Simple Machines Community Forum

Customizing SMF => Modifications and Packages => Mod Requests => Topic started by: Ivan Minic on April 27, 2005, 01:42:06 AM

Title: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on April 27, 2005, 01:42:06 AM
Almost every forum script has eather built in "related topics" feature or as a mod. I don't seem to find it, so, I'm asking you to think about it.
You all know how related topics work.
And for the random topics... make possible for admins to set number of random topics titles and link that would be show while viewing certain topic. Random topics can be from the same forum or cathegory or alltogether randomly selected.
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on May 02, 2005, 02:14:52 AM
 :-[ anyone with same opinions?  :'(
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on July 21, 2005, 03:40:58 AM
me too.

its very usefull future?

anyone interest to make that mode ?
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on July 28, 2005, 02:02:21 AM
I need this one badly
You can find phpbb version of Related topic mod here (http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/2237)
This would make many problems easier to solve, and people would be able to go from one topic they are interested in, to another
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: rhizome on July 28, 2005, 06:21:57 PM
Yes I totally agree.

This is a great mod for SMF, for linking topics together.
Here's an example of it in action: http://literaryforums.org/forums/about152.html

And I can imagine it working great for this forum too - even likely to cut down on the support questions don't you think  ;D

Maybe useful enough to make it a core selectable feature? (as I reckon it's as, if not  even more, useful than the last x posts listing at the bottom of the forum)

EDIT: Hmm...just wondering on what kind of performance hit this mod might incur. As it would do a search on every time a thread was opened? Maybe then what other forums it searches on should be selectable, thus limited?
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on July 31, 2005, 08:25:49 AM
I can find code that does same thing on other forum scripts, someone just has to rewrite it...
And for perfomance hit... maybe there is some kind of solution...
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: rhizome on July 31, 2005, 08:35:51 AM
Well to reduce the performance hit, the search should be restricted to Admin selected specific forums, rather than searching through the whole board.
And for example, you could have it so you can select it to only search on the forum that the topic exists in etc.

That would help?

Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on July 31, 2005, 08:44:59 AM
Would but for some people it woudln't help... what about forums that are strictly oriented, with them difference between forums in content isn't so huge and many of the similar topics can be found all around the board...
I don't know how some of forums do that, but i can see that it doesn't effect ther performance by much...
Will ask around, have a friend that wrote similar script year or two ago and it worked like a charm with tForum...
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: rhizome on July 31, 2005, 08:49:26 AM
I see your point. Though the option of selecting which forums to search on is still useful whatever, as some forums may be redundant.

The phpbb hack you originally point to I think only searches the topic line, rather than the message body? If so, then perhaps not so much of a performance hit after all?
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on July 31, 2005, 09:01:30 AM
That hack relates only to topic title and pretty poor results and it usually misses some topics ... but that is the only mod i found online.. pretty much all HQ boards have it as a standard feature.. vB for example....
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 01, 2005, 03:06:37 PM
where is süper SMF code and coders ?

i want that mod.

it must be in good forum software.
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 01, 2005, 06:10:22 PM
It's not a problem to code it.. it is problem to code it and don't affect forum speed.. especially on bigger boards..
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 01, 2005, 06:29:08 PM
 :-\

may be possible mod makse this:

1. admin manualy produce index file in admin panel

(index file like as glossary: related words index)

2. related links link use that index file (from database)

::)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 01, 2005, 06:36:30 PM
How much time would it take every day to make index on a forum that has 40 000 topics with 200 new daily? :)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 02, 2005, 12:09:33 AM
i mean a code which is in admin panel automaticly produce an index file with a button

or without admin command every hour automaticly by SMF
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: dtm.exe on August 02, 2005, 12:10:46 AM
Random topics aren't always a good thing.  It could give users reason to post in dead or expired topics :-\.

-Dan The Man
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 02, 2005, 12:12:44 AM
Hm.. well that can be interesting.. maybe even set to work only when load is under 2 for example.. that might be nice... a whole lot of work though... but nice
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 02, 2005, 12:15:02 AM
actualy if you have dead or expired topic, you must delete them.

but some forum content (like me) need related topics. dead or live.
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: dtm.exe on August 02, 2005, 12:15:35 AM
Quote from: leke on August 02, 2005, 12:15:02 AM
actualy if you have dead or expired topic, you must delete them.

but some forum content (like me) need related topics. dead or live.

Most people don't delete any old or expired topics.

-Dan The Man
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 02, 2005, 12:16:58 AM
Well, you can set it not to include topics that didn't have reply in last 6 months
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 02, 2005, 12:19:00 AM
so they dont need that mod and will not install.

but i need.  :)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: dtm.exe on August 02, 2005, 12:20:50 AM
Quote from: Ivan Minic on August 02, 2005, 12:16:58 AM
Well, you can set it not to include topics that didn't have reply in last 6 months

That would work.

-Dan The Man
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on August 03, 2005, 07:38:56 AM
I think this would be easy to do it i had glossary file


<?php
$related
[] = array(
$topic = "web programming",
$words = array(
array(
"php"),
array(
"sql","mysql","database");
),
);
$related[] = array(
$topic = "programming",
$words = array(
array(
"vb","visual basic","basic"),
array(
"ms","microsoft");
),
);
?>


then when posted it would look thought every topic's word, each word giving a point , but max 1 per word group

like "i like php, because php is easy to use" would give 1 point for web programming...
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Grudge on August 03, 2005, 09:05:45 AM
In terms of "related topics" I'd guess that they are generated when the topic is created (Based on the topic title and/or first post content) and never updated after that. Doing them every page load would be forum death
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: sifirforum.com on August 03, 2005, 11:15:34 AM
for example, can we use a technic like as google adsens.  ?

they get related ads in short time..

Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 03, 2005, 11:24:17 AM
Quote from: Grudge on August 03, 2005, 09:05:45 AM
In terms of "related topics" I'd guess that they are generated when the topic is created (Based on the topic title and/or first post content) and never updated after that. Doing them every page load would be forum death
You are developer, think of something :) :)
Checkout vBulletin... that way should work charming..
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Grudge on August 03, 2005, 01:19:43 PM
That was something - a suggestion of how to do it no less ;)

I guess I'd probably do it by timestamping when the topic list was last updated and keep 5 ID_TOPIC numbers in a column on the topic table (comma seperated). When the topic is loaded the timestamp is checked - if it's more than 5 days old it runs a new search for related topics. If it's less than 5 days old it loads the topic names for each of the 5 numbers cached in the topics table. If some of these topics are gone (i.e. deleted) then it runs another search for 5 which aren't.

Equally - if the first post of the topic is edited it invalidates the cache to force a researching of related topics.

Is that a good enough plan for you ;)

PS - I'm not intending to do this - but I'll admidt it might be a useful mod so thought I'd provide some advice :P
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 03, 2005, 09:24:06 PM
I know the usuall way it would be performance killer, but if ou tested vB ever you would see that the way it is done there doen't effect time loading or server performance at all.. And many CMS scripts have something similar for related news and it usually works fine..
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Klauser on August 09, 2005, 06:39:01 PM
Hello,

I am also interested in a MOD Related Topic.....since 2 days I am now using SMF and before phpBB2 which has a realy good working MOD, possible the best one for phpBB2 ... Is there any chance to convert it to SMF ?

http://www.leuchte.net/dl.php?action=cat&catid=1

> Aehnliche Beitraege - Similar Topics > http://www.leuchte.net/file.php?file=28

Regards.

Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on August 27, 2005, 12:41:15 PM
I'm in process of making this mod

Image avaible in my blog (http://www.madjoki.com/blog/2005/08/27/related-topics/)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 27, 2005, 01:25:50 PM
Bravo  ;D
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on August 27, 2005, 08:59:40 PM
Live demo @ http://www.madjoki.com/madbbs/
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on August 27, 2005, 09:07:13 PM
Will you make it also SMF 1.05 compatible?
How does it work.. searching topic title.. or?
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on August 28, 2005, 01:54:13 AM

Quote from: Ivan Minic on August 27, 2005, 09:07:13 PM
Will you make it also SMF 1.05 compatible?
Maybe

Quote from: Ivan Minic on August 27, 2005, 09:07:13 PM
How does it work.. searching topic title.. or?

yea currently at least
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on August 31, 2005, 04:07:14 PM
I will try to get this out tomorrow just need to make mod-files the code should be working... I have also to make Religion essay tomorrow
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on September 03, 2005, 11:43:19 AM
Any news?
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on September 03, 2005, 03:16:55 PM
Laziness owned me... but today i got the package xml's done...
just need to test this... and submit (and get approved)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on September 03, 2005, 03:18:17 PM
Great.. please, if possible, make if for 1.0 and 1.1 versions...
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: niko on September 04, 2005, 07:58:46 AM
mod is now waiting for approval... so release is soon...
this will work with 1.0.5 but you need to make changes manually
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: Ivan Minic on September 04, 2005, 08:00:32 AM
 :) 8) 8) This makes me a very happy fat man  :P :)
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: lonrot on July 03, 2007, 03:50:54 PM
Hi, Niko can you make this mod to work with SMF 1.3 ?
I have sent you a PM I hope you can reply.
Title: Re: Related topics / Random Topic?
Post by: PLAYBOY on August 10, 2007, 11:41:22 PM
We need it for 1.1.3
Come on guys.

Also random topic list on the forum main page would be good too.