XF 2.0 How to listen for successful settings save event and store a timestamp?

[CyberAP]

I have a custom options page where I want to store my settings. I also want to store a timestamp for the latest setting change. I believe this has to be done with event listeners, but I can't find such an event. How can I catch that event and what would be the best place to store that timestamp? Should I create my own table for that or add an additional column to xf_option_group? What would be the fastest way to access it without overhead if possible?

 

[Chris D]

Personally I'd store the timestamp itself as an actual option within your option group. A bit of a hacky but reasonable way of doing it:

1. Create a an option with an ID of, e.g. myAddOnTimestamp
2. Edit type should be "Named template"
3. Format options should be the name of an admin template, e.g. option_template_myAddOnTimestamp
4. Data type should be Unsigned integer
5. Create the admin template. Contents should be as follows:

<xf:hiddenval name="{$inputName}" value="{$xf.time}" />

The value that gets saved will be the time the page was loaded (which is roughly correct). You could then access it in templates etc. {$xf.options.myAddOnTimestamp}.

Another way of doing it is similar but this time use an empty template but use a validation callback. That would be able to override the option value to the current time.

 

[CyberAP]

Thanks, Chris! This looks like an even better solution since it doesn't require any code, but I can't get it working unfortunately. I did exactly like you said, created a new option, used new admin template there with these contents:

<span>timestamp: {$xf.options.my_addon_timestamp}</span>
<xf:hiddenval name="{$inputName}" value="{$xf.time}" />

But it doesn't save the value to the database. When I refresh the page I don't get my timestamp value. It's not set in the DB:



Another problem is that I can't delete that option anymore. There's no edit button or anything I can use to edit option settings. I tried adding more options or set my template like this: template=admin:my_addon_timestamp, but that didn't help either.

I have checked the value in the hidden input and it's correct.

 

[CyberAP]

Even tried like this: <xf:textbox name="{$inputName}" value="{$xf.time}" />. Didn't help.

I have created a simple checkbox there and it's working as intended though.

 

[CyberAP]

Still struggling with this, I've renamed my template to correspond to its purpose and that didn't help. I've also recorded the post request. It looks like this:

------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="options[my_addon_timestamp]"

1510593079
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="_xfToken"

1510593079,5094f4a0c350399ee6094d7f482f2be5
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="_xfRequestUri"

/admin.php?options/groups/DynamicAvatarExtension/
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="_xfWithData"

1
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="_xfToken"

1510593079,5094f4a0c350399ee6094d7f482f2be5
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="_xfResponseType"

json
------WebKitFormBoundaryTQAZUvwheOKZ2HPi--

Clearly the data has been sent to the server but it has not been stored in the database. I've checked error logs and they are empty. How do I trace where it fails to save my data?

 

[Chris D]

My bad. Some things with template options aren't automatically included. Your template should look like this:

<xf:formrow hint="{$hintHtml}">
   <xf:hiddenval name="{$inputName}" value="{$xf.time}" />
   {$listedHtml|raw}
</xf:formrow>

This will ensure the template will work (the $listedHtml line marks the particular option as "listed", otherwise it would be ignored) and the {$hintHtml} hint will display the edit link.

 

[CyberAP]

My bad. Some things with template options aren't automatically included. Your template should look like this:

<xf:formrow hint="{$hintHtml}">
   <xf:hiddenval name="{$inputName}" value="{$xf.time}" />
   {$listedHtml|raw}
</xf:formrow>

This will ensure the template will work (the $listedHtml line marks the particular option as "listed", otherwise it would be ignored) and the {$hintHtml} hint will display the edit link.

Thanks, Chris, this is working as expected now!