New "mark as read" feature behavior

[guillep2k]

As I helped doom9 on this, please feel free to contact me here or by PM if you have any doubts or comments. It is supposed to be fully working since today (there were some bugs yesterday).

As a start, these are some of the points about the new behavior:

* The mark as read feature was implemented using a timestamp, so the user doesn't inadvertently mark as read posts he or she didn't see in the forum thread's list because they're too new. For example, let's say you open a forum's page at 10:10. You then read all the new threads with "open in new window" (keeping the forum thread list open). At 10:25 you finish your readings... you are not aware that a new post was made at 10:15, and mark your forum as read: the system now contemplates this and marks the forum as read as of 10:10, so you won't miss the 10:15 post.

* The mark as read feature was implemented only for cookie users. Non-cookie users will experiment the original behavior.

* If a user marks as read a forum that has subforums, only the current forum is marked as read. Individual subforums must be marked as read one by one.

* The search vB function was not updated to use the new mark as read feature semantics. The original vBulletin 2.2.4 code wasn't modified for their mark as read function either. The search function uses (as always) the "last visit" value to mark posts as new.

* If you add a new post to a forum, that COUNTS as an unread post. That can get you confused because the forum appears as with unread posts, but the unread post is yours (so it's not highlighted).

* Reading all the posts of a forum doesn't mark the forum as read. That's because opening the page is no warranty that you'll have time to read it (it happens to me a lot).

* Now you can safely go and read the news on your subscribed threads without worrying about the board automatically mark all the forums as read. So you can enter the board, read a couple of posts, and return later to do the rest of the reading.

I hope you find these things usefull.

Guille

[bb]

When I click "Mark this Forum Read" the forum is indeed marked as read, but when I leave the forum and return later, then all topics are marked as unread again...

Is it just me?

BTW: I liked the old behaviour...

bb

[guillep2k]

Mmmmm.... it doesn't happen here. However, there's a case where it does happen: if you have two PCs and you never close the browser in either PC. May be it was you case? If you close all your browser windows and get back to the forum... do you still see the posts as unread?

Guille

[Charlieds]

I'm having the same problem as bb, plus, *too many* times when i click "Mark this Forum Read" and i go back to the Forum's index (following the link) i find myself logged out.
You can image how's boring...
WinXP - IE6 Accept all cookies, logged in with cookie.

[Charlieds]

After a lot, and i mean a *lot* of login/out, mark forum as read, mark *all* forums as read, delete all cookies and praying Pallas Athena, it seems that everything works fine now.
No logout in few hours, let's hope...

[guillep2k]

Sorry for taking too long to answer. Your logout problem is really weird... I can't imagine why would that be... except that your cookie size went too large (1KB is hard to fulfill, though). The mark as read feature loads the forum time marks in your session cookie (which is not supposed to be heavyly limited), and anyway the amount of info is very small (about 15/20 bytes per individually marked forum). Logging out is a sympthom of loosing your cookie.

I'll take note of the problem (and your workaround), but I don't feel I can do much about it except stop using the cookie, which would add a slight overhead to the forum because it will have to read your data every time. Please tell me if you have any new problems.

Guille

[Doom9]

@guille: I've finally upped the changes you sent me on the 29th.

[Charlieds]

@guille:
No need to feel sorry, thanks for you answer.
Starting from today, i've never been logged out.
Only a couple of time i've found some forum previously marked as read become totally unread. But i can live with it.

[Doom9]

that has happened to me, too. However, I think it mostly was when I uploaded some new files.. for instance I've had no problems since the last update and when I upped the new files today and marked some forums read, others were suddenly marked completely unread.. then I marked the whole forum read and now it works again.

Also.. there's an issue with timezones.. most European countries have summer time that begins before the dailight savings time in the US so right now I have a 1 time decalation between server time and server time as I perceive it. I think that could lead to some problems as well..

[guillep2k]

@Doom9: this problem seems very hard to track. If you agree, I would try not using the cookies at all (read from the DB all the time). I think that the performance hit will be too low to notice. Anyway, we can always go back to the previous version if it slows down the server. I'll get my hands on this if you give me green light.

I think that there's no real problem about time zones, because I always use the server's internal time (and time zone), so unless you change your server time, read marks will be OK.

Guille

[Doom9]

well.. let's try it

[guillep2k]

Well... doom9 just uploaded the changes. Please report any remaining strange behavior.

Guille

[Charlieds]

@Guille
No more problems here.

[guillep2k]

Glad to hear that.

@doom9: Does it behave well about the performance hit?

Guille

[Doom9]

haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary

[avih]

as of today, the 'view new posts' button gives 0 results. (mozilla 0.99)

[avih]

working well now. any changes been made?

[guillep2k]

The "view new posts" function has never been changed (since it would be a major performance hit, as I see it). Anything wrong with it is vBB to blame ;)

Guille

[avih]

ok, i've tracked this problem.

the scenario is:

i keep the main forum page open, and occasionally use 'view new posts' (open in a new window) and then 'mark all forums as read'.

up to yesterday, after 'mark all forums..' still some forums were visible as unread, since there were new posts since the last reload of the main page, and mark as read used the timestamp of the last main-page reload.

till yesterday, clicking the 'view new posts' would consider that timestamp and show the new posts that appeared as unread forums after 'mark all forums as read'.

since today, after clicking 'mark all forums as read', as usual, some still forums seems unread, since this timestamp feature. BUT when clicking vew new posts, it says 0 search results.

so there's a problem that the main page 'knows' some forums containing unread posts, but the view new posts doesn't. when browsing the forums at that position, and following unread forums from the main page, i can see the new unread threads, so it seems something is broken between mark as read and view new posts. as far as i remember it was ok till yesterday.

hope it helps to reprocude the problem.

thanx
avi.

[guillep2k]

Mmmm.... still strange, but the info is usefull. I'll try to find it.

Guille

[avih]

:( long time, yet the 'view new posts' behaviour unchanged.

(using mozilla rc1+ (nightly build)). nothing changed since my previous post. 'mark all forums as read' is working for the visual markings on the main forum page and different sections and threads. but 'view new posts' still shows empty f opened right after clicking 'mark all forums as read'.

it's quite obvious that 'view new posts' shows the new posts since the timestamp of CLICKING 'mark all...' instead of the timestamp of last reload (as the visual marks behave correctly).

AND, the 'mark all as read' still shows only at the bottom of the page.

is someone 'assigned' to these issues??

thanx
avi.

[guillep2k]

Hi! I'm sorry I let you down. I've been very very busy and I had no chance to investigate your problem. I know I promised, and I'll try to give it a look this weekend.

About moving the "mark all forums read" to the top of the page, it's up to doom9.

Guille

[Swede]

@guillep2k: Could it be just that the searchresults template don't include the new timestamp?

<p align="center"><smallfont>
<a href="member.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=markread">
Mark All Forums Read</a></smallfont></p>
(and, whopps, the mods I sent to doom9 today *has* got the Mark all read at the top too.. Forgot to mention that..)

[guillep2k]

It could be!
Thanks for giving it a look.

Then, avih, let's wait for the next forum upgrade (very soon, I think) and see what happens.

Guille

[avih]

:)
thanx for considering my feedback. no need to be sorry though. your work is greatly appreciated, and we're not in a hurry. i was just wodering whether this issue is forgotten. and i DO understand there are more important issues than this. could there be a better site than this?? ;)

thanx again
avi

[guillep2k]

Doom9 just updated the board code. Check it now. :)

Guille

[avih]

OH yes mama ;)

thx.