Download: (Wolf) Recent Posts (timed trial)

[Wolfie]

File Name: (Wolf) Recent Posts (timed trial)
File Submitter: Wolfie
File Submitted: 19 Nov 2010
File Updated: 21 Nov 2010
File Category: Hooks and Plugins

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Do NOT test this on a huge board. Someone tried it for me and it encountered issues. For smaller boards, this should be perfectly fine, however for large boards, this can cause issues. I'm tossing around a couple of ideas to achieve the desired function without causing issues, so please don't give up hope.

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This is a timed trial for testing purposes. It is set to expire on December 1st, 2010.

Features of this hook include:
* On/off via settings
* Number of recent posts to show
* Display original authors name or not
* Forums to exclude from pulling posts from

I have a couple of other features in mind to include, however I want to make sure that this hook will not use up a lot of resources, so please report any issues.

Click here to download this file

[Aisha]

Hmm, I've seen something like this and it crashed my board. :o Is it safe? :U

[Wolfie]

I have it running on my site. However, my site is extremely low volume, so need others to test it out. There may be a small bug in it, which I'd be interested in finding and correcting, but also want to have it tested on boards that get some activity. The more activity the better, because I need to know that the hook won't be a resource hog. If it is, then I may have to scrap the idea.

[mistera]

Great, thanks for that :thumbsup:

[Wolfie]

Please post back and let me know if you experience any issues at all, especially any dealing with a higher resource load.

[mistera]

I will !

An idea of price for this hook after december ?

A wish for this hook : Allow user to choose number of reply (like 5-10-20 or 30)

[Nervosa]

Few comments.
Change the layout a little, should have the title first, not who recently posted.
Would be nice to show what forum the topic is from.
Dont need to know who created the topic.

Maybe something like:
{Title} in {Forum}
{Date} by {User that replied}

[Wolfie]

I will !

An idea of price for this hook after december ?

A wish for this hook : Allow user to choose number of reply (like 5-10-20 or 30)

I'm still deciding on the price, but whether or not this even becomes available is dependent on how reliable it is under heavy loads. I might include a feature to have it skip if the load is beyond a certain threshold, so that it won't add to a servers load if it's already at a certain point, or at the least if it adds to it, it'll prevent itself from causing too much damage. I'll have to see if it's something that I can do first though.

As for allowing the member to choose, that could cause issues. For example, if everyone decides to view the maximum number of latest posts, then that's more of a draw on resources. By allowing the admin to control the limit, they can keep it at a low value. Not saying no to the idea, just no at this point. Also, I'd need to figure out a way to let the member change it.

[Wolfie]

Few comments.

Change the layout a little, should have the title first, not who recently posted.

Would be nice to show what forum the topic is from.

Dont need to know who created the topic.

Maybe something like:

{Title} in {Forum}

[size="1"]{Date} by {User that replied}[/size]

Seeing who started the topic is an option from the hooks settings. I'll have to see if the forums details, like the name, are readily available without having to pull another query. You can edit the layout if you want by editing the skin, just look under Board Index, hook_recentPosts.

If this turns out to be a hook that becomes available, which I am hoping to do, I might try to include two or three layouts. Then someone can easily pick the one they want to use by choosing a setting.

[Wolfie]

I should be able to finish developing this hook. I've managed to include a way to check for the server load under certain circumstances and to not run if it's above a set limit (configurable).

So far for the v31002 changelog:

• Ability to skip execution if server load exceeds a defined limit
• Added a query to have forum ID, name and SEO name available (can be turned off via settings)
• Option to use the VNC blocked forums setting for excluding forums
  

[Wolfie]

Updated to v31002 (3.1 Beta 2)

Please see changelog for updates. Includes a few styles to choose from, including one named "Nervosa Style".

[Wolfie]

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Do NOT test this on a huge board. Someone tried it for me and it encountered issues. For smaller boards, this should be perfectly fine, however for large boards, this can cause issues. I'm tossing around a couple of ideas to achieve the desired function without causing issues, so please don't give up hope.
:)

[mistera]

Thanks for update :)

Can you define a huge board for this hook ? How many connected members ?

[Wolfie]

Let's put it like this. If you have to ask, then chances are you don't have anything to worry about.

But if I were to put numbers to it, I'd say having 100+ active users frequently, over 10k members and at least 100k posts.

If you're anywhere near that, then I'd say to keep an eye on your board for about an hour when it's busy, with the hook running, and see if you have any issues when trying to load the board index. If you don't notice any issues, then it's likely to be safe to continue using.

The person who tried it for me has an obscene number of people online at any given time, huge number of members and a scary number of posts. So while it didn't surprise me that the hook encountered an issue, the severity of the issue did. It was also a disappointment because I did my best to try to make it safe for a large board. But like I said, back to the drawing board.

[bearback]

glad you warned me as i can have 500 plus members online.
hope you can optimise it in some way as this is more usable than the default ipb one
thanks

[Wolfie]

You are certainly welcome to install it and see how it affects your board if you don't mind it lagging for a moment. If you do that though, I'd like to know how many posts you have, online members at the time and cpu usage before and during the usage, as well as generation times.

I'm currently using a query with multiple joins to retrieve all the information, however it may be necessary to drop that down to a query with one join. On my board, it seems to actually reduce the SQL time, however larger boards are a better indication of reliability and efficiency.

I'm considering a few options for trying to get this to work, but don't want it to get too involved because obviously the more work I put into it, the higher the price (want to keep it relatively cheap).

[bearback]

should this work on 3.1.4 ?

didn't notice the ipb version and tried the hook on 3.1.4 and it killed my server.
usually ticks over at 0.25 but went over 135 cpu on max and forced the server to reboot due to excessive load.
had to take the forum offline while i disabled the hook

[Wolfie]

Yeah it should work just fine. How many posts do you have?

[joschienne]

Will this cause any problems (conflicts) with the recent topics v2.0.0 by Adriano? I'm running 3.1.1, is that fine? Have a couple of hundred thousands posts.

Best regards,
joschen

[Wolfie]

Don't believe there will be any conflicts. Not sure about 3.1.1, I built the hook on a 3.1.2 system so the only thing I can say to do is to try it. At worst it will create an error saying a certain function can't be found but the board should still function. As for the number of posts, if you try it, I'd like to know how it performs for you.

[bearback]

Yeah it should work just fine. How many posts do you have?

600,000 post

At worst it will create an error saying a certain function can't be found but the board should still function

From my experience i didnt even get a chance to see any error if there was one.
as soon as i had installed, the load rocketed and crashed the server.
Forum was unresponsive also, i had 300 members on the forum at the time.

[Wolfie]

I'm starting to see why others haven't put in the effort to create a good recent posts hook. Sheesh.

I've made a couple of changes that I can only hope will be of some improvement to the performance, but in the end I might have to either make a new table to keep an 'index' of posts made or might have to ditch it altogether or at the very least leave a HUGE warning about using it on busy boards.

[bearback]

better to have feedback than non, your efforts are truly appreciated.

i run recent topics v2.0.0 by Adriano and as the default IPB recent topics has no adjustable settings
been looking for a good recent topics replacement for the side of my forum.
Yours does look promising so keep up the good work.

[mistera]

I think the same, it's a needed function. Thanks for that !!

[Wolfie]

Looks like I'll be bailing out on this one. stoo2000 has a mod out that does this as well as a little bit more for £20 and it would be pointless to 're-invent the wheel' so to speak.

Click the link for it: Content Spy


I'll keep this file available until the hook expires though, so if anyone has any additional feedback, then can provide it.