AJAX Threads.

[TransAmDan]

Been toying with the idea of installing a modification called AJAX threads. AJAX Threads brings forum threads alive, making them automatically refresh without needing to reload the page. This will be very handy for the Word Association thread. So we shouldn't notice much different, all will look the same. Its just if you are doing Word Association and someone else posting near the same time, their post could pop up before you submit yours so you have a chance then to edit before submitting.

A bit of blurb from the writers
AJAX Threads is the ideal product for forums with busy threads or which deal with any sort of "event" be that TV shows, sports or game releases!
AJAX Threads allows you to make topics "auto update" without the user having to refresh. This can give performance benefits when applied to threads which receive a lot of refresh requests, and can increase user participation.
Topics can be turned live by admins individually, or you can set whole forums to have their threads be live automatically.


So I will probably install this tonight, make it function on just the Renegades Care area(includes the Word Association). See how it goes. If it doesn't offer benefits or adds too much server load I can always disable/remove it.

 

[AmericanThunder]

Will this have an impact on those users viewing the forum on mobile devices using mobile data?

 

[TransAmDan]

It is supposed to use less data, as it only fetches the data required for the page. I think the AJAX part run on the client as part of the browser, and if any changes in the thread then just those updates are fetched. So I guess it must poll every second or something. Not totally sure how it all works, so i think its worth trying on a single forum section. Check it works on Apple and other mobile browsers along with tablets. I believe if AJAx isn't possible it loads it the current way.

 

[AmericanThunder]

Ok, just wanted to be sure. Not likely to affect us as we get 10gb a month between us but others are not in the same situation!

 

[TransAmDan]

True, especially on mobile data when you are out and about. Dont want it using up needless bandwidth. I get 5Gb a month now mobile data allowance, although it used to be 750Mb a month, some app's suck up the bandwidth and occasionally I hit the limit.
I have an app on the phone to monitor data usage. It will be an interesting test doing a before and after, may be able to grab some screenshots too.
I'm always a bit weary of plug-ins, some can make things better, some use up resources and generally make things worse. So I will be prepared to remove it if it's pants. :devil2:

 

[an88fiero]

Sounds like a good add-on if it does what it says on the tin.

 

[TransAmDan]

Well it is installed. Not seen any difference yet. Looking at network traffic its grabbing 767b from the website every 5 seconds. This is very little amount of data. Its only on The 'Website comments' section and 'Other Things'. Its far less data than a whole page refresh.
I have two browsers open, so when I post this I should see it automatically update in the other window.
Lets see how it goes....

 

[TransAmDan]

humm, didn't see the auto update.....

 

[TransAmDan]

Going to try again....

 

[TransAmDan]

Maybe its browser dependant. Will email their support for input.
In