How difficult is it to add a "watch forum" function

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Hi,
How difficult is it to add a "watch this forum" function? I really need this function. If it is not difficult to code (I will do it myself and may contribute to the CVS), I will use JForum, otherwise, I may go to MvnForum.

BTW, I tried 2.1.5 but always got errors related to mysql4.1 (you mentioned it in another thread). running 2.1.4 has no problem..

Thanks,

Iper

[originally posted on jforum.net by Anonymous]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Not hard. Take a look at src/net/jforum/view/forum/PostAction.java, method "watch". You'll have to do the same thing for the forums. Kinda easy.

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Great, I will use Jforum then, since its UI is much clean and the forum is very active..furthermore..and Rafael is really friendly :-)

I will download CVS into eclise and try to do some modifications.

Thanks a lot!
[originally posted on jforum.net by iper]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Nice, thanks for all good feedback

Really, we want to do our best in JForum.. the main problem currently is that there is insuficient active developers, and almost everything ends in my hands - and so releases gets delayed..

I really appreciate your help

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Hi, Rafael, I looked through it quickly and have several questions:
1). Who called "insertSave()" in PostAction.java to start the "insertsave" process? (As I understood, it is the action that get all the subscribed users and send them emails).

2). I guess by "watch a subforum", we need add a new table, like jforum_user_watch_forum, right? And users will only get notification on "new topics", right?

3). Are there more documents (or starting point on how the system is designed ..or concepts behind the design?). Now I am using eclipse to trace the call hierarchy to find related info, but an overview will be really helpful.

4). I am not so familar with servet development (have not touched it since 2 years ago), is there a good way to set up a development enviroment between eclipse (at laptop) and tomcat5 (at my linux server)? I don't want to install a tomcat into my laptop because it is very slow already...

Thanks,

Iper

Rafael Steil wrote:Not hard. Take a look at src/net/jforum/view/forum/PostAction.java, method "watch". You'll have to do the same thing for the forums. Kinda easy.

Rafael

[originally posted on jforum.net by iper]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Let's go:

1) For instance, forget about insertSave().. that's a whole another thing. Look only for the method "watch()". This method is called when a registered user clicks int he "Watch this topic" link, that you'll find in the lower left corner of this page (you probably will see "Unwatch this topic").

2) That's right

3) Sorry, there isn't any official technical documentation yet. I started writting all docs in our wiki: http://www.jforum.net/confluence/display/doc/Home
But, for now, you'll have to ask, and then we can go updating the main documentation.

4) Yes, you can develop in your laptop and deploy in another machine. However, it probably will be a very slow procedure, because you'll need to transfer files from your laptop to the development server all the time.

One suggestion is to keep all code in the same linux server, but - using samba - mount the remote directory in your machine, and instruct eclipse to use that directory as base for the project.
That way, the development process will be much faster.

Sorry for not presenting you with proper documentation now.

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Well perhaps we can help. You could dole out smaller tasks and we could contribute.

Maybe we should all vote on what are the pressing functions we all want and then go from there.

Rafael Steil wrote:Nice, thanks for all good feedback

Really, we want to do our best in JForum.. the main problem currently is that there is insuficient active developers, and almost everything ends in my hands - and so releases gets delayed..

I really appreciate your help

Rafael

[originally posted on jforum.net by conquest]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

conquest wrote:Well perhaps we can help. You could dole out smaller tasks and we could contribute.

Maybe we should all vote on what are the pressing functions we all want and then go from there.

Sorry to hijack this but yes, yes, yes! I look at the bug list and the requested features and I don't where to start as I don't know who might already be working on something.

Rafael - I know you don't know who to grant CVS access to and stuff but if we could at least know what tasks you feel are highest priority and have a coordination of that we don't need CVS access until you are comfortable with our work. Heck, even a new category for just this purpose where you could say "I need help with feature XYZ as documented in Jira" and then then we could post it. Or something - just so long as we're not duplicating effort.
[originally posted on jforum.net by stdunbar]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Ok, after reading the freemaker documents and I guess I know the code better. I started to write some codes on this today..but here are several issues I would like some of your thoughts (MSNed you but you may be not online...).. Should I try Jabber?

There could be two ways to implement a "watch the forum" function,
1). Like what I said earlier...add a new table "jforum_forums_watch"..and duplicate related codes in "TopicDAO" into "ForumDAD"...

2). changing "jforum_topics_watch" ..add a forumid field, then ...
subsribe a new topic in the forum (compared to a new reply post) subsribtion will be IDed as "-1"...

I guess method 2 is much easier to implement...but I am not sure if it is a preferred way.. (there may be other problems...)..

how do you think about it?

Rafael Steil wrote:Let's go:

1) For instance, forget about insertSave().. that's a whole another thing. Look only for the method "watch()". This method is called when a registered user clicks int he "Watch this topic" link, that you'll find in the lower left corner of this page (you probably will see "Unwatch this topic").

2) That's right

3) Sorry, there isn't any official technical documentation yet. I started writting all docs in our wiki: http://www.jforum.net/confluence/display/doc/Home
But, for now, you'll have to ask, and then we can go updating the main documentation.

4) Yes, you can develop in your laptop and deploy in another machine. However, it probably will be a very slow procedure, because you'll need to transfer files from your laptop to the development server all the time.

One suggestion is to keep all code in the same linux server, but - using samba - mount the remote directory in your machine, and instruct eclipse to use that directory as base for the project.
That way, the development process will be much faster.

Sorry for not presenting you with proper documentation now.

Rafael

[originally posted on jforum.net by iper]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

iper wrote:Ok, after reading the freemaker documents and I guess I know the code better. I started to write some codes on this today..but here are several issues I would like some of your thoughts (MSNed you but you may be not online...).. Should I try Jabber?

I'm visiting a client, and here the firewall blocks access to instant messengers. I'll try some online.

iper wrote:
There could be two ways to implement a "watch the forum" function,
1). Like what I said earlier...add a new table "jforum_forums_watch"..and duplicate related codes in "TopicDAO" into "ForumDAD"...

Using a proper table is the best approach. You can try to generalize the respective methods from TopicDAO, so we don't have to maintain the same code twice.

It's fairly easy - when an user subscribe to a forum, we add associte his user_id to the forum_id in jforum_forums_watch and, when a new topic is created (PostAction.java#insertSave()), we send an alert to all watching users.

I'll try to go online, but cannot assure.

Rafael
[originally posted on jforum.net by Rafael Steil]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

I have set up the development platform and a test sites..

A quick question:
I have moved this line into forum_show.htm but I got an error in the site which said "Expression watching is undefined on line 45, column 70 in default/forum_show.htm. The problematic instruction: ---------- ==> if watching [on line 45, column 65 in default/forum_show.htm] ----------

<#if watching>
    <#assign watch = "unwatchForum"/>
    <#assign watchMessage = I18n.getMessage("PostShow.unwatch")/>
</#if>

How this "watching" is defined?

thanks,

[originally posted on jforum.net by iper]

[Migrated From Jforum.net]

Never mind, I have found out and changed "forumaction" accordingly.

[originally posted on jforum.net by iper]