Alternate topic view functionality

[hrvelic@…]

Greetings.
I wanted to request if it'd be possible to include a "flat" viewing mode into DiscussionPlugin.
Flat view would order the posts in a topic chronologically, ie by time of creation instead ordering them in threads. Each post header could contain a link (anchored to the local page) to the topic it was a reply to.
Users would be able to select which view to use (on the top of the discussion page for example).
This functionality allows the users to view what latest posts were added to the topic without having to check each individual thread in the page.

[Radek Bartoň]

And what about display new posts in different colour?

[hrvelic@…]

That would work too, but is much more complicated to do. It'd require the plugin to track last read date and time for each topic and user combination.
Of course, doing that would be even better because it'd enable visually marking topics with new posts in forum view and something like a "View new topics since last visit" functionality which would be a list of topics with new posts across all forums.
In any case both solutions are good. Flat view is also about viewing style - some people don't like threaded view. On the other hand tracking read status is more complicated but provides support for many other useful features.
So, both have their pro and cons, you decide. I'd be happy with either, or both. ;)

[Radek Bartoň]

Implemented in chageset 1088.

[hrvelic@…]

I finally found some time to get, install and test the latest version of this plugin. The new functionalities (Quote, Edit Post and Alternate Topic View) work great! Thank you very much for your time and effort you put into this and the plugin in general. Great work, as usual! :)
I ditched phpbb2 in favor of this one (I don't need all those features and this plugin is nicely integrated into Trac).
Thanks again and take care,
Hrvoje Velic