Highlighting Board Names When There is New Activity?

[Cygnus]

First, I did a search for this (here and .com) but couldn't find anything similar to what I want to do.

So... I have a new site with a lot of boards in the forum. Rather than list them all out in an expanded format, I have nested them and keep them hidden, so that they appear like this:



All of the words above are links with Northern Oregon taking you to a forum with all of those listed as subforums (Adventist, Benson, Cascade Gateway, etc.) and the names of the courses themselves being links to that particular board.

What I would like to do is make it so that when there are new posts in one of these boards since a last visit, that the title would be a different color. So, for example, I come back to the forum and someone has posted a new post in Trojan, it will look like this:



Here is a link to the board in case it is needed for reference:
http://www.nwdiscgolfnews.com/forum/index.php

Is there something already in place that would allow me to do this or does someone know of a quick hack to make this work?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

--------------- Added [DATE]1220062420[/DATE] at [TIME]1220062420[/TIME] ---------------

OK... so I found this function in functions_forumlist.php:

// returns 'on' or 'off' depending on last post info for a forum
function fetch_forum_lightbulb(&$forumid, &$lastpostinfo, &$foruminfo)
{

	global $bb_view_cache, $vbulletin;

	if (is_array($foruminfo) AND !empty($foruminfo['link']))
	{ // see if it is a redirect
		return 'link';
	}
	else
	{
		if ($vbulletin->userinfo['lastvisitdate'] == -1)
		{
			return 'new';
		}
		else
		{
			if ($vbulletin->options['threadmarking'] AND $vbulletin->userinfo['userid'])
			{
				$userlastvisit = (!empty($foruminfo['forumread']) ? $foruminfo['forumread'] : (TIMENOW - ($vbulletin->options['markinglimit'] * 86400)));
			}
			else
			{
				$forumview = intval(fetch_bbarray_cookie('forum_view', $foruminfo['forumid']));

				//use which one produces the highest value, most likely cookie
				$userlastvisit = ($forumview > $vbulletin->userinfo['lastvisit'] ? $forumview : $vbulletin->userinfo['lastvisit']);
			}

			if ($lastpostinfo['lastpost'] AND $userlastvisit < $lastpostinfo['lastpost'])
			{
				return 'new';
			}
			else
			{
				return 'old';
			}
		}
	}
}

And I have found this in the templates:

$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/forum_$forum[statusicon].gif

Someone must know how these two interact. Rather than grab a specific image, I want to add a specific style to a link. This can't be that hard but it is just beyond me at the moment.

Little help?

[Cygnus]

Any way to bump this?

[Opserty]

Try:

<if condition="$forum[statusicon] == 'new'">
    <b>BLABLABLA</b>
<else />
    BLABLABLA
</if>

BLABLABLA - being the code for the link. (You should be able to find it in the same template just below where you found the previous code). Note: The code I posted is untested but I think it should work.

[Cygnus]

Nope. I made the top condition a link with bold red. The second, no style. I see both links - one red, one white.

This is on the front page and needs to check the status of a board nested two deep.

Really? I am the first one to think of this?

[Opserty]

You must have forgot to remove the old link or something. It is impossible to see both links with that condition.

Undo any changes you've made so far and try in the forumhome_subforumbit_post template:

(Replacing everything thats already there, assuming yours is the default one)

<if condition="$forum['statusicon'] == 'new'">
    <b><a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]">$forum[title]</a></b>
<else />
    <a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]">$forum[title]</a>
</if>

[Cygnus]

OK... I am not sure that that will work. Maybe it will... don't know.

The links to the subforums are actually in the description of the parent forum - added through the Forum Manager.

Am I missing something? Could I have done what I am trying to do without touching the forum description field?

[Opserty]

I was under the impression that it was a child forum... otherwise you can't really do it.

A link is just a static piece of text after all...

[Cygnus]

They are links to a child forum.

So... for example, if you look above... Adventist is a child forum under Northern Oregon (as is Benson, Cascade Gateway, etc...). I don't want to list these children on their own line with the status icon image because it would cause a lot of scrollling. Instead, I want to list it as I drew it above with the link changing styles based on new activity.

Does that make any sense? Any way to do this? It still shouldn't be that hard...

--------------- Added [DATE]1220382327[/DATE] at [TIME]1220382327[/TIME] ---------------

Yeah... built in feature. Only took talking about it to figure it out.

Thanks.

[Opserty]

Use the code I suggested in the template I said. Then remove the Links in the forum description (keep a backup of the old description in a text file or something). Then use the inbuilt feature that displays subforums. It should look the same.