Linking to direct posts

[IceBone]

Am i the only one who's annoyed at the new url form not allowing for proper straight to post links? I've talked to viper about this and he agrees there's a way to link properly to a specific post, but the current links depend on the specific person's post per page settings.

So the best way I figure to link someone to your post properly is to just modify the url a bit.

Here's a standard straight-to-post link, which you can access by clicking the number of the post in the top right corner:

http://forums.finalgear.com/automotive-news/all-kinds-of-aweseome-2008-bmw-m1-concept-breaks-cover-26913/page-2/#post693592

Now for a lot of people this won't work, because they don't have the 50 post per page setting as I do. This way, however, the forum software checks your own post-per-page setting and sends you to the proper page, where the jscript will scroll your browser to the relevant post after the page has done loading:

http://forums.finalgear.com/automotive-news/all-kinds-of-aweseome-2008-bmw-m1-concept-breaks-cover-26913/post693592

What i've done is to remove, in this case, page-2/#. That's the easiest way i've found for straight-to-post links to work for everyone. At least until Viper figures out a way to change the generated links to this form.

I hope this will remove some of the awkwardness regarding this issue, as it's quite tedious to look for a page in a post that is on the wrong page for you.

In any case, i hope that at least the sender or the receiver of a link remember this, but I'd still prefer to see the generated links to look like this, eh, Viper?

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by IceBone

At least until Viper figures out a way to change the generated links to this form.

Probably not going to happen. The default posts per page is used by the vast majority of people here, but more importantly, it's not as good for SEO.

http://www.vbseo.com/f28/post-permal...-change-20112/

[IceBone]

Well, can you at least sticky this so people know how?

[Viper007Bond]

I just wrote some Javascript that'll redirect to the correct page if the HTML anchor you're looking for isn't on the current page. Let me know if it goes crazy for anyone.

It breaks the back button, but it shouldn't ever redirect for the majority of users, so no real problem there.

<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */

	// This checks the page for the requested post anchor and if it's not there, it redirects
	function viperCheckForPost() {

		// Get the anchor
		var anchor = window.location.hash.substr(1);

		// If the anchor is a post anchor but there's nothing with that ID in the page, redirect
		if ( anchor && "post" == anchor.substr(0,4) && null == document.getElementById(anchor) ) {
			window.top.location = 'showthread.php?p=' + anchor.substr(4);
		}
	}

	YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(viperCheckForPost);

/* ]]> */
</script>

[IceBone]

oooh

EDIT: tested with 2 different threads and even a wrong thread, the script redirected to the thread and post where the #post is located. Very sweet!

[Quiky]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

I just wrote some Javascript that'll redirect to the correct page if the HTML anchor you're looking for isn't on the current page. Let me know if it goes crazy for anyone.

It breaks the back button, but it shouldn't ever redirect for the majority of users, so no real problem there.

<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */

	// This checks the page for the requested post anchor and if it's not there, it redirects
	function viperCheckForPost() {

		// Get the anchor
		var anchor = window.location.hash.substr(1);

		// If the anchor is a post anchor but there's nothing with that ID in the page, redirect
		if ( anchor && "post" == anchor.substr(0,4) && null == document.getElementById(anchor) ) {
			window.top.location = 'showthread.php?p=' + anchor.substr(4);
		}
	}

	YAHOO.util.Event.onDOMReady(viperCheckForPost);

/* ]]> */
</script>

Yeah, it goes ape-shit for me when clicking the "new posts" button on the threads. Just locks the browser to the top of the page and refreshes it every 4 seconds.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Quiky

Yeah, it goes ape-shit for me when clicking the "new posts" button on the threads. Just locks the browser to the top of the page and refreshes it every 4 seconds.

This one to the left of threads? It works fine for me.

[Viper007Bond]

A popup confirmation dialog (OK/Cancel) now pops up before redirecting asking what you want to do. This should ensure no one gets stuck in an infinite redirect or something if the script breaks.

[Blind_Io]

I keep getting this as I cruise the forum:

[mgkdk]

^ I got that too in the funny pic thread

[Greatgraddage]

Had it once or twice too. Also in the funny pic thread too.

[Adunaphel]

it's from this hack by Viper. It now asks for your permission to prevent infinite redirect loops.

[Viper007Bond]

Threads merged.

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

I keep getting this as I cruise the forum:

Keep getting it? Or just when you click someone's link when they are referring to a post?

It's designed so that if I give you a link to a post (which would have a page number in it) and if you and I have different settings for the number of posts per page, that will pop up and redirect you to the correct page.

[Adunaphel]

I got it once last night when i clicked on the new posts button for a thread, and it popped up 3 times. The forums directed me to the wrong page, the first new post was the last one on the previous page.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Adunaphel

I got it once last night when i clicked on the new posts button for a thread, and it popped up 3 times. The forums directed me to the wrong page, the first new post was the last one on the previous page.

This may be because you are a moderator and can see deleted posts. I'm not sure.

[mgkdk]

I got it 4-5 times in the funny pic thread, every time I clicked ok it just came back, then I just clicked cancel.

[Adunaphel]

I also got it in the funny pictures thread.