Extra Threadfields & vB Modification

[Arkham]

I've been researching many ways to accomplish the functionality that I think Extra Threadfields will be able to offer me. After countless hours of searching on vB .com and .org I think this may be a serious contender.

What strikes me as odd is the fact that the product is advertised as not requiring any template edits. Could someone explain how this is possible? Is there a replacement template set that takes over from the regular forum/thread/post display templates? Which core files are changed, and to what degree? I'm primarily concerned with the regular vB upgrade process and want to minimize the complexity of re-applying third-party add-ons and mods.

A drop-in solution is an ideal option, as the code and template edits required to get other modifications working is the major reason I haven't chosen other options.

I would feel more confident giving Extra Threadfields a shot if I had more information about how this product is integrated with the core vB system.

Thanks!

[Gio~Logist]

Extra Threadfields functions 100% through the Plugin manager, making it that much easier to upgrade (especially since no template edits are required!)

The reason no template edits are required is because the product is built to automatically detect where the data is to be inserted. If you're interested on inserting some of your field's manually, I've included a brief below.

And again, since the product uses the Plugin Manager extensively, this also means no file edits! All of the code behind this product lay in it's own files and plugins and until this point has been 100% compatible with all new releases.

If you wish for manual insertion with certain fields, you still have various options. If you go into your Admin Control Panel and set a field's "Display Number" to 0, the field will still be automatically shown on forms and such when posting a thread. However, it won't automatically appear on posts and threads, allowing you to insert and place it however you'd like by editing templates and utilizing the $thread[fieldx] variable.

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[Arkham]

Extra Threadfields functions 100% through the Plugin manager, making it that much easier to upgrade (especially since no template edits are required!)

The reason no template edits are required is because the product is built to automatically detect where the data is to be inserted. If you're interested on inserting some of your field's manually, I've included a brief below.

And again, since the product uses the Plugin Manager extensively, this also means no file edits! All of the code behind this product lay in it's own files and plugins and until this point has been 100% compatible with all new releases.

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This is exactly the news I was hoping for.

I take it the product adds new columns to the core vB post tables for that information?

Also, I think I asked this somewhere else but it was at the bottom of another thread. Can the fields be linkable? EG if a post has a custom field "Car: Challenger" can the "Challenger" be clicked to retrieve a list of threads that had have that field? That is about 50% of my need for this product, and I think you've convinced me on the other 50%.

Thx for the quick reply!

[Gio~Logist]

Awesome

That's exactly what happens. It adds a column in the database for threads.

Now, by default the field isn't linkable. However, if you go for manual insertion, you can do a template edit as follows in the threadbit or postbit templates:

<a href="$thread[fieldx]">Whatever you'd like</a>

The variable x being the field's id # (visible via the Extra Fields Manager).

I'm considering adding an option for behavior or something of that nature, to allow certain Extra Fields to act as links by default. The only thing is that some people want different text and a separate link, etc. etc. so it can get a tad confusing - which is why the manual insertion allows you to stretch the boundaries and apply it as you please

Any other questions, i'm all ears!

[Arkham]

Awesome

That's exactly what happens. It adds a column in the database for threads.

Now, by default the field isn't linkable. However, if you go for manual insertion, you can do a template edit as follows in the threadbit or postbit templates:

<a href="$thread[fieldx]">Whatever you'd like</a>

The variable x being the field's id # (visible via the Extra Fields Manager).

I'm considering adding an option for behavior or something of that nature, to allow certain Extra Fields to act as links by default. The only thing is that some people want different text and a separate link, etc. etc. so it can get a tad confusing - which is why the manual insertion allows you to stretch the boundaries and apply it as you please

Any other questions, i'm all ears!

Thanks for the info!!

I'm not sure how that example link is supposed to work. What I need to do is along these lines:

In the header, have something like this: "Author: Stephen King", so that the users can click on that tag and get a list of threads that have been tagged with "Stephen King" as the author. Since my friend wants to use the threads as book reviews, this way users can view all books by the same author.

Since we'll primarily be using ETF as a way to insert author names, I don't mind just adding the single reference in the templates if this is the only way to do it. It's just the sorting/searching link that confuses me.

I think what you have here is an excellent product that would benefit greatly from allowing fields to be linked to sortable lists.

