IPS Rules Application

[Kevin Carwile]

4 minutes ago, svit said:

Hello,

I have a couple of questions:

1. I would like to start using the Rules Application for synchronizing the Collab content with Forums and vice versa, so that each time users add topic to Collabs/forums they are copied to certain regular Forums/forums as well and vice  versa - Each time users contribute to certain Forums/Forums the topics are copied to dedicated Collabs/Forums. Is it possible?

2. Is it possible for existing topics as well? So that I run an instruction to do the above for certain existing Forum/Forums and Collab/Forums?

1. You could try creating a rule that moves the topic to the forum of choice (not leaving a link), and then moves the topic back (leaving a link). Trying to write rules to actually duplicate topics and posts for two seperate topics and then keep all of that synchronized is going to be the opposite of fun.

2. With the latest version of rules, you can manually schedule your own custom action and set topics as a bulk processing argument. When you create rules for your custom action, make sure to set conditions to apply only for the topics that you want to process.

[raincat]

Hi there, Kevin.  I've read in here that you have a number of different applications with different expansion packs, which I'd be more than happy to purchase, if I could get them to do something I'd like to do with my board.  (I'm imagining this one, Rules, is more likely than Groups, but I really don't know for sure.)

And I IMAGINE that's possible, because they seem to have so many features and possibilities happening.  But perhaps because that's the case, I'm not yet able to imagine exactly HOW I'd get them to do what I'd like to do.

I think I'd need a fairly close example or more detailed instructions.  Not just to decide whether or not to purchase, but to be able to figure out how to get it working at all.

Basically, I want to do some sort of member profile sort or filter that would be like what you'd imagine for a personals site.  

A sort, of sorts, but more complicated than just something like sort by date joined, that's the only criteria, etc.  Like, some custom fields in each member's profile could be compared to those of other members, such that only a smaller subset of the entire list of members would be displayed for each member that was logged in, only their "matching" members.  And then some way to display that new thing/sort/filter that was created, like a URL or a tab or . . . something.  Something that could be linked to for them to click upon.

I don't know if it could be something with the actual Member List in IPB (along with one or more of your apps), or . . . something else?  But if it were the Member List, something that would be different for each member, only containing a smaller subset of all the members, just for them, based on their criteria/custom fields in their profile.  And there would need to be multiple criteria used for the sort.

Or again, if not the Member List itself, than just any other way of accomplishing something very similar, basically.    

Possible?  Help?  Suggestions?

[Kevin Carwile]

2 hours ago, raincat said:

Hi there, Kevin.  I've read in here that you have a number of different applications with different expansion packs, which I'd be more than happy to purchase, if I could get them to do something I'd like to do with my board.  (I'm imagining this one, Rules, is more likely than Groups, but I really don't know for sure.)

And I IMAGINE that's possible, because they seem to have so many features and possibilities happening.  But perhaps because that's the case, I'm not yet able to imagine exactly HOW I'd get them to do what I'd like to do.

I think I'd need a fairly close example or more detailed instructions.  Not just to decide whether or not to purchase, but to be able to figure out how to get it working at all.

Basically, I want to do some sort of member profile sort or filter that would be like what you'd imagine for a personals site.  

A sort, of sorts, but more complicated than just something like sort by date joined, that's the only criteria, etc.  Like, some custom fields in each member's profile could be compared to those of other members, such that only a smaller subset of the entire list of members would be displayed for each member that was logged in, only their "matching" members.  And then some way to display that new thing/sort/filter that was created, like a URL or a tab or . . . something.  Something that could be linked to for them to click upon.

I don't know if it could be something with the actual Member List in IPB (along with one or more of your apps), or . . . something else?  But if it were the Member List, something that would be different for each member, only containing a smaller subset of all the members, just for them, based on their criteria/custom fields in their profile.  And there would need to be multiple criteria used for the sort.

Or again, if not the Member List itself, than just any other way of accomplishing something very similar, basically.    

