Thread pointers

[Fraser]

Thanks to some fantastic programming assistance by Robert Andersson, there's a redirection system that should make pointers to old threads on Bad Astronomy and Universe Today boards redirect you to the correct location on the new forum.

Can people test this out? Find some old links to old threads and see if clicking on them takes you to the correct location.

Post any errors so we can squish bugs.

Thanks!

And thanks again to Robert. :-)

[ToSeek]

Most of the ones I've tried seem to work, but I get errors with the links in these two:

He's not dead yet - The Ivory Billed Woodpecker

New add using Mars

[Robert Andersson]

ToSeek. those are "post links". I don't think many have linked to those, but seeing that the majority of Google's results are like that, I did just now implement a quick-and-dirty lookup so they will "work" too. You won't be pointed to the exact post, but at least to the right thread (in most cases).

EDIT: There is no easy way to map individual posts. The topics/threads are matched by title and time. It could probably be done with the posts too, with some effort. If many are having trouble with them, I might do that.

[ToSeek]

Good work!

[Sleepy]

Originally Posted by Robert Andersson

EDIT: There is no easy way to map individual posts. The topics/threads are matched by title and time. It could probably be done with the posts too, with some effort. If many are having trouble with them, I might do that.

If you do have code to do this I'd be interested in a look, as I've tried to map to a specific post in a thread and failed.

[Robert Andersson]

UPDATE: Old links to posts will now work as well. Eg links of this kind:
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/vi...c.php?p=506045

This is done by looking up the old babb topic id for the post, which is translated to the new thread id. If there is exactly one match (~90%, there can be none or more), it will search for all posts in that thread with the same post time, and direct you to one at random (unless two posts have the same to the second, there should only be one).

EDIT: To clarify, this is an extension to what I said a post before. Old "post links" will take you directly to the post in question.

[Robert Andersson]

UPDATE: Minor feature, "highlight links" also works. Eg:
www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=204746&highlight=astronomy+guide

[The Supreme Canuck]

Well done! Links to profiles don't work though. Sounds like it would be a whole different problem in any case.

[Fraser]

Originally Posted by Robert Andersson

UPDATE: Minor feature, "highlight links" also works. Eg:
www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=204746&highlight=astronomy+guide

Okay, now you're just showing off. ;-)

[Robert Andersson]

Originally Posted by The Supreme Canuck

Well done! Links to profiles don't work though. Sounds like it would be a whole different problem in any case.

Yes, I've been thinking about it. I can probably fix that as well.

Originally Posted by Fraser

Okay, now you're just showing off. ;-)

Yeess...?

It was just passing on an extra parameter, so it wasn't that hard.

Btw, since I wasn't very familiar with the UT forum nor Invision, I haven't been very active in fixing things on that end. I welcome if anyone points out flaws there.

[Robert Andersson]

Originally Posted by Sleepy

If you do have code to do this I'd be interested in a look, as I've tried to map to a specific post in a thread and failed.

There is plenty of code. Do describe what you're after in a little more detail and I'm happy to share.

[Sleepy]

Originally Posted by Robert Andersson

There is plenty of code. Do describe what you're after in a little more detail and I'm happy to share.

See this post and this post

[Robert Andersson]

I found a typo in the code that build the mapping tables, causing multiple matches to not be inserted at all. Most of these were topics posted across several fora. When accessing these old URIs, you will presented with a list. Anyway, they were rebuilt, and I made some statistics for whoever is interested.

Universe Today topic mapping stats (matches):
T: 8530 (100%)
1: 8127 (95.3%)
2: 358 (4.2%)
3: 34 (0.4%)
4: 9 (<0.1%)
0: 7 (<0.1%)

BABB topic mapping stats (matches):
T: 20580 (100%)
1: 20498 (99.6%)
2: 72 (0.3%)
7-8: 2 (<0.1%)
0: 8 (<0.1%)

On another note, if Phil sees this, he might want to add these lines to the .htaccess file in the old BABB. It will redirect one type of request that is frequent in Google results (list a user's posts), but it doesn't solve the "user profile" links (must make some id mapping there).

RewriteEngine On
# Rewrite "search author" requests
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} search_author=([^&]+)
RewriteRule ^search.php$ http://www.bautforum.com/search.php?do=process&searchuser=%1 [R=301]

[Robert Andersson]

Originally Posted by Sleepy

See this post and this post

Ok, I see what you mean. However, that is not really related to this. What we want here is easy access to the thread/post link, which the board doesn't seem to give away. I have not made any modifications to the board software, which would be a bad idea (considering upgrades etc).

You do, obviously, know the syntax of a "thread/post link", so I'm not sure how I can help.

[Sleepy]

Originally Posted by Robert Andersson

You do, obviously, know the syntax of a "thread/post link", so I'm not sure how I can help.

I was hoping you knew a way, nevermind.

[Nereid]

Awesome! A big round of applause for Robert! (now where did that 'applause' smilie we had in BA disappear to?)