[Problem] Last page of a topic doesn't exist

Ben2006 · 26th August 2006, 15:57

Hello,

in the heading of a topic with many messages, there are links like

Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

It occurs rather often that I click on the link to last page (here page no. 10), and I just get the message No posts exist for this topic. So, in reality, the topic is one page "shorter" than shown in the overview.

In topics with many-many pages (for example, 300), the last "real" page is 297 or so (so there is "missing" even more than one page at the end).

Is there any chance to get that fixed?

Speaking of pages and messages within topics, there's another thing on my wishlist: The board seems to know which message was last read by me within each topic (the new messages have a yellow icon, instead of a grey one). So it would be very nice if the above overview would look like

Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, First unread

Is this possible?

Thank you,

Ben

Shafted · 26th August 2006, 18:25

I know it's a nusance, but the board for some reason creates a new page just before it's needed. Simply go to the previous page for the latest posting.

Ben2006 · 26th August 2006, 19:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shafted

I know it's a nusance, but the board for some reason creates a new page just before it's needed. Simply go to the previous page for the latest posting.

Ok, got it. Next message will be on the new page.

Just trying to understand :D

Ben

Ben2006 · 26th August 2006, 19:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben2006

Ok, got it. Next message will be on the new page.

Hmmm... in the topic "Word association game" in the "General Non Shoe Fashion Discussion", there is shown
...299, 300, 301
but the last page that really exists is 299. So the board sometimes seems to create two additional pages in advance?! :o

Wouldn't be that bad if at least on the "non-existing" pages there would just be a "Previous" link - then you could simply click "Previous" until a page exists. Now, you have to press "back" in the browser, then try the previous page number, and (maybe) again "back" and still previous and so on...

Ben

Richy · 26th August 2006, 20:18

This all started after a large number of members, together with their posts got accidently deleted. Where a message has been deleted, the pages seem to repaginate to fill the gap, but leaves any spare pages in place.

jmc · 26th August 2006, 20:52

Sounds like a bug in the board software (phpBB). We will probably have to wait for an update for that to get fixed, if it happens at all.

Tom-NL · 26th August 2006, 23:36

Back in february 2005 there was a hardware problem at the ISP where the site was hosted at the time. They put back a backup. Any messages posted between the moment that the backup was made and the moment of the crash, were lost. Unfortunately this also caused a discrepancy between the actual number of posts in a thread, and the number displayed as the number of posts in that thread.

See these posts in an old thread:

http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewtopic.php?t=4467

http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewt...?p=79662#79662
http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewt...?p=79840#79840
http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewt...?p=79932#79932

Ben2006 · 27th August 2006, 08:41

I see - it's just because of "missing messages" somewhere in the thread. Ok, this explains the forum's "misbehaviour"

I wonder whether there's a command for "rearranging the database"? But as far as I understand it, the error occurs just with "old" threads (which already existed when the database crashed). So it's not a general "page calculating fault" of the forum software...

Ben

Tom-NL · 27th August 2006, 09:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben2006

But as far as I understand it, the error occurs just with "old" threads (which already existed when the database crashed). So it's not a general "page calculating fault" of the forum software...

Correct!

Ozzard · 4th September 2006, 13:35

Do we have any phpBB gurus who could work out what query to run across the database to fix this up? And would the hosting company let anyone that close to the database?

This is unlikely to be the only board that's had the issue; I'd expect a standard update or (potentially) mod to exist that will re-jig the post counts.

(Yes, I've maintained phpBB sites in the past)