bbPress Pencil Unread

Description

bbPress Pencil Unread display which bbPress forums/topics have already been read by the logged user; and adds classes to forums/topics so you can customize your theme easily.
Compatible with BuddyPress Groups Forums feature.

• For forums, it checks if the user has read all topics since last visit.
• For topics, it checks if the user opened the topic since it was last active.
• Mark as read (optional) mark all topics of a forum as read.
• Bookmarks : (optional) adds a link after the topics titles; that goes directly to the last read reply of a topic.
• Option to set as read topics that where created before the user’s registration

Demo

We don’t have a running demo anymore. If you use this plugin and would like to be featured here, please contact us

Donate

Donations are needed to help maintain this plugin. Please consider supporting us.
This would be very appreciated — Thanks !

Contributors

Contributors are listed here

Bugs/Development

For feature request and bug reports, please use the Github Issues Tracker.

If you are a plugin developer, we would like to hear from you. Any contribution would be very welcome.

Localization

If it hasn’t been done already, you can translate the plugin and send me the translation. I recommand Loco Translate to work on your translations within WordPress.

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload the plugin to your blog and Activate it.

FAQ

It doesn’t work / CSS styling is bad !

Styling has been setup for the bbPress default theme.
If it doesn’t work for you, please try to check/override our CSS styles (bbppu.css)

How can I filter topics to display only the unread or read ones ?

Just add the bbppu arg to your WordPress queries. You can set it either to read or unread.
Of course, this works for the current logged user and will be skipped if the visitor is not logged.

Example :

<?php
$last_unread_topics_query_args = array(
  'post_type'       => bbp_topic_post_type(), //or 'topic'
  'posts_per_page'  => 5,
  'bbppu'       => 'unread' //only unread ones
);

$last_unread_topics_query = new WP_Query( $last_unread_topics_query_args );
?>

How does it work?

bbPress Pencil Unread handles differently the way forums & topics are set as read.

• For topics, a post meta bbppu_read_by is attached to the topic each time a someone visits it; the meta value is the user ID. ?When a new reply is added, all those metas are deleted.

• For forums, we compare the total count of topics with the total count of read topics for the current user. If it does not match, the forum is considered as unread.

• Marking a forum (Mark all as read) adds an entry with the forum ID and timestamp in bbppu_marked_forums (usermeta). When determining if a topic has been read, we check if the topic’s forum (or ancestors) has a mark more recent than the topic time.

• Marking a forum will only set the topics from this forum as read. If there is super sticky topics displayed and that they belong to other forums, they will not be marked as read.

How can I use those functions outside of the plugin ?

Have a look at the file /bbppu-template.php, which contains functions you could need.

How can I see the plugin’s log ?

The plugin will generate various notices and informations in the debug.log file, if debugging is enabled.

Reviews

Elegant and Effective

dprendergast September 1, 2020

Love it. Simple and attractive plugin that does exactly as needed/promised. Wish they all were like this.

Exactly what I was looking for

joed12 April 10, 2020

So far this plugin seems to be exactly what I was looking for. It marks unread topics and lets you jump right to the new reply. Excellent work!

Essential

somebodyelse March 5, 2019

worked as advertised. essential to using a forum that’s busy and active.

A really useful plugin indeed!

abooster September 3, 2016

This is a really useful plugin indeed. Thanks a lot!

Works fine,thanks

General Seed September 3, 2016

Thanks, indispensable plugin.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.3.0

• Try to optimize queries that count forum topics in has_user_read_all_forum_topics():
• ‘no_found_rows’ => true (see https://wpartisan.me/tutorials/wordpress-database-queries-speed-sql_calc_found_rows); so use count() instead of found->posts
• ‘update_post_term_cache’ => false

1.2.9

• when comparing the topics read, only fetch IDs instead of full post
• better debug.log report

1.2.7

• Added the ‘bookmark’ option, which adds (by default) a link after topics titles to go directly to the last read reply of that topic.
• Forums marks is now an option

1.2.6

• Added meta query in has_user_read_all_forum_topics() to ignore posts below timestamp generated in get_skip_timestamp()
• New function get_skip_timestamp()

1.2.4

• Use utf8 encoding when running $dom->loadHTML() to avoid problems with foreign languages (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8218230/php-domdocument-loadhtml-not-encoding-utf-8-correctly)

1.2.3

• No faking anymore ! Now the plugin really checks if a forum has its topics all read; while before, it was checking if the forum had been opened.
• Allow to filter queries to get topics by read/unread status (see FAQ)
• fixed loadHTML() error (https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/just-upgraded-to-v-1-2-errors/#post-8169136)
• Arabic translation (thanks to Mohammad Sy)
• has_user_read_all_forum_topics() : store the results in a short transient (5s) to avoid querying several times the same stuff.
• deleted ‘bbppu_forums_visits’ usermetas and related functions (+ upgrade function)
• topic_readby_metaname is now multiple (+ upgrade function) : do not store array of user IDs in a single meta, but store multiple metas with single user ID each time

1.2.2

• Do not show ‘Mark as read’ link if no activity since last marked.
• fixed localization + french translation
• stylesheet : RTL support
• code cleanup
• jQuery : when marking a forum as read, give the ‘bbppu-read’ class only to the topics of that forum (super sticky topics could be from another forum so they should remain unread)

1.2.1

• bug fixes : https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/just-upgraded-to-v-1-2-errors/

1.2

• SCSS
• options page
• option to choose if items created before first user’s visit should be marked as read (‘test_registration_time’) – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/old-topics-as-unread/
• includes fontAwesome (loading icon : glyph instead of image)
• Improved function get_user_mark_as_read_link()
• Improved function process_mark_as_read()
• improved ajax and nonces checks
• supports forums hierarchy

1.1.1

• Removed first forum visit stuff. Remove old metas. Now check users registration time.
• Lots of code cleanup
• Improved has_user_read() function

1.1.0

• Improved marking as read – among others, checks if a parent forum has been marked.
• Merged multiple “bbppu_marked_forum_XX” user meta keys into “bbppu_marked_forums” + upgrade function for older versions of the plugin.
• New debug_log() function
• Now handles forum categories
• Merged functions ‘has_user_read_forum’ and ‘has_user_read_topic’ to ‘has_user_read’
• Merged functions ‘forum_status_class’ and ‘topic_status_class’ to ‘post_status_class’
• Removed bbP_Pencil_Unread variable ‘prefix’

1.0.9

• Undefined index bug fix (https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/php-notice-for-mark_as_read_single_forum_link?replies=3#post-4842854)

1.0.7

• Fixed minor bug (https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/php-notice-for-mark_as_read_single_forum_link)

1.0.6

• Fixed minor bugs from 1.0.5

1.0.5

• Compatible with BuddyPress Groups Forums !
• Backend integration (new_topic_backend,new_reply_backend)
• Better firing sequence
• Fixed styles for “mark as read” link

1.0.4

• Now saving the user’s first visit (user meta key “bbppu_first_visit”) to define older content as “read”.
• In ‘setup_actions()’, replaced wordpress hooks by bbpress hooks (to avoid plugin to crash while bbPress is not enabled)

1.0.3

• Added link “mark as read” for forums
• Added filter ‘bbppu_user_has_read_forum’ on has_user_read_forum() and ‘bbppu_user_has_read_topic’ on has_user_read_topic()

1.0.2

• Timezone bug fix (thanks to Ruben!)

1.0.1

• If a forum was set as “read” when a user posts a new topic or reply, keep its status to read after the new post has been saved (see function related to var $forum_was_read_before_new_post)
• Store plugin version
• Cleaned up the code

1.0.0

• First release