Bug - "Mark this Forum Read" not working.

Puck

The "Mark this Forum Read" link on forum pages (i.e. forumdisplay.php) doesn't seem to be working.

When I click the "Mark this Forum Read" link it doesn't seem to do anything. All the posts in that forum that were marked as having new posts remain marked as having new posts. Also the star beside that particular forum remains in the "Subbed" drop down menu.

To try this out yourself just go to any forum with a new post (if the forum is in your "Subbed" menu you'll be able to see the bug with the stars as mentioned above) and click the "Mark this Forum Read" link. Nothing happens.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for bug reports.

DeVore

Thanks for the report (yes this is the right place to report stuff like that).

I noticed that myself but then because I'm *shockingly* clever, I immediately forgot it.

Thinking about it again I think it also explains the *'s being screwed up since they rely on the threads being marked read by VBB....

DeV.

Puck

One thing I noticed, on the main forum page (i.e. index.php) the "Mark All Forums Read" link does actually work, the stars in the "Subbed" menu go and all threads are marked as read. Just seems to be a problem with the links on the individual forums (or is that fora? ).

regi

ok, VBB is mad clever. Hopefully this will make it a little clearer.

Every 15 minutes or so, boards updates a value in your persistant boards.ie cookie. This is your persistant last-looked-at-boards time/date.

When you click on 'Mark this Forum Read', VBB puts a value in your boards.ie session cookie. This cookie only hangs around for as long as you are on the site. This cookie says 'I went to forum blah at this time'.

Otherwise, when you come to boards, the dhtml script looks at the timestamp in the persistant cookie, and then tells you if there are any posts newer than that time in your subscribed forums list, by putting a little '*' in the dropdown.

Now, when you look at a forum, you can see that some threads are marked as new. VBB doesn't bother to check the session cookie to see if you've marked that forum as read - it only checks your persistant cookie, and then measures the time between that post and when your persistant cookie time was updated. This is why marking a forum as read really doesn't do anything.

When you mark 'All Forums Read', it doesn't touch your session cookie. It only updates your last viewed time in your user profile in the database, and then updates the timestamp in your persistant cookie. This is why you won't see any stars or new thread indicators anywhere.

I've updated the dropdown script a little because of this. Basically, if you have a 'Mark this Forum Read' timestamp in your session cookie, it overrules the timestamp in your persistant cookie, so if you don't want to see stars for a particular forum, mark that forum as read. Of course, if you mark a forum as read, and then clear your session cookies (by leaving the site, or closing the browser), and then return before your persistant cookie is updated, you'll see the stars again for that forum

I'm happy to take any suggestions.

Puck

Thanks, that did make things clearer.

However (sorry about this) ...

Originally posted by Regi
I've updated the dropdown script a little because of this. Basically, if you have a 'Mark this Forum Read' timestamp in your session cookie, it overrules the timestamp in your persistant cookie, so if you don't want to see stars for a particular forum, mark that forum as read. Of course, if you mark a forum as read, and then clear your session cookies (by leaving the site, or closing the browser), and then return before your persistant cookie is updated, you'll see the stars again for that forum

... this doesn't seem to be working. Tried the "Mark this Forum Read" link on this forum and the star remained beside it on the "Subbed" menu. Deleted all offline content just to be sure I wasn't using a cached version of the menu.

DeVore

It may have had a post between you marking it read and looking at the subbed menu... its certainly working for me and we tested it goodo today (on our shiny new test rig... )....

DeV.

Puck

No that can't be it. I tried it again there - deleted all cache and everything before hand, logged in, checked my "Subbed" menu and there was a star beside Admin/Support so I went there and noted what the last post was. I then clicked "Mark this Forum Read" link and nothing changed, the star was still there reporting the same post as before.

Can't understand why it's working for you and not me... unless I have to wait for the magic script fairy that comes at night to update the dropdown menu (to list new boards etc.)?

Sorry for all the nagging btw.

DeVore

its not nagging...


ok, lets be sure we are talking about the same thing.
Firstly, close all browsers except one looking at Boards.ie

1. You are subbed to a forum that has a * at the end of its name in the Subbed menu.

2. You go to that forum and do nothing other then Mark All As Read.

3. Look at the subbed menu again (in the same browser) and see if it has the same *


Also are you using a proxy or anything?

DeV.

Puck

Just did that now. There was a * beside this forum in my "Subbed" menu. Before I clicked "Mark this Forum Read" the last post was your one above. Did the three steps you mentioned and there is still a * for the same post.

I'm in college now but I'm not using the proxy. Wasn't using one at home last night either.

Puck

*bump*
Any progress on this yet? Still not working for me.

I'm using the minimalist skin. Could that have anything to do with it?

DeVore

Browser? Version number? OS?

Perhaps you should contact me via mail so I can change your password, login as you and see if its something account specific...

DeV.

Puck

If have encountered this bug on the following browsers and OSes:

• IE 6 - Windows XP and Windows NT
• Galeon - Mandrake Linux 9.0
• Mozilla - Mandrake Linux 9.0

The same result on all of them.
I'll email you in a while.

Puck

Sent you my password. Let me know when you're done with the account.

Puck

This has sunk down to the second page again so I'm bumping it up.

Don't take this as nagging or me trying to annoy anyone. I'm just letting ye know this is still a bug and wondering if anyone knows what the problem is.