Clone Post (Not: topic)

[globetrotting]

After being forced to upgrade from a perfectly well adapted phpbb 2.22 board by my provider last week, I now dearly miss the function to clone a single post (among others).
Clone post (not: topic!) is crucial to how our board (140.000 posts) works and it's lack was one of the main reasons I was very reluctant to upgrade all this time.

The clone post function in the old phpbb2 board was able to chose a forum / topic into which the clone could be merged or posted to (nice but not essential as long as the clone can be moved and merged) and it basically maintained the date of the original post (which is very desirable).

Afaik the last time a clone post Mod was offered was for 3.0x: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/clone_post/ and I can't find any work around to replace this function in a 3.28 board. Cloning a whole topic and extracting only the desired post makes a mess for the moderator.

For the time being our board is crippled by not having this function and I'd be grateful for any feasable work around asap, even ready to donate to get this done somehow.

Thanks

[warmweer]

Afaik the last time a clone post Mod was offered was for 3.0x: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/clone_post/ and I can't find any work around to replace this function in a 3.28 board. Cloning a whole topic and extracting only the desired post makes a mess for the moderator.

The workaround is quite easy:
Install the changeposttime extension (by javiexin)

1. View the post you want to clone and take note of the datetime it was posted
2. Use the quote function and copy the contents of the post without the opening and closing [quote] statements, take note of the post title if you want to include that in the clone
3. Paste the contents you have just copied into a new post (in the forum and topic were you want it to appear) and save
4. Change the poster using the built in phpBB feature
5. Change the post time of the new post to the one post time of the original post
6. Save

It seems a lot of work but it isn't at all.

[3Di]

The above method will mess things out.

Use native Moderator Tools: https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3 ... _modtools/

• Clone the topic into the desired destination forum.
• Batch delete (in MCP) all those undesired posts from the clone

Now you have a new topic with only the desired copied posts and you can

• Merge the cloned topic into another one or vice-versa
• Leave it alone as it is
• Wait for someone who will write/port that MOD for you

[warmweer]

The above method will mess things out.

How will this mess things out?

I've been using this method since 2018 and I've introduced it on 3 other forums and never had a problem.
The only thing which is always "incorrect" is the new post_timestamp which breaks the post_timestamp<>post_id natural sequence. And the risk of having 2 posts with identical post_timestamp is minimal: it happened just once and then I edited the post_timestamp in the database (adding 1).

[globetrotting]

Thanks all for your fast help!

I can imagine that Warmweer's method can become a pretty fast work around (for a function that imho is so basically essential that it shouldn't need a work around in first place).
Except when changing post dates, only inbuilt functions are being used, which shouldn't mess things up at all.

However, once the changeposttime extension (by javiexin) becomes outdated (author died, RIP) and does not reliably take care of all depending instances anymore, there could be trouble ahead if changing dates, I guess?

[warmweer]

However, once the changeposttime extension (by javiexin) becomes outdated (author died, RIP) and does not reliably take care of all depending instances anymore, there could be trouble ahead if changing dates, I guess?

That's difficult to determine at this stage.
The fact is that if making a copy of a post and changing its date, causes a problem (now or in the future), that problem is caused by changing the date, whether it's on a copy or not.
I'm still curious about 3Di's statement that the method will mess things out because basically it implies that it's the extension that will mess things out, and if that is the case, a better system should be devised (e.g. an extra table field identifying the post as a copy and an extra field containing the post_time to be displayed? )

The change post_time feature is very handy on certain forums and will be requested for 3.3 I guess.

[globetrotting]

The change post_time feature is very handy on certain forums and will be requested for 3.3 I guess.

I second that, together with a clone_post feature.

[globetrotting]

I have to clone posts many times daily, mostly the last postings of long topics which span over several pages.
The original last post gets edited and remains partly in the topic, while it's modified clone usually becomes the first post of a new topic (or gets merged into an existing one).
Sorry to say, but both mentioned methods to accomplish that suck:
They waste a lot of time and bare potential for chaos compared to the simple clone_post that used to exist for phpBB2 and phpBB 3.0., done by asinshesq.

A board consists of posts, they are the smallest unit of a forum and therefore should have a simple way to be controlled or handled (copied) individually and independently of the topic they might be in.
That seems quite basic and essential to me, compared to many other existing bells & whistles.

Thanks both for confirming, that leaves me with just one option:

• Wait for someone who will write/port that MOD for you

asinshesq, if you're listening...?

[3Di]

... even ready to donate to get this done somehow.

You can post in the Wanted! forum then, perhaps someone will take this job for you.

[warmweer]

...
asinshesq, if you're listening...?

I wasn't aware that asinhesq had made a clone post MOD.
I had a few forum conversations with him (perhaps also PM) during the phpBB2 era. IIRC we made a post sort order MOD independent of each other (mine included users being able to select (and store I think) the sort order, while asinhesq's was admin defined).

I'll search the phpBB2 MOD forums (hope to find the mod) and (if I find it) investigate the code to find out what he did and see if it can be transformed to an extension.

Added:
Can't find it but now I'm thinking it might be in the phpBB3.0 forums.
Something for tomorrow.

[3Di]

Can't find it but now I'm thinking it might be in the phpBB3.0 forums.

...
Afaik the last time a clone post Mod was offered was for 3.0x: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/clone_post/ ...
...

Good luck.

[warmweer]

...
Afaik the last time a clone post Mod was offered was for 3.0x: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/clone_post/ ...
...

Missed that. Thanks

[globetrotting]

I'll ... investigate the code to find out what he did and see if it can be transformed to an extension.

So kind and helpful, thank you warmweer!

[Kailey]

I'm actually surprised this hasn't been made into an extension previously. Giving the code a quick once over, it seems like it would be quite easy. I have some professional obligations to take care of that will keep me busy until February 10, but I'll look at it in more detail after that date.

[globetrotting]

That sounds great, thank you so much!
So I will wait and see how these two options of hope will work out in the following weeks before undertaking further efforts.

I'm actually surprised this hasn't been made into an extension previously.

So was I over the years, when nobody seemed to dearly miss the clone_post function.
So glad that my request seems to fall on understanding ears despite its unpopularity.