[Pugged] Tracking Read Topics/Messages, and the "unread" flag.

Fri, 06 Sep 2002 13:41:59 -0500

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How is it that Tim can say the same thing as me but he sounds so much
better? You have to teach me how you do that Tim.... hehehe

Angie Tollerson
Alliance Technologies
Web Programmer
(515)245-7628
tollerson@alliancetechnologies.net

>>> tim@perdue.net 09/06/02 01:38PM >>>
Hi Chris - it's been eons since I've heard anything from you.

> I have been working on a project for a while to write my own forum
and I have had a bit of a hang up on one area. I was hoping I could get
some direction on this.
>  
> When the user visits the forum the first time I write a time/date
stamp into his profile for the last visit. Upon their return I grab that
time/date stamp create a variable to hold it then update the profile
with the current time/date. While that page is cycling through the
forums to display I check each forum's last post time/date and compare
that to the last visit. If there has been traffic more recent than the
last visit, it gets marked "New" to indicate new posts... I do the same
with the page which displays each of the topic in a forum.
>  
> However I am getting stuck here; If you are the user and this is a
return visit, you are looking at the topic list for a specific forum,
and there are 5 new or updated topics since your last visit they are
marked with a "New" before them in the display. You select the first of
the 5 topics, view the messages/posts, and then return to the topic
listing, all 5 are now marked read. Rather, I would like only the topic
you just read to be marked read, and the 4 remaining to still be
indicating "New".

I did it this exact same way, and it does have its weak points, but
it's
certainly the easiest way to go.

> What I hoping for in asking is either some pseudo code or a good
description of how a forum usually handles this. Ask any questions I
will do my best to give you a answer. I will be happy to show the code
if needed, let me know.

The other way I've seen this done is to create an associative array of
each
message you've read and store it in a permanent cookie.

like:

$read_messages[$msg_id]=true;
setcookie( foo, blah, serialize($read_messages), bar );

The problem with that is you wind up with an increasingly bloated
cookie
getting passed back and forth. I saw this done with the "Phorum"
software that
I used to use on PHPBuilder a while back and the cookie got so big it
would
max out your modem transferring it back and forth.

You could solve that by having an algorithm that goes through and
whittles
down the array over time. Modern PHP sessions would probably also solve
it,
although the session data is lost pretty easily. Not very good for
multiple
visits.

You could also create a separate table in the database like:

read_messages table:
--------------------
| user_id | msg_id |
|   5     |   67   |
|   5     |   68   |
|   5     |   61   |
|   5     |   90   |
--------------------

As each message is read, you insert a row into that table for the
user.
On reading, you left-join your forum SELECT query against that table,
pulling out
the matching rows for the corresponding user_id.

Probably the easiest and best-performing way is how you have already
done it.

Tim

-- 
Founder - PHPBuilder.com / Geocrawler.com / SourceForge
GPG Public Key: http://www.perdue.net/personal/pgp.php 
Perdue, Inc. / Immortal LLC
515-554-9520
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<DIV>How is it that Tim can say the same thing as me but he sounds 
so much better? You have to teach me how you do that Tim.... hehehe</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Angie Tollerson Alliance Technologies Web 
Programmer (515)245-7628 <A 
href="mailto:tollerson@alliancetechnologies.net">tollerson@alliancetechnologies.net</A> &gt;&gt;&gt; 
tim@perdue.net 09/06/02 01:38PM &gt;&gt;&gt; Hi Chris - it's been eons since 
I've heard anything from you. &gt; I have been working on a project for a 
while to write my own forum and I have had a bit of a hang up on one area. I was 
hoping I could get some direction on this. &gt;&nbsp; &gt; When the user 
visits the forum the first time I write a time/date stamp into his profile for 
the last visit. Upon their return I grab that time/date stamp create a variable 
to hold it then update the profile with the current time/date. While that page 
is cycling through the forums to display I check each forum's last post 
time/date and compare that to the last visit. If there has been traffic more 
recent than the last visit, it gets marked "New" to indicate new posts... I do 
the same with the page which displays each of the topic in a 
forum. &gt;&nbsp; &gt; However I am getting stuck here; If you are the 
user and this is a return visit, you are looking at the topic list for a 
specific forum, and there are 5 new or updated topics since your last visit they 
are marked with a "New" before them in the display. You select the first of the 
5 topics, view the messages/posts, and then return to the topic listing, all 5 
are now marked read. Rather, I would like only the topic you just read to be 
marked read, and the 4 remaining to still be indicating "New". I did it 
this exact same way, and it does have its weak points, but it's certainly the 
easiest way to go. &nbsp; &gt; What I hoping for in asking is either some 
pseudo code or a good description of how a forum usually handles this. Ask any 
questions I will do my best to give you a answer. I will be happy to show the 
code if needed, let me know. The other way I've seen this done is to 
create an associative array of each message you've read and store it in a 
permanent 
cookie. like: $read_messages[$msg_id]=true; setcookie( foo, 
blah, serialize($read_messages), bar ); The problem with that is you wind 
up with an increasingly bloated cookie getting passed back and forth. I saw 
this done with the "Phorum" software that I used to use on PHPBuilder a while 
back and the cookie got so big it would max out your modem transferring it 
back and forth. You could solve that by having an algorithm that goes 
through and whittles down the array over time. Modern PHP sessions would 
probably also solve it, although the session data is lost pretty easily. Not 
very good for multiple visits. You could also create a separate table 
in the database like: read_messages table: -------------------- | 
user_id | msg_id | |&nbsp;&nbsp; 5&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; |&nbsp;&nbsp; 
67&nbsp;&nbsp; | |&nbsp;&nbsp; 5&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; |&nbsp;&nbsp; 
68&nbsp;&nbsp; | |&nbsp;&nbsp; 5&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; |&nbsp;&nbsp; 
61&nbsp;&nbsp; | |&nbsp;&nbsp; 5&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; |&nbsp;&nbsp; 
90&nbsp;&nbsp; | -------------------- As each message is read, you 
insert a row into that table for the user. On reading, you left-join your 
forum SELECT query against that table, pulling out the matching rows for the 
corresponding user_id. Probably the easiest and best-performing way is 
how you have already done it. Tim -- Founder - PHPBuilder.com 
/ Geocrawler.com / SourceForge GPG Public Key: <A 
href="http://www.perdue.net/personal/pgp.php">http://www.perdue.net/personal/pgp.php</A> Perdue, 
Inc. / Immortal 
LLC 515-554-9520 _______________________________________________ Ciapug 
mailing list Ciapug@ciapug.org <A 
href="http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/ciapug">http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/ciapug</A> </DIV></BODY></HTML>

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