Feature list, that we can work on, to be on-par with other powerful forums.

feature requests aren't considered critical.

I'm working on advanced profile right now so can't look at this in depth. I won't put in anything that requires hacking the core forum module but I'll have a look at the rest. Probably tomorrow. I need to get a bit farther on advprofile then put out a camera club newsletter then work on a client site. And take care of my kids in there somewhere. :)

Michelle

To get the title of the posting you can use this function:

<?php
function last_post_title_get_title($uid, $tid = NULL) {
	$query = "SELECT
   N.title AS nodeTitle,
   RES.title AS resTitle,
   RES.created,
   RES.type AS resType,
   N.type AS nodeType,
   N.nid AS nid,
   T.tid,
   RES.cid AS cid
   FROM node AS N INNER JOIN
   (SELECT title, created, nid, uid, type, 'cid' AS cid FROM node
   UNION SELECT subject, timestamp, nid, uid, 'comment', cid
   FROM comments ORDER BY created DESC)
   AS RES ON N.nid=RES.nid
   INNER JOIN term_node AS T ON N.nid = T.nid
   WHERE RES.uid = %d";

	if($tid != NULL) {
		$query .= " AND T.tid = %d";
	}

	$query .= " LIMIT 0,1";
	$result = db_query( $query, $uid, $tid);
	return db_fetch_object($result);

}

?>

To display it, open up the forum-list.tpl.php
Add the following lines bevor the row[] statement

<?php
        // LAST POST
        $fLastPost = $forum->last_post;
        $lastPostTitle = last_post_title_get_title($fLastPost->uid, $forum->tid);
        if ($fLastPost && $fLastPost->timestamp) {
        	$lpURL = $lastPostTitle->nid;
        	if($lastPostTitle->resType == "comment") {
        	 $lpURL .= '#comment-'. $lastPostTitle->cid;
        	}
          $last_post =  t('<a href="node/'. $lpURL .'">@title</a><br />@time ago<br />by !author', array('@title' => $lastPostTitle->nodeTitle, '@time' => format_interval(time() - $fLastPost->timestamp), '!author' => theme('username', $fLastPost)));
        } else {
          $last_post =  t('n/a');
        }
?>

and exchange the following line:
array('data' => _forum_format($forum->last_post), 'class' => 'last-reply'));

with this:
array('data' => $last_post, 'class' => 'last-reply'));
I'm using it in a custom module. It is not fully tested for bugs or performance, but it is at least a way without hacking the core modules.
If someone has any perfomance improvements on the sql statement, i'd be glad if you leave a notice ;)

Sorry it's taking me so long on this. I was away Friday-Sunday and then today I got caught up in some advprofile stuff and I have a client site to work on tonight. I've got big plans for advforum, though, so stuff is coming. :)

Michelle

actually 5.6 was just released and 5.7 is in -dev, which should show that 5.5 is not the last release before Drupal 6 is gold. Based on the see saw of pending issues against Drupal 6, it could still be awhile before 6 is released in full. considering that the pattern has been an RC has to be released with out creating more critical issues.

Hacking core is never the best way to go about doing anything especially when developing a module. If there is something that core needs and you can convince core developers of it's importantance, you supply a patch to core and work on the changes getting into core. This is how you create change. While hacking core may save you lines of code, it creates an abundance of support requests when the next update is released and modules get broken because the changes have been overwritten.

I agree with VeryMisunderstood. You're welcome to do whatever you like on your own site, of course, but I won't be hacking core in this module.

Michelle

@LasseP: great implementation. It works for me.

@Michelle: Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to more features coming soon :)

I have to agree with VeryMisUnderstood and Michelle against hacking core. Everytime a new version comes out, i'd have to hack it again. It becomes cumbersome and many times I feel unsure if other things will break. I noticed this community are well versed in software designs. They build things from bottom-up design rather than top-down especially for this modular software unlike some competitors. I have to say thanks to all those who made it a very stable software and easy to build upon.

@executex

Most of the lines are for a clean code. You can, of course, put the sql statement in one line. And you could possibly remove the if clause for the tid, if you want to.
You can even just override the _forum_format function completely and save a few more lines, and you can strip down the resultset of the sql statement, so that you can save a few more lines of code.

I can understand why you say it is easier to hack the core. But if you want to have a stable environment, which is up to date, you need an environment which can easily be updated. Imagine you want to update from 5.5 to 5.6. You would have to merge your core hacks into the foum module. And if it had changed, you might need to rewite it.

As Michelle said, this is good if you're just doing it for your own site. Because that does only belong to you. But if you're in a multisite environment, or have site for a company or something like that, it need to be upgradeable, without any core hacks. And that's why i posted this function. It's allways better to change a module then changing the core.

I do not want to say that your work was worthless. But there are better ways. And if i would create a simple site for myself, without wanting to go to much in detail about module development, i would possibly prefer your work.

LasseP's code committed. The rest of this is either covered in other issues or the to do list or is out of scope.

Michelle