"In reply to" Hack (threaded info for linear users)

vB3.0/hack version "frozen"; vB3.5/plugin version released
You can get the plugin for vb3.5 here. There will be no more releases for the vB3.0 version.

Description
This hack allows the display of the title and author of the post that each post is in response to. (See screenshot if clarification is needed)

The purpose of this hack is to provide missing information to linear view mode users. I got the idea from a board I visit that used to be UBB Threads, though my choice of presentation is a bit different.

See the attached screenshot for an example of how this can look. The hack itself only provides the additional items in $post, so it is up to the templates exactly how it looks. (The changes I used are included as an example in the hack instructions)

Complexity
This hack changes one file, requires no queries, and requires changes to one template.

Technical
This hack has been tested on vB3.0.3,vB3.0.0RC4 and vB3.0.0RC2.
It adds 1 query to showthread in linear mode, and adds 1 additional query in linear mode for each consecutive layer of deleted parents of posts displayed on a page. (If a displayed post is a reply to a deleted reply to an undeleted reply to a deleted reply to an undeleted post, 2 total queries are added to showthread, but if a displayed post is a reply to a deleted reply to a deleted reply to a deleted reply to an undeleted post, 4 total queries are added to showthread. If both examples are displayed in the same page, only 4 total queries are added to showthread.)

Update (v1.10 2004-03-01)
Version 1.10 released, which uses the beginning of a post as a title if the post does not have a title, and also trims long titles down to a decent size. Minor optimizations. regardinghackupdate.txt added for existing users, regardinghack.txt updated for new users.

Support
Please click the install button above if you install this hack.

The hack version of this modification will have no further updates, but I will still answer questions in this thread.

[WetWired]

That's what the option I pointed out controls, if I understand correctly. Realize, however that this takes effect at post time, and will not be retroactively applied.

[coloradok5]

Originally Posted by WetWired

That's what the option I pointed out controls, if I understand correctly. Realize, however that this takes effect at post time, and will not be retroactively applied.

The only thing I didn't include was the var part:
The following additional variables will be defined for posts that don't begin a thread:
$post[re_postid] --The ID of the parent post.
$post[re_title] --The title of the parent post.
$post[re_tittype] --Type of title: 1-actual title, 2-start of post, 0-no suitable content found
$post[re_userid] --ID of the user who posted the parent post, or 0 if a quest posted it.
$post[re_username] --Username of the user who posted the parent post
$post[re_url] --URL to parent post. If the post is on the same page, this will just move
the position on the page. If the post is not on the same page, this will

Do I need to put them somewhere in postbit?

[WetWired]

They were already part of the example code to add to the postbit. I explained them all fully so that admins could set it up in their postbit however they liked (for instance exactly copying UBB threads).

[coloradok5]

Originally Posted by WetWired

They were already part of the example code to add to the postbit. I explained them all fully so that admins could set it up in their postbit however they liked (for instance exactly copying UBB threads).

Thats what I thought, I will recheck everything.

[coloradok5]

Hmmm, I redid everything and still the default title gets displayed even though it shouldn't, any ideas?

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123231

[WetWired]

Originally Posted by coloradok5

Hmmm, I redid everything and still the default title gets displayed even though it shouldn't, any ideas?

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123231

Again, that is because the "Automatically Quote Post" option is set to yes. After you turn it off, this will no longer happen on new posts. Since the Re: last title actually is a title for the post, the in reply to hack uses it, since its preference is to display the post title, then the start of the post if the post has no title. If you delete the title from one of these posts, you will see that replies to it appear with the beginning of the post. The problem is the enabled feature. If you want to try to retroactively remove the old re: titles, you can try backing up your DB then running the query
UPDATE post SET title="" WHERE title LIKE "Re: %"
This will remove all titles starting with Re: and allow the in reply hack to use the starting lines.

[MickDoneDee]

Originally Posted by coloradok5

Mick
Thanks, I think I have it. Looking at your site, it looks like if someone replies to a post and does not change the title the original title does not get outputed, how did you do that?

It is an option in vB3:

Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Automatically Quote Post / Thread Title

If you enable this setting, the title field of new posts will be filled with the thread or parent post's title, prefixed by 'Re: '. The user can still edit it if they wish. If you disable this setting, the title box will be blank by default.

[coloradok5]

Ahhh, OK cool. Is there anyway to also not have the icon and hor. rule display?

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthr...=1#post1089917

[WetWired]

Originally Posted by coloradok5

Ahhh, OK cool. Is there anyway to also not have the icon and hor. rule display?

http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthr...=1#post1089917

They should not display without a title, unless you have a default icon set up.

[coloradok5]

Kick ass, it works perfect now, I didn't know those settings were there.
Thanks for all the help.