Miscellaneous Hacks - e-steki User ModLog v1.1.3 - An alternative to moderation AutoPM

A big thanks to everyone who nominated or voted this for MOTM September 2007!
e-steki User ModLog

What is this about?
This modification shows the user a table in his UserCP with the latest moderator actions that are performed in his posts/threads.

1. Why this and not Moderation Auto-PM?

1. Its not intruding for the user. In fact, I decided to make this because the Moderation Auto-PMs I was receiving by tons were too annoying to bare.
2. Its not in the Modification Graveyard, so there is a much higher chance of updates and support ;-P
3. It allows more types of actions to show (unfortunately exept hard deletes).
4. Its more visually appealing ;-)
5. Users have to make more clicks to discuss an issue with the moderator, which makes it a little harder for them to protest ;-)
6. Most forums have some "moderation routines" that involve many moderator actions. Especially in this case MAP can be REALLY annoying.
7. You can select to hide the Moderator column, so no hatred will begin after the action as the user will not know who performed it.

2. Features

Admin Features

1. Absolutely NO template modifications and you even get to control where the table will be placed in the UserCP with a simple setting!
2. Ability to hide who the moderator that performed the action was.
3. Fully phrased.
4. Your moderators will not see their own actions, but the actions performed by other moderators on their posts/threads (customizable).
5. You get to control which action types will be shown and how many of them.
6. Ability to set a cutoff limit, so that actions that are performed before X days will not show.
7. Ability to specify which mod/admin usergroups' actions will display.
8. Displays actions from the moment you install it, even old ones, it doesn't display only the actions that are performed afterwards.
9. Supports e-steki Featured threads.
10. A nice, usable and extensive manual instead of an ugly readme.txt ;-)

End user Features

1. Easy spotting of the action type by the nice colorful small icons (provided by famfamfam.com. Thanks!)
2. Actions that were performed after the user's last visit will display in bold. Of course, they are sorted according to the date and time they were performed.
3. There is a link to the thread that the action is about. If the action is about a post, then the link takes the user to that specific post. There is also a link for the forum that contains that thread, in case the user does not remember what it is.
4. The table is collapsible, and if it has nothing to display it doesn't show, just like the other tables in the UserCP.
5. The username of the Moderator (if the admin has selected him to show) is formatted according to usergroup and links to his profile (so the member can send him a pm to talk about it, if he wishes to do so)
6. Full date and time displayed.

Don't forget to Mark as Installed!
Support will be provided only for a few days after each release.
Thanks a lot to famfamfam.com for the icons and to SirAdrian for his answers to my questions.

As the admincp screenshot was resized by those stupid attachment limits that Paul M refuses to change, here is the original one:

[Lea Verou]

Version 1.1.1
------------------
Fixed the action 20 (edit post) bug

Also the manual now contains instructions for manual addition of the template hooks if you don't have them and a simple tutorial for changing the icons associated with each action type.

@Wulfnoth: The template edits that you requested are now included in the manual
@winduff: Try this one, now the queries are two (one if you exclude action 20 from showing) but much lighter ones. If it doesn't work, answer the following (if its private info for you, answer in a pm):
1. How big is your forum? (users, posts, threads)
2. Are you on a shared server?
3. If you know how to navigate through phpmyadmin, how large is the moderatorlog table and the deletionlog table?

[Wulfnoth]

Originally Posted by Michelle

@Wulfnoth: The template edits that you requested are now included in the manual

Thanks!

[Lea Verou]

Version 1.1.2
---------------------
Added setting to specify which mod/admin usergroups' actions will display

[winduff]

Michelle, your a genious!

All works fine, great mod Thanks again so much!

[Lea Verou]

Thank you winduff
I'm glad it finally works for you.

A note to non-coders: Don't pay so much attention to the number of queries that a hack adds, but rather the type of them. I tried so hard to make this add only one query initially, and it turned out to be such a heavy one that it couldn't even be executed in winduff's installation! Now that there are 2 queries (if you want to display post edits, otherwise its still one) they are much lighter together than the previous one alone.

[Axel Foley]

Good job Lea...

While doing the tests I could "feel" the difference between this version and the old one...it's faster...you made a good job on the queries.

I would also suggest you to add an option: Show empty modlog table? (default: No)

I think this one deserves the nomination...

[Lea Verou]

Originally Posted by Axel Foley

Good job Lea...

While doing the tests I could "feel" the difference between this version and the old one...it's faster...you made a good job on the queries.

I would also suggest you to add an option: Show empty modlog table? (default: No)

I think this one deserves the nomination...

Tell me one reason why someone would want to set that option to yes and I'll add it

Thanks so much for the nomination!!!

[Gray Matter]

Wow, I didn't even realize how heavy the old version was until I updated to the new one. It cut my page load from 4.71432 seconds to 0.46639 seconds.

[Lea Verou]

Yeah, version 1.0 was quite heavy.

This could be a lesson to some that the number of queries that a hack adds by itself doesn't always reflect how heavy the hack is. In this case, as was proven, 2 queries were far better than one.

[Essam]

its working great for my forum thank you

can you make the same idea for ( reported posts ) ?
only moderators forum can view the complaints in the usercp