Possible?  Help?  Suggestions?

Not really possible with rules. Rules is great for creating customized workflows and system behaviors, but does not have any facilities to create front end views.

What you are describing would require custom programming outside the scope of rules.

Group collaboration will not satisfy those needs either unfortunately.

[raincat]

2 hours ago, Kevin Carwile said:

Not really possible with rules. Rules is great for creating customized workflows and system behaviors, but does not have any facilities to create front end views.

What you are describing would require custom programming outside the scope of rules.

Group collaboration will not satisfy those needs either unfortunately.

Wow, so disappointed!  I thought somehow this would be possible with one of your products.

You don't happen to have any hints or tips for me as to how something like this could actually be accomplished, do you? I mean, a little bit more specifically than just "custom programming."  Is there any other way to do this other than Rules that wouldn't be massively difficult?  Any other Marketplace anything or just . . . point me in the general direction, maybe?

[Kevin Carwile]

There are no out of the box apps that I know of that allow you to create your own dynamic member view filters. However, I dont really stay on top of everything in the marketplace as it is very much a mess.

You may be able to dig through and find something. 

The logical way to accomplish it would be with an app that does what you are needing to do or close to it. Thats what I meant by "custom programming".

[raincat]

I'm still bummed there's no app from you that will do this!

But I hear what you're saying, and thanks again for your reply.

[NoGi]

Is there a way to flag forums that haven't had any activity for say a month?

[Kevin Carwile]

You could create a custom data field for the flag. And you could create a custom action with a forum as the argument and schedule it to run for all forums (bulk processing option) on a regular basis.

Within the custom action, create a condition to check the last post date in the forum and set the flag value if needed.

[abetts]

I just tried to download the lite version from the marketplace to try this out and 'computer says no'!! 

[Kevin Carwile]

47 minutes ago, abetts said:

I just tried to download the lite version from the marketplace to try this out and 'computer says no'!! 

The lite version is encoded, so some scanners will incorrectly flag it as having a virus because the see its encoded.

It contains NO malware. Alternatively, you can buy the full version and download that. The full version is not encoded.

[abetts]

Thanks. I wanted a whizz of the trial and if it's as useful as I expect it to be, I'll buy the full version

 

[Paul.F]

The lite version seems to be gone from the market, will it be back?

[abetts]

Sorry, this was slowing my server down too much so I've uninstalled it. Shame as it's the most wonderful piece of software, so useful!

I uninstalled it at midnight after a couple of apache/mysql restarts, you can see the difference...

[Kevin Carwile]

The lite version uses encoded files that seem to be slowing servers down as they have to decode and run them. The full version does not use encoded files so this is not a problem.

I'm looking into how I can mitigate this in the lite version.

[jair101]

Hi Kevin, 

I have the following use cases.

1. I have a custom profile field, lets call it "points". Is it possible with this app to allow members to transfer points between them. For example you have 20 points, you appreciate someones post and decide to give him 10 points from yours. Is this possible with this app? 

2. When a thread in forum is split from another one, I want to automatically post in the original topic the link to the splitted one and pm the link to the author of the top post of the splitted thread. This will be a huge timesaver for me, but I don't know if splitting the thread can be caught as an event. 

In any case, thanks for the app. I will probably purchase when I find use for it, but it seems powerful enough to let my imagination wild. Apps like these give me hope about ips 4.

[Kevin Carwile]

18 hours ago, jair101 said:

1. I have a custom profile field, lets call it "points". Is it possible with this app to allow members to transfer points between them. For example you have 20 points, you appreciate someones post and decide to give him 10 points from yours. Is this possible with this app? 

Sure. It's possible. It's a matter of creating a custom data field attached to members to hold point balance. Then creating a scheme of rules to add to one members total and subtract from another. With the rules app, you can even create a custom log attached to members to record the transactions. The only part that would be tricky is setting up the right event mechanism to capture the points transfer request. Since you don't build user interfaces with rules, you must somehow re-use/adapt an existing one. Such as adding a couple of custom fields to enter a username and a number value and attaching it to topics in a certain forum and using that as a "points transfer request" forum of sorts.

