[RainDigitalDesign] User Activity (Users Viewed, Viewing Thread) 1.1.5

[Sam F]

I like this add-on, however it works on some forums and not others.

meaning, I have around 100 forums, with lots of threads.

I see new posts in the forums and your add-on member avatars show up.


and in some forums I see new posts in the forums and your add-on did not display their avatars?
Any suggestions? is it limited on the number of forums it shows up on?

 

[t0daY]

Is it possible to hide this in certain Node Trees?

 

[BobbyWibowo]

You should be able to do that through template conditionals I think. Or maybe it will require a little bit of PHP callback. I'm not aware of a built-in feature.

 

[Xon]

You should be able to do that through template conditionals I think. Or maybe it will require a little bit of PHP callback. I'm not aware of a built-in feature.

You can definitely do it with template conditionals. The permission could actually per node, but I haven't checked this version for a while (I use my own redis-backed rebuild)

 

[Sam F]

Is it possible to hide this in certain Node Trees?

I'd be happy if it showed on in all my forums?

I like this add-on, however it works on some forums and not others.

meaning, I have around 100 forums, with lots of threads.

I see new posts in the forums and your add-on member avatars show up.
View attachment 148600

and in some forums I see new posts in the forums and your add-on did not display their avatars?
Any suggestions? is it limited on the number of forums it shows up on?

 

[BobbyWibowo]

You can definitely do it with template conditionals.

I wasn't sure of how to access the information of the node tree from within a thread so I kinda added the bit about PHP callback, just in case I was wrong or something.

The permission could actually per node

I think this one isn't per node as I can't see the permission in Node Permissions.
update: In fact, we apparently talked about it a while back, lol (I happened to encounter this again while I was looking for more info regarding Read Data Lifetime or something).

I'd be happy if it showed on in all my forums?

It should have something to do with Read Data Lifetime that was mentioned in the FAQ. Basically the add-on relies on the data gathered by XenForo itself or something? Quoting from author:

Yes unfortunately relying on the data Xenforo leaves laying around means anything past that date is gone. Sometimes older content that has been recently viewed isn't marked and it's an issue to some people.

 

[Xon]

It should have something to do with Read Data Lifetime that was mentioned in the FAQ. Basically the add-on relies on the data gathered by XenForo itself or something? Quoting from author:

I cut the Read Data Lifetime stuff (ie who has viewed a thread) out of my own version because it is hard to get right and isn't really useful due to how the data expires.

I'd be happy if it showed on in all my forums?

Is this the currently viewing or has viewed functionality?

The currently viewing functionality is a snapshot as of 'now' and doesn't handle if someone has looked at a number of threads recently. My version handles this by tracking activity per thread. I plan to release it for free once I add some additional functionality, it is based off this add-on with permission.

 

[Sam F]

Is this the currently viewing or has viewed functionality?

The currently viewing functionality is a snapshot as of 'now' and doesn't handle if someone has looked at a number of threads recently. My version handles this by tracking activity per thread. I plan to release it for free once I add some additional functionality, it is based off this add-on with permission.

It would be nice to be able to change or set the limit.

 

[t0daY]

You can definitely do it with template conditionals. The permission could actually per node, but I haven't checked this version for a while (I use my own redis-backed rebuild)

Hm okay, thanks for the answer! Now the question would be how that actually works

 

[Sam F]

It should have something to do with Read Data Lifetime that was mentioned in the FAQ. Basically the add-on relies on the data gathered by XenForo itself or something? Quoting from author:

Do you know how this could be changed or extended?

 

[Sam F]

RE:
Read Data Lifetime
This addon currently uses core read marking data. This data by default is purged after X days. Increase Read Marking Data Lifetime (Days) to a long length. Newer versions will no longer rely on this.

I found this and could only set it to 365 Days?
ACP -> Options -> Threads, Discussions and Conversations -> Read Marking Data Lifetime (Days)

 

[Tom McIntyre]

I just now installed this and it looks like it will be just what we need to replace the vB feature we were using. Like vB, it does not seem to find the who read data in the database, but rather builds it as the thread is read going forward after the feature is installed.

Would it be possible/rational to migrate the data from vBulletin? I am not even sure where it is stored in the vB database.

 

[rainmotorsports]

I just now installed this and it looks like it will be just what we need to replace the vB feature we were using. Like vB, it does not seem to find the who read data in the database, but rather builds it as the thread is read going forward after the feature is installed.

Would it be possible/rational to migrate the data from vBulletin? I am not even sure where it is stored in the vB database.

It has been awhile but there is likely a table somewhere and either way it would be entirely possible. Keep a copy of the database and someone can get to transferring it for either this or a different plugin.

So what this works off of is the same as some older Xenforo plugins did. Xenforo records data for recent thread views. This is adjustable but not to an infinite date. It isn't a great way of doing it. That data is meant to be temporary. It wasn't meant for this.

I really really need to push out a major update that does this job properly. It would fix some issues and lay the groundwork for the most requested and obvious features.

Honestly what this plugin was going to be developed into is my pride and joy. Not only properly written but expanded to all areas of Xenforo. I have some competition creeping up on me and I have things like a proposal for an inventory system I need to write coming up as soon as tomorrow.

 

[Tom McIntyre]

I found the tables in vB and xF that support the feature. It looks to me like the event index that is stored with userid, threadid, date is redundant. At first I thought that is was keeping all the view history, but of course it is not. There is only one instance for each userid and view. Since the userid/threadid are unique by definition the other id is not required but probably not hurting anything.

Does the xF datamanager require a single column unique id?

 

[rainmotorsports]

I found the tables in vB and xF that support the feature. It looks to me like the event index that is stored with userid, threadid, date is redundant. At first I thought that is was keeping all the view history, but of course it is not. There is only one instance for each userid and view. Since the userid/threadid are unique by definition the other id is not required but probably not hurting anything.

Does the xF datamanager require a single column unique id?

The problem with the table in xenforo is a cron is going to come and wipe anything older than whatever the setting is set to (max is 365 days). That is why this plugin needs to be changed to use its own table and make its own entries. It currently doesn't. I really can't remember what the unique id is for that table. Honestly its probably a combination of two columns.

I would look myself but I apologize its 1am here. Somewhere in the middle of tomorrow I have a proposal that is crushing my head. Then my idiot self agreed to do IT support on a move in the evening. Im only awake because I can't sleep.

 

[Tom McIntyre]

Here is a kick in the head... I just ran an analysis on the threadread table on my vB site and it only contains stats for the past 10 days. I was totally fooled by the display and had not looked closely at the longevity of the data. I guess 10 days is the presumed span of attention of forum users.

Sam F posted the XenForo setting location and default period for xf_thread_read earlier in this thread. I just checked in vB and there it is called Database Read Marking Limit. It says that is the period when threads are marked read for everyone but that is only part of what it does since it purges the threadread table on that schedule.

All those who remarked on how useful it was in vBulletin may not have realized what a short period it covered. Perhaps the designers understand our heads better than we do.

There are 3 options on how to do the marking of read threads. The one described as automatic database marking is the one with the default 10 day limit. There is also database marking (no automatic forum marking) that I may have misinterpreted when setting it up a couple of years ago. Does anyone know if that one keeps the data permanently?

 

[Bill Stuntz]

I work with Tom. We have both Similar Threads Plus & User Activity installed. I find it distracting if I place Who Has Read above the Quick Reply window - it separates the reply from the thread. If I place it BELOW the QR window it displays off the bottom of the screen - below Similar Threads. Is it possible to make it display IMMEDIATELY below the QR window, pushing Similar Threads down off the screen instead? IMHO, "Who" is meat, "Similar" is gravy. I don't want the gravy to hide the meat.

 

[Tom McIntyre]

RE:
Read Data Lifetime
This addon currently uses core read marking data. This data by default is purged after X days. Increase Read Marking Data Lifetime (Days) to a long length. Newer versions will no longer rely on this.

I found this and could only set it to 365 Days?
ACP -> Options -> Threads, Discussions and Conversations -> Read Marking Data Lifetime (Days)
View attachment 149939

I tried an experiment on our vBulletin site and extended the read period to 1,000 days.

Our moderators were very upset because suddenly all the forums they thought they had covered were marked unread. They could not see the unread threads because they were several pages down in the list. There is a fundamental conflict about how the two concepts are handled.

Unread thread indication is very important to most users to allow them to find what they need to read. Setting the read marking limit to a high number ensures that threads that are very old are still marked unread and their containers are marked unread also.

As @rainmotorsports said above, to do this right will require an additional independent data structure and perhaps a different mechanism for populating that table. While at it, the thread marking time limit should also be made a user preference since users have different schedules for visiting a forum site.

 

[rainmotorsports]

I work with Tom. We have both Similar Threads Plus & User Activity installed. I find it distracting if I place Who Has Read above the Quick Reply window - it separates the reply from the thread. If I place it BELOW the QR window it displays off the bottom of the screen - below Similar Threads. Is it possible to make it display IMMEDIATELY below the QR window, pushing Similar Threads down off the screen instead? IMHO, "Who" is meat, "Similar" is gravy. I don't want the gravy to hide the meat.

It is definitely possible to change the position to anywhere you want it. There are a couple of methods to achieve it but before we go making manual changes there is one thing to try.

I am probably hooking the exact same point as the other plugin. If that is the case changing the execution order on my template modification to be lower or the one for the other plugin to be higher may do the trick by way of how execution order works.

Go into admin.php?template-modifications/ and scroll down to [RainDD] User Activity and find the one that says "thread_view Adds activity containers to thread after quick reply." Open it up and change the execution order at the bottom to 5 instead of 10. Im not familiar with the other plugin but as I said you can increase the order on its template modification (assuming it uses them) to achieve the same effect.

 

[Bill Stuntz]

I'm new at this, so please bear with me. I've found your entry on the modification page. As you said, it was set to 10. I changed it to 5 & saved, but the list didn't move when I refreshed the thread tab. So I tried 4,3,2,1,0 - still no change with refresh. The change should take effect immediately, right?
And I found this: That entry was also set to 10. I tried 15, still no change. All the entries under STP are also set to 10.
Here's what I see: I've reset everything I changed back to 10, since the changes didn't seem to do anything, even though I got the "changes have been saved" message with each change.
Am I doing something wrong?