Forum Display Enhancements - Threaded Forum Views (Version 3.0)

Threaded Forum Views (Version 3.0)

This Modification is based on Threaded Forum Views (Version 1.8) for vBulletin 3.0 & Threaded Forum Views (v2.0) for vBulletin 3.5

Version 3.0 should function the same as the previous version. If you notice any quirks or problems please post them here. I took a couple different approaches in outlining the Modifications from the original as well.

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Threaded Forum Views will allow the user to display an individual forum or search results in a fully threaded manner. To enable this support the user selects Enable from the new Threaded Forum Views section within Edit Options in the User CP. In addition to the Enable/Disable setting the user may also select Compact or Expanded modes as well as the number of characters to be displayed in the thread/post titles.

Features:
Functionality controlled via the Users CP.
Supports 2 display modes. Single line or Dual line.
Supports variable title lengths.
Works with the display of forums and search results.
Indicates which posts have been read and which are new.
Indicates which posts have attachments.
Handles Sticky posts - limits the thread to the opening post.
Displayed results may be sorted using the existing tools provided by forumdisplay.php
Tested with vBulletin 3.6.0

Caveats:
Some of the Administrator functions (such as thread maintenance on deleted threads) are not available while in this mode. While doing administrative tasks the Admin should disable Threaded Forum Views.

Feedback & Support:
If you have any problems or questions please post them here.

Miscellaneous:

Line numbers have been added, which correspond 'approximatly' to where an item can be found. Line Numbers are based upon previous modifications, so the line number listed in step 2, will be based upon the idea that step 1 has already been compleeted. Do Note these are approximate line numbers to help find certaion locations within the code, don't blindly use them for insertions as exact numbers vary considerably based on how you perform the changes.

To update existing users it is necessary to manually run an UPDATE query. I used

UPDATE userfield SET field5='Enable',field6='Compact',field7='30' where field5='';

to set the default values.

Also, a new field has been added to the search parameters. Because of this it is neccessary to erase the existing cached searches. This can be done using the following query

delete from search;

Instructions for making the necessary modifications to the files and templates are attached as are the 5 new graphics in the ZIP file.

Items to Work on:

- Quirkyness with 'Thread/Forum Read Marking Type' defaults to something akin to "Inactivity/Cookie Based" need to check into "Database (no automatic forum marking)" and "Database (automatic forum marking)"
- Should Verify SEO works well (Limit: Webserver with mod_redirect)

Possible Future Optional Additions:
- Collapsability / Javascript
- View Toggle from Main Forum View Tree
- Option to disable User Selectable Title Length

[Lionel]

This is great. I'd like to use it, not with userfield, but to force it for specific forums, and display only the linked thread titles in that forum.

Can you help me on that?

Then I'll make it collapsible.

[crocodile]

could someone make this hack to a complete plugin, make it a product
I love this function, and really want 2 use it, but don't want it make forum unstable

[Ata123]

Worked on 3.6.8 PL2 but I have this error:

SEE MY NEXT POST, TOO. DOESN'T SEEM TO BE A REAL OR SERIOUS ERROR

Seems like it cannot match a couple of seemingly random posts from various threads to the thread they belong to. In the 3 default VB thread view options (linear, threaded, hybrid) these "non-matching" posts are at their right place, within the threads they belong to.

I've attached an image to illustrate this. The posts marked with red belong together and into another thread. They are part of a longer thread (each red marked area is part of another, longer thread). They are kind of singled out, and on a side note they aren't connected with those little graphics either.

This is happening with like every 5-7th thread
What could the reason be for this?

(P.S.: This is a board with 100k posts imported from PhpBB. But that shouldn't matter I guess. The threads and posts look alright when viewed with any of VB's default thread options)

SEE ATTACHED IMAGE

[Ata123]

After further evaluation this seems to be causing the "error", which may not be a real error after all:

Seems like it only happens with the default setting "show threads of last 30 days", and within threads that span over more than the last 30 days.

When this is set to longer or "all time" then the problem does not occur anymore.

CONCLUSION: WORKS In 3.6.8 PL2


Thanks for the nice hack, my forum had a strong demand for this.

Now I need to improve the speed.

Feature suggestion:

- Limit each page to 100,200,....1000 posts (instead of VB usual options 10, 20...50 threads). Since all posts within the threads are shown, too, the acutal amount of data per page strongly depends on the size of the various threads therein. A single mega thread (one of those "let's see how long a thread we can create") within the displayed threads does seriously slow down the rendering time of the page.

OR: Option for each user in the user panel to generally skip threads with more than XXX posts. (in the threaded view).

[Ata123]

All the posts are not indented (as shown in the 2nd screenshot from left)

I did the whole installation routine twice but to no avail.

It doesn't indent the posts, and doesn't insert direct answers below the correponding post.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Edit: max threads/page works

[Ata123]

I finally figured it out. It does not indent imported posts, but DOES indent post that were made after the hack was installed. Not sure if it would indent existing (not imported) posts, as I have/had none on that board when I installed this threaded views hack.

Thanks again, and works on 3.6.8 PL2

[Kaitlyn]

I'll take a look, maybe update it for 3.6.8 in the near future. Yea I noticed it will do the non-indenting thing if new posts fall inside the range, and older posts fall outside of the range in the same thread.

It should work with both posts before and after the mod was installed, I've tried it on a few other databases I have without issue really. All the information is already stored within the vBulletin database for their own threaded and hybrid views regardless of if you had this installed before or not (Which is what makes this a much simpler hack than with something like phpBB which doesn't store that information).



crocodile: It's not feasable as a plugin as it does change extensivly how vBulletin itself works and displays things.

(Sorry it took so long to respond to all these)
~K

[shadowevil]

Is is working in 3.7.x ???

[Kaitlyn]

Originally Posted by shadowevil

Is is working in 3.7.x ???

Haven't even checked with 3.7 yet, once 3.7 is final I may take a look to see what it gets to working under 3.7, however for the meantime it's at the whim of me updating my support to get access to 3.7 *grins*

So, 'probably' not, depending on what changes they've made... yet *grins*

~K

[cheesegrits]

Did you ever get a chance to check this with 3.7?

-- hugh