Private Messages Enhancements - Private Conversations (Threaded PMs)

Private Conversations is a small mod that adjusts the way your PMs are displayed; Instead of the old method which shows one at a time quoting the last message, this threads them and makes them work much like the Conversation feature that visitor messages use. A conversation is defined as two users PMing eachother using the same PM title (With or without the "Re:" prefix), so as to not mix up different conversations that aren't related.

Known Bugs

• The conversation page looks ugly. I know, I'm sorry. I plan to redesign it straight away.
• Sending a PM to yourself will show all messages that other people have sent you that have the same title. But to be honest, how often do you PM yourself?
• It currently ignores user-set avatar rules ("Hide all avatars", for example).
• ???
• Find a bug? Please let me know

To-Do List

• Figure out a way to make folders work with conversations.
• Redesign the conversation page!
• Add a paging method to conversations, currently all of the messages are on the same page.
• ???
• Got an idea? Please tell me

Installation
Simply open up your ACP, click "Plugins & Products" on the left, "Manage Products", then import the attached file. No uploading or modifications required

Usage
Private Conversations is entirely automatic, no configuration or installation required (Other than the above). Upon visiting the "Private Messages" page, this mod will automatically list conversations. To see normal PMs instead of conversations, simply select a folder at the top menu (Such as "Inbox") and Private Conversations will let the default view take over; It will always allow vBulletins PM system priority over itself whenever it detects that the user has selected a folder.
A reply box will show at the top of each message, allowing for easy replies. You can also select 'View Full' on each message to see it in the old format, which you can also reply to using the old method. All messages apart from the three latest are automatically collapsed inside conversations, to save page space.

Note to mod developers
This uses and calls the following inbuilt hooks: private_showpm_start, private_messagelist_start, private_messagelist_messagebit, and private_messagelist_period. Because I am not too sure on how well this will cope with other mods, I have added a variable $pricon that will set to true if the user is viewing conversations not normal PMs, which you may check for in plugins and use to halt your code should it be incompatible for some reason.

[dinnerbone]

Originally Posted by nerofix

Please use vbphrases for this:

View Full
Collapse
Expand

Whoops, I didn't realise 'View Full' wasn't attached to a phrase. I'll fix that next version. As for Collapse and Expand, they are already phrases.

[nerofix]

I think there are already original vb phrases for those words, if you would use them (not your custom phrases), then we wouldn't need to translate them anymore.

[Alfa1]

I wonder if this works on vb 3.8. Has anyone tried?

[dinnerbone]

Originally Posted by nerofix

I think there are already original vb phrases for those words, if you would use them (not your custom phrases), then we wouldn't need to translate them anymore.

I check for existing phrases before making new ones. There already is a 'view full' one which I'll use, but the closest to 'Collapse' that I found was 'collapse_x', which was a Style phrase and as such would require style phrases to be included in the PM system. There was a 'expand' phrase, but again it was a Style phrase.

Alfa1, I'm installing 3.8 as we speak so I'll be making a version for that if this is not directly compatible.

[nerofix]

Oh yeah, you were right with the phrases.

Good work by the way, looks good.

Well, something is a bit strange and I am not sure why:

Not all conversation messages are displayed of some members. Could it be that they have deleted their messages from their "sent items" folder?

[dinnerbone]

It will only show their side of the conversation if they have the messages in their Sent Items folder, as doing otherwise would defeat the purpose of that folder and might also open up possible exploits in reading other peoples mail, as well as causing other complications.
Please check to make sure they have the messages inside their sent folder box, if they are there then can you please tell me if there is any relation to the messages that aren't shown - such as they are all the nth message, or are all sent by the same user, etc.


Edit: Alfa1, I just tested in vBulletin 3.8 and it appears to work fine. But it looks like "Save a copy of this message in your Sent Items folder" is unchecked by default in that version, which is required for this mod to show users sent messages in conversations. This only applies to messages sent using the normal form, the quick reply I included with the mod automatically saves them.

[Roxie]

Would be nice if the conversation showed how many messages were in it.

[Roxie]

I have a lot of conversations. But it only shows one page of them. When I go to page 2, it goes back to the default view. Is this normal?

[dinnerbone]

Originally Posted by Roxie

Would be nice if the conversation showed how many messages were in it.

Next version

Originally Posted by Roxie

I have a lot of conversations. But it only shows one page of them. When I go to page 2, it goes back to the default view. Is this normal?

I think I know what's wrong; Whenever a folder is selected, it reverts to the default view because this doesn't use folders - vBulletin selects the inbox (by default) when viewing a different page. A fix is on it's way in the next version, it should be ready by tonight

[logicuk]

Thanks for the great work keep it up dinnerbone this is a sweet addon