How to display latest threads in HTML/PHP page ?

[Suri.CMS]

Hi All,
I have the vBulletin 3.7.1 forum installed in /forum folder.

And I want to display the latest 10 threads from my forum in the home page (index.html / index.php)

How can I do that ?

Please explain in detail, as I am not really a techie :-)

Note: I am not interested in using vbAdvanced for this. I just want to have a static HTML page as my home page and display the latest 10 forum threads there, so that the users will click on them and go to corresponding post in my forum.

Thanks in advance...

[Wayne Luke]

Using RSS:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159044

Using Javascript:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/vboptions_externaldataprovider_implementing

[Suri.CMS]

Using RSS:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159044

Using javascript:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/v...r_implementing

Which method is better ?
Any specific adv and disadv I should be aware of ?

[briansol]

Neither. the best solution is to include the config file an query your database directly from the homepage.

[Suri.CMS]

Neither.

Can you please tell me why those methods are not preferred ? I mean, any specific disadv ?

the best solution is to include the config file an query your database directly from the homepage.

If you don't mind, can you please explain how to do that ? (Or at least point to a tutorial to do that...)

[~kev~]

Which method is better ?
Any specific adv and disadv I should be aware of ?

As I stated over on digitalpoint, use the external data provider.

In the script you put on your site you can specify what forum sections to pull the post from and how many post to pull.

I have been using the external data provider for over 6 months on 3 portal sites, pulling data from several different forum sections. Everything has been working fine and with no problems. 2 of the html sites were migrated to wordpress sites and the data provider was disabled on those 2 sites.

As for the RSS method, I have not used it. But I am going to guess that it is not as flexible as the external data provider and the javascript. With the javascript, you can set the exact forum ID you want the post to come from and how many post. So if you only want post coming from forum IDs 5,6,7 and 8 - that is what you set it to.

In the external data provider you can set cut off limits to reduce the load on the server:
Maximum External Records
Cache Lifespan
Thread Cutoff
All of those can be set to increase/decrease the server load.

So if your external site gets a lot of traffic, you can change the settings in the data provider to reduce the load on the server.

[Suri.CMS]

use the external data provider.

Yes, I used JavaScript method and it's working fine.

[Nick]

<!-- show latest active threads -->
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>

<b>Latest Active Threads</b>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
 
<td width="100%">
 
<div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.[COLOR=Red]YOURSITE.COM[/COLOR]/external.php?forumids=49,71,11,78,12,14,13,79&type=js"></script> 
<script language="" type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (x = 0; x < [B][COLOR=Blue]15[/COLOR][/B]; x++)
{
document.writeln("<a href=\"http://www.[COLOR=Red]YOURSITE.COM[/COLOR]/showthread.php?t="+threads[x].threadid+"\">"+threads[x].title+"</a> <br>(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")<br><br />");
}
//-->
</script></div>
 
</td>

</tr>

Replace the red text accordingly, and replace the blue number to the number of threads you wish to be displayed.

[Suri.CMS]

Replace the red text accordingly, and replace the blue number to the number of threads you wish to be displayed.

Thank You.

I did the same thing for my site.

[myandy99]

I am trying to use this code in my tpl file but I ended up getting smarty error. What am I missing?

Fatal error: Smarty error: [in pages/homepage.tpl line 158]: syntax error: unrecognized tag: document.writeln(""+threads[x].title+"
(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")

"); (Smarty_Compiler.class.php, line 439) in /home/fetest/public_html/smarty/Smarty.class.php on line 1095

[Nick]

I am trying to use this code in my tpl file but I ended up getting smarty error. What am I missing?

Fatal error: Smarty error: [in pages/homepage.tpl line 158]: syntax error: unrecognized tag: document.writeln(""+threads[x].title+"
(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")

"); (Smarty_Compiler.class.php, line 439) in /home/fetest/public_html/smarty/Smarty.class.php on line 1095

Please start your own support thread.

[peleh]

<!-- show latest active threads -->
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>

<b>Latest Active Threads</b>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
 
<td width="100%">
 
<div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.[COLOR=Red]YOURSITE.COM[/COLOR]/external.php?forumids=49,71,11,78,12,14,13,79&type=js"></script> 
<script language="" type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (x = 0; x < [B][COLOR=Blue]15[/COLOR][/B]; x++)
{
document.writeln("<a href=\"http://www.[COLOR=Red]YOURSITE.COM[/COLOR]/showthread.php?t="+threads[x].threadid+"\">"+threads[x].title+"</a> <br>(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")<br><br />");
}
//-->
</script></div>
 
</td>

</tr>

Replace the red text accordingly, and replace the blue number to the number of threads you wish to be displayed.

Thanks, it worked on my vb3.8.2, but one thing, it was YOURSITE.com/FORUM/showthread...

About the code, does anybody know if its possible to do the same thing, but for forum posts? Another usefull thing is if its possible to limit the line caracters with some kind of excerpt.

[Nick]

Thanks, it worked on my vb3.8.2, but one thing, it was YOURSITE.com/FORUM/showthread...

About the code, does anybody know if its possible to do the same thing, but for forum posts? Another usefull thing is if its possible to limit the line caracters with some kind of excerpt.

You cannot do it with individual posts, as vBulletin doesn't publish a feed for posts - only recent threads. It's something I've posted in the Suggestions forum before, though.

[Drummerworld]

I managed now to bring it to work.

But:
1. I don't get, how to make opening a new page (blank).
Because i want to open a new page, when someone clicks on one of the threads.

2. it seems to me, that it doesn't show the newest threads, opposed the ones when clicking new posts in the forum. Seem to stay the same old ones?


Can you help me with this - hopefully correcting my code - thank you so much

Here:

http://www.drummerworld.com/test.html

the forum:

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/index.php

sourcecode:

<!-- show latest active threads --></p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="300">
<p><span class="castibio12">Latest Active Threads in the Discussion Forum:</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="300">
<div>
<p><span class="castibio11grau">
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/external.php?forumids=3, 4, 8, 9, 6, 26, 25&type=js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" language="">
<!--
for (x = 0; x < 8; x++)
{
document.writeln("<a href=\"http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t="+threads[x].threadid+"\">"+threads[x].title+"</a> <br>(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")<br> <br />");
}
//-->
</script>

[Nick]

1. Change this section (make the addition in blue):

{
document.writeln("<a href=\"http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t="+threads[x].threadid+"\" [COLOR=Blue][B]target="_blank"[/B][/COLOR]>"+threads[x].title+"</a> <br>(Posted By: "+threads[x].poster+")<br> <br />");
}

I didn't test it but that might work.

2. I just checked yours and it seems to work fine. Note that it takes a bit of time to update, as it isn't instant.