vBISpy - AJAX real-time feed of new posts/threads (for vB3.5)

After seeing the http://www.digg.com/spy application; I wondered if this could be done for vBulletin as well. I came across this webpage which had a "how to" on how they built a similiar application to do the same thing. Taking a page from their book (i.e. the code), I modified it for use with vBulletin.

During development, I also came across this post here on vBulletin.Org where the very subject had already been discussed.

So I put this together; a simple ZIP file with a single PHP script, three javascript files and 4 images.

Installation

. UNZIP the file into your forums directory
. That's it!

Virtually all the code to customize the page is in the vaispy.php script; there are no plugins, no templates and no phrases. You do not need to do anything further; this should work right out of the box.

In your browser, open the URL:

http://www.yourforum.com/forum/vaispy.php

You can see examples of this at:

http://www.viperalley.com/forum/vaispy.php
http://www.extremefitness.com/forum/vaispy.php

Note: I claim no ownership of this code except for the file vaispy.php - the rest of the files were using 'freely distributable' sources. As such, you may use these files as you wish, but please do not remove the copyrights.

This version is for vBulletin 3.5 users only, for vBulletin 3.6 you will need to download the 3.6 version located here.

JOIN THE vBIspy Network!
Once you have this mod installed, you can join the vBIspy network to have your threads appear on this site; the vBIspy Network is a great way for people to see what's going on in various vBulletin communities and for forum owners to promote their sites and generate new traffic.

Optional add-ons

Who's Online mod for this: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126209

vBAdvanced Module: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126421

UPDATES
1.0.2
Added buro9's code from here

1.0.3 - 9.9.06
Modified some JavaScript in va_spy.js to remove split strings

1.0.4 - 9.10.06
Added date cuffoff code from here and changed init() to spyinit() - changed vaispy.php and va_spy.js files.

1.0.5 - 9.11.06
I've changed the query to grab the preview text from the last message; the downside to this change is that people with very large "post" tables will want to add an index to their table to significantly improve the performance on this script.

ALTER TABLE `vb_post` ADD INDEX ( `dateline` )

1.0.6 - 9.12.06
va_spy.js: Added a forum url variable to allow for integration with portals or other products outside the forum directory
va_spy.js: Added xmldelay variable at top of script for easier configuration or repolling
Updated files: vaispy.php, vb_spy.js

1.0.7 - 9.13.06
vaispy.php - changed code for checking for forum permissions to include password protected forums, added javascript tag for script code
va_spy.js - changed link to use goto=lastpost to fix links

1.0.8 - 9.16.06
vaispy.php
va_spy.js
va_effects.js
- modified to allow for proper display in Opera browsers and moved more html into vaispy.php to allow for stylevars, trimmed va_effects.js to remove unused code (ForumDog's suggestions, except not using templates yet), changed way threads are parsed (removes html as well)

1.0.9 - 9.17.06
va_prototype.js - removed 20kb of unused code

[scottct1]

Is there any way for it to display the last post in the thread instead of the first post in the thread?

[MPDev]

I didn't notice that until now; but the problem is I'm not sure how to get that. vB3.5 doesn't store the lastpostid made (where 3.6 does). So I'm not sure how to JOIN the post and thread table to grab the last preview text.

Try changing line 57 in vaispy.php to:

        LEFT JOIN ".TABLE_PREFIX."post ON (post.dateline = thread.lastpost)

The potential problem with this is on one large site with 1 million posts the query takes 10 seconds versus the .003 seconds for the original one! So, I'm not sure this is the best way.

Edit: However, if I manually add an index on the dateline field in the post table the query drops to .008 seconds on the same site. So this can work, if you add the index manually; unless someone has a better idea.

[Gizmo5h1t3]

Originally Posted by MPDev

I didn't notice that until now; but the problem is I'm not sure how to get that. vB3.5 doesn't store the lastpostid made (where 3.6 does). So I'm not sure how to JOIN the post and thread table to grab the last preview text.

Try changing line 57 in vaispy.php to:

        LEFT JOIN ".TABLE_PREFIX."post ON (post.dateline = thread.lastpost)

The potential problem with this is on one large site with 1 million posts the query takes 10 seconds versus the .003 seconds for the original one! So, I'm not sure this is the best way.

Edit: However, if I manually add an index on the dateline field in the post table the query drops to .008 seconds on the same site. So this can work, if you add the index manually; unless someone has a better idea.

nope, edited line 57. and im still getting placed on the first post on a page m8...but only on some threads, others seem to work..weird.

[MPDev]

Originally Posted by Gizmo5h1t3

nope, edited line 57. and im still getting placed on the first post on a page m8...but only on some threads, others seem to work..weird.

I'm not following you - this change would make the preview text display as that of the last last - does this not work for you or are you saying that when you click on a link it doesn't take you to the last post?

[Snake]

Thank you very much!

[MPDev]

Sure, Snake! Don't forget to click INSTALL!

[Gizmo5h1t3]

Originally Posted by MPDev

I'm not following you - this change would make the preview text display as that of the last last - does this not work for you or are you saying that when you click on a link it doesn't take you to the last post?

sorry for being unclear m8...im saying its not taking me to the final post in a thread....

[MPDev]

Can you grab the current download and update your vaispy.php and va_spy.js files?

[djwins]

Would there be a way to modify this so that the latest activity is called only one time every few seconds and not each time as a user hits the vbispy.php page?

If you can get the information to be pulled via a cron job (once every 10 seconds or so) and then have everything displayed on a static page, wouldn't this be much easier on the server load?

Originally Posted by RFViet

Hmm I have the same problem . Yes I have java script at footer but I don't want to remove it.

Is there a way to make this compatible with microstats? https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ght=microstats

Maybe just a conditional in the footer that wouldt not display microstats on the vbispy page...anyone know how to do that?

[Karabaja]

Great stuff, thx. But it doesn't take me to last post either. Just to top of the thread.