Add Ability to Sort Forum Columns

[Onthepath]

Is there some way to sort the forums by the last post date? It would really make it much easier for the public to view the latest posts rather than having to look at each forum and see if there was an updated post or not.

If it's possible, perhaps you can set some forums to be sticky so that they are always at the top. Suggestions would be the Success Stories, How to Use the Forum, and Best Keywords forums. The rest of the forums could then sort by the last post date in descending order by default. Forums like the Main Chat room would probably stay near the top since it is pretty active, but you may want to make it sticky to make sure that it stays there.

Allowing the other forum columns to be sorted as well would be nice.

O

[Jack]

O, thanks very much for these suggestions!

Would you pls go to http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/ and dig up how to do this, and I'll attempt to implement your suggestion.

It would be a BIG help for you or someone to research the how-to and point me to it.

Thanks!
Jack

[Onthepath]

Jack,

Check out this link:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...ght=sort+forum

I did a search using "sort forum". Be sure to include the quotes - otherwise it will return results with one or both words.

There may be some additional mods to make a forum sticky just like you can make a thread sticky. I can try some additional searches.

Hope this works!

OTP

[Onthepath]

The link above may already do what vbulletin is doing now: sorting threads within a forum by the last post date. The mod description seems to describe sorting the forums, then it talks about sorting the threads within the forums. I'm not sure what it sorts.

Of course, if you do sort the forums by thread post date, invariably you'll want to keep some forums as sticky. I didn't see anything there either in both the manual (I downloaded a copy) and the vbulletin forum.

As far as allowing the public to see the New Posts link, you may want to compare the Usergroup permissions for Registered Users and Unregistered Users/Guests. I didn't see anything in the manual that popped out at me, but you may notice something by comparing the two yourself.

You may also just want to post a message on the vbulletin board. You can provide specific info such as what version you're using and other specifics and be able to correspond with mod developers. And if that functionality doesn't exist and there are no mods, you can add it to their Suggestions box. I'm sure that getting the rest of the forum components up and running is a higher priority than this. Hopefully, at some point this can be addressed.

Otp

[Onthepath]

Here's yet another thought on this.

Perhaps the way to get around the issue of sorting the forums is to minimize the number of forums that are displayed in the first place. One option is to use sub forums. You can display the main forums and also have related forums grouped together in a sub forum. I'm assuming that the last post date of a thread in a forum of a sub forum would be displayed in the main forum page, but I'm not sure. A list of possible groups may be:

Tips
Disabilites
Q and A
Couples
Using KSMO with other practices

Not every forum will fit nicely into a group so having a Miscellaneous or Other may work, but that would tend to hide them without a more descriptive title.

Another technique may be to combine forums. The groups I mentioned above (plus others that we can think of) could possibly be combined with each group being a forum. So, you could have just a Q and A forum, a Disabilities Forum, etc.

Just some thoughts. Hopefully these are helpful.

Otp

[Jack]

O, Yes your suggestions certainly are helpful! I've rec'd some other suggestions for grouping the forums and combining some. It's definitely on the list.

Since all but the most recent posts were imported from the old WebBoard, they came in "one step down" in the hierarchy from where they really should be to begin with.

By that I mean that when you look at the upper left corner of the Forum home page, you see a dark blue horizontal header that just says Forum, and then on the row below that you see the number 1 and the title: The Multiple Orgasm Trigger for Men and Women (the title imported from the old Forum), then all of the sub-forums (in WebBoard, called Conferences) below that.

In other words, at this point ALL forums are listed as sub-forums under The Multiple Orgasm Trigger for Men and Women.

What I need to do is:
Determine what those main categories (Forum titles such as those you suggested) need to be by creating more "Forums" (sorry the jargon is bit murky to me still) at the level currently held only by The Multiple Orgasm Trigger for Men and Women and then group the sub-Forums into those... oy words fail...

In other words: let's say for discussion that we adopted your preliminary suggestions for now (not final, just as an e.g.):
Tips
Disabilities
Q and A
Couples
Using KSMO with other practices

It is those headings which need to appear in the position that the obsolete The Multiple Orgasm Trigger for Men and Women title now appears, with the appropriate sub-Forums appearing under each main category.

Jeez... is that any more clear? Hopefully a little.

Anyway, I need to study the docs to find out how to get that done. Then I will do it.

If you can go into the http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/ and give me the link to where that procedure is described, that will be a big help.

It has to do with managing the hierarchy and grouping of the sub-forums (formerly known as Conferences).

Please keep in mind that 99% of this board is still the raw import from WebBoard so we're still getting it unpacked and tweaked the way it can really work for us here.

I am very grateful for your help!

All the best,
Jack

[Onthepath]

Jack,

To add or edit a forum you can go here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/forum_add_forum

This topic is under Forums and Moderators:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/m...ums_moderators

You can use the Act as Forum to set this as a Category (contains other Forums - value is No) or as a Forum itself (value is Yes). You can also set the Parent of this Forum. I think there are also links to allow creation of sub forums from a parent forum. See the Intro to Forums topic under the Forums and Moderators section for more info:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/forums_intro

To move threads from one forum into another forum see this topic:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/threads_move

This topic is under Threads and Posts:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/threads_posts

With the move threads option, I think you can use this to combine several forums into one if you choose to.

Some of the forums are very specific such as the ones for Disabilities. It may be a good idea to combine some of them under one forum. That would depend on the number of threads in each one and if you feel it would be best to combine them.

Just be sure to make a complete backup of the forum before you make any major changes like this.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Otp

[Jack]

It helps a TON... THANKS!

Now I just need to kick this flu bug outta the house so I can get back to work!

[ruomsey]

Hi Jack, hope you are feeling a bit better... remember the vitamin C.

About the post time as displayed.

I find this sort of unprofessional and would really prefer to see the actual date and time displayed as it is in other forums that I go to using vb.

Hope you and others agree.

I also like OTP's suggestion re: the smaller number of forum groupings.

[Jack]

What time setting are you asking for specifically.

Please give an example of format and also time zone.

Or are you referring to the time date stamp on posts or ????? Examples please.

Thanks!
JJ

PS Thanks re Vitamin C reminder too! Eating organic oranges...