2 questions regarding GARS

[Scribbller]

I do not wish to annoy Mr. Geek but I keep on comming up with questions

1. In forumview under last activity bit it shows the name of person who made the last comment, is there any way to show the name of author also because I cant seem to find that anywhere.

2. The forum view displays threads the way VB does ie. if a new comment is made in an article that is bumped right to the top, is it possible to have the articles/threads in it displayed with respect to the time when they were actually created ie. if an article was created on 1st december it stays below an article created on second irrespective of whether the article created on first got a comment today (ie. 18th) or not.

Thanks

[The Geek]

1- Im pretty sure that putting $thread[postusername] will give you the authors name. If not, $thread[username] should do. Just edit the GARS_threadbit and put one of those vars in.

2- Default vB is to sort the threads by last activity. You can change this by editing the forums properties in vB. GARS also has a couple other default sorting methods you can access by editing its type.

HTHs

[DJ RRebel]

Again .. only guesses and might be best to wait for Geek's reply if you can (particularly for #1) .. here's a few pointers though.

#1- I'm not sure if GARS forums make the same data calls to the DB as regular vB forums (I can only assume that it does and all the GARS is simply extra), then you might want to try adding the following into your the template in question (I can only guess one of the GARS threatbit templates) at the location you want the author's name shown:


<if condition="$show['guestuser']">
$thread[postusername]
<else />
<span style="cursor:pointer" onclick="window.open('member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$thread[postuserid]', '_self')">$thread[postusername]</span>
</if>



#2 is 100% a vB question but I'll answer it anyways.

In your vB control panel go to "Forums & Moderators" then "Forum Manager" then click on the forum in question ... then find the option for "Default Sort Field" and choose "Thread Start Time".

Also be sure you didn't switch the GARS type you are using off of the default .. in your type, the "Default Sort Order" should be "------------" (which simply means you end up using the vB default).


It really sounds like you might want to go through some of the help documents for GARS, vB and especially templates (I can only guess there's plenty of stuff at www.vbulletin.org (and .com too, but for tinkering go to .org) .. GARS is mainly to help structure your data and is specifically template driven like vB so that users like us can customize to our hearts content ... however .. that also means that when it comes to such stuff we can always ask for help .. but in the end I highly suggest setting up a test forum and play around with everything yourself so you can learn (that's what I did with templates and look how different my vB forums are compared to the default http://www.homeofchat.com/vB/ and my forum listing page http://www.homeofchat.com/vB/forumdisplay.php?f=8) .. it takes considerable time .. but it's worth it in the end if customizations are important for you! :)

It should also be noted that I'm not very proficient in PHP or Java or MySQL .. but I make due and read stuff where I can .. I can't stress that it's not a short term solution or an easy process .. but there is also the other option of hiring someone (because although I'm sure The Geek would love to help everyone do everything, we do have a responsibility to learn the software on our own or at least know the basics of standard features) .. but I prefer to take the longer approach because I've come to enjoy the timkering as once you've got a feel for things you can change things whenever you want an not have to wait for someone to help or do it for you!

Anyhow .. hope those helped! :)

[DJ RRebel]

damn .. thought I could actually beat Geek to the punch and actually help someone before him to help him out! lol