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Name: Latest Threads (updated 10/10/01)

Version: 1.2.1

Author: Casual

Future plans development: (updated 10/3/01)
  • Auto update save-to file
  • I-Frame support for non-SSI websites

Requirements:
  • UBB 6.0 - 6.05

Features in v1.2.1:
  • Minor Bug Fixes
  • Now works stand-alone thus allowing multiple streams.
  • Tease/display forums Latest Threads via SSI on any page on your Website (if the server allows)
  • Save to file (saves in NonCGIPath)
  • Displays latest threads listings regardless of date/time.
  • Select number of threads to display on a page
  • 13 different display options or create your own custom display.
  • Filters forums by forum number in Exclude or Include modes.
  • Uses it's own cache file and leaves the get_daily routine alone.
  • Sister site pickup script add-on
  • Plus more ...

Pictures/Links:
[*]Left screen shot is taken from BT's website at http://www.kvr-vst.com/, a very good example, BT nice work!!
[*]Right screen shot is from the Santa Cruz Sentinel [Linked Image]
Files: Download - Latest Threads v1.2.1 - profusion.iwarp.com

Please report any bugs or suggestions here.

Casual ([email protected])

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I'll try to add it into 6.04e since 04e and 6.05 aren't that different.

My Suggestions:
-Varibles to show = Date Of Post, Time Of Post, Topic Starter, No. Replies.

-Ability to filter forums by number, so you can show what you select.

-Multiple streams. Eg.: So you can have two outputs, but one might only show the latest threads in a specific forum (filtered forum output) to the other, which could show EVERYTHING or just another filtered forum etc.

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Thanks for this djcasual, I've been waiting for this one laugh

A bug - the page limit always shows one less than the entered number so if I want to how the last 6 topics I have to set $page_limit to 7.

Also in the instructions it should be ubb_lib_posting.cgi instead of ubb_lib_postings.cgi

Cheers

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Quote
quote:
Mark, thanks for you suggestions. Heres the plans for the near future.

Total Posts (No. Replies) will be added in the next release.

Date Of Post, Time Of Post and Topic Starter options. Although I see some complications with the date and time options I do plan to add these at a later time.

filtering forums, I've actually started working on this before I released v1.0beta, but ran into a lot of problems. I have no release date for this option.

Multiple streams, this shouldn't be hard to do, but untill I can get filtering forums to work I won't be doing any work here.

Thanks for you suggestions.

Casual

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Quote
quote:
BT,

Thanks for testing Latest Threads SSI and for pointing out the correction.

The bug your getting in $page_limit is not a bug from Latest Threads SSI. The bug resides in the UBB 6.x code. If a recent thread was deleted UBB 6.x doesn't remove the deleted thread listing in the index file.

This index file is created by UBB and stores the latest posts information. Since a recent thread was deleted but never removed from the index file, Latest Threads reads the index and searches for this post but returns no information because the thread no longer exists (the post is ignored). My problem here is Latest Threads still counts the deleted post as 1 listing.

Untill I can figure out more about how this index file is created I have no quick solution. If your board is clean and people don't delete topics very often then you won't see this problem too much.

Otherwise I'm pretty sure by now your board is showing 7 threads if you selected 7 as your $page_limit and no one has deleted any recent threads.

I hope this helps.

Thanks.

Casual

[ July 05, 2001 09:42 PM: Message edited by: djcasual ]

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Wahey! You have no idea how grateful I am for this hack, I've been waiting for Activethreads (new version) to do this. Just being able to display the latest threads on the front page usually does great things for the marketing of a ubb. So far no problems with it (displaying only topics).

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Yep, cool, it's working OK now, I had recently deleted a thread smile

Thanks a lot for this!

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The is just the teaser I was looking for on my front page. If you could get a forum filter in it then it will be perfect. Thanks for a great hack!!

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Ummmm I'm gettin the dredded SSI error when I try and include this frown I've tried ALL the different ways of including the file that I can, the one I'm using atm is but it just wont work frown http://www.razor-tech.net any ideas ppl ? the URL to the lastest forum threads is http://www.razor-tech.net/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=latest_threads

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Hi,

my server is not allowing ssi "exec" and "virtual", so I tried a free account at f2s.com for the SSI. The file is ok I think :
http://www.dbode.f2s.com/ssi.shtml
but you´ll see - it doesn´t work. At my forums, the script is fine :
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=latest_threads
Is this because I execute it from an external server ?

Is it possible to implement it otherwise ? Php ?

Thanks for your help
Dennis


Regards Dennis Bode
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Webmaster of Hardwareluxx.com
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You can't include files from an external server with SSI. With PHP it should be no problem.

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when i go to test the script in my browser, http://*********.com/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=latest_threads

i just get a blank page, any suggestions?

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Have you made any posts 'AFTER' installing it?

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yup, i made one post

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Quote
quote:
I believe this was fixed in 6.1

Nice work casual...:)


- Allen wavey
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seems to be working ok now, that was starange

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I just want to thank everyone for trying out Latest Threads v1.0Beta. So far I haven't found any bugs.

Here's what the next release v1.1 will have:

*Filter Forums
- After doing some serious testing I've finally got this feature to work. (Filters work by forum number and not by forum name ie: 01,02,10)

*More Display options
- Topic Starter Name
- Date Stamp
- Time Stamp
- No. Replies/Posts

*Remote server pickup script add-on.
- For those of you who run seperate servers for you UBB and your Website. This script will run on your Website Server end and will communicate with the UBB server, grabs the latest Threads and brings them to your Website Server. (requires CGI/SSI on the Website server)

I will keep you posted when the new version will be available. cool

Thanks

Casual

[ July 06, 2001 04:20 PM: Message edited by: djcasual ]

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Sounds awesome Allen! I can't wait for the update. This hack is exactly what I needed as a teaser for my front page and looks great!

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Outstanding hack. Now I need to figure out how to change the fonts and colors...not hard...but time consuming.

May I recommend a CP function for this?

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Well... I have to learn php then... bye for the next two weeks ;-)

Dennis


Regards Dennis Bode
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I have a suggestion. Could you make it so the originator of the thread's name is posted and not the latest poster?

Let's some idiot starts a thread like "Latest Threads SSI hack SUCKS!" and I answer their post and sai "Dude, it's a great hack and we all need something like this on our front page".

Well on my front page it's gonna say
"Latest Threads SSI hack SUCKS!" by Rinkrat.

See what I mean..

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Works very fine.

see http://www.kurzgeschichten.de

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Quote
quote:
Yes 'Topic Starter' option will be included in the new version 1.1.

Please read post 17 in this thread for a full list of new features the new release will have. wink

Thanks

Casual

[ July 07, 2001 09:08 PM: Message edited by: djcasual ]

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Sounds good casual smile


- Allen wavey
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Could someone please elaborate on what would have to be done to call this script from an external server i.e a 'sister' site?

Thanks
Steve
www.ravensnest2.com/ravensboard.htm

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You can include files from a external server like a SSI call with PHP:

Code
code:

This may not work on a server that runs windows.

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Mmmm...that didn't work. Actually the only thing that's stopping me putting this in a fram epage on the sister site is that the links do not open in a new window (like UBB) but in my tiny frame.

Umm...yes I'm thick as a brick but could maybe someone fix that laugh

Steve
www.ravensnest2.com/ravensboard.htm

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How server intensive is this gonna be if I PHP include the url of ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=latest_threads into a site that gets 30,000 hits a day?

Can you come up with an alternative option where it takes the latest threads and writes them to a html file or even a txt file? That would be a lot better IMO, if it's even possible. I know NewsPro does something similar where you can include a txt file with the latest amount of posts you specify.

Other than that I am just waiting on the forum filter option before I trial run it and overload the processes on my server laugh

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You can feed the results from a different server to a html file with a little cgi:

Code
code:

You may run it every 5 minutes or so with a cron job.

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Quote
quote:
Painlord,

Implementing the save_to_file option is easy to do but you will still need to run the script manually (or use a crontab entry) to get an updated listings file. I'll make sure it's added on version 1.1.

From this I got a great idea!: Have latest threads auto-update to a file only when a new posts/reply's are submitted. I have a theory on how this can be done.

Making Latest_threads auto-update only when new content is posted is a little harder to do but would be the ultimate solution. I was looking more at the UBB code and I think I may know exactly how I can accomplish this. This would take care of any I/O & CPU overload in resources for any site small or big.

Adding auto-update will be the first thing I do after I release v1.1.

Thanks

Casual

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Quote
quote:
Can these display features be turned off and on?

And can a similar hack be developed to show the latest threads in ONE particular forum?


This is the designed behavior.
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You could probably manually turn them off, after all they're only likely to be variables (make your own manual format internally etc.).

As for the other Question, Forum Filtering is in v1.1 and that will do what you want. I'm not sure whether he's going to allow for multiple outputs and filtering (same time) just yet though? < That's what I want =).

Having said that you could easily edit the code to call latest_threads2 or something like that. Yet it'd take a bit of time.

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Quote
quote:
Yes there will be display options to give you several different combinations. Yes there will be a filter_forums option and it will allow you to exclude or include forums by the forum number.

Quote
quote:
mark99, I'm actually having a hard time with multiple streams (I thought this would be easy). You shouldn't try to create a new latest_threads2 or else cache files will conflict between your different streams. Last night while I was testing I made latest_threads work standalone but ran into many UBB version conflicts. Works in 6.05 but failed in 6.04x. I hope to nail this one soon.

Someone mentioned a Control Panel earlier in the thread. I don't know if this is such a good idea and could conflict with the multiple streams idea. One main goal I have is to modify less code in the UBB files and work more in the ubb_latest_threads.cgi file. I think CP's are just asking for trouble, and I know Active Topics has CP problems. Especially since infopop comes out with so many new version all the time, I would like to stay away from the ubb code if I could. What do you guys think?

Is a CP needed?

Thanks

Casual

p.s. v1.1 will be released thursday evening 7/12/01 laugh

[ July 11, 2001 07:39 PM: Message edited by: djcasual ]

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Do whatever you think is best; I rather have a safer and more functional, yet manually edited script, then one with less and some CP functions.

Less face it, this is a forum for UBB Hacks and if you come here with no understanding of code at all then there's really no point =). In other words, it's not really an issue.

Don't be pressured, just try to get the features working first and consider aesthetics later. As for multiple streams, hmm with the original script you just called the active.cgi file directly, changing internal format (HTML) and variables and copying the file to say active1.cgi and calling both for two different outputs.

Perhaps the solution is to reverse the code for multiple streams so you don't call from the forum, but the file? There's a reason the original didn't call directly as well, probably the same one. I realise this isn't the best way of doing it, but it'd be very flexible and to be honest I've only ever cared that things do what you want them to do, never mind how you get it that way =).

[ July 12, 2001 04:24 AM: Message edited by: mark99 ]

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I hope you guys enjoy the new version. Please drop me some feedback. Thanks

Casual

[ July 12, 2001 10:04 PM: Message edited by: djcasual ]

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nevermind laugh

[ July 13, 2001 12:24 AM: Message edited by: DzeDom ]

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Quote
quote:

CP integration is cool, but only if needed. The more standalone something like this can be casual, the better. Much less modifying of files every time a new version comes out equals much less support headaches for you wink

I'll try this on the db forum and see how it runs smile


- Allen wavey
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This is the downlow:

The hack is installed and works great when I enter the address manually into my browser. The problem comes when trying to call it. I know SSI works on my server because most of my page is made up of it, but the line of code in the install instructions does not work when I try to call it up using SSI. In fact, the server ignores it completely, as the line of code is the exact same when I view the source on the loaded page. I've tried using include file instead of include virtual, but that doesn't work either. I've tried using the entire url instead of just my "forum/cgi/ultimebb.cgiandsoon" and that doesn't work either. I need help, anyone who wants to give it will get the everlasting joy of helping a poor child in his quest of world domination. :-)

Thanks.
SuperG


Laterz,
G
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You have the option of saving it as "latest_threads.html" don't you? Can you include that to where you need it?


- Allen wavey
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Hi,

I tried to call latest_threads.html via php - but the problem is that when I include it in a html file, my server is not executing php - so I can just call php in php3 or 4 files... is it possible to execute php in html files ?

I did a workaround which is bad because netscape users can´t view it - I took an iframe tag to include latest_threads...

By the way, this one is VERY useful - it helps communities to profit from a good startpage.

Dennis


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