UBB.Developers Forums UBB.classic V6.4 - 6.7 Modifications Forum Design Integration Need help with latest threads on 6.5

Hey there! I've been using Latest Threads since last fall and loving it immensely. I just did a server switch and upgraded UBB to the latest version while I was at it. For some reason I can't get the latest threads to update any more.

You can see my main page here -

http://66.221.45.227/code/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

I redownloaded the instructions just to make sure I was doing it right. The area it says to watch for in ubb_lib_posting.cgi is no longer exactly like described, so I put the code snippet at the bottom of append_index. I'm attaching below what the whole block looks like. But even tho I refresh the cache, it never updates the threads any more.

Any thoughts? My users LOVED that feature and are clamboring to have it working again ...

Lisa
BellaOnline.com

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

sub append_index {

# sr parameters
# $_[0] : forum number
# $_[1] : topic number
# $_[2] : forum permissions (check to see if private)
# $_[3] : post number
# $_[4] : message
# $_[5] : subject

my $message = $_[4];
my $subject = $_[5];

# only index if search is ON
unless ($vars_search{AllowSearch} eq 'FALSE') {

my $index_file;
# index file to update will depend on index method...
if ($vars_search{IndexMethod} eq 'ONEFILE') {
$index_file = "$vars_config{CachePath}/search_index/forumindex.cgi";
} else {
$index_file = "$vars_config{CachePath}/search_index/forumindex$_[0].cgi";
}

# clean fields
my $shrunk = &indexify($message);
$subject =~ s/|/|/sg;

# assemble index line
my $index_line = join("|", $_[0], $_[1], $_[3], $GotTime{HyphenDate}, $subject, $shrunk);

# append index file
mkdir("$vars_config{CachePath}/search_index", SEVENSEVENSEVEN); #jic
&AppendFileAsString($index_file, "$index_linen");

} # if search is activated

#LISA ADDED CODE FOR THREADS
&RequireCode("$vars_config{CGIPath}/ubb_latest_threads.cgi");
&Latest_Threads;
#END LISA CODE


} # end append_index

Why are you using a hack for a feature that's built in now? Go create a Content Island.

You didn't look at my page

http://www.bellaonline.com/forum/ultimatebb.cgi

Each set is for a CHANNEL of between 3 and 30 forums. You can't do that with a content island!

I do use content islands in my gaming walkthroughs -

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art170.asp

that creates a link with just my computer gaming posts. But I still need a way to get a *channel* worth of posts boiled down to the top 3 for that front page.

Everyone is really pushing me to fix it, no ideas??

Ah, but you can do that with a content island, it's just turned off by default.

Find the "CIForceMultiSelect" line in ubb_lib (about 150 lines in), and change the 0 to 1 - that will allow you to select multiple forums rather than just one forum or all forums. Do note that there might be a small performance hit to posting, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Whoa. I could use this too (we'll see)...I wish I knew sooner.


Oooo...I'm the 5,000 poster here!

Teehee.

Intriguing, I didn't know you could do that! Still, if you compare what I get from LT -

http://www.bellaonline.com/forum/ultimatebb.cgi

you'll see they're small and fit seamlessly into the available space, with just the icon, subject and poster name. In comparison, the content islands -

http://www.bellaonline.com/gaming/strategy_lib_lotrwalk.html

are ideal for 'external single use' but would be huge as far as placement on that front page. So either I'd have to edit them and make them small and pretty and lose their functionality as standalone items, or I'd have to keep them huge and then they'd take up tons of space on the front page.

Now if I could have TWO sets - one large and usable by the hosts in their articles for their particular topics, and the one small and usable on a channel level for the front page, that would work for me But they really are two different purposes.

I guess nobody can help me with the lt code. I'm really hoping it is just related to my new server being initialized on Hong Kong time, and the fact that it thought it was 1am on Sunday a few hours ago. Maybe once we cross the "real" 1am EST, the latest threads will kick into action ... I can see the file in /lt/index/ updating but nothing else is.

Use the CSS format to style them manually. There's a link to the CSS format description in the control panel.

The best CI integration I've ever seen is here - http://www.bowlingfans.com/

Try to find them - they blend right in with the rest of the page...

OK, I spent another few hours trying to force the old hack code to work and just couldn't. So I have given in and have started recoding the entire page using the content island, which is a fair amount of work but I guess worth it in the end. At least this way my assistants can manage those lists in the control panel instead of having to wait for me to update config files.

You can see the new look here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/forum/ultimatebb.cgi

my remaining two complaints are that

1) I still have that "title" on top of each content island. I'd rather just have the 3 posts show up in that area

2) I lost the cool icons next to each post

Any thoughts there?

You can set the title class to display: none - that'll get rid of that...

Adding the icons will require hacking the code a bit... check out the css subroutine in public_ci_posts - should be pretty straightforward...

I'm in a similar boat to lisashea.

Content Islands don't have the same features as LT.

IIRC, the UBBDEV homepage uses LT for the sidebar "recent news", "latest posts", etc. I can tell it isn't a CI because the asterisk is followed by the name of the forum, then the post title. Is this correct? If so, how did you make LT work on 6.4?

I see that the "latest posts" sidebar to the right ---> is a stock CI, no forum name!

I either need to mod the CI output to include the forum name (which is proving beyond my limited perl skills), or get LT to work.

Somebody please help!

Here's my old page using LT
http://www.skusaonline.com/

and my test page using CIs (and one UBB News call)
http://ggrdesign.com/skusa2003/

we have been using ubbnews since ~5.47b We've never used latest threads, it's a good mod we just never used it.

We'll be updating this week to 6.5 and ci for the front page and elsewhere

btw, nice implementation lisashea - looks like a lotta hardwork there

Thanks, Allen. I'd never used ubbnews in the summary format before. I just did and now I see the similarity!

Hopefully as people move over to CI, there will be more tools to play with the output. I really want to be able to add the forum name next to the titles in the summary (like ubbnews does).

Cheers,
Greg

Very useful hack. You can modify it to function like Latest Threads and CI. With UBB News and CI you can basically make an impressive main page (of a site) just with Subject Headings.

lisashea did an amazing job with her "Forum Summary". I've only seen one other board that does something similar and since I'm continuously adding new forums for new divisions I'll definitely consider modifying the Forum Summary when the time comes.

Primetime, if you can point me in the direction to mod ubbnews so it does what LT did, I'd appreciate it!

The main issue I have is that I want one ubbnews session to pull from several forums, but to only display the most recent topic. (not one for each forum in the session).

Thanks.