Could be handy to have an option which updates the topics in the showforum view without having to manually refresh the entire page. Maybe a per user group option as it may be server intensive. Otherwise maybe an "update" button that works like in the users online area so the entire page doesn't reload just the updated topics moving to the top. Thoughts?

Even if you limit to to select user groups, I think it will just be too server intensive.

This would be one of those useless AJAX implementations - you're still loading nearly the same amount of data, so you'd only be doing it to show you know how to use AJAX - and to many, it would actually show you don't (properly) know how to use it.

I'd figure you can set it up so that the AJAX asks "are there new pages" if so the page returns it formatted as an array (somehow? sperated by line returns?) and the javascript adds it in.

Hardly intensive, way less data.


Just an idea.

I've seen this implement for "View New Posts" in a board. It works pretty well on a busy board. When someone posts, I assume a last post date is kept somewhere so it can be checked relatively quickly by the "View New Posts" clients. The AJAX simply returns the new row/rows in the table of "View New Posts" and inserts them at the top (and deletes the old entry if they are in the list being shown). A Javascript count down time is shown on the page which shows the number of seconds before the AJAX fires off to check for new updates. This gives the user some visual feedback and keeps people from hitting the refresh which does a full query to get the new posts again.

BTW, here is the link to an implementation like I was talking about above: http://spy.macrumors.com/. It isn't the exact one I was thinking about above, but it does illustrate a dynamic View New Posts lists on a busy board.

I personally probably would use something like this for everyone, but it would be a nice feature for admins who want to watch what is going on on their board.