473865 - Create recent posts & comments block for Sfx's new Homepage

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Websites Graveyard :: spreadfirefox.com, defect)

Description

[Mary]

This will need to aggregate recent posts & replies from all groups and display them on the news and events page.

Paul (I believe) suggested the simplefeed module which converts aggregated content to nodes so that you can post further comments.

Comment 1

[Paul Booker]

Taking this one.

Comment 2

[Paul Booker]

We can do this with help of the views module.

Comment 3

[Mary]

Attachment: Image of "Recent Discussions" Block

Hey Paul:  Here is an image of what the recent conversation block would look like.

Comment 4

[Mary]

I added the image of the block for reference.  Right now it has a link to "+ View all postings" that the designer had put in.  Would this be a challenge to have all comments/discussions aggregated on to what page that people could navigate to?

This would really help in that people really still aren't sure where to go to converse.  I could see this sub group having:

* A title for each post
* Group/Project where it was posted from
* First 2 sentences

Let me know.

Comment 5

[Paul Booker]

Yes, i should be able to get that done for the week ending 27th February

Comment 6

[Paul Booker]

I was able to create two page/block views that allow you to show separately recent group nodes posted in a users subscribed groups and recent group comments posted in a users subscribed groups, but not both together.

Will these be ok ? I guess two blocks can be made to look as one, thinking that might be easier 

I'll add the views here for later reference ...

$view = new stdClass(); $view->name = 'sfx_og_recent_posts'; $view->description = 'Shows all activity in subscribed groups.'; $view->access = array ( 0 => '2', ); $view->view_args_php = ''; $view->page = TRUE; $view->page_title = 'Recent posts in my groups'; $view->page_header = ''; $view->page_header_format = '3'; $view->page_footer = ''; $view->page_footer_format = '1'; $view->page_empty = '

There are no posts in your subscribed groups.

'; $view->page_empty_format = '1'; $view->page_type = 'table'; $view->url = 'group/posts'; $view->use_pager = TRUE; $view->nodes_per_page = '25'; $view->menu = TRUE; $view->menu_title = 'My recent'; $view->menu_tab = TRUE; $view->menu_tab_weight = '0'; $view->menu_tab_default = FALSE; $view->menu_tab_default_parent = NULL; $view->menu_tab_default_parent_type = 'tab'; $view->menu_parent_tab_weight = '0'; $view->menu_parent_title = ''; $view->block = TRUE; $view->block_title = 'Recent group posts in subscribed groups'; $view->block_header = ''; $view->block_header_format = '1'; $view->block_footer = ''; $view->block_footer_format = '1'; $view->block_empty = ''; $view->block_empty_format = '1'; $view->block_type = 'list'; $view->nodes_per_block = '3'; $view->block_more = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_header = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_footer = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_empty = FALSE; $view->sort = array( array( 'tablename' => 'node', 'field' => 'nid', 'sortorder' => 'DESC', 'options' => '', ), ); $view->argument = array( array( 'type' => 'rss_feed', 'argdefault' => '2', 'title' => '', 'options' => '', 'wildcard' => '', 'wildcard_substitution' => '', ), ); $view->field = array( array( 'tablename' => 'node', 'field' => 'type', 'label' => 'Type', 'sortable' => '1', ), array( 'tablename' => 'node', 'field' => 'title', 'label' => 'Title', 'handler' => 'views_handler_field_nodelink_with_mark', 'sortable' => '1', 'options' => 'link', ), array( 'tablename' => 'users', 'field' => 'name', 'label' => 'Author', 'sortable' => '1', ), array( 'tablename' => 'node_comment_statistics', 'field' => 'comment_count', 'label' => 'Replies', 'handler' => 'views_handler_comments_with_new', 'sortable' => '1', ), array( 'tablename' => 'node', 'field' => 'created', 'label' => 'Last post', 'handler' => 'views_handler_field_since', 'defaultsort' => 'DESC', ), ); $view->filter = array( array( 'tablename' => 'node', 'field' => 'status', 'operator' => '=', 'options' => '', 'value' => '1', ), array( 'tablename' => 'og_uid_node', 'field' => 'currentuid', 'operator' => '=', 'options' => '', 'value' => '***CURRENT_USER***', ), ); $view->exposed_filter = array( ); $view->requires = array(node, users, node_comment_statistics, og_uid_node); $views[$view->name] = $view;

