Module : @TITLE@ Version : @VERSION@ Author : @AUTHOR@

@DESCRIPTION@

The user can:

• choose between showing new messages, new topics or updated topcis;
• choose how many messages / topics should be shown per page;
• show older messages using a paging mechanism;
• select a specific forum to show new messages for;
• show messages grouped by date, forums or folders.

The module also supports loading the recent messages through a Phorum Ajax call, so a recent messages list can be easily embedded in a target page.

For running this mod, you need Phorum @REQUIRED_VERSION@ or later. It will not work for earlier versions of Phorum.

Contents:

1. Installation

2. Template customization

3. Use of the ajax interface

4. Use of the "ajax_minimal" template

5. Installation:

• Unpack the archive;

• Move the directory "@MODULE_ID@" to the directory "mods" within your Phorum installation;

• Login as administrator in Phorum's administrative interface and go to the "Modules" section;

• Enable the module "@TITLE@".

• Templates must be configured to show the link to the recent messages page. Alter your template to suit your needs.

2. Template customization:

To display the link to the recent messages page on various Phorum pages, you will have to edit the Phorum template files. In these template files, you can use the following template variables:

{URL->RECENT_MESSAGES} The URL for the recent messages page

{LANG->mod_recent_messages->RecentMessages} The text to use for the link / button that takes the user to the recent messages page.

Example template code for adding a hyperlink to a template:

RECENT_MESSAGES}"> {LANG->mod_recent_messages->RecentMessages}

if you are adding the link to the Emerald template (the default Phorum 5.2 template) or a template that is based on Emerald, then you can also use the following code to make it show an icon in front of the link.

RECENT_MESSAGES}"> {LANG->mod_recent_messages->RecentMessages}

For example, if you want the link to appear in the upper right corner of the page, then you can add the marked code from below to the file templates/emerald/header.tpl:

......
......
{! Code for anonymous users }
{ELSE}
  <span class="welcome">{LANG->Welcome}!</span>
  <a class="icon icon-key-go" href="{URL->LOGINOUT}">{LANG->LogIn}</a>
  <a class="icon icon-user-add" ......
{/IF}

| | RECENT_MESSAGES}"> {LANG->mod_recentmessages->RecentMessages} |____|

</div> <!-- end of div id=user-info -->
......
......

3. Use of the ajax interface:

For Phorum 5.3 and higher (at the time of writing, the stable version of Phorum is 5.2), this module supports loading a recent messages list on any another website, through the Phorum ajax interface. In earlier versions of Phorum, this is not supported.

In the target page, use the following kind of code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://your.site.com/phorum/javascript.php?core">

Some parameters can be used in the ajax call. When null or omitted, default values will be provided by Phorum. The parameters are:

show_amount This is the number of messages to include in the return data (i.e. one "page").

page This is the page offset to use. 0 = the first page 1 = the second page etc.

show_forum When this is the id of a vroot (simply 0, when you have no vroots), messages from all forums will be shown. Otherwise, the parameter value will be used as the id of the forum for which to retrieve the recent messages.

view_type The type of view. This is a numeric value, one of: 0 = view recent messages 1 = view recent threads 2 = view recently updated threads

group_by The grouping mechanism to use, one of: 0 = no grouping 1 = group by date 2 = group by forum 3 = group by folder

template The template to use for rendering the output. By creating a custom module template for this module, you can let the ajax call format any kind of data.

content_only When set to 1, the template variable {AJAX_CONTENT_ONLY} will be set. The template can use this variable to not output any header / footer data, but only the inner content. This can be used by a template, to implement loading of extra messages / threads rows via ajax and adding them to an existing block (previously loaded, with header / footer)..

4. Use of the "ajax_minimal" template:

One special template is provided with the module: "ajax_minimal". If you use this template for the "template" parameter, then you will get output that is structured with