answered icons in Private Messenger system (PM)

[Joriz]

As webmaster and admin of a very big
website I get a lot of Private Messages (PM) each day. Because I don't have
always time to answer them all, only answer the important ones and later the
less important ones.
The big problem is with so much PM's that I can

[John__]

I have the same problem as you. I can never remember what ive replied to and what ive not!

I'd love this feature and surprised its never been added.

[Joey Matthews]

Very simple, yet a great suggestion IMO...

I'd love to see this added. ~Joey

[Joriz]

Do also other people want this feature?

Because for me it's needed as soon as possible.

[TestingSomething]

This has been suggested forever and I don't know why it's still not there. It's been in other software for a while.

I think it would actually be easy to make, but I haven't looked closely to be sure.

[Lindsey_]

Hey Basher
What happened to you being in the +Customers group

[Mark]

I'd imagine it would actually be difficult, or even impossible on the way PMs work at the moment.
When you reply to a PM, (from what I can gather without looking at the code) all it does it create a new PM with the content of the PM you are replying to, it doesn't sore the ID number of the PM you are replying to, or note that the original message has been replied to. It *could* set the message as replied to when you click "reply" - but then if you didn't actually send the message, it would still think you did.... unless clicking the reply button inserted a row containing what the id for that PM would be, then a task checks if that PM was actually sent... but that is a lot of work and overhead for something not *really* important.

But, I remember Matt saying that the personal topics feature in Nexus would replace the PM system in IPB 3. So that would do what you want ;)

[atomicknight]

Changing the system isn't hard or impossible. Just have it mark the PM as answered when the user submits the reply form (i.e. add the code to the handler that actual sends the PM).

[Mark]

When the reply is created it doesn't recognise (I think) that it is a reply to a message. It just creates a new message as it would any other and adds the content of the message.
In fact, you could just add the ID number of the message being replied to into the post screen as a post variable and then if that variable is set, update the message - but that could be faked.

[atomicknight]

The message ID is already passed by URL (so it does know to a certain extent that it's a reply). All you really need to check is whether the recipient of the original message is the current user so that people don't mark other people's messages as answered.

[TestingSomething]

I am redoing this message.

ok, this wouldn't be hard at all if only I could find where everything is coming from. If you reply to a message it has a MID and MSID. So that is ALL it needs to do this.

But what's confusing is that in func_msg.php it uses $this->from_member and some others also which arent even defined in that file. MID and MSID show up in messenger.php, but aren't then sent anywhere for this type of operation.

Maybe MID and MSID are only used in the editor and then not passed on to the send message function. However even in the function for showing the form MID and MSID are mentioned nowhere.

If I could just figure out what happens to those inputs, it would be easy to do this. It would only take 1 column added, 2-3 if statements, and I believe not even add any queries.

[TestingSomething]

Hey Basher

What happened to you being in the +Customers group

I let my licenses expire because I own perpetual licenses and don't want to have to keep paying for them or it defeats the purpose of even owning them. The gallery and blog licenses I let expire for now becuase there has not been a single release of either product since they expired.

[Please Delete]

I took my forum offline and only have a test board running IPB. I continue to pay for a license because I want to support the development of future IPB releases so when I need the software again it will kick some serious butt.

[TestingSomething]

Well I supported them enough by paying $370 for two perpetual licenses for forums that are very inactive. (not to mention 2 galleries and 2 blogs) I'm not going to keep tossing money out before I need to. It's inevitable I will have to renew some of them anyway, but there;s no point giving money before I have a need to.

As far as this topic, I don't have time to keep trying to figure out where everything is coming from. I looked in templates also and those don't have inputs with msid and mid in them either, so no clue where those are even coming from to get onto the send form.

Long story short though, this would not be even close to impossible. I think I could have finished it quickly, but I haven't spent enough time familiarizing myself with every setup in IPB to know where everything is coming from.

[Cybertimber2009]

I think its something that should be inplace. Maybe something considered for the next minor revision (2.4.0?) or major version (3.0). But (and of course its not set it stone) that soon PM's would be like a facebook message for a forum topic, you'll see each reply like a topic, but with the people in the message (two, more).

