[RESOLVED] modify a forum script to pull data from multiple forum ids instead of 1

c0le

Hello, im trying to modify this script to pull information from multiple different forum id#'s instead of just one. I want it to display the info the same exact way, just include the data from multiple forum id#'s and keep arranging it by date (newest first regardless of forum id).

I am currently using this script for multiple news categories on my site, i want to modify it so the main page of my site shows all the newest news from all categories instead of just 1.

I'm fairly new to php so i'm not sure if what i'm asking is a simple 5-10min of work or if i'm asking too much haha. Just let me know.

Thanks for your time.

<?php
/******************************************************************************
* POST SYNDICATION SCRIPT by chAos
*
* A very basic script that pulls threads with the first post from the database
* and puts them into an array form so you can use them as you like.
*
* For use with phpBB3, freely distributable
*
******************************************************************************/

/** Notes:
*
* - Attachments haven't been handled properly.
* - Starts a forum session as Guest user, taking all the default values for time, bbcode style (from theme), etc
* - While viewing this page, users will appear to be viewing the Forum Index on viewonline.php.  

*   This can't be helped without modifying other code which is beyond this
*
*/


//////////////////////////////////////
//

define('FORUM_ID', 6);                    // Forum ID to get data from
define('POST_LIMIT', 10);                  // How many to get
define('PHPBB_ROOT_PATH', '../forums/');   // Path to phpBB (including trailing /)

define('PRINT_TO_SCREEN', true);         

     // If set to true, it will print the posts out
     // If set to false it will create an array $news[] with all the following info
     //
     //   'topic_id'         eg. 119
     //   
     //   'topic_time'      eg. 06 June, 07 (uses board default)
     //   'topic_replies'      eg. 26
     //   
     //   'username'         eg. chAos
     //   'topic_title'      eg. "News Post"
     //   
     //   'post_text'         eg. just the text (formatted w/ smilies, bbcode, etc)

//
//////////////////////////////////////

define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root_path = PHPBB_ROOT_PATH;
$phpEx = substr(strrchr(__FILE__, '.'), 1);
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.' . $phpEx);
include($phpbb_root_path . 'includes/functions_display.' . $phpEx);
include($phpbb_root_path . 'includes/bbcode.' . $phpEx);

// Start session management
$user->session_begin(false);
$auth->acl($user->data);

// Grab user preferences
$user->setup();

$query = 
"SELECT u.user_id, u.username, t.topic_title, t.topic_poster, t.forum_id, t.topic_id, t.topic_time, t.topic_replies, t.topic_first_post_id, p.poster_id, p.topic_id, p.post_id, p.post_text, p.bbcode_bitfield, p.bbcode_uid 
FROM ".USERS_TABLE." u, ".TOPICS_TABLE." t, ".POSTS_TABLE." p 
WHERE u.user_id = t.topic_poster 
AND u.user_id = p.poster_id 
AND t.topic_id = p.topic_id 
AND p.post_id = t.topic_first_post_id 
AND t.forum_id = ".FORUM_ID." 
ORDER BY t.topic_time DESC";

$result = $db->sql_query_limit($query, POST_LIMIT);
$posts = array();
$news = array();
$bbcode_bitfield = '';
$message = '';
$poster_id = 0;

while ($r = $db->sql_fetchrow($result))
{
   $posts[] = array(
         'topic_id' => $r['topic_id'],
         'topic_time' => $r['topic_time'], 
         'username' => $r['username'], 
         'topic_title' => $r['topic_title'], 
         'post_text' => $r['post_text'],
         'bbcode_uid' => $r['bbcode_uid'],
         'bbcode_bitfield' => $r['bbcode_bitfield'],
         'topic_replies' => $r['topic_replies'],
         );
   $bbcode_bitfield = $bbcode_bitfield | base64_decode($r['bbcode_bitfield']);
}


// Instantiate BBCode
if ($bbcode_bitfield !== '')
{
   $bbcode = new bbcode(base64_encode($bbcode_bitfield));
}

// Output the posts
foreach($posts as $m)
{
   $poster_id = $m['user_id'];

   $message = $m['post_text'];
   if($m['bbcode_bitfield'])
   {
      $bbcode->bbcode_second_pass($message, $m['bbcode_uid'], $m['bbcode_bitfield']);
   }

   $message = str_replace("\n", '<br />', $message);
   $message = smiley_text($message);

   $comment = ($m['topic_replies']==1) ? 'comment' : 'comments';

   if( PRINT_TO_SCREEN )
   {
      /* Output is in the following format
       *
       * <h3>Thread Title</h3>
       ^ <h4 class="postinfo">date // 5 comments // poster</h4>
       * <p>First post test</p>
       * 
       */

  echo "\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"border-collapse: collapse\" bordercolor=\"#000000\" width=\"80%\">";
  echo "\n<tr border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"#000000\">";
  echo "\n<td bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" width=\"60%\"><b>";
  echo "\n<font color=\"#194A44\" face=\"Arial\">Counter-Strike: {$m['topic_title']}</font></b></td>";
  echo "\n<td bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" width=\"40%\"><center><font color=\"#000000\" face=\"Arial\" size=\"1\"><h4 class=\"postinfo\">".$user->format_date($m['topic_time'])." // <a href=\"".PHPBB_ROOT_PATH."viewtopic.php?f=".FORUM_ID."&amp;t={$m['topic_id']}\">{$m['topic_replies']} {$comment}</a> // {$m['username']}</h4></font></center></td>";
  echo "\n</tr>";
  echo "\n<tr>";
  echo "\n<td colspan=\"2\" bgcolor=\"#ECECEC\"><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">";
  echo "\n{$message}";
  echo "\n</font></td>";
  echo "\n</tr>";
  echo "\n</table><br><br>";

/*  echo "\n\n<h3>{$m['topic_title']}</h3>";
  *        echo "\n<center><h4 class=\"postinfo\">".$user->format_date($m['topic_time'])." // <a href=\"".PHPBB_ROOT_PATH."viewtopic.php?f=".FORUM_ID."&amp;t={$m['topic_id']}\">{$m['topic_replies']} {$comment}</a> // {$m['username']}</h4></center>";
  *        echo "\n<p>{$message}</p>";
  */
   }
   else
   {
      $news[] = array(
            'topic_id' => $m['topic_id'], // eg: 119

        'topic_time' => $user->format_date($m['topic_time']), // eg: 06 June, 07 (uses board default)
        'topic_replies' => $m['topic_replies'], // eg: 26

        'username' => $m['username'], // eg: chAos
        'topic_title' => $m['topic_title'], // eg: "News Post"

        'post_text' => $message, // just the text         
        );
   }

   unset($message,$poster_id);
}

?>

c0le

well i found the answer, the original creator of the script replied to me on other forums and what he said works 100% was an easy fix.

if anyone else was curious, this is what you do:

chAos wrote:
c0le wrote:
Great script, exactly what i was looking for. Just one question though, how would you modify this script to show data from multiple forum id's instead of just 1?

If you're comfortable editing a bit of PHP code it should be rather straightforward to change that.

If you look at line 68:
AND t.forum_id = ".FORUM_ID." 
That controls which forums posts are taken from. If you replace it with something along the lines of:
AND (t.forum_id = 5 OR t.forum_id = 3 OR t.forum_id = 16)
that should do the trick (though I haven't tried it myself). You should be able to notice the pattern in the code above, just change the ID's to the actual ones you want. If you need to add more forums just append OR t.forum_id = ## to the part before the ).

bradgrafelman

You could also reduce the number of keystrokes a bit and replace that last bit with:

AND t.forum_id IN (5,3,16)