Forum Display Enhancements - [AJAX] Helpful Threads - Thread Rating System

After releasing Helpful Answers, a post rating system, many users commented that they wanted a more interactive way to rank and then sort threads. Helpful Threads is an AJAX based system that does exactly that letting users rate individual threads and then lets you sort by those ratings. The addon also switches from a positive / negative rating to a point system with one admin option.

Designed for maximum flexibility:

This addon is built to be flexible and offers several customization options including:

• The ability to decide which forums are open for helpful answer ratings.
• The ability to customize the AJAX message shown after a post is rated.
• The ability to set a minimum post count for users to avoid abuse.
• The ability to use a rating system and assign points.
• The ability to customize how threads are ranked.
• The ability to auto reset votes for thread rankings.
• Template driven display that can easily be customized to your forum.

Load & Scale:
This addon is designed to work with small to large sites and does not alter any existing tables.

Modification Installation:
This addon requires uploading multiple files, installing a vBulletin product and enabling the feature in any forums you wish. One template modification is required. Please see the included install file for detailed instructions.

If you are not seeing the rating bar double check that you have enabled the feature in the forum you are in and made the template change.

Coming Soon:
Like with Helpful Answers, the initial release is intended to get people exposed to this tool. Coming down the road I will be adding in more complex ranking options, the ability to report on threads, better AJAX support and much more.

Anonymous Stats Tracking (optional):
vBulletin forums reach millions of consumers around the world yet little is known about their habits and opinions. This addon was released to the public out of requests but also to further the research of forum user's behaviors and actions through collecting the most basic data on thousands of sites.

By default this addon will pass basic rating data (positive or negative) to a 3rd party site for statistical purposes. Only the most basic data is captured (the vote and your site name) and no user information or specific forum details are logged, not even an IP address.

While you may disable this feature through the administrative options I ask that you consider leaving it in place to help this research effort and insure the continued support of the addon.

The tracking feature uses the php library cURL on a 5 second timeout. If cURL is not installed this option is automatically disabled.

Updates:
- 08/29/2009 - Release of 1.0.2 stable

Other Versions:
This addon will work with 3.7 and is supported in the same thread.

[Ted S]

Holding for template install

[Ted S]

This addon requires a mandatory template change as follows:

Open the template THREADBIT and find:

<if condition="$show['threadratings'] AND $show['threadrating']"><span style="float:$stylevar[right]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_rating]/rating_$thread[rating].gif" border="0" alt="<phrase 1="$thread[votenum]" 2="$thread[voteavg]">$vbphrase[thread_rating_x_votes_y_average]</phrase>" /></span></if>

And replace with:

$helpful_threads

-----------------------------------------------------

As an alternative you can add a new cell to your forum display page to improve how voting shows. This is shown in the screen shots in the main post.

Step 1: Open the template THREADBIT and remove

<if condition="$show['threadratings'] AND $show['threadrating']"><span style="float:$stylevar[right]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_rating]/rating_$thread[rating].gif" border="0" alt="<phrase 1="$thread[votenum]" 2="$thread[voteavg]">$vbphrase[thread_rating_x_votes_y_average]</phrase>" /></span></if>

Step 2: In THREADBIT find <if condition="$show['threadmoved']">

Step 3: BEFORE this code add:

<td>$helpful_threads</td>

Step 4: Open the template FORUMDISPLAY and find:

<td class="thead" width="150" align="center" nowrap="nowrap"><span style="white-space:nowrap"><a href="$sorturl&amp;order=desc&amp;sort=lastpost" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[last_post]</a> $sortarrow[lastpost]</span></td>

Step 5: BEFORE this add:

<td class="thead" width="150" align="center">Ranking</td>

[1320Nation]

"Step 3) Enable the system in any of your forums by visiting the forum options and scrolling to the end of the page. "

This option does not appear in my forum options for either mod; Helpful Threads or Helpful Answers.

Any idea why?

Also I get a blank grey color space in forumdisplay, and only the thumbs section in threads.

[1320Nation]

I also got the follow error after doing to bulk forum enabler.

PHP Code:

helpfulthreads_vote.yesno, helpfulthreads_vote.helpfulthreadid 
                                FROM board_helpfulthread
                                LEFT JOIN board_helpfulthreads_vote as helpfulthreads_vote ON (helpfulthreads_vote.threadid = helpfulthread.threadid AND helpfulthreads_vote.userid = 4202)
                                WHERE helpfulthread.threadid = 5;

MySQL Error   : Unknown column 'helpfulthread.goodrank' in 'field list'
Error Number  : 1054
Request Date  : Saturday, August 29th 2009 @ 07:43:34 PM
Error Date    : Saturday, August 29th 2009 @ 07:43:34 PM
Script        : http://*****/forums/showthread.php?t=5
Referrer      : http://****/forums/staging-lanes/
IP Address    : 
Username      : 
Classname     : vB_Database
MySQL Version : 5.0.45 


[Ted S]

Disable the addon to avoid errors.

I will review and see what could have caused this bug.

[Hornstar]

Thanks, another great add-on by you. not sure if I will need this yet, but I will keep this in mind if I do.

[1320Nation]

Originally Posted by Ted S

Disable the addon to avoid errors.

I will review and see what could have caused this bug.

Thanks and I appreciate your hard work and efforts.

[New Joe]

Originally Posted by psychobike

"Step 3) Enable the system in any of your forums by visiting the forum options and scrolling to the end of the page. "

This option does not appear in my forum options for either mod; Helpful Threads or Helpful Answers.

Any idea why?

Also I get a blank grey color space in forumdisplay, and only the thumbs section in threads.

I have the same problem.

[Ted S]

Originally Posted by New Joe

I have the same problem.

Have you:

1. Enabled the option in a forum?
2. Added the necessary template code?