You would be basically building your own custom application with rules. Now that I think about it, an excellent way to build a transfer request form would be to use a custom form builder such as the app from @Mike John. However, that app does not currently provide any events for you to use in rules. Man, that would be an awesome combination.

19 hours ago, jair101 said:

2. When a thread in forum is split from another one, I want to automatically post in the original topic the link to the splitted one and pm the link to the author of the top post of the splitted thread. This will be a huge timesaver for me, but I don't know if splitting the thread can be caught as an event. 

That's an excellent idea. Not sure how I managed to miss that particular content event. I will add an event in for the next release of rules.

[Wayne B]

@Kevin Carwile - is there any plans to bring about ECA's for commerce - I know it has been discussed previously but just wondered where this was at I guess?

[Kevin Carwile]

12 minutes ago, Police Community said:

@Kevin Carwile - is there any plans to bring about ECA's for commerce - I know it has been discussed previously but just wondered where this was at I guess?

Plans, yes. Progress, no. Honestly, I wish I could say it was on its way, but sadly it's still just a sparse development folder and a bunch of notes on a piece of paper buried on my desk. Commerce is a BIG application. At some point my work will lead me into tackling the ECA extension for it, or another dev will do it first. I just cannot say when.

[iacas]

On November 12, 2015 at 12:52:13 PM, abetts said:

Sorry, this was slowing my server down too much so I've uninstalled it. Shame as it's the most wonderful piece of software, so useful!

I uninstalled it at midnight after a couple of apache/mysql restarts, you can see the difference...

Interesting. Hadn't considered that the one plugin (with only one or two rules running) would slow the server down so much, but I too see my server running at higher loads than it should. I'm going to disable this plugin to see if it helps reduce loads as well.

[Tracy Perry]

On 11/15/2015, 5:46:58, iacas said:

Interesting. Hadn't considered that the one plugin (with only one or two rules running) would slow the server down so much, but I too see my server running at higher loads than it should. I'm going to disable this plugin to see if it helps reduce loads as well.

It's not the plugin itself per-se that is slowing it down (nor the number of rules), but the fact that the code has to be decrypted before it is ran.  This will be especially telling on a shared server.  Not so much on a VPS or a dedicated  (unless they are overloaded) - and even less so if using an HTTP server like nginx or LiteSpeed (or OpenLiteSpeed) - which are a tad more efficient in most cases than Apache.

The different ways of "processing" php in Apache are not as efficient as with OLS/LS/nginx from my experience.

Edited November 17, 2015 by T. D. Perry

[Kevin Carwile]

2 hours ago, Tracy Perry said:

It's not the plugin itself per-se that is slowing it down (nor the number of rules), but the fact that the code has to be decrypted before it is ran.

The latest version of rules lite implements a new strategy which significantly reduces the overhead caused by this to the point where it should not be a major bottleneck now for low powered sites.

The full version has no decoding overhead.

[Tim Szczesniak]

Is there a rule to change Content Count to Post Count? I saw this mentioned somewhere previously but am having a difficult time finding anything on it.

[Kevin Carwile]

5 hours ago, Tim Szczesniak said:

Is there a rule to change Content Count to Post Count? I saw this mentioned somewhere previously but am having a difficult time finding anything on it.

You just need to update a language string in your system to accomplish that. No rule needed.

[Paul.F]

6 hours ago, Kevin Carwile said:

The latest version of rules lite implements a new strategy which significantly reduces the overhead caused by this to the point where it should not be a major bottleneck now for low powered sites.

The full version has no decoding overhead.

Very well done. I see no noticeable performance decrease at all. Thankyou

[abetts]

I'm on a dedicated 12 core (4 weeks old!) server and the encrypted version was causing enough of a problem to notice. I can now confirm that the full version has absolutely no impact whatsoever at all on performance and is just great