[RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Note: We are moving the topics of this forum and it will be deleted at some point

Publish your own request for comments/change or patches for the next version of phpBB. Discuss the contributions and proposals of others. Upcoming releases are 3.2/Rhea and 3.3.
User avatar
Kiweed
Registered User
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:27 am
Location: New Zealand

[RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Kiweed »

I didnt know what [RFC] meant until 5 mins ago -
Thanks to PayBas for leading me to post this here from my topic in phpBB3.1 Extension Discussion https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2248871
I have searched and am unable to find a similar topic and this feature is so important to me and several friends.

So ....

We use a 3.0 modification written by the great Tumba called "Forum Sort Order"
Mods database link ---> https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/ ... ort_order/
Description
Adds topic time in UCP > Board preferences and viewtopic > Sort by.
Also adds Forum default to UCP > Board preferences and makes this default for all users.
Adds "Default topic list order:" to ACP > Forums > Edit forum, this might be overridden by the settings in UCP.
Adds possibility to override user sort settings in some forums.
We require the feature to sort topics in forums by "Topic Time" so no mater how many people post in a topic it wont get bumped to the top of the list. We list the topics by date order to make it very easy to see which topics are new in a chronological order.

Topic Time sort order is used in forums where the topic information needs to be in a date sensitive order
Post Time sort order is used n normal discussion type forums where each new reply bumps the topic to the top of the page.

We set time sensitive topic forums as default "topic time" sort order in the ACP but give the users the option to sort however they please.
We set discussion type forums as default "post time" sort order like all forums here are now but give the user the option to sort however the please.

eg: Image

I don't think they would ever make this core functionality but 7177 downloaders cant be wrong that this function is needed.

Anyone who would like to give this extension a go or any comments on the subject would be GREATLY appreciated as it would be the only thing stopping me upgrading to phpBB 3.1

Thank you very much in advance!

Scott

keith10456
Registered User
Posts: 523
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:29 pm
Contact:

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by keith10456 »

Though this is some-what in the Advanced Search, I think it would make a great extension.

User avatar
Pony99CA
Registered User
Posts: 986
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:35 am
Location: Hollister, CA
Contact:

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Pony99CA »

The change to allow sorting topics by creation time is very easy (like four lines) -- I did it on my test board. But I don't remember if you can force the forum to sort that way or not.

Steve
Silicon Valley Pocket PC (http://www.svpocketpc.com)
Creator of manage_bots and spoof_user (ask me)
Need hosting for a small forum with full cPanel & MySQL access? Contact me or PM me.

keith10456
Registered User
Posts: 523
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:29 pm
Contact:

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by keith10456 »

Pony99CA wrote:The change to allow sorting topics by creation time is very easy (like four lines) -- I did it on my test board. But I don't remember if you can force the forum to sort that way or not.

Steve
If that's the case then I'm all for it :D

User avatar
Kiweed
Registered User
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:27 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Kiweed »

Topic for forum sort order update 1.01
As mentioned by VSE on phpBB I have PM'd the mod author Tumba (The Great) re this discussion and is he going to pursue it in 3.1.


Here are images to better show the power of forum sort order by Topic Time (Click for bigger pic)


Here is a forum with a default listing of Topic Time

Image


Here is the same forum with a default list of Post Time we are all used to. It is a real mess compared to Topic Time.

Image

The other places it needs to appear are ModCP. We found the moderators could not find topics to delete if the forum was default Topic Time

Topic Time ModCP
Image

Post Time ModCP
Image

And last but not least Advanced Search (Thanks for reminding me keith10456 :) )

Topic Time
Image

Post Time
Image

*edit*
And last last but not least UCP + ACP Topic Time setting ... letting the User/Admin choose their own default (thanks Pony99CA)
UCP
Image

ACP - Forum
Image
*edit*

I hope that shows the visual impact to a forum of having everything ordered by when the topic was posted without replies making a real mess of things. Most blogs list this way .... why not phpBB???

ps: I was surfing an unrelated forum to mine and found this in their "comments and suggestions". The same thing my users complained about.
ursusagalmatophile wrote:I noticed that if I reply to an older post it automatically gets bumped.
This can be annoying to a poster with a new topic watching it get knocked
down the forum index by recently replied to older posts.
Maybe this is not a fault,if not sorry to bring it up.
Again many thanks for everyone's comments
Scott
Last edited by Kiweed on Fri Jun 27, 2014 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

keith10456
Registered User
Posts: 523
Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:29 pm
Contact:

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by keith10456 »

I like the idea of adding having this ability. However, I would like to note that the current/default method of how topics are sorted should remain as is.

