CTA Featured Threads & Portal [Paid] 2.17.0

[Mr Lucky]

Apologies if this was answered previously.

What happens when:

• I feature a thread and add to slider.
• It then expires
• I decide to feature again

I can't find an option to make it use the existing background image from before, or did that get deleted when the thread originally expired so I have to reupload it?

 

[Paul B]

All images are deleted when threads are unfeatured.
This is to prevent old image files building up in the directories.

So yes, you need to add images again if you (re)feature an expired thread.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Thanks. Can I suggest we have the option to link to hosted image as well as upload attachment when featuring with slider?

 

[Paul B]

You can upload from a URL but I'm not going to add the ability to hotlink to an image on a remote server.

If the image isn't available it will just cause layout and display errors.

 

[Mr Lucky]

You can upload from a URL but I'm not going to add the ability to hotlink to an image on a remote server.

If the image isn't available it will just cause layout and display errors.

Fair enough. However I would only link to my own image on my own server but i can see how that option could cause problems if people hotlinked to other stuff.

 

[Paul B]

Regarding using post ratings for automatic featuring criteria, Luke has very kindly provided a copy of his add-on so I can look at what's involved.

Unfortunately there is no 'first post' content stored for threads, nor totals for positive ratings, so it may have a performance related impact.
Although criteria based automatic featuring is a deferred cron task so it may not be an issue.

 

[Dead Tomorrow]

I have CTA all up and running now and really like it, it does pretty much exactly what I need. I have a couple of questions:
1) If I just leave all thread featured as indefinitely featured, do you foresee any performance issues? e.g. if in a years time I had hundreds of them. Not sure I want to do this but interested in it.
2) Is there an automatic way of making images in threads that appear on features to link to the thread like the title? I can see I can link manually
Thanks!
Jack

 

[Paul B]

The only slight performance issue I have experienced (1-2 seconds) is when there are many hundreds of pages on the portal page, due to having thousands of threads featured.
That is unavoidable though as the portal page respects permissions (not all portal add-ons do) and each featured thread can only be seen by those with the permission to do so.

Regarding the second point, if you are referring to attached and embedded images from the first post in the thread, that is not possible.
You would have to manually use the basic URL bb code and wrap the images in it.
If you upload a custom icon when featuring then that will automatically link to the thread.

 

[Paul B]

The beta version of 2.12 is running on around 20 sites with no reported errors or bugs.

It will be pushed to stable later this week and sent to all active license holders.

 

[Wild Onion]

A few questions:

1. Is there a way to force a different style to the featured threads page?

2. If I cannot force a unique style to the featured threads page, how would I apply a different header logo and remove ads?

3. How would I remove the small "featured" icon in the thread list?

 

[Paul B]

1. Is there a way to force a different style to the featured threads page?

No, that's not possible.

2. If I cannot force a unique style to the featured threads page, how would I apply a different header logo and remove ads?

You can use conditional statements using the template name, which is cta_featuredthreads_featured.
There is a link in my signature for the conditional statements resource.

3. How would I remove the small "featured" icon in the thread list?

Disable this template modification:

Doing so will also remove the [Expired] badge.

 

[Wild Onion]

Terrific. Thanks!

 

[Paul B]

Version 2.12 has been tested with XenForo 1.4.3 and confirmed fully working.

It has been pushed to stable and rolled out on a few sites.

I was going to release it today but ran out of time so it will be released tomorrow morning.

 

[Paul B]

Brogan updated CTA Featured Threads & Portal with a new update entry:

Early Xmas Present

Development of FT resumed a few weeks ago (after catching up on real life).

------------------------------------------------------------
Important Information
If you are upgrading from a previous version, read the following carefully.

Due to various schema changes, after uploading the files and prior to importing the .xml file, the following error(s) may be generated: 'Undefined index: display'.
You can disable the...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Martok]

Merry Xmas!

You mean we're not going to get another update before 25th December?

This update works really well - the new options are great and the template view is much easier to work with especially as it has the rich text editor to use.

Well done.

 

[Paul B]

Just posting the important information again...just on the off chance that someone doesn't read it...

------------------------------------------------------------
Important Information
If you are upgrading from a previous version, read the following carefully.

Due to various schema changes, after uploading the files and prior to importing the .xml file, the following error(s) may be generated: 'Undefined index: display'.
You can disable the add-on prior to upgrading, to prevent any errors, otherwise the errors will stop once the upgrade has commenced and the database and templates have been updated.
Any errors generated can be deleted from the log.

Once the upgrade has completed, navigate to Options -> CTA Featured Threads, check and update the options and click the [Save Changes] button to update the cache.
This is especially important if you use the automatic featuring option.
Failure to do so may result in featured threads not displaying or incorrect criteria being applied.

After upgrading, there should be two directories in the /js directory, like so:

• /js/CTA
• /js/cta

The upper case 'CTA' directory can be deleted as it is no longer used.
------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Paul B]

The latest version has been emailed to all active license holders.

If you haven't received it, check your spam folder.

 

[lazer]

Cheers for the update (+ new toys).

Upgrade, flawless.

 

[SneakyDave]

Just curious. Is the capitalization change of the CTA is directory the result of just being consistent with other event names, or ?

 

[Lone Wolf]

That's actually on my future features list.

I was going to emulate how the Resource Manager does it and have featured threads from each forum display above the thread list.

I've been following this add-on for a while and I was wondering if you're any closer to adding the ability to group featured threads by Author/User and Category.

Currently I use WP to have Author Pages which link to all Featured Articles/Threads by each user. I also have categories for Featured Threads which helps me create Menu links for specific Featured Thread Categories.

If this add-on could do both those things then I could dump WP and move over to a fully XenForo website. Are there any plans for you to add this functionality?