Jump to content


Photo

Forum monitoring tool


  • Please log in to reply
18 replies to this topic

#1 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 15 April 2006 - 04:39 PM

Hi Boki,

I created the application ForumStatus that places the icon into Windows system tray and monitors the following parameters of phpBB forum:

- Database state (up or down)
- Number of topics
- Number of posts
- Number of users
- Numbers of Active users
- Number of votes

On change of any of them (unless disabled via settings) you will be notified by popup balloon and updated color of tray icon. Backend support requires only one php file.

I'm sure it will be very useful for most phpBB forum moderators and administrators.

If interested please visit http://www.neocom.ca/forum/index.php and click on forum 'ForumStatus'.

#2 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 16 April 2006 - 11:33 PM

Hello Boris,

I like it very much, and I have already installed it and use it smile.gif

Great job!

regards
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#3 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 17 April 2006 - 12:30 AM

Thanks for your comment. If you think it is missing some features feel free to suggest them on my forum. I've already got few comments from phpBB community and the next release will come out in few days.

#4 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 17 April 2006 - 12:41 AM

Hello,

I realy like it more and more smile.gif

I have some suggestions, maybe you will like it.

- Add some kind of mini forum inside TreeView component. Where you can review in which sub-forums there are new messages. I am planning some kind of rich TreeView component, maybe you can use it smile.gif Or, you can use NextGrid with TreeColumn smile.gif

regards
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#5 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 17 April 2006 - 03:04 PM

Hi Boki,

I will look into such possibility. The main problem I currently have is lack of time to work on freeware projects. Even this tool was created to save me few minutes on opening the browser several times a day for checking the status of my forums.
Another point is that with my tool I want to put as low load as possible both on database that contains the forum and on PC (in terms of memory consumption). I think I might add the extra detail about exact forum name where new post was added, however I will most likely display it with just 1 line without showing complete tree. Moreover this will better fit into the way ForumStatus currently is designed - to show only the value that changed since the last "acknowledgement".

#6 wvd_vegt

wvd_vegt

    Master Member

  • Honorable Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 710 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:the Netherlands

Posted 18 April 2006 - 02:40 PM

Hi,

Nice too!

A good addition would be a html link to the forum in the popup box that also acks the count.
G.W. van der Vegt

#7 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 18 April 2006 - 03:01 PM

I've been thinking about that, however that will require creation of custom balloon component with such feature. I even was not able to add acknowledgement by clicking on balloon because by some reason standard Windows balloonhint events never fire under Win2000 that I am using :cry: . That's why I placed acknowledgement inside popup menu.

Well, everything is of course doable, but it needs TIME that I really lacking these days :roll:

#8 wvd_vegt

wvd_vegt

    Master Member

  • Honorable Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 710 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:the Netherlands

Posted 18 April 2006 - 03:07 PM

Hi,

Next Suite also has a nice popup...
G.W. van der Vegt

#9 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 10 May 2006 - 08:59 AM

Hi Boki,

I am working on the new version of ForumStatus and implementing many suggestions I got after publishing the first release. I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that I decided to use your NextGrid component in the Settings window smile.gif .

Now I got question to you. I am using CheckBoxColumn but I need to hide (not just lock) check boxes in certain rows. Is there any way to do this? I was looking for something like Cell[x,y].Hide or Cell[x,y].Visible properies, but looks like they are absent. Any suggestions?

#10 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 16 May 2006 - 12:26 AM

Hello Boris,

Unfortunately, this is not yet possible. I will think about adding some event for this, because adding new property will cost some memory sad.gif

I hope that new version of ForumStat will be even better smile.gif

regards
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#11 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 20 May 2006 - 06:10 PM

Hi Boki,

I am experiencing some weird behaviour of NextGrid 3.5.1.

First of all by some strange reason the component got "locked" on my form in design mode and I cannot move it with the mouse. At the same time I am able to move it with <Ctrl>+<arrow_key>. "Lock Controls" item of Edit menu is not selected and there is no such problem with any other control on my form. (Win2000 Pro SP4, Delphi7 SP1)

Now very disappointing thing is that after compiling my application in Win2000 it works as expected on my PC but when I asked my friend to try it on Win XP SP2 he got whole set of problems. Since I was not next to him while he was testing I am just describing from his words:
- Event on HeaderClick does not work
- At the bottom of the grid appears empty space and at the same time vertical scroll bar is shown.
- NxCheckBoxColumn does even more strange things: You need to click on checkbox multiple times to change the state. In many cases the state of the checkbox from the neighbouring row is being changed instead or together with the current row.
- Finally the most disappointing thing - he got complete application crash but only during the "session" when he was changing the values in the grid.

I do not know if you have tested your components with Windows XP with SP2. It is known fact that there are lots of applications that do not work under SP2. It might be related to memory allocation or something else that Microsoft changed in SP2. Unfortunately, due to lack of time for troubleshooting and really very minor part of NextGrid features I am using in ForumStat, I might be considering to replace it with the array of regular checkboxes.

