Forces select categories in the discussion grid into a blog-like reverse chronological order.

New with 2.0: You must edit each category's settings that you wish to change the order. All discussions in the categories marked chronological will not bump.

Why? In my case, its better that way because of the timely subject matter.

Other cases?
...people will be willing to argue about H1B visas, or what's wrong with Computer Science in college, until the end of the universe. Every day 100 new people arrive in the forum for the first time, and they start at the top of the list, and they dive into that topic with gusto.

The way I do it has two advantages. One, topics rapidly go away, so conversation remains relatively interesting. Eventually people have to just stop arguing about a given point.

Two, the order of topics on the home page is stable, so it's easier to find a topic again that you were interested in because it stays in the same place relative to its neighbors.
(http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html)

This is great but I really need to be able to switch between this mode and normal mode.

Can this be turned into a side bar filter or perhaps even something that users can decide upon in their own forum preferences

thanks in advance

Give this a shot--Its been months since I last tested it so I don't know if it will work, this should replace everything in the existing file including the if line down:$Context->SetDefinition('DisplayInChronological', 'Display discussions in chronological order');

// Change to '0' to require users to set a preference before making everything chronological:
$Configuration['PREFERENCE_ShowChronological'] = '1';


// Add the preference switch to the account functionality form
if ('account.php' == $Context->SelfUrl && ForceIncomingString('PostBackAction', '') == 'Functionality') {
function PreferencesForm_AddChronologicalSwitch(&$PreferencesForm) {
$PreferencesForm->AddPreference('ControlPanel', 'DisplayInChronological', 'ShowChronological');
}
$Context->AddToDelegate('PreferencesForm',
'Constructor',
'PreferencesForm_AddChronologicalSwitch');
}

if ( ('index.php' == $Context->SelfUrl) ) {
if ((0 < $Context->Session->UserID) && ($Context->Session->User->Preference('ShowChronological')) ||
($Context->Configuration['PREFERENCE_ShowChronological'] = '1') ) {

// Order by date created instead of last active:
$DatabaseColumns['Discussion']['DateLastActive'] = 'DateCreated';
// Make the dictionary match the above change
$Context->Dictionary['LastActive'] = 'Posted';
}
}

Could do that pretty easily considering if you are viewing the category directly, but if you want to view the chronological posts mixed with standard posts on the main discussions page, that could be a bit more involved.

I'm currently working on a netlabel website: chronological discussions would be used for official news and album releases in specific categories - this way people could comment but these discussions would stay in place if they do. And another category would be dedicated to "normal" discussions.

Discussion Overview seemed pretty cool for this, because it displays discussions ordered per categories. It would be quite weird to mix chronological and normal discussions on the standard discussion page. Ideally I wouldn't mind two separated tabs, one for announcements and one for discussions.

Thanks, these ideas sound cool! So I would use Page Manager to create a tab pointing to the chronological category hidden from the main discussion list, am I right? I guess it would be perfect for a catalogue category.

I think I'll use both solutions : blog for the news and hidden chronological category for the releases - but probably Spode's BlogThis instead of MySchizoBuddy's Blog. This way I'll be able to blog new stuff from the catalogue while keeping a clean catalogue on the dedicated tab.

What should I add o the category hider to make it chronological?

I've tried this, but while the category is hidden, its posts aren't displayed chronologicaly:
if ( ('index.php' == $Context->SelfUrl) && !in_array(ForceIncomingString('CategoryID', ''), array('3')) ) {

$DatabaseColumns['Discussion']['DateLastActive'] = 'DateCreated';
// Make the dictionary match the above change
$Context->Dictionary['LastActive'] = 'Posted';

function Category_HideFromDiscussions(&$DiscussionManager) {
$SB = &$DiscussionManager->DelegateParameters['SqlBuilder'];

foreach ( array('3') as $CurrentBlock ) {
$SB->AddWhere('t', 'CategoryID', '', $CurrentBlock, '<>', 'and', '', 0, 0);
}
}

$Context->AddToDelegate('DiscussionManager', 'PostGetDiscussionBuilder', 'Category_HideFromDiscussions');
$Context->AddToDelegate('DiscussionManager', 'PreGetDiscussionCount', 'Category_HideFromDiscussions');
}

However, the discussions list is chronological. I guess I'm missing something pretty simple but I don't know what.

Yay, it works! Thanks a lot!

How differently do you need it done than was discussed in the nine posts prior to yours?

(LOL)

IIRC, that error means something about braces or somesuch.

Three day weekend here in the states, maybe I'll get around to it.

I've got a new version that you can try out, and it does require some new delegates in 1.1.3 and 1.1.4. It'll work fine with YHBeta.

Thanks to you.
Whoops. but I got this error message when I installed Chronological 2.0.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '&', expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' in /home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/extensions/Chronological/default.php on line 63

so I removed this add-on, then it became to mass up on my Vinilla.

like this.



Warning: main(/home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/extensions/Chronological/default.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/conf/extensions.php on line 6

Warning: main(/home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/extensions/Chronological/default.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/conf/extensions.php on line 6

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening '/home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/extensions/Chronological/default.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/hosting_users/digitypoweb/www/forum/conf/extensions.php on line 6


this error message shows every single pages on the top of my forum badly.
so I removed the line 6 from conf/extension.php. then it works as ususal.

would you check your add-on Chronological 2.0 please? I really want to use Chronological on my forum. ^^

I was using a foreach loop in a way that only works in PHP5. This one should work for you.

That tick box needs to be marked for every category you want in this order, and you can find it under the settings tab, then the categories option on the left. You'll have to edit each category and it will be on the bottom of the category options.

If you turn off category roles does it appear?

I'm having the same problem with the checkbox not appearing. It worked a while ago, and I just noticed that it's not now, but I can't tell what made the difference. Could it have anything to do with upgrading?

After messing with it a while, I see it's because of my custom theme. Once I switched to the default theme, it worked fine.

I'm creating this theme myself, but it's just a slight variation of the default theme from the latest version of vanilla. How can I make it compatible?

OK, what you & fatro will have to do is add the delegate to that file, it's one line of code at line 82, near the bottom, and then you should be set.

//CategoryRole end
$this->CallDelegate('PostRolesRender');