Is what my posters are asking for even possible? (Return)

[gbsothere]

My posters like to do what they call "catch up" on long, popular threads, and post their comments, along the way.  I'm getting PMs from them asking if, after they post, they can be returned, not to the last (most recent) post on the thread, but to where they, themselves, last posted, so that they can continue "catching up" without having to figure out where they left off.   Our board is SMF 1.1.8, Default.  Is this something that can become a reality?   (I'm just a guy trying to run a message board, the only thing I know about code is how to methodically do what I'm told on installation instructions and even then, with extreme caution.)   *grin*   

Would you guys please advise?  Thanks.

[karlbenson]

The last msg icon actually returns them where they have read upto.
(their last post if that was the last thing they read/did in that topic)

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

If you read one page of posts, out of say 5 new pages, and then post an answer, it would be the same as to read all 5 pages. At least that's how it works for me - so if I did that, I'd just have to guess where I was before I posted my own comment.

[tyty1234]

There is an option in the User's Profile in the Look and Layout Preferences that says "Return to topics after posting by default."

[gbsothere]

When they click on the button in the image below, it takes them to the "most recent" post (which would be the one they just posted) and the issue they're having is that they weren't done playing "catch up" yet and weren't ready to be sent there. 



Here's an excerpt from another PM I just found in my Inbox:

"Not to be demanding of your precious time Boss, but I would like to be able to play ketchup and reply as I am moved to and then be returned to the same point in the thread at which I left off rather than being sent to the end of the thread some (at the current rate of posting) 20 pages forward from where I was. I know I could make a note of the page I was on but in my eagerness to respond I will have forgotten to do so."

I hope I'm able to communicate this.  *grin*   They don't want to be sent to the post they just made.  They want to be sent back to the post they responded to, so that they can continue to catch up on what they missed and continue commenting. 

Is that possible?  Can the files be modified in any way to accomplish this?

[tyty1234]

I see what you mean now.
However, I'm not sure how to approach this...

[gbsothere]

I see what you mean now.
However, I'm not sure how to approach this...

I have to hand it to them, tyty, it's a pretty good idea, isn't it?   I visited a few forums a while back to see what their features were and I noticed that the American Idol forum has that feature...   Wonder if I can steal it?   *grin*

[asmith]

I don't know where exactly is the redirect page. But since smf uses an anchor at the end of the url for the message,

at the redirect line after posting :
a query can be like this :

select ID_MSG from smf_messages where ID_TOPIC = 'that topic id' and ID_MEMBER = $context['user']['id'] order by posterTime desc limit 1,1

You got the msg id, now put #msg{messgae id here} as an anchor at the end of redirect.

I'm no expert at SMF. but I guess that should do it. Since you don't know anything about coding as you said, I hope the code above make someone to give you an standard modify code

[gbsothere]

I don't know where exactly is the redirect page. But since smf uses an anchor at the end of the url for the message,

at the redirect line after posting :
a query can be like this :

select ID_MSG from smf_messages where ID_TOPIC = 'that topic id' and ID_MEMBER = $context['user']['id'] order by posterTime desc limit 1,1

You got the msg id, now put #msg{messgae id here} as an anchor at the end of redirect.

I'm no expert at SMF. but I guess that should do it. Since you don't know anything about coding as you said, I hope the code above make someone to give you an standard modify code

Seriously, when you guys type out stuff like that, I am amazed, and I mean that.  The only thing I can do with code is to follow the installation instructions on mods and copy and paste.  *grin*   Would this be the display.template.php?  (See how dumb I am?) 

This gives me hope that there's something to make it work.

[asmith]

The reason I don't want you to use mine is, I'm sure mine is not 100% standard for SMF. That's why you have ask for a smf expert, like lovely Blue Dream

[Dragooon]

Let me see if I understood it correctly, once the user makes a post, he wants to be redirected to the previous page he was viewing rather than to the last page(Or the board index)..am I right? If so then I don't think asmith's way would work. However what you're asking is quite easy by using SESSION data to store there last page visited.

[asmith]

after they post, they can be returned, not to the last (most recent) post on the thread, but to where they, themselves, last posted

I sounds a bit strange to me since I don't know what subjects he is discussing in his forum.
But to me it seems,  he wants that when a user posts, it redirect him to that user previous posts in the same thread. (don't know what if, it is his first post).such thing would work fine in big threas with tons of replies.

[gbsothere]

Let me see if I understood it correctly, once the user makes a post, he wants to be redirected to the previous page he was viewing rather than to the last page(Or the board index)..am I right? If so then I don't think asmith's way would work. However what you're asking is quite easy by using SESSION data to store there last page visited.

Do you mind if I ask you to explain about using SESSION data, Dragooon?  (I can't stress enough what a rookie guy I am, just trying to run a little message board and keep a group of chatty posters happy.)   

They have threads that are dedicated to specifics that probably don't get hit as much and it shouldn't be a big ordeal for them to find where they were.  But there's this one thread in particular...   they hit it with a vengeance and discuss everything from "Desperate Housewives" to their grandbaby's first poopie to whether or not they saw their neighbor on "America's Most Wanted".  That thread moves so quickly that it feels more like a chat room than a thread.  They like to get their coffee in the morning and settle down to see what they missed and make comments along the way, but they don't want to be deterred from their important "catching up" and get sent to the end of the thread when there were still 8 more pages to go about how you can tell if yogurt has gone bad.  So they want to get taken back to the last post they replied to, rather than the end, so that they can reply to the next post in line that declares that red meat is bad for you and assert that, "no, red meat is not bad for you, but bluish-green meat probably is"....   

*grin*   See what I'm up against? 

I can't tell you how I long to to resolve this so that they can focus their efforts on complaining about something new.   *grin* 

Thank you guys for any advice to help me do this.



 

[buspass]

Let me see if I understood it correctly, once the user makes a post, he wants to be redirected to the previous page he was viewing rather than to the last page(Or the board index)..am I right? If so then I don't think asmith's way would work. However what you're asking is quite easy by using SESSION data to store there last page visited.

Using SESSION to store the last page would partially work. It'd get you back to at least the right page, but if you reply to the last post on a page, you'll probably get returned to the top of that page after you post

Look at the actual links used when replying to a message.. when just hitting the REPLY button, the link it's taking you to is /index.php?action=post;topic=296378.0;num_replies=12
When you hit the Quote button(like I did to get here) the link it goes to is /index.php?action=post;quote=1957737;topic=296378.0;num_replies=12;sesc=2da5.....

1957737 is Dragoon's post in the original thread. So you would need to keep passing this value and when the user is finished posting, they should be redirected to post#1957737. The existing way probably passes the topic id(296378.0) instead, which is why after posting you're being redirected to the end of that topic(where your new reply is)
I don't know how that would be done in the SMF code- unfortuantely I haven't done much digging in the actual "forums" part of SMF code

This should work well with the QUOTE button on each post since it already has the ID of the post you're last viewing. Perhaps the REPLY button(top and bottom of each thread) could return you to the right page at least, unless you're going to add a REPLY button to each post- so each would have REPLY and QUOTE. That'd be a bit cumbersome IMO

[Dragooon]

buspass...you gave me a pretty nice idea of using the URL variables for redirection.
Here is something I made, untested so dunno if this works. Detecting quote would only work on normal reply and not quick reply(Unfortunately I don't know regular expression to match quotes).

Post.php

Code (Find) Select Expand

// Return to post if the mod is on.

Code (Add before) Select Expand


        // Custom redirection
        // WE got a quote?
        if (isset($_REQUEST['topic']) && isset($_REQUEST['quote']))
            redirectexit('topic=' . $_REQUEST['topic'] . (strpos($_REQUEST['topic'], '.') ? '#' : '.') . 'msg' . $_REQUEST['quote']);
        // No quote? :(
        elseif (isset($_REQUEST['topic']))
            redirectexit('topic=' . $_REQUEST['topic']);



[gbsothere]

Well.....    they almost always do use the quote button when they're doing their many-paged "catch up" thing.  They usually want to stop and comment on something they saw before they continue on reading the rest, so it's pretty much a sure bet that the quote button is what they will use to post with. 

Does that help at all?


*laughing at the idea of me helping anything around here*

[Dragooon]

Well.....    they almost always do use the quote button when they're doing their many-paged "catch up" thing.  They usually want to stop and comment on something they saw before they continue on reading the rest, so it's pretty much a sure bet that the quote button is what they will use to post with. 

Does that help at all?


*laughing at the idea of me helping anything around here*

Yea then my code *should* work perfectly...give it a shot.

[gbsothere]

Yea then my code *should* work perfectly...give it a shot.

I'm going to stop breathing for a moment and try it.  *grin*

Now....     /Sources/Post.php   and that's the only file; this has nothing at all to do with /Themes/Default/Post.template.php, right?  (I have to ask proactively, to try to circumvent random stupidity on my part).  *grin*

*standing on "G", waiting on "o"*   

[gbsothere]

Dragooon, I picked page one of a 9 page thread and quoted a random post there.  It did return me to page one, but it also made my post the first post on the thread, ahead of the threadstarter's post.


Did I break it?   

[gbsothere]

Dragooon, I picked page one of a 9 page thread and quoted a random post there.  It did return me to page one, but it also made my post the first post on the thread, ahead of the threadstarter's post.


Did I break it?   

Wait.....  scratch that.... I have my settings to show the most recent posts first, so let me try that again on another thread....   brb...