vBulletin LTS

Adds Thread Date/Time Started to lists of Threads
Mod Version: 1.00, by RogerPf

There is a site http://www.WetCanvas.com that shows in its thread lists when a thread was started -



See http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=133 for live example

I have no connection with the admins of the above WetCanvas site. The following is not their code it is a mimic of their feature, much requested by users of our board.

To be honest I do not understand why this is not a standard feature. You can even sort the various thread lists by "thread start date" but you can't see the field that has just been sorted on! - OK, I know no product can have everything.

The Mod is in two parts

PHP file part
=========

FTP (download) the file forums/includes/functions_forumdisplay.php

Find the string

// thread last reply date/time

it will be around line 187

Before this line insert the following block

// BEGIN 2008-06-11 vb 3.7.1 MOD - Show Thread Start Date and Time by RogerPf
// thread first reply date/time
$thread['firstpostdate'] = vbdate($vbulletin->options['dateformat'], $thread['dateline'], true);
$thread['firstposttime'] = vbdate($vbulletin->options['timeformat'], $thread['dateline']);
// END 2008-06-11 vb 3.7.1 MOD - Show Thread Start Date and Time by RogerPf

Save the file and FTP it back

Template Edit
===========

Edit your - Your Template - Threadbit Templates - threadbit

Do a Find on the string

_self')">$thread[postusername]</span>

Insert following between that string and the </if> that comes next

<span class="time"><i>&nbsp;started: </i>$thread[firstpostdate]<if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"> $thread[firstposttime] </if></span>

Click Save and you are done

Additionally you can also add this line to the threadbit_deleted template to show the same info for deleted threads, but who spends time looking at deleted threads.

The mod is not supported but I would be delighted if it was absorbed into the standard offering or taken up by anyone else and supported.

The mod may to be 100% efficient as it could be but it does follow the current date manipulation approach that I see in 3.7.1.

I have (unlike the WetCanvas version) included the text started: in the .time format span. Yes the date is included in the .time format span believe me this is REALLY the way you want it to look.

Enjoy.

Edit time - I have just seen another mod that does this -
Thread Started By Date & Username
I guess I should have looked much harder before I wrote my own.

Anyway I will leave it to others to compare the two and decide between them.

Oh and here is another - Threadbit's Dateline