MOD: Most Recent Posts

Oh No! Not another "Latest Topics" Mod!?!? Well, yes sort of, sorry! I've created a new thread for my adaption of the code from MSSQL Top 10 Latest Posts because it's evolved a long way from what was in the original post. I've also been constantly updating it to add missing features and make it more flexible and it'll be easier for anyone who is using my version of this mod to keep track of updates.

This Mod works on ALL database backends and has configuration options for user customisation. It can be used on pages external to the forum (e.g. your website's main default.asp) or be included on the WWF default.asp


v1.1 Changes:

Now uses proper database boolean global variable instead of hard coded values.

Message preview cleaned up to prevent HTML or forum tags breaking the display.

Added missing variable declarations.

Added option to specifiy which forums posts are shown from.

Optimised code for faster processing.

Now only shows post from Forums the user has permissions to.

Added direct link to forums when used on external pages. (thanks to Pfeff for that idea)

Added forum table into the query to allow people to customise more easily.


Instructions

There is a constant in the file, intStyle, that you can set to toggle between two different query types, true most recent posts, or most recent topics posted to. Change the constant intTop to pull back the number of recent posts you require. Default is 10. If you only want to only display posts from specific forums, find this line:

'strSql = strSql & "AND T.Forum_ID IN (x,y,..) "

Uncomment it and replace the "x,y,.." portion with a comma delimited list of forum ID's that you want to view posts from.

You will also need to put the following in your default.asp home page (not the forum default, but the main one for your site). At the top of the file:

<!--#include file="forum/common.asp" -->
<!--#include file="forum/functions/functions_date_time_format.asp" -->

Change the directory name (here I've used "forum") to suit where your forum sits within your site.

Then add:

Response.Write "<link href=""forum/" & strCSSfile & "default_style.css"" rel=""stylesheet"" type=""text/css"" />"& vbNewline

somewhere in your html header statement. You may not need to use the response.write part of the statement depending how you prefer to code your pages. Don't forget to change the directory name for your forum again!

Lastly add:

<!--#include file="forum/recent_posts.asp"-->

at the point you require the Most Recent posts to appear.

You can also use this file to show the Most Recent posts on your forum default page. Depending on where you put the include, you might need to comment out the "Call closeDatabase" command in default.asp. An example of when you would need to do this is if you placed the MRP panel before the What's Going On? panel.

If you get the following error, you haven't commented out the closeDatabase line in default.asp!!

 

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01a8' Object required /forum/default.asp, line xxx which is this line...   rsCommon.Open strSQL, adoCon

Mod Code v1.1


<%
'#########################################################################
'#
'# Most Recent Posts Mod for Web Wiz Forums
'# V1.1
'#   
'# Author: Ric Naylor aka MrMellie
'#
'# Web Wiz Forums - Copyright ©2001-2006 Web Wiz. All Rights Reserved.   
'# http://www.webwizforums.com
'#
'########################################################################

Dim strPostDate
Dim strPostTime
Dim strShtMess
Dim saryTopxx
Dim intRows
Dim fld_Subject
Dim fld_Topic_ID
Dim fld_Views
Dim fld_Date
Dim fld_Author
Dim fld_Thread_Id
Dim fld_Message
Dim i

'### Set intStyle to give the required output.
'### 1 = Top xx latest posts, regardless of which Topic they appear in (gives a true Top xx posts, but some might share the same Topic)
'### 2 = Top xx latest Topics that have been posted to (gives unique Topics).
const intStyle=1

'### Set this variable to the number of topics you wish to display.
const intTop = 10

strSql = "T.Subject, T.Topic_ID, T.No_of_views, Th.Message_date, Au.Username, Th.Thread_ID, Th.message " & _
        "FROM " & strDbTable & "Forum F" & strDBNoLock & " " & _
        "INNER JOIN (" & strDbTable & "Permissions P" & strDBNoLock & " " & _
        "INNER JOIN (" & strDbTable & "Topic T" & strDBNoLock & " " & _
        "INNER JOIN (" & strDbTable & "Thread Th" & strDBNoLock & " INNER JOIN " & strDbTable & "Author Au" & strDBNoLock & " " & _
        "ON Th.Author_ID=Au.Author_ID) "
if intStyle=1 then       
    strSql = strSql & "ON T.Topic_ID=Th.Topic_ID) "
else
    strSql = strSql & "ON T.Last_Thread_ID=Th.Thread_ID) "
end if
    strSql = strSql & "ON T.Forum_ID=P.Forum_ID) "
    strSql = strSql & "ON P.Forum_ID=F.Forum_ID "
strSql = strSql & "WHERE T.Hide="& strDBFalse & " AND Th.Hide=" & strDBFalse & " AND (P.View_Forum=" & strDBTrue & " AND (P.Group_ID = " & intGroupID & " OR P.Author_ID = " & lngLoggedInUserID & ")) "

'### Uncomment the next line to select Topics from specific Forums.
'### Replace "x,y,.." with a comma delimited list of forum numbers or a single forum number.
'strSql = strSql & "AND T.Forum_ID IN (x,y,..) "

strSql = strSql & "ORDER By Th.Message_date DESC "
if strDatabaseType = "mySQL" then strSql = "SELECT DISTINCT "& strSql & "LIMIT "& intTop else strSQL = "SELECT TOP " & intTop & " " & strSQL

rsCommon.Open strSQL, adoCon
saryTopxx = rsCommon.GetRows()

'### If you include this page on the forum default.asp you will need to comment out the Call closeDatabase line
'### if you place it before the Whats Going On panel.
'Clean up
Call closeDatabase()

intRows = UBound(saryTopxx, 2)

fld_Subject = 0
fld_Topic_ID = 1
fld_Views = 2
fld_Date = 3
fld_Author = 4
fld_Thread_Id = 5
fld_Message = 6
%>

<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3" class="tableBorder" align="center">
<tr class="tableLedger">
<td colspan="5">Most Recent Posts
<!--Remove the following line if you include this on the WWF default.asp page as it's superfluous in that case-->
- <a href="<% =strForumPath%>">Go to Forums Now!</a>
<!--End Remove -->
</td></tr>
<tr class="tableSubLedger">
<td width="25%" align="center">Topic</td>
<td width="33%" align="center">Message</td>

bitbyter wrote: o.k it's a great mod MR Mellie. thanks for it!     i'd like to see in which (sub)forum the message is posted instead of seeing the beginning of the message . is there an easy way to change this?

Use the version of code above and replace Th.message in the first line of the strSQL definition and replace it with F.Forum_name.

Remove the line that cleans up the code in the message:

strShtMess = removeHTML(saryTopxx(fld_Message,i), 40, True)

and that is basically it. You can then add a hyperlink around the forum name if you want.

Edited by MrMellie - 05 February 2007 at 12:36pm

Nice!

The table names are all in there in the FROM and JOIN clauses e.g. "FROM " & strDbTable & "Forum F". The aliases reduce the amount of string concatenations required to build strSQL as concatenations drastically slow down ASP processing.

However, I think your problem is something different. Have you included the file on the main forum default page? Did you put it after the 'call Closedatabase' command in default.asp?