If you want to look into to my Nextgrid related code - here it is:
CODE
procedure TForm1.GRHeaderClick(Sender: TObject; ACol: Integer);

var

 i: integer;

begin

 if ACol = 1 then

   for i := GR.RowCount - 1 downto 0 do

     GR.Cell[1, i].AsBoolean := not Gr.Cell[1, 0].AsBoolean

 else if ACol = 2 then

   for i := GR.RowCount - 1 downto 0 do

     if VPopUp[i] then

       GR.Cell[2, i].AsBoolean := not Gr.Cell[2, 0].AsBoolean

end;



procedure TForm1.GRAfterEdit(Sender: TObject; ACol, ARow: Integer;

 Value: WideString);

begin

 if ((Acol = 1) and (GR.Cell[1, ARow].AsBoolean = false)) then

   GR.Cell[2, ARow].AsBoolean := false;

 if ((Acol = 2) and (GR.Cell[2, ARow].AsBoolean = true)) then

   GR.Cell[1, ARow].AsBoolean := true;

end;



procedure TForm1.GRBeforeEdit(Sender: TObject; ACol, ARow: Integer;

 var Accept: Boolean);

begin

 Accept := ((ACol = 1) or VPopUp[ARow]);

end;



procedure TForm1.GRCellColoring(Sender: TObject; ACol, ARow: Integer;

 var CellColor, GridColor: TColor; CellState: TCellState);

begin

 // lets grayout not relevant checkboxes

 if (ARow < 0) or (ARow > 13) then exit;

 if ((ACol = 2) and not (VPopUp[ARow])) then CellColor := clInactiveBorder;

end;

Here VPopUp array is defined as
CODE
Const  VPopUp: array[0..13] of boolean = (true, true, true, false, true, true, false, true, true, true, false, true, true, false);


I have only 14 rows with 1 textual and 2 checkbox columns.

Once again everything works fine on Win2000 except that component moving issue in design mode.

#12 wvd_vegt

wvd_vegt

    Master Member

  • Honorable Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 710 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:the Netherlands

Posted 29 May 2006 - 07:25 PM

Hi,

Seems like the dfm file is slightly corrupted. Have you inspected it?
What sometimes helps is delete the grid and place a new one on the form (after noting down all settings).

Btw i develop only under winxp sp2 and use delphi 7.1 EE.

A month ago I had problems with one of my own components that suddenly crashed delphi on designtime when a form was shown but worked at compile time. As i could not determine the source of the error I had to rewrite a fair portion of it (have it work a different way and had to edit the dfm files manually).
G.W. van der Vegt

#13 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 10 June 2006 - 06:36 PM

Hi Boki,

Since you changed your forum software, you will not be able to use my ForumStat application any more, thus I won't update this thread with information about the new releases of ForumStat. If you or any other visitor of your forum will still need it, please check my support forums at neocom.ca

Thanks,
best regards,
///Boris

#14 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 12 June 2006 - 02:17 PM

Hello Boris,

I may help you to you update your tool for Invision Power Board forums. This forum software is much better than PHP BB forum.

regards
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#15 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 13 June 2006 - 06:20 AM

Hi Boki,

Thanks for suggesting your help. I reviewed the list of Invision board features and did not find anything that would motivate me to migrate from my current phpBB software. Moreover, I have introduced my own modifications to phpBB that practically brought down to zero the number of successful "attacks" by any kind of advertising scripts or individuals spaming the forums. By the way, right next to this thread you already got another post advertising Valium.

best regards,
///Boris

#16 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 13 June 2006 - 02:35 PM

Hello Boris,

I like the Fast Reply feature in IPB very much. There is a much better admin and moderation cotrol and much more. I suggest it to anyone.

regards
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#17 wvd_vegt

wvd_vegt

    Master Member

  • Honorable Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 710 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:the Netherlands

Posted 13 June 2006 - 05:02 PM

Hi,

Don't forget to delete spam and spammers.
G.W. van der Vegt

#18 Boki (Berg)

Boki (Berg)

    Boki (Berg)

  • Forum Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 8,191 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 13 June 2006 - 05:58 PM

Hello Wim,

I have turn on some options inside Admin section and now is much better. I will try to find some tool for batch deleting innactive users and spamers, but I will wait for one month more.
boki@bergsoft.net | LinkedIn Profile
--
BergSoft Home Page: www.bergsoft.net
Users Section: users.bergsoft.net
Articles and Tutorials: help.bergsoft.net (Developers Network)
--
BergSoft Facebook page
--
Send us applications made with our components and we will submit them on: www.bergsoft.net/apps.htm. Link to this page will be also set on home page too.

#19 lmcbmai

lmcbmai
  • Members
  • 21 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Montreal, QC, Canada
  • Interests:Software design, F1 auto racing

Posted 09 July 2006 - 04:46 PM

Hi Boki,

I released the second version of ForumStatus. The snapshots and download links are here http://www.neocom.ca...topic.php?t=307.

You might be able to rewrite forum_status2.php file to make my application work with Invision boards as well. Just make sure php file output format stays the same, otherwise the parser won't work. If you will have any questions feel free to ask.




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users