UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback "in reply to" missing in flat mode

I finished upgrading a few hours ago and I already got a bunch of complaints from flat-mode-fanatics.
They want the "in reply to" information back.

yeap I know this wouldn't be necessary if anyone knew how to quote but unfortunately they're lazy <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

flint
[]flint@pxf.biz[/]

Unfortunately, with the transition to user numbers, the posters name is no longer stored in the post. It would be too intense when people changed names.

I've had a bit of negative feedback about this as well.

Here was Rick's official response when I first asked:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><hr /><font size="" face="">Unfortunately, the Re: Username isn't going to be possible. Since we no longer store the username in the posts table it would require another JOIN against the user's table to find out what the user's display name is. There's already one join against that crosses the users/posts table and this would make it even more complex. An unfortunate side-effect of going to user numbers for everything. This was the only thing I wasn't able to resolve.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="" face="">Now if you've noticed. Clicking on the subject will open a window with the post that its in reply to. Also, hovering over that link will show you "Re: #4099" which means in reply to post number 4099 (or whatever). Glance up at the post numbers, and you'll see what post they are replying to.

It's almost there.... with great speed improvements. It just takes some getting used to.

My users just posted a small "list" and this was on it.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><hr /><font size="" face="">Not seeing who you're replying to. I understand why the change was made, but i'm going to miss being able to tell which comment people are replying to...especially when it's a popular thread and people are making various comments.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="" face="">It's helped once I've explained the trick about hovering the mouse over the subject link.

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Josh
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[This message was edited by JoshPet on March 15, 2003 at 10:45 AM.]

Rick - it can be done without another query! Think about it - every post replies to another, chronologically before it so higher up in the flat post list.

So, at some point earlier in the viewflat script you must already have already encountered that user and his/her userdata.

Therefore - the solution is to cache this in an array s.t $usercache[$id] = userobj or similar. Then, you can simply look it up and do the "in reply to" bit as before. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><hr /><font size="" face="">So, at some point earlier in the viewflat script you must already have already encountered that user and his/her userdata.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="" face="">What if the thread takes more than one page to display, and the relevant post is on a previous page? I don't think the information would be available without additional queries, but I'd have to examine the code to verify that.

It might be worthwhile to add the extra queries in, and do a benchmark, just to see how much extra processing is really involved.

Maybe a configurable option (similar to full / partial new post tracking). That way boards where load and speed is a concern could turn it off.
I would think Classic Users wouldn't mind this, as it make it very similar to Classic's view.

Josh
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Like in every new release there are some new "features" I don't like. This one I don't like at all. Before you could easily see to whom a user replied. Now I have to open the thread and click on every subject line to get the context. Sorry, but that's a step back <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />

Well, I hope we can find a solution for that. Yes, nice that we have a Uid now, but not one user will see that. They will all miss this lost feature...

Maze

I wrote a modification that will add this back. It's here at threadsdev.com. You need to login/register to see it.

Modify at your own peril. Be warned that it increases the number of queries. If you notice your board is slow, or you start to get "too many connections" SQL errors... then this would be the first thing I would remove.

I have it set up 2 ways. One option adds 1 query per post (usually people view 10 posts per page). it offers a link, which opens in a new window to the users profile. So you can click, pop open a window, and see who posted it. The second step grabs the username and does the Re: Username thing.... it adds 2 queries per post. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

But if you must have this feature, and your server can handle it, and you aren't afraid of hacking, then give it a try. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Josh
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Hi Josh,

thanks for the Hack. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" /> btw. Happy new 2003!

In the meantime I thought a little bit about how to do the re: name thing without too much additional queries. As Vexalith mentioned before we already know postnumber and username of every post that is shown. Why not store these in an array. The missing names could be grabed by queries.

I think the best way would be to add a new field to w3t_Posts. Lets call it B_ParentUserID <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> . Now we only need one extra query for each post and in combination with an cache-array to reduce the queries this could be a good solution.

What do you think?

Maze

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="">quote:</font><hr /><font size="" face="">I think the best way would be to add a new field to w3t_Posts. Lets call it B_ParentUserID  . Now we only need one extra query for each post and in combination with an cache-array to reduce the queries this could be a good solution.

What do you think?
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="" face="">That was exactly my theory. There would be no harm in storing the userNUMBER of the person you were replying to. Because that would never change <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

I made that suggestion to Rick at our development board a couple of days ago. We'll have to see what direction this goes in the next version.

Thanks. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Josh
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Delphi uses a "In reply to post number xxx" format for their "in reply to" and one of the biggests complaints I had when I moved my forum to Classic was that the "in reply to a post number" was missing.

Why not have it in Threads, but actual visible text and not just a mouse over...

Da LAN Tech

That is what it does now. If you hyperlink over the Subject, it will pop up "Re: Post#23443". <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Edit: Doah, just re-read. I see now you knew it was a mouseover. Sorry.
Rick was just looking to clean up the clutter a bit with all the information that is displayed. It would be a fairly easy tweak to display that info.

Josh
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No problem Josh -sometimes I don't explain things too well. The mouse over is cool, but most users don't know about it.

Da LAN Tech

he he...

No you explained fine. Sometimes I read too fast. Maybe that's because I try to be everywhere all the time. LOL <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

JustDave has been worknig on something (although I can't get it working yet) which will restore functionality (like in 6.1.1) of the Re: Username and uses only 2 queries per PAGE, unlike mine which is 2 queries per post.
Watch threadsdev for that. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Josh
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Just to update this Thread.

JustDave has also done a modification to do this here that uses LESS queries (only 2). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

Josh
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This will be in 6.3. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Josh
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sweet!

flint
[]flint@poisonfree.com[/]

Very glad about that. I am now the tech administrator for my board and would likely be the one doing the upgrades but I was wary of upgrading to the latest version because OUR membership would have been up in arms too. Of course now the license has expired so it's a moot point anyways. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />