TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:55 am

I'm curious how a member's "last visited" date is calculated. I've wondered this for a while, actually. I'll sometimes see someone online, then look at their profile later that day and it will show their last online date of several days ago.

For example, this user:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=94201

Shows a "last visited" date of Feb 4, but he made several posts yesterday (Feb 6).

Just curious.

Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:58 am

Must be a glitch in the Matrix.

Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:13 am

There is some logic built into it so it doesn't update the date every time you go to a new screen. Unfortunately several people, you included, have noticed that it doesn't always seem correct.

Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:01 am

EverettB wrote: There is some logic built into it so it doesn't update the date every time you go to a new screen. Unfortunately several people, you included, have noticed that it doesn't always seem correct.

So how is the online/offline indicator updated? Couldn't the "last visited" date be updated at the same time as the indicator?

Or am I oversimplifying?

Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:35 pm

Ok, I looked at the code. The last visit time is the time you last visited the site. So if you visit once per day, it would be yesterday. The reason it does this is so the site can show you what is new since the last time you visited. You would not want to mess with that variable or it would screw up what the site thinks is new to you.

There is another date/time entry that is more current as it gets updated every time you go to a new page. This is the variable used for the online/offline display as well as telling the system what section of the site you are in and some other things.

I changed the profile and memberlist pages to display that date/time instead.

Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:29 pm

Nice. Thanks, Everett. It's fun to be the one reporting the bugs instead of the one researching them for a change. :D

Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:48 pm

Along the same line of question as Mink. I have often, but not always, had the new post indicators show all unread posts as read, after following a link in one of the threads. Is there anyway I can prevent this from happening?
Thanks,
David

Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:58 pm

That is strange and I am not sure as the individual threads are stored via cookies. So there may have been a cookie malfunction in your browser for some reason.

Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:25 pm

Thanks Everett, It just did it again. I minimised the Samba while I checked email and all posts in all forums were marked as read. It is probably time to have the hard drive serviced/cleaned up. Wish I were capable of doing that myself.
David

Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:39 pm

I'd try clearing your cookies and cache in your browser first.

Fri Feb 08, 2008 6:31 am

Thanks, I'll do that.
David