[Gio~Logist]

Check this out..

By default, the product allows you to make certain fields searchable. If you make them "searchable" this means that members can filter through those Extra Fields right within the forum itself via "Display Options". Kind of like when you're looking for the car and have the ability to change the model of the car, right on the page you're searching on.

Check out this forum and you'll see our custom display options area on the sidebar Will give you an idea of how things work.

Now, if you notice.. When you go to filter, the url on your browser changes as follows. Say I'm looking for the "Administrative/Maintenence" category in that forum, you'll see that the url automatically adds this at the end.

field2=Administrative/Maintenance

So because we have this function, that means that we can build urls that automatically filter things, by adding fieldx=whatever.

What do I mean? Ok, lets say you want to do this for your "Author" field. Essentially, what I'd do is as follows.

Create the field, make it searchable, and set it to a display of 0.

I'd then manually insert the following somewhere in the postbit template:

<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/forumdisplay.php?f=FORUMID&fieldX=$thread[fieldx]">$thread[fieldx]</a>

Instances of fieldx, obviously need to be edited to replace x with the actual field id. You'll see that what this link will do is bring your members over to the specified forum, and then automatically filter that forum based on the field being the same as the one they clicked

With manual insertion, the possibilities to what you can do with your fields is truly endless. The idea for both this product and the Advanced Forum product was to make it that much easier to build custom databases/sections for your individual forums

[Arkham]

Check this out..

By default, the product allows you to make certain fields searchable. If you make them "searchable" this means that members can filter through those Extra Fields right within the forum itself via "Display Options". Kind of like when you're looking for the car and have the ability to change the model of the car, right on the page you're searching on.

Check out this forum and you'll see our custom display options area on the sidebar Will give you an idea of how things work.

Now, if you notice.. When you go to filter, the url on your browser changes as follows. Say I'm looking for the "Administrative/Maintenence" category in that forum, you'll see that the url automatically adds this at the end.

field2=Administrative/Maintenance

So because we have this function, that means that we can build urls that automatically filter things, by adding fieldx=whatever.

What do I mean? Ok, lets say you want to do this for your "Author" field. Essentially, what I'd do is as follows.

Create the field, make it searchable, and set it to a display of 0.

I'd then manually insert the following somewhere in the postbit template:

<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/forumdisplay.php?f=FORUMID&fieldX=$thread[fieldx]">$thread[fieldx]</a>

Instances of fieldx, obviously need to be edited to replace x with the actual field id. You'll see that what this link will do is bring your members over to the specified forum, and then automatically filter that forum based on the field being the same as the one they clicked

With manual insertion, the possibilities to what you can do with your fields is truly endless. The idea for both this product and the Advanced Forum product was to make it that much easier to build custom databases/sections for your individual forums

Okay, I see how that would work. I was aware of the sorting/searching, it was really just the clickability of the field that concerned me. It would take a bit of work with conditionals to get the postbits to behave but I think it could work.

Now how do you think it would cope with thousands of "authors"? That drop-down would be messy, but if users can text search through the fields it should be okay.

On your search page here, though, I only see a drop-down list for the extra thread fields. Is there a place to do a text search?

[Gio~Logist]

The searching varies 100% on the type of field. If the field is a regular text box, then that's what it would show. If it's a dropdown (like those categories), then it'd show as that forum has it

[Arkham]

Hi Gio!

I've gone back manually to get the field to show up in some modules for vBAdvanced CMPS, and I can't get the field to display.

In the module html I'm adding this:

<a href="$vboptions[bburl]/forumdisplay.php?f=60&field1=$thread[field1]" style="text-decoration: none;">$thread[field1]</a>

but I can't get it to work with the module.

I figure it's because instead of $thread it's using $news[threadid] (it links toa thread via "showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$news[threadid]", but I don't know how to include the [field1] in this syntax.

Any ideas on how I could do that?

Thanks!

[Gio~Logist]

Yea, you'd have to adapt the variable accordingly. But now the question is, how cna you be so sure that the field is being queried via vba? Every other aspect of vB is pretty much covered by Extra Threadfields plugins. However, vBa isn't configured to query all fields from the thread table last i checked, so that query may be need to be altered