about the IPB forum software

[prathapml]

Does IPB 2.0 (going to be released) eliminate the "no-printing beyond 300 posts" limit? Try printing the registry tweaks thread to know what I mean - the resulting html comes to only 300 posts, half of it being un-printed.

Also, it seems that having ad-sense embedded in pages improves google visits. If the adsense shows generic ads, it means the google spider has not visited/read the forum enough.

[CoffeeFiend]

Haven't tried it, but it shouldn't be hard to bypass the 300 post limitation... Perhaps it's something as simple as a "SELECT TOP 300" SQL statement or something like:

strSQL="select * from (...)"

(execute query)

maxposts=300

do while not (RS.EOF or maxpost=0)

(display post)

maxposts-=1

loop

or similar idea...

can't be hard to tweak, perhaps even searching in index.php for 300 would find it. The main problem is the strain it will put on the SQL server if everybody feels like printing 1200 post long threads... (ok, maybe I'm exagerating a tiny bit here). Anyways, I might have a peek at it too.

[CoffeeFiend]

Look into print_page.php where it says "$max_posts = 300;". I bet you know what to do with it

It adss "LIMIT 0, ".$max_posts);" at the end of the select statement (yes, it's HARDCODED). Basically confirming my first tought...

[CoffeeFiend]

Looking at IPB v2.0.0 PDR 5, nothing has changed with regards to that. You'd still have to change the hardcoded limit.

[prathapml]

Well, pardon me - but I'm not nearly as clear about what you say!

You mean to say that the "300 posts-only" printing problem is not actually so, and can be fixed?

If so, I'm happy. If not, nothing's changed.

[CoffeeFiend]

It can easily be changed. Just a matter of opening the proper file with notepad and changing the 300 to whatever pleases you.

[prathapml]

WOW. I've fantastic news here.

The limit for printing threads has been raised to 1000 posts (from 300 previously). You might literally be able to see me jumping up and down with joy!

I'm finally able to print everyone of those monstrously big threads and not be concerned about whether all the posts are present. Try printing the "Hotfixes for WinXP SP1", "Registry Tweaks...", "XPinstall" threads. Each one of them print right upto the last post - its perfect. Thanks a million to the Admin.

(Going overboard with happy emoticons....).

Actually, I'm not actually going to "print" it - I use that function to save all 90 or so pages of posts on the topic as one single HTML file - really useful there to read the topic offline.

[CoffeeFiend]

Glad to see it helped. I never tought of using the print function like that before, but I'm sure it will come in handy numerous times. Any more tweaks or enhancements required... I'm always ready to lend a hand.

[XtremeMaC]

@prathapml I'm a little confused. u changed the code of your ipboard and how come it applies to msfn forum's reg tweaks page, hotfixes etc..?

[prathapml]

LOL no, don't confuse yourself across different threads dude....

Here's an explanation:

I always "print" (in fact, save as HTML after getting the printable version) useful topics to read them offline and on PCs that don't have access to the internet. That way, the ads are not shown either . Now since a long time, whenever I went to those XXL size threads, I'd face the problem of having to save each individual page beyond 300 posts. So I kept on mentioning that in those pages (try searching my posts in the XPinstall thread, LOL). I was told at that time, that it was a defect in IPB itself. Hence, I hoped that the next version would remove that limitation, and posted that hope here. xper saw my request to be able to print more than 300 posts and enabled printing/saving upto 1000 posts. Which I announced here.

In all of this, my own IPboard is not involved in any way. That thread is a different one, simply asking as many people as possible to check out IPB 2.0 in action at my friend's site, and register there. There's no connection between this thread (about what new features IPB 2.0 can bring to MSFN) and my other "check out this forum" thread (about IPB 2.0 being in action there). Now its clear?

(this post was deliberately "lumped-up" so that its read only by who REALLY wants to)

[XtremeMaC]

xper saw my request to be able to print more than 300 posts and enabled printing/saving upto 1000 posts. Which I announced here.

okay this was what I was wondering about. when u said u saved those xxl threads I was a little confused bc I didn't know xper had changed it.

thanks.

[prathapml]

Some bugs I noticed in PF3 (of IPB 2.0):

Lots of alt-text to be used for the essential buttons (new topic, reply, etc.) has still been left out. Also, in the style-sheet, the topic-title block in each thread has a transparent background (which makes the topic-title unreadable unless you turn on viewing images in your browser). Also, the smilies used could do with some improved alt-text usage as well (instead of seeing 20 smilies with the text "Image", it'd be better to have the trigger listed, like having "lol" as the alt-text for the LOL emoticon, instead of the current one-fits-all text).

The above is a major accessibility issue. Those who like to surf with images turned off will find a forum with default IPB 2.0 PF3 being used, pretty difficult. Those administrators who do use IPB forums on a large-scale of course, have customised the above to be the way it should. Even though IPB 1.3 has the same user accessibility problems described above, most big forum sites that use it have fixed those issues. For example, MSFN is working perfectly fine (none of the issues I described above here). I fixed the things I described above as well, for some forums where I'm responsible for what members see.

I just hope Invision fixes these imperfect defaults in the final release, so that administrators of small sites who don't change from the defaults - can give their members a good experience too. I reported this at IPB's own forums as well, just posted this here so that those of the members here who have IPB-based forums will take note. This is not a complaint, just an observation by me. I repeat, MSFN itself has none of the problems described above, so its all good.