Think we could get this added to the toolbar?

[Colton]

A link to the new posts... It's only available as a link on the forum index, would be mighty handy if we could have a "New Posts" link on the header =)

http://rockpage.net/phpbb2/search.php?s ... d=newposts

[Ron]

Well... it could be done, Colton, but people constantly using the search function for the latest posts slows down access for everyone else because the function has to check the date on every post in the database. It is one of the drawbacks of having a search function in forum software. The less it is used the faster the site will be.

[Colton]

Well, considering theres not much of a load on this site, I didn't think it would be much of a problem. I've noticed alot of the newer forums have this function on their toolbars. Vbulletin has it, as well as alot of others. I couldnt imagine it being to much of a load since when you log on, it reads for these unread posts anyways, and marks the forums and threads with icons. Kinda odd that it would run another query, but then again, its phpbb.

Unless there was a constant 500 people online, i couldnt imagine it hurting anything, but thanks anyways. I'll continue to go home, then click that link from there.

[Ron]

It is a problem with most free software, even the VBulletin, PHPNuke, and other site building code that I've looked at. They use far too many SELECT * queries to mySql and they like to store the same data in more than one place in the database.

It takes a lot of time and study to learn how to do database queries in a really efficient manner. Instead of being efficient with the database they query everything at once and store the resulting arrays in RAM, which is usually a precious commodity on a VPS system.
I've seriously thought about writing my own forum software since I'm accustomed to writing code for embedded systems with limited memory and CPU speed. It forces you to be efficient.
Hopefully phpbb v.3 will be better since it's a ground-up rewrite of their code. It will be a lot of work for me to integrate v.3 since all of the band pages and schedule are integrated into the v.2 core.
Hey, at least it isn't using flat files to store all of the data and flocks to keep posts from stepping on each other. I've dealt with those before and it was a nightmare.

[Colton]

I'm no pro coder, but if you need a hand with anything, just gimme a shout. We were using nuke/phpbb for a while (http://www.mischiefsociety.com), but due to security issues (which phpbb seems to have a real problem with) we converted to a vbulletin. It runs like a dream.

How about a "get rockpage a vbulletin license" benefit?

After using VB, i just couldnt ever go back.. Its so... perfect! I've been looking into vbulletin mods for a long time now, and theres tons of already written scripts that a site like rockpage could really benefit from. If you'd like to check out the scripts, I could add you to my vbulletin license so you could browse the site. Unfortunately, they have screenshots and any CODE tags hidden from regular members/guests, you must have a license to view them.

[Ron]

Actually I thought about using vBulletin before and just may do that next year. It would probably take some extensive hacking to integrate, but it would probably be worth it. The vBulletin code I've seen was a few years ago.

You may be able to answer some questions for me since you have some experience with it and phpbb.
- How good is the script to transfer data from phpbb to vBulletin?
- If you've done any mods, how is updating the core version after mods have been done? This is fairly bad in phpbb. I have so many handwritten mods to the core that I always have to do some work after updating.
- Have you done any template hacking? If so is it easier than phpbb? It sucks that any phpbb template updates only affect their "SubSilver" template and have to be hand written into any other templates.

If those two things were easily done, it would be worth it for me to spend $160 on the upgrade, though it would be great to write my own and have thousands of people sending me $160 instead!

[Colton]

- How good is the script to transfer data from phpbb to vBulletin?

Damn near flawless. It converts everything from the users, usergroups, posts, post count, forums, and most permissions. The forums need a few things adjusted since forms are done in a new method on vbulletin, but that only takes a minute or two at the most to clean up. Totally painless. The import software is written by the vbulletin team and is not a third party script.

- If you've done any mods, how is updating the core version after mods have been done? This is fairly bad in phpbb. I have so many handwritten mods to the core that I always have to do some work after updating.

When you modify the vbulletin, you never once in your life, EVER, will edit the forum code. All modifications, styles, templates, and config are store within the SQL(with the exception of additional php files or images) and they can be reverted to a previous point in case of error. To update, no matter how many mods youve done, you upload the new files right over the old ones on the ftp, run update. Done.

- Have you done any template hacking? If so is it easier than phpbb? It sucks that any phpbb template updates only affect their "SubSilver" template and have to be hand written into any other templates.

Yes, I can actually create styles/templates from scratch for most portal/forum systems. Vbulletin's styles/templates are stored in the SQL, and can be edited with a simple editor for easy CSS setup, and image editing, ect are simple photochops. header/footer files (like you see in phpbb/nuke themes) are also completely stored in the SQL database. The whole vbulletin UI could be 100% rearranged in any way imagineable via the panel as long as you can script....

It's seriously a customizer's dream.


I can set you up an admin if you'd like to browse my control panel. I'd trust you'd be delicate with it.

[Ron]

Excellent. I'll take you up on the offer. Thanks a million.

[ToonaRockGuy]

Okay, that's enough, you two.

[Colton]

Okay, that's enough, you two.

KEK