Miscellaneous Hacks - Activity Modification

This is the vB3.7/vB3.8 version of this modification.

Description
This hack adds an activity metric for users to your forum; this metric takes into account a variable number of weeks. Also provided is a Junior/Normal/Senior member system based on this metric, and a longevity metric (user registered time as a percent of the amount of time the first user has been registered).

Visiting each day and posting the configured amount of times per day for the configured number of weeks will yeild 100% activity. Posts are checked individually for each day, so days cannot be skipped then spammed up afterwards. The weight of visiting for the day relative to posting is configurable. Weeks are weighted so the most recent has a bigger impact on the activity percent than the most distant.

When a user logs in with activity above the configured threshold, they are promoted from Junior Member to Member. When they log in with the configured amount of time as Member, they are promoted to Senior Member. You can configure the mod to also add secondary usergroups when these promotions happen.

Complexity
This modification requires 1 XML import, uploading of images, and the addition of some CSS, depending on what options you choose

Technical
This hack adds 1 query to showthread for each user who posts in that page (or only 1 for the logged in user by configuration). In addition, the first time a member's post or profile is accessed during a day (GMT), 3 queries are performed to find that user's activity. By configuration, 1 query may be added to each page load to find the logged in user's "activity today". By configuration, 1 query may be added to each member profile view to find that member's "activity today".

Upgradability
This modification will import your settings and data from the 3.0/hack version
This modification will import your settings and data from the 3.5/3.6 mod version

Frequently Asked Questions

• I don't see the Activity Settings section or Activity Maintenance link on the AdminCP navbar
  You're probably seeing a cached (old) copy of the navbar. Try pressing Ctrl-F5 in IE or FF, or whatever your browser requires to force it to load the current version of the page.
• I installed this mod and nothing shows up
  First, go to AdminCP|Activity Settings|Display and make sure the dropdown settings are not set to None. If they aren't set to none, the most likely cause is using an old style which does not have template hooks; verify this by creating a new style without a parent and checking to see if the mod displays on it (the images probably won't load, though). If the mod displays on the default style but not your normal one, you need to add template hooks, otherwise post here for help.
• I installed this mod using the Download/Upload Plugin page and there was an error/it doesn't seem to work
  To install this mod, you need to use the Add/Import Product link on the Manage Products page
• I just installed and everyone's activity seems low
  1. Part of the activity calculation is what days users visited on. This information isn't collected before the mod is installed, so no user can have 100% activity untill you've been running the mod for the full period of time you have it set to monitor
  2. Please realize that there is no "roll over" for activity; if you have it set to look at 4 posts per day, your users must post 4 posts on each individual day to obtain 100%.
• I founded this forum, but I don't have 100% longevity
  Somehow a user's join date has been set before yours. When you install, the mod looks for the earliest join date to use to find longevity, but you can change the baseline date. To change the "Start of board" time, go to Maintenance>Activity Maintenance>Set Start of Board, enter your user number in the text field, then click Set Start of Board
• Why don't the images don't show up?/Why does the postcount have 's's in front of it?
  Be sure to upload one of the activity directories from activityimages.zip to the misc directory for each of your styles. To find a style's misc directory, goto the Style Manager, then from the dropdown next to the style, choose Stylevars. The setting Miscellaneous Images Folder contains the path to that style's misc directory, where you need to upload the activity directory
• Can I use activity for promotions?
  The project to build a full-blown promotion hack for use with this mod has been cancelled, after losing all of my work, however a much simpler system that adds secondary groups based on two thresholds has been added to the main hack.
• Can you make X number get split up into digits?
  I understand where you're coming from with this one, but I just can't figure out a way to work this that would be simple to use.
• The tooltips don't wrap and get cut off with FireFox
  The same thing happens to other vB tooltips (the thumbnail ones, for example). If you know a way to add line breaks to FF tooltips without scripting, please let me know.

Change log

Note: To upgrade, with the old version still installed, go to the Add/Import Product link on the Manage Products page, select the XML file for the new version, choose Yes for overwrite, then click Import.

Update 3.03 release

• Fixed a PHP error that some people were having

Update 3.01 release

• Fixed a PHP warning that did not break anything. It should no longer be added to your error logs.

Update 3.00 release
No changes

Update 3.00 beta 3

• Fixed template to use correct forumhome location
• Separated text-version stat block into its own template
• Moved settings into their own navigation group on the left (refresh AdminCP page after upgrading)
• Added new customization reference page to install zip

Update 3.00 beta 2

• Fixed a bug which prevented the postbit display option from working
• Fixed a bug where the Top Activity link could be in the navbar without the Top Activity page being enabled
• Fixed a bug where certain users have postcount of 'n/a' in Top Activity
• Added diagnostic screen
• Set minimum forum version

Version 3 (3.00 beta 1) vs Version 2 (2.80)

• Added template hook and DOM based styling; manual template modification no longer needed
• Split the options page into four options pages
• Added many options to control the style of the mod
• Added "Countdown to 100%" feature in the Top Activity page
• All new profile page display for vB3.7

Support

Please click the install link if you install this hack
I will support this hack in this thread on about a weekly basis.

[WetWired]

Originally Posted by zorag

On the Top Activity page is there any way to include the previous 3 months of data (in 3 links Dec, Jan, Feb) - I'm more than willing to pay for this function.

I'm not sure what exactly you want. If you want separate lists for separate months, a skilled modder should have little trouble converting the "Top Activity" "forumhome_start" hook into a standalone PHP file providing the functionality you want. Key points for the modder are:

• The current code contains optimizations to exclude people that could not appear in the top X; these optimizations are completely irrelevent to this task and will need to be removed for proper functioning
• The $WWU002startOfDay and $WWU002startOfCycle variables are used in the queries for determining when the data is relative to. startOfDay should be at midnight GMT of the relevant day; startOfCycle should be adjusted based on the activity mod time zone setting.
• The caching of the data will obviously need to be done differently. Realisticly, each month needs only be calculated once and stored.

I have no intention of adding this feature to the mod because I do not believe that referencing activity levels at discrete points in time (other than the present) is of great value. I do not do commission work. I hope that the information I have provided is sufficent for you to get a good result from someone who does.

[ilovevbull]

I didn't know once you installed this,it would get rid of how many post my members had is there anyway i can get that back AND still have the activity modification?

[WetWired]

This mod displays that number itself. You can tell it to leave the old number from the display settings.

[lussos]

Is there a way of removing certain usergroups in the "Activity Page"? example: banned user groups.

[WetWired]

Currently there is not, though obviously a banned member's activity will fall.

I assume that this is an automated news poster you're trying to deal with? If it always posts in the same forum, you can make posts in that forum not count to reduce activity level.

I suppose it would be easy enough to add some sort of usergroup check, though it would disturb the optimizations that prevent checking everyone's activity each day for the list.

[adamskiii]

Hi there. I just need some help. I have installed successfully and want to change the location so the mod shows up right under my avatar. I added the code in the postbit legacy template but now I get two of the mods showing up. One in the default location and the other showing up under my avatar. Could you please help me fix this so I only have the one under the avatar showing up?

Thanks

[adamskiii]

I got it to work under the avatar , just one more thing, how do I make a box around it in the postbit_legacy?

thanks

[WetWired]

I suppose you could wrap it in

<div style="border:1px solid black"></div>

[adamskiii]

where would I add the code? I am not good at coding things, :P

thanks

[WetWired]

Arround what you added to move what you moved.