Real time update in the view of the topics and the forums

[exx8]

Hi there,
I would like to recommend that vb-like real time updates will be in 3.2.
What I mean is when a user sees viewtopic.php or viewforum.php, the lists with the topics and the posts will change automatically without refreshes.
Like in facebook for example.
I believe it is achievable with a comet.

[DavidIQ]

-1000000
Fine for an extension.

[Pony99CA]

First, what is a "comet"?

Second, you'll need to provide better use cases if you want to call this an RFC; otherwise it's just discussion. Consider these cases and tell us what happens:

• I'm looking at the list of topics in a forum. Just as I go to click the topmost topic, somebody posts to a different topic in that forum, making it the topmost one. Will I end up clicking the wrong topic?
• I'm on page 1 of a 20 page topic. Somebody adds a post to the topic. Will I see anything (even if that post causes the topic to have 21 pages now)?
• I'm reading a post in a topic. Somebody edits that post as I'm reading it. Will I see the edit (even if they remove all content)? What if they delete the post instead of editing it?

Also, this sounds like it would be a real resource hog (both CPU and bandwidth). Facebook can afford to have lots of servers and high-bandwidth connections, but most board owners probably can't.

Steve

[JoshyPHP]

That: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_%28programming%29
The model doesn't work in PHP though.

XenForo implements something similar (displays a link that add new posts to a topic), I think they just use polling. I don't know whether it's for all topics or only those the user is subscribed too. That may be the latter, in which case I suppose it's just a custom way to display the notification. Notifications are updated in real-time in XenForo.

[brunoais]

I agree with David. This is a job for an extension

[exx8]

1.First, what is a "comet"?

Second, you'll need to provide better use cases if you want to call this an RFC; otherwise it's just discussion. Consider these cases and tell us what happens:

• 2.
• I'm looking at the list of topics in a forum. Just as I go to click the topmost topic, somebody posts to a different topic in that forum, making it the topmost one. Will I end up clicking the wrong topic?
  
  3.
• I'm on page 1 of a 20 page topic. Somebody adds a post to the topic. Will I see anything (even if that post causes the topic to have 21 pages now)?
  
  4.
• I'm reading a post in a topic. Somebody edits that post as I'm reading it. Will I see the edit (even if they remove all content)? What if they delete the post instead of editing it?

5.Also, this sounds like it would be a real resource hog (both CPU and bandwidth). Facebook can afford to have lots of servers and high-bandwidth connections, but most board owners probably can't.

Steve

1.Wikipedia.
2.The topic will move slowly down, so you will be able to click on the desired topic.
3. if it is beginning a new page, so you'll see a new box of page 21 being added. otherwise you won't see something different.
4. the content of the message will be changed automatically. The Admin will have the option to allow users to see the previous versions. A user will be able to disable auto-updates of posts, in the UCP.
5.Admins will have the option to disable those features partially, or completely.