User avatar
Louis7777
Registered User
Posts: 394
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 12:32 am

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Louis7777 »

keith10456 wrote:I like the idea of adding having this ability. However, I would like to note that the current/default method of how topics are sorted should remain as is.
+1

User avatar
Kiweed
Registered User
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:27 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Kiweed »

keith10456 wrote:However, I would like to note that the current/default method of how topics are sorted should remain as is.
Absolutely defiantly things should stay as Post Time by default
Forums are mainly a discussion medium and Post Time brings a great chat like feel to things. I still have ALL discussion type sections as Post Time.

Many other sections like my school rugby (150 schools) Fixture/Times/Scores sections I need as Topic Time so it easily sets an order the punters can follow without the 100 replies a day getting in the way and them needing to set a different view.

7 other friends forums now use this modification to have phpBB as a simple Blog. Blog software lists as the time a topic was posted ... Why cant phpBB have this very simple feature?

Thanks Keith and Louis for your feedback

Kakite ano
Scott

User avatar
Pony99CA
Registered User
Posts: 986
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 2:35 am
Location: Hollister, CA
Contact:

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Pony99CA »

keith10456 wrote:
Pony99CA wrote:The change to allow sorting topics by creation time is very easy (like four lines) -- I did it on my test board. But I don't remember if you can force the forum to sort that way or not.
If that's the case then I'm all for it :D
Just to follow up, my change that only requires four lines of code only adds "Create time" to the topic sorting preferences in the UCP and the ACP's equivalent. It doesn't add it to the Search settings, nor does it do the other things that the linked MOD does (like adding default forum sorting).

I'm also not sure that one the MOD's claimed capabilities makes sense.
Also adds Forum default to UCP > Board preferences and makes this default for all users.
If it's a UCP option, how could it make it the default for all users? That would require an ACP option, I think. Maybe there's both a UCP option for users and an ACP option to set the default, but as written, it seems wrong.

I do think that this capability would be useful, though. However, if we can't get all of the capabilities in 3.1, we could at least add my changes to get the topic sorting order into the UCP. I might even be able to look into adding it for searching. Then somebody could write an extension to implement the rest.

Steve
Silicon Valley Pocket PC (http://www.svpocketpc.com)
Creator of manage_bots and spoof_user (ask me)
Need hosting for a small forum with full cPanel & MySQL access? Contact me or PM me.

User avatar
Kiweed
Registered User
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:27 am
Location: New Zealand

Re: [RFC] Forum sort order by Topic Time

Post by Kiweed »

I forgot totally about the ACP settings which make it all work so Admin can choose /per forum/ and also the choice to override the users setting ... sorry for missing that and its probably the most important part of it.
I havnt shown it in the picture below(click 4 big as the text is important) but you can also set a default sort of author/post/topic/subject/replies/views (I have seen one forum owner use it to sort by subject ie: A to Z)
ACP - Forum
Image

As you mentioned and have done with your test forum the UCP
Image

It does add some colums to each of the phpbb_forum and phpbb_user tables

Code: Select all

ALTER TABLE phpbb_forums ADD topic_list_order varchar(1) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 't', ADD topic_list_dir varchar(1) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 'd', ADD user_sort_override tinyint(1) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0;

ALTER TABLE phpbb_users CHANGE user_topic_sortby_type user_topic_sortby_type varchar(1) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT 'b', CHANGE user_topic_sortb
The ACP part is probably the most important part for me. but is probably beyond the scope of this discussion :(

Thanks for pointing out the UCP ACP parts Pony99CA

:)

Post Reply