So then it would just be "new message". For now "replied" would be very nice.

[atomicknight]

As far as this topic, I don't have time to keep trying to figure out where everything is coming from. I looked in templates also and those don't have inputs with msid and mid in them either, so no clue where those are even coming from to get onto the send form.

Why is it necessary to know where it's coming from? All you need is for the reply form to be aware of whether the variables are set and their values (if they are set).

[TestingSomething]

Because I was trying to better understand the entire process. Anyway I did find where it changes those over to something else, but this keeps changing functions so many times I don't feel like bothering with it right now when I have a lot of other things I want to be doing. Plus for some reason when I sent the MSID from function send to function send_msg it somehow didn't even keep it throughout the function becuase I had the redirect screen print the variable in it instead of the lang bit and it kept printing nothing. Then I looked in func_msg.php at the send_pm function and after seeing THAT then goes to yet another function, I decided I don't feel like bothering right now becuase I already somehow couldn't get the variable to the next function let alone 2 or 3 more down the line. I don't know what's happening to that variable to make it change to nothing, but oh wlel. Either way I still say this would not be hard at all to add. I myself am just having problems understanding which functions need to be altered at the moment.

[joelle]

It would be very handy to mark private messages with different colors by importance.

[Lindsey_]

I have noticed that in pm system on my board it has a total of 154 pm's in it. I have read every single pm but some still show as unread.

In 3.X could there be a better pm system

[Luke]

I know exactly how the PM system works :).

The problem Professor P is brining up is that when you reply to a PM, it does not store the ID of the original for reference. So if the feature came out today, all the PM's you replied to would show up as un-replied until you replied to them again. Since we're comparing this to an email client, thats not even how an email clients do it anyway, so it really isn't a problem.

When a PM is read there is a simple value called "mt_read" that is either 1(read) or 0(unread). When you view the PM, it gets changed from 0 to 1. All you have to do is change it from 0/1 to 2 when a PM is sent (php edit), and maybe pass the original PM id during post processing (template edit), if it isn't done already (it is passed to the form before hand so it can populate boxes like "to"). After you have that done, you would use a different graphic for each number (template edit).

Definitely doesn't take a rocket scientist to do this. The problem IPS is having is there are so many great features like this they can add, but they all add up in time and expenses. And while they do want to do features like this, they're going to be rewriting a lot of stuff, especially on the user side (finally) for IPB 3.0, which I'm sure will be their focus once Nexus is sea worthy.

Literally, off the top of my head, this would take at most 2 minor skin edits (graphic in list, passing PM id via hidden field in form), a graphic, and a single source edit to func_msg.php (specifically adding a query to modify the original PM with that value).

Then there's another thing to think about: When you know you've replied to a PM (just got feature), being able to change the status to "unread" "read" or "replied".

[Joriz]

Can someone from the staff comment on the feasibility of this feature?

I would like to see this feature soon because now I can't keep track of all the PM's i get and if I have answered to them.

[Dlf]

While were thinking of changes to the PM system ( :P ) I have some of my own:

• A drop down box (or tabs?) that allows the user to see all PMs, sent PMs, replied to PMs, unread PMs, read PMs, etc
• Could we also have a way to prioritize (by color?) the PM's we get? Most important - read, lest probably green (but we get to decide the color(s)?)
• (sub idea) - If by color, an option to see only the color(s) we want - like only the important messages (red), etc.
  

I'll probably come up with more ideas later. :P :P

[Joriz]

Good idea dlf.

I hope the PM system will be inproved in version 3.0 of IP.Board.

[TCWT]

I made a topic with many suggestions for the PM System: http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=227021

[Joriz]

I made a topic with many suggestions for the PM System:

http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=227021

Great idea's yeah. I hope that IPB 3.0 has a better improved PM system which looks and works almost like a webmail system.

I hope the Invision staff will post a blog message about the IPB 3.0 PM system soon. :cool: