Looking to create my first addon....

[speedway]

Hi all

I would like to create an addon that displays the thread age next to the thread title, for example in the Whats New page. Here is a shot of what I mean:



I have this on my VB forum at the moment and the code doesn't look like anything special. There are three places it happens (from VB):

The first one is placed into the hook "threadbit_process":

$ta_start = "<span style=\"color: " . vB_Template_Runtime::fetchStyleVar('boofo_threaddays_color') . "\">";
$ta_end = "</span>";
 
$threaddays = floor((TIMENOW - $thread['dateline'])/86400);
switch ($threaddays)
{
case '0':
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start<b>" . $vbphrase['today'] . "</b>$ta_end";
break;
case '1':
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start" . $threaddays . " " . $vbphrase['boofo_threaddays_dayold'] . "$ta_end";
break;
default:
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start" . $threaddays . " " . $vbphrase['boofo_threaddays_daysold'] . "$ta_end";
break;
}

The next hook to be used is "showthread_getinfo":

$ta_start = "<span style=\"color: " . vB_Template_Runtime::fetchStyleVar('boofo_threaddays_color') . "\">";
$ta_end = "</span>";
 
$threaddays = floor((TIMENOW - $thread['dateline'])/86400);
switch ($threaddays)
{
case '0':
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start<b>" . $vbphrase['today'] . "</b>$ta_end";
break;
case '1':
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start" . $threaddays . " " . $vbphrase['boofo_threaddays_dayold'] . "$ta_end";
break;
default:
$thread['threaddays'] = "&ndash; $ta_start" . $threaddays . " " . $vbphrase['boofo_threaddays_daysold'] . "$ta_end";
break;
}

and lastly in the hook "process_template_complete":

$location = $vbulletin->options['boofo_threaddays_location'];
switch ($location)
{
case '0':
default:
break;
case '1':
require_once(DIR . '/includes/class_template_parser.php');
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:raw thread.threadtitle}</a>');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$find = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:raw thread.threadtitle}</a> {vb:raw thread.threaddays}');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$replace = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$vbulletin->templatecache['search_threadbit'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['search_threadbit']);
$vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit']);
$vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit_deleted'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit_deleted']);
 
unset($find, $replace);
 
// Showthread title at top of thread
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:raw threadinfo.title}</a>');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$find = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:raw threadinfo.title}</a> {vb:raw thread.threaddays}');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$replace = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$vbulletin->templatecache['SHOWTHREAD'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['SHOWTHREAD']);
 
unset($find, $replace);
break;
case '2':
require_once(DIR . '/includes/class_template_parser.php');
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:rawphrase started_by_x_y_z_a, {vb:link member, {vb:raw thread}, null, \'postuserid\', \'postusername\'}, {vb:raw thread.postusername}, {vb:raw thread.startdate}, {vb:raw thread.starttime}, {vb:stylevar dirmark}}');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$find = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$parser = new vB_TemplateParser('{vb:rawphrase started_by_x_y_z_a, {vb:link member, {vb:raw thread}, null, \'postuserid\', \'postusername\'}, {vb:raw thread.postusername}, {vb:raw thread.startdate}, {vb:raw thread.starttime}, {vb:stylevar dirmark}} {vb:raw thread.threaddays}');
$parser->dom_doc = new vB_DomDocument($parser->fetch_dom_compatible());
$replace = trim($parser->_parse_nodes($parser->dom_doc->childNodes()));
 
$vbulletin->templatecache['search_threadbit'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['search_threadbit']);
$vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit']);
$vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit_deleted'] = str_replace($find, $replace, $vbulletin->templatecache['threadbit_deleted']);
 
unset($find, $replace);
break;
}

Where this appears is controlled by an option:




If someone could give me some pointers as to where to start and I'll go from there.

Cheers

 

[tyteen4a03]

Firstly start by turning on debug mode (duh), then take a look at template hooks. I believe the resource section has guides on how to use them.

Also, this template function may help you a lot: <xen:datetime time="$time_in_the_past" />

 

[speedway]

Excellent, thank you. Some afternoon reading ahead