XF 2.2 "What's New" not matching "New Posts"

oldford

Active member
I've set up a test forum and the "What's New" link is not working as expected.

When I click "What's New" often nothing will display. But if I click "New posts" then New posts will show.

I would expect "What's New" would show anything new, so if "New Posts" shows something new, then "What's New" should show the same.

Is that not correct?
 
If it's a read post how is it considered New in any sense?

Also, if "What's New" is read and unread, then shouldn't it always show more info than "New Posts"? In my case it always shows less.
 
What's New is a link to a page containing widgets - by default widgets for Latest posts and Latest profile posts.
Those widgets do show a fixed amount of latest ("New") content, by default they will display 10 entries.

So "What's New" by default will always show (up to a maximum of 10) threads order by last post date, New posts will show you all threads that do have unread posts - in most cases this will be a lot more than 10.
 
Since "What's New" doesn't work the way I think it should, is there an addon to just bypass the "What's New" and goes straight to "New Posts"?
Create a New threads widget and use the "What's new: Overview" position for it. It won't have the "View more" link at the bottom, though, FYI

EDIT: Eh, never mind, I see you changed "threads" to "posts"
 
I'm OK with "What's New" if it's working properly, but it doesn't appear that it is on my forum.

From the responses in this thread "What's New" should show both read and unread posts. And "New Posts" should show only unread. To me that means that "What's New" should always show more than "New Posts". But in my case it's the opposite. "What's New" shows nothing. "New Posts" shows unread posts.
 
To me that means that "What's New" should always show more than "New Posts".
There are fundamental differences between a Widget and a Page

Widget

The "Latest Posts" widget on the What's New overview page:Screenshot_20211107-215439_Chrome.jpg

This widget (which in fact could be shown anywhere where widgets can be shown) does show a fixed number of threads based on admin defined criteria:
Screenshot_20211107-214315_Chrome.jpg

New Posts Page
The New Posts page on the other hand does show all threads that match user defined criteria:
Screenshot_20211107-214638_Chrome.jpg

So unless there are less than X (with X being the maximum number of threads shown by the widget) threads that match the filters set by the user for New Posts, the widget can never show more results than New Posts.

If the widget on your forum doesn't show anything but New Posts does, there most likely is a configuration problem.
 
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Thanks for the explanation. I really am not trying to be difficult about this issue. It's just not making sense to me, and if I don't get it, there's no way I can explain it to my members.

I understand that the "What's New" is limited to 10 by default. So if I have 20 unread posts only 10 will show on "What's New" and all 20 will show on "New Posts".

But in my case zero are showing on "What's New" and 20+ are showing on "New Posts".

Regarding the "Latest Posts" widget on the "What's New" overview page, the admin setting says "a list of any thread which have been recently posted in."

What is the definition of "recently"? The test forum I'm working in has low traffic, so if the trigger for "recently" is only a couple of hours then maybe this explains why "What's New" isn't showing any results.

1636318926702.png
 
It's just not making sense to me, and if I don't get it, there's no way I can explain it to my members.
It IMHO really isn't thaat difficult to understand:
What's New shows the 10 threads with the newest replies, no matter if the visitor already read them or not.

New Posts shows threads with unread posts, no matter if those are the threads with the latest posts or not.

(With dedault settings, if settings are changed things could be different)

I understand that the "What's New" is limited to 10 by default. So if I have 20 unread posts only 10 will show on "What's New" and all 20 will show on "New Posts".
If you have 20 threads with unread posts, up to 10 of them might appear in the widget.
But it could be that none of your unread threads does appear there if all your unread threads have last replies that are order than the 10 threads shown by the widget.

But in my case zero are showing on "What's New" and 20+ are showing on "New Posts".
Can you post a screenshot if the configuration of your widget?

What is the definition of "recently"?
There is no explicit cut-off, the widget does show the 10 threads with most recent/new/latest replies that are newer than the read marking data lifetime (default = 30 days).

So even if there had been no new posts for hours or even a few days, it would just show the latest 10 (or less as on my screenshot if there are less than 10 threads in total, which is the case on this installation)
Screenshot_20211107-223224_Chrome.jpg
 
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Can you tell me where this configuration is? I don't see a "latest posts" widget.
I don't know what widgets you've configured, it's your installation so you would have to know that :)

Could be admin.php?widgets/new-posts.4/edit - or smth. completely different.
As said before, it's your installation.
 
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