unread and unread;all not working for new members

[waynewalls]

SMF: v1.1.4
THEME: Default

At a new member's first log on, the new post icons on the board index show those boards with unread posts (some boards have no posts).  If the new member clicks an active new post icon to view the topics with unread posts in that board, a message is returned saying there are none--a link is provided instead to view all unread posts in that board.  When this link is clicked, a page is returned saying there are no unread messages.

Since the member is new and had no previous visits, I can understand not returning any unread posts with action=unread.  What would cause no posts to be returned with action=unread;all?

If the new member clicks the board title in the board index to view the topic index, all topics have the "new" icon in the subject line indicating new posts.

What might cause this behavior during a new member's first session?

Thanks for your help.

[Fiery]

Is this occurring in boards that have posts as well as boards that have no posts?

[waynewalls]

Thanks for the reply...

In the boards WITH posts, the page that is returned has the following line:

"No unread topics found since your last visit. Click here to try all unread topics."

The boards WITHOUT posts return exactly the same page but the line above is missing.  On this page there are two "Page [1]:" lines but nothing between them.

[metallica48423]

Is this issue solved or do you still require assistance?

Does it show the new icon next to the topics? 

If new topics are posted afterwards does it then work as normal?

Could it be that it cant find any since the last session time since there was no last session time?  I'm not certain but i think that could be it. 

[waynewalls]

Thanks for checking, no it is not resolved.

Does it show the new icon next to the topics?

When a new member logs in for the first time it DOES show the new icon in the board index next to topics that have them.

If new topics are posted afterwards does it then work as normal?

When the new member logs in on subsequent occasions, the 'unread' action seems to work normally.  The 'unread;all' action still does not work.

Could it be that it cant find any since the last session time since there was no last session time?  I'm not certain but i think that could be it.

I completely understand the 'unread' action not returning any posts on a members first visit--there is no prior visit to establish what posts should be returned.  But in my case, the 'unread;all' action does not return any posts either.  This is particularly frustrating for new members because the new icons on the board index are "lit" indicating new posts but nothing is returned when any link to action=unread;all is clicked.

Our forum has very few users and about a dozen boards.  There is an absolute requirement to detect and read new posts.  I had hoped to use the 'unread;all' action to facilitate this.  This is especially true since a single visit to a topic with a "lit" new icon turns the new icon "off" and you can no longer detect topics that still have unread posts.

As a temporary fix I have added the modification discussed in this message.  While this does keep the new icon lit until all posts are read, I'm still a little concerned about future resource problems--even though we've not had any--we're really small.  I encountered a problem with this modification (read posts returned to an unread state did not "light" up the new icons again) and suggested a solution here.  If you have any comments on that I sure would appreciate it.

In the thread containing the messages linked above, there is another message indicating there may be an existing bug report on "show all unread".  Do you know if it is being investigated?

So I've disabled all links using the 'unread;all' action but I sure would like to enable them again if there is a solution.

Despite this problem SMF is working well for us and I applaud and appreciate all the work the whole team does.

Thanks for your assistance.

[metallica48423]

At this point i can't say i have any idea whats wrong with it, i've never seen it behave this way.

Does the error logs provide any input at all?

SMF Team: Any other team members seen this happen before?

[waynewalls]

Does the error logs provide any input at all?

This is nothing in the error logs.

Early on, being frustrated, I started a similar thread over on the Coding Discussions board--the symptoms were a little different (I apologize for the duplication though).  In that thread, SleePy recently responded with this message in which he indicated that there was a bug in v1.1.4 that sometimes caused 'unread;all' to fail.

At SleePy's request I posted some debug query results in that thread to see if they provide any insight.

Any comments or suggestions will certainly be appreciated.

[H]

As this has turned out to be a bug I've marked this thread as solved. Feel free to use the other one if you feel further discussion is needed to debug the issue or discuss workarounds