[CDB] Live topic update

[Ger]

So if a user is on the last page, the live updates won't appear?

The opposite.
The check is only needed when a user is on the last page of a topic, so it's only executed on the last page. That will reduce the server load significantly while your user's will still have all the benefits.

[kim902]

I've updated the extension. It now has a setting for the interval to check for new posts and it only executes the check when the user is on the last page of a topic.
Also some modifications to the style and language.

Where is the settings too i have looked everywhere and dont see any ?

[Ger]

ACP -> Tab General -> Load settings -> First block: Interval for live topic update

[kim902]

The one place i did not look i went to post settings thanx.

[Ger]

In an ideal world, I would have posted an update this week that asynchronously pulls and displays the actual new posts without the need of a complete reload. Unfortunately I won't be making this feature.

Reason for this is that I would have to rebuild most of viewtopic.php to make things work as they should:

1. Check auth for visibillity (don't show unapproved or soft deleted posts to regular users)
2. Friends/foes check
3. Display moderator tools for posts if needed
4. Mark read status
5. Handle correct sort order
6. Parse attachments
7. Fetch user profile fields
8. Handle notification marks (when you're quoted and show the post, mark notification as read)
9. Handle all the 15 events in viewtopic

And probably more I've missed at this moment.
Also, It would probably make things quite difficult to keep up to date with each phpBB update.

Another thing that would be quite a PITA is that there is no separate template file for a post row, there is only 1 template file for the complete viewtopic page. Of course I could simple copy it and strip the unnecessary parts, but it will also mean that users with other style than prosilver will probably complain about errors.

All in all it comes down to the fact that viewtopic.php is quite old school in it's code, hasn't changed very much in the last decade (just a few features shoved into it).

TL;DR: functionality of this extension won't change: clicking on the bar will simply reload the viewtopic page and direct you to the first unread post.

[jackennils]

That's a pitty.

[Ger]

Upped to beta

[gio73]

Nice one Ger keep up the good work

[lifeguard81]

Nice job Ger, you make realy nice extensions!

[Ger]

Thanks guys

[AmigoJack]

I would have to rebuild most of viewtopic.php

Have you considered requesting just that and parsing the full HTML5 DOM to recognize new posts? Which should then be easily movable into the current document?

[Ger]

I would have to rebuild most of viewtopic.php

Have you considered requesting just that and parsing the full HTML5 DOM to recognize new posts? Which should then be easily movable into the current document?

I have briefly considered and dismissed the idea. It would be very ugly in the first place since a single post is only a very small portion of an entire viewtopic page.
Next, it would be very hard to account for every style. Of course I know prosilver and the default phpBB output, but what about custom styles and extensions that change the expected output? It would mean I can only support a vanilla phpBB install and pray that it works on anything else. It would probably also mean that I would have quite some work explaining that over and over again even if I stated it in the requirements.

All that for a very small benefit.

[AmigoJack]

I don't expect any style to break the habit of having i.e. id="p14844151" in the wrapping element. This way around you don't have to take care for permissions, sort order, current page, language and whatnot - it's already rendered the way you need it. Which sounds less problematic than maintaining your own copy of /viewtopic.php.

You can still query your own PHP file to ask for new posts, which in return queries /viewtopic.php to get it fully rendered and already cuts it down to only the new posts (server side processing has only advantages: PCRE over REs in JS, saving traffic, most likely faster...).

[Ger]

You can still query your own PHP file to ask for new posts, which in return queries /viewtopic.php to get it fully rendered and already cuts it down to only the new posts (server side processing has only advantages: PCRE over REs in JS, saving traffic, most likely faster...).

Using regular expressions for this kind of stuff always reminds me of Mr. Monroe:

Wait, forgot to escape a space. Wheeeeee[taptaptap]eeeeee.

It's just hackish.

[Ger]

Upped to RC, I'll submit this to the CDB within a couple of days if no issues come up.