$view = new stdClass(); $view->name = 'sfx_og_recent_comments'; $view->description = 'Display recent comments block in a group'; $view->access = array ( ); $view->view_args_php = ''; $view->page = TRUE; $view->page_title = 'Recent group comments in subscribed groups'; $view->page_header = ''; $view->page_header_format = '1'; $view->page_footer = ''; $view->page_footer_format = '1'; $view->page_empty = ''; $view->page_empty_format = '1'; $view->page_type = 'table'; $view->url = 'group/comments'; $view->use_pager = TRUE; $view->nodes_per_page = '25'; $view->block = TRUE; $view->block_title = 'Recent group comments in subscribed groups'; $view->block_header = ''; $view->block_header_format = '1'; $view->block_footer = ''; $view->block_footer_format = '1'; $view->block_empty = ''; $view->block_empty_format = '1'; $view->block_type = 'list'; $view->nodes_per_block = '3'; $view->block_more = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_header = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_footer = FALSE; $view->block_use_page_empty = FALSE; $view->sort = array( array( 'tablename' => 'comments', 'field' => 'timestamp', 'sortorder' => 'DESC', 'options' => 'normal', ), ); $view->argument = array( ); $view->field = array( array( 'tablename' => 'comments', 'field' => 'subject', 'label' => '', 'handler' => 'views_handler_field_commentlink', 'options' => 'link', ), array( 'tablename' => 'comments', 'field' => 'name', 'label' => '', ), ); $view->filter = array( array( 'tablename' => 'node_comment_statistics', 'field' => 'comment_count', 'operator' => '>=', 'options' => '', 'value' => '1', ), array( 'tablename' => 'comments', 'field' => 'status', 'operator' => '=', 'options' => '', 'value' => '0', ), array( 'tablename' => 'og_uid_node', 'field' => 'currentuid', 'operator' => '=', 'options' => '', 'value' => '***CURRENT_USER***', ), ); $view->exposed_filter = array( ); $view->requires = array(comments, node_comment_statistics, og_uid_node); $views[$view->name] = $view;

Comment 7

[Mary]

Ideally, it would be both comments and posts.  Also, how does it work if
someone isn't logged in?  This is on the home page so I forsee not many people
logging in first.

Comment 8

[Paul Booker]

How about we try to implement a tabbed block solution showing recent posts / recent comments. Doing this should be a lot simpler to implement.

If someone is not logged in then we will need to show some other content.

I'll upload some images so you can see where things are at .

Comment 9

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: View page of group posts

Comment 10

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: View page of group comments

Comment 11

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: View page of group posts / comments blocks

Thinking we could have these blocked rendered in tabs and use CSS to hide some of the content displayed that we want to see in the page view but not the block view

Comment 12

[Mary]

Eek - couple of problems here:

* I thought that we had resolved the issue with being able to see comments whether or not you subscribe to a group.  Can you verify this?

* Not being able to see the comments in that block on the homepage unless you are signed in sorta defeats the purpose.  We wanted this to show people that were visiting the site there is activity on site.  Any way we can allow comment & post viewing without being logged in?

Comment 13

[Paul Booker]

* I thought that we had resolved the issue with being able to see comments
whether or not you subscribe to a group.  Can you verify this?

My understanding was that you would only be able to see group posts / comments as non members if the group was public . So public group nodes and all comments should be visible to anonymous users ?

* Not being able to see the comments in that block on the homepage unless you
are signed in sorta defeats the purpose.  We wanted this to show people that
were visiting the site there is activity on site.  Any way we can allow comment
& post viewing without being logged in?

that's correct

As the problems above are resolvable do you want to work towards a solution along this path ie taking the above functionality and apply Alex's theme to it
or do you want to me to write some bespoke code? but just to be clear i don't have any css / template experience so ill have a "little" learning curve to get over

I'll continue working on this tomorrow , let me know your thoughts and ill then pull out all the stops to deliver :-)

Comment 14

[Paul Booker]

Ok, 

I have ruled out the possibility of creating the page / block of node & comments together using views as the Views maintainer advises  ..

"Views can't do this. You would have to write a custom sort handler. But remember, you need to use SQL to sort, not PHP, and it's kind of difficult to write the SQL like you have.

(Mixing comments + nodes in a list is always very tough, and Views isn't really built for that)."

http://drupal.org/node/349584/comments-1190500#comment-1190500

I had the idea of using nodecomment module to convert comments to nodes and then use views but then i remembered / realised that forum / og_forum have a dependency on the comments module so this is not possible.

So ill need to write some bespoke code for this. Ill start working on the SQL command ,there may be some snippets on drupal.org.

If you need to advise / instruct me on any matters regarding templates / css , please do.

Best, Paul

Comment 15

[Paul Booker]

Just letting you all know that there were no problems in forming the SQL ..

(SELECT nr.title as title, nr.body as body, nr.timestamp as timestamp FROM node_revisions nr INNER JOIN node n ON nr.nid = n.nid WHERE status = 1)
UNION
(SELECT c.subject as title, c.comment as body, c.timestamp as timestamp FROM comments c WHERE status = 0)
ORDER BY timestamp DESC LIMIT 5

Comment 16

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: A helper module to render recent nodes / comments together on a page / block

Making good progress.

So far this helper module implements the "recent nodes / comments" block. 

The block is generated and cached every time a node or comment is created / updated.

I'll have this bug finished tomorrow.

Comment 17

[Mary]

Hey there:  If this doesn't work, we can do something like the current "What People are Talking About"?

Also, I realized I misnamed the bug slightly -- this is for the homepage so updating it.

Thanks!

Comment 18

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: A helper module to render recent nodes / comments together on a page / block

Everything is done now , just needs some polishing tomorrow. I'll upload a image ..

Comment 19

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: Accompanying screenshot

Comment 20

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: Create a recent posts & comments page /block for Sfx's new homepage

We need to make a small modification to the core comment module comment_save() function so that when a comment is updated the timestamp against the comment is updated. With this modification the records on the "recent posts & comments page" are ordered by the last time they were updated in descending order 

db_query("UPDATE {comments} SET status = %d, timestamp = %d, subject = '%s', comment = '%s', format = %d, uid = %d, name = '%s', mail = '%s', homepage = '%s' WHERE cid = %d", $edit['status'], time(), $edit['subject'], $edit['comment'], $edit['format'], $edit['uid'], $edit['name'], $edit['mail'], $edit['homepage'], $edit['cid']);

Comment 21

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

(In reply to comment #20)
> We need to make a small modification to the core comment module comment_save()

Sorry, there will be NO changes to core Drupal code.

Comment 22

[Paul Booker]

That's understood , if this is not something that can be patched against drupal core ill find another solution to the ordering problem

Comment 23

[Mary]

Hey Paul:  Checking in here.  We need to make a call pretty soon on how to do this.

Comment 24

[Paul Booker]

Ill post my patch to Moshe (OG Maintainer) and if he gives a quick response to say he with patch this against the latest OG then we can go this path. In the meantime though ill see if can write a helper module to implement this functionality outside of OG.

Comment 25

[Paul Booker]

Sorry, #24 was relevant to another bug . I'll get this resolved in the morning with another helper module :-)

Comment 26

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: Create a recent posts & comments page /block for Sfx's new homepage

Comment 27

[Paul Booker]

Attachment: Allows a timestamp to be collected when a comment is inserted / updated

Comment 28

[Paul Booker]

Let me know if we can get these modules into SVN

Comment 29

[Mary]

Alex:  Can you check this out?

Comment 30

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

r22896

Comment 31

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

Comment on attachment 364089 [details]
Create a recent posts & comments page /block for Sfx's new homepage

this review no longer needed, bug marked resolved fixed

Comment 32

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

Comment on attachment 364091 [details]
Allows a timestamp to be collected when a comment is inserted / updated

no longer needed, bug marked resolved fixed

Comment 33

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

Verified FIXED on https://spreadfirefox.authstage.mozilla.com/; we'll file spinoff bugs when and if we find them.