcache.test =                Off
; N/A for /dev/zero
xcache.readonly_protection = Off
; for *nix, xcache.mmap_path is a file path, not directory.
; Use something like "/tmp/xcache" if you want to turn on ReadonlyProtection
; 2 group of php won't share the same /tmp/xcache
; for win32, xcache.mmap_path=anonymous map name, not file path
xcache.mmap_path =    "/tmp/xcache"


; leave it blank(disabled) or "/tmp/phpcore/"
; make sure it's writable by php (without checking open_basedir)
xcache.coredump_directory =   ""

; per request settings
xcache.cacher =               On
xcache.stat   =               On
xcache.optimizer =           On

[xcache.coverager]
; per request settings
; enable coverage data collecting for xcache.coveragedump_directory and xcache_coverager_start/stop/get/clean() functions (will hurt executing p
xcache.coverager =          Off

; ini only settings
; make sure it's readable (care open_basedir) by coverage viewer script
; requires xcache.coverager=On
xcache.coveragedump_directory = ""

With these settings for xcache.ini and with this setting in config.php for vbulletin:

PHP Code:

$config['Datastore']['class'] = 'vB_Datastore_XCache'; 


my page hit counter doesn't work. When I disable datastore caching counter starts to count. What is the problem, I don't know. If anyone has an idea, please, tell me.

EDIT2: Just checked, after I disable datastore caching, counter is updated with new page hits. So counter does work, but I'm unable to set automatic flushing of counter to make changes visible. For some reason change in counter isn't propagated while caching is on. Any idea how to set it right?

[Boofo]

You STILL don't get it. It WORKS! I had it working with xcache just fine. It WILL NOT update the counter on the forumhome until the cache refreshes itself. But the counter is still being updated in the datastore. That is how caching works. I don't know how else to explain it to you so you will understand.

[Alan_SP]

Yes, it works, as I said in edit2, but thing is, I don't see it. As long as the xcache is used, I don't see it. That's the problem. I want to see it, that is whole point. How to make cache to refresh itself automatically?

Other things work as far as I can tell, but your counter doesn't, not automatically, not for me.

I agree that there can be something that I set up wrong, but I can't tell what.

[Boofo]

Arrggghhhhh! It works, it just doesn't change the number until the cache refreshes. When it refreshes, you should see a jump in the numbers as they are being added to the datastore even while the cache is on. You will notice that the threads and posts numbers don't update either until the cache refreshes. That is how caching works. There is no way to refresh the cache other than the settings and if you want it to refresh on very page load, then caching makes no sense for you to use.

[Alan_SP]

Ok, I understand what you are saying and I'll turn caching and wait.

When I installed and waited for about a day, nothing changed. Now I wasn't waited that long, but I will.

[Boofo]

Originally Posted by Alan_SP

Ok, I understand what you are saying and I'll turn caching and wait.

When I installed and waited for about a day, nothing changed. Now I wasn't waited that long, but I will.

Finally!

Caching gives you the added benefit of speed as it reads from the cache and doesn't do the queries on every page refresh. But there is a trade-off, like with counters. If you have a lot of users on the site at one time, caching is the way to go to keep resources manageable.

You can always look in the db at the datastore and see the counter has increased so you know it works. You just won't see the higher number until the cache refreshes is all. It looks like your caching interval is set to an hour, unless I'm reading it wrong.

[Alan_SP]

Do you have idea where can I see my caching interval? And how to change it?

[Alan_SP]

Ok, I see now that it works. I'm very much ashamed. You're right, I just needed to wait. I think that my problem was caused with using datastore prefix and certainly I was very impatient afterward.

Thanks for your patience.

[Boofo]

It gets confusing sometimes, I know. I have been there myself a few times. No harm done.