Activity Modification

For vB3.7, see The vB3.7 version

This is the plugin/vB3.5/vB3.6 version of this hack

This mod was developed on vB3.6.4, and tested for compatibility with vB3.5.4

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, modification to 3 templates, 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

Frequently Asked Questions

• 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
• I'm using the images template version, but the images don't show up
  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.

2.80 release update

• Added AdminCP option to disable display of activity ranks (ranktext)
• Modified template changes to support the above change (for most people, your templates should work as is)
• Modified template changes for image horizontal postbit to always locate activity information in the upper right of the postbit, so it doesn't move arround from post to post (if you're happy with how it is now, no need to update)

2.80 rc3 update

• You can now control the number of entries on the Top Activity board from the adminCP
• Top Activity templates are properly cached
• Changes for XHTML 1.0 validation (requires template reedits if you want XHTML validation)

2.80 rc1 update

• Added improved built-in Top Activity page
• Added option for activity breakdown in activity bar tooltip
• Added option to promote users when their activity is calculated instead of just when they visit to help admins that are having trouble with the promotion system
• Fixed issue with maintenance section with other languages. It should display correctly now for all languages.
• Added admin help in 3.6.x
• Added 3.6.x version and link in product list
• No template changes since 2.70 (there are new templates, however)

2.71 update

• Corrected a bug where users on forums with "Weeks reflected" set to 1 could not reach 100% activity

2.70 update

• Full info available to MEMBERINFO template
• Full info available for the logged-in user (see template customization in install file)
• Fixed % issue with different vB versions
• "Midnight" for activity hack is configurable. Note that it may be desirable to set this to a time other than true midnight for your users.
• Options to control calculation of activity today in MEMBERINFO and for logged-in user
• Simple promotion system adds secondary usergroups when members are promoted in the ranktext system
• Reworking of internals
• Default templates should not try to display activity information when it is unavailable (a generic fix that covers vbA gallery)

2.51 update

• Updated phrases for vb3.5.1
• Updated options activity refresh for vb3.5.1
• Fixed problem with activity-based ranks

2.50 Release update

• Added fix for reversed posts field in images version templates when user is using a right-to-left language. (Manually update the postbit and postbit_legacy templates)

Beta 6 update

• Added extra checks for excessive activity
• User activity is now automatically refreshed when settings changes make it neccessary
• Fixed guest bug

Beta 5 update

• Removed the query added to PM views in beta 4
• Removed the post digits setting; it causes trouble since the majority of users seem to be using the image version, and the load impact is slight anyway.

Beta 4 update

• Fixed the problem where activity panel displayed incorrect information in PMs
• Moved start of board into settings, removed 1 query from showthread, view PM, view user note

Beta 3 update

• Fixed a critical issue with activity caching. Everyone should update
• Fixed an issue with a query not working when using table prefixes
• Added template modification instructions
• Added image template mod version screenshot

Beta 2 update

• There was an issue with % signs in the phrases, this has been corrected.
• Screen shots added.

Changes from the hack version

• Thresholds for promotions are configurable
• Ranktext system is configured from the options page instead of by a file
• You can now prune the visit log from the adminCP (Under Maintenance>Activity Maintenance)

Support

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

[mahakala]

sorry, still can't get it
i have 3 ranks: 1=Junior Member, 2=Member, 3=Senior Member
and the default group ranks (admin, mod, guest).

how can i set to only show a board to e.g. "senior members"? when i promote a user to level 2 and add the title to the secondary usergroup, i should have a usergroup "members", when i add 3rd level, i got "senior members" - is that right?!
so i need to set the ranks "member" and "senior member" as usergroup in vb with the special permissions?

-----------------------

when i now have a group "specialposter" and got them mentioned in "Override Level Ranks on a primary usergroup id basis", these groups aren't touched by the plugin?!
so maybe this is the reason, why the people of this group aren't updated by the plugin?

thanks?,
thomas

[WetWired]

I'm having a hard time understanding what you are asking. It should be noted that a user is only promoted when they log in after achieving the requirement.

To show a board only to senior members, you would go into the forum permissions, and click "Deny All" for that forum, then select your senior member usergroup under the forum, edit it, and select "use default usergroup permissions".

[mahakala]

it's ok, i got it.

by the way, as admin i can't see the stats in threadview "only for registered users"...

[HomerJay]

hi,

first of all: sorry, but my english is not the best, cause i am form germany

i have a question reffering to your activity-addon.

i want to have a statistic for the activity of my members...something like a top-ten. so i have to know, how the activity is calculated with the parameters out of the database.

can you please give me some hints, how i can do this? something like a formula for the activity-calculation would be great.

thank you very much!

greetings
Oli

[HomerJay]

please give me a hint. i searched the whole weekend for a solution...

i need a standalone-script, to calculate the activity-percentage...the formula seems to be:

$WWU002_activitypercent=intval($WWU002_activity/$GLOBALS['WWU002maxPoints']*100);

now i need to know, how to get the $GLOBALS['WWU002maxPoints']...i think, they are calculated every day..right?

thank you 4 help.

Oli

[WetWired]

The WWU002maxPoints is calculated in global_start at the beginning of each page. LiveWire wrote an addon that does what you are trying to do, which is to list the top 10 activity as it exists in the user table. It should be noted that activity only changes when it is viewed. This means that if a user gets to 100% activity, then goes away and noone views one of his posts or his profile, the database will leave him at 100% activity untill his post or profile is viewed. In reality, this is only an issue for users with low activity to start.

[Logikos]

I had that hack removed. I'm not really involved with making hacks anymore, but I think I did fix the activity view problem that WW was talking about. Anyway, if you want to show a list of top active users, then follow these instructions.

Create a new template. Name it activity with the following contents.

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%" align="center" style="border-bottom-width:0px">
<tr>
        <td class="tcat" width="100%">Top Active Users</td>

</tr>
</table>

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="1" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
        <td class="thead" align="left" nowrap="nowrap">User Name</td>
        <td class="thead" nowrap="nowrap">Activity</td>
        <td class="thead" nowrap="nowrap">Posts</td>
        <td class="thead" nowrap="nowrap">Join Date</td>
</tr>

$activity_bit

</table>

Create a new template. Name it activity_bit with the following contents.

<tr>
        <td class="alt1Active" align="left" id="u5968">
                <div class="smallfont"><a href="member.php?u=$activity[userid]">$activity[username]</a></div>
                <div class="smallfont">$activity[usertitle]</div>
        </td>
        <td class="alt2" align="center"><div class="smallfont">$ActivityPercent</div></td>
        <td class="alt1" align="center">$activity[post]</td>
        <td class="alt2" align="center">$activity[joindate]</td>
</tr>

Upload the attached file to your forums directory and you should be all set. You can edit this hack anyway you wish.

[WetWired]

No, you never did fix that. Essentially, you have to re-calculate the activity for every user in order to fix it. You can skip members who haven't visited since the cuttoff, and you can cache the results so you only do it once a day. One of these days, I'll get arround to converting the old script I did for the hack version and prettying up some templates for it.

[WetWired]

Okay, I got the accurate top 10 script converted to 3.5, now I just need to give it some time on Zelaron, then I'll be ready to beta it.

[MissKalunji]

Originally Posted by Firestar.chkn

This works with 3.6, yes. I'm running it over at www.prophecy.co.za/forums if you want to have a look

anyone else?