Help please - Mark Forums Read Problem

[The Librarian]

I just updated to 3.8.7 PL3. I had been delaying because these things always cause problems, and sure enough this one has been a pain.

After the update my members reported the "Invalid Security Token" error when they tried to use the "Mark Forums Read" option.

I found this thread: https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/350975

and have attempted to add this:

[FONT=monospace][B][I]&[/I][/B]markreadhash=$bbuserinfo[securitytoken][/FONT]

in every template where I found markread.

The problem is that, although I stopped the "invalid security token" message, now we are getting this message:

Invalid Forum specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

What I have figured out is that when you click "Mark Forums Read" the link you're taken to says:

http://www.thehomeschoollibrary.com/...33ccfa4b5dd524

and it should say

http://www.thehomeschoollibrary.com/...isplay.php?do=markread&markreadhash=1354995578-5921a85351e3f2e9df376afc0333ccfa4b5dd524

The code I put into the ForumDisplay template (and everywhere else with the markread script) looks like this:

< a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]do=markread&amp;markreadhash=$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[mark_this_forum_read]</a>

My question is what do I need to do to get markread to show up in that link? I've tried everything I can think of. In fact, For a while the link said:

http://www.thehomeschoollibrary.com/...33ccfa4b5dd524

So I took out spaces to eliminate the %20, but I can't seem to add in the markread even though it's there.

Thank you for your help.

[Mark.B]

Try this:

Create a new style with no parent.

• Styles & Templates > Style Manager > Add New Style
• Parent Style: No Parent Style
• Title: Default vBulletin
• Allow User Selection: Yes
• Save

Then browse the site using that new style - do you still have the same problem?

[The Librarian]

Thank you for the advice.

Unfortunately, that didn't work because, even though I created the new style, it wouldn't show up as an option for display with my test user (and yes, I chose YES for "Allow User Selection." I have no idea why that wouldn't work.


BUT, nevermind.

I managed to fix every link except one, and the one that just still wouldn't work I just deleted from the template. It's a special template created for me a few years ago for a footer panel.

So, I'm good to go now.

Thanks, anyway.


Now I guess I need to keep plugging away at trying to upgrade to version 4... sigh.

[Mark.B]

Thanks for letting us know you fixed it, this information can be useful for others who may run into the same issue.

[The Librarian]

Thanks for letting us know you fixed it, this information can be useful for others who may run into the same issue.

All I did to fix it was go to each and every instance of the term markread in the templates and add the security info as indicated.

However, my forum is so highly customized that it didn't work properly in the special footer template, so all I can do is remove the link completely. It's either that or hire someone to help, and that's not possible. My forum makes no money.

Unfortunately, I just noticed that on the drop down menu - Forum Tools - "mark this thread read" - the link is dead and has the code showing, so I've got to go back and edit the templates again to see if I can figure out which one is causing this problem.

< a href="forumdisplay.php?do=markread&markreadhash=1355329161-d2e8f418b5c7248ca553fb53a818bd9f59591a2c" rel="nofollow">Mark This Forum Read

I guess I'll be spending this afternoon trying to fix this one.

[Mark.B]

PM me an admin login and I'll take a look tomorrow.
We don't support custom styles but this sort of problem is not normally much work to fix, if that turns out to be the case I will see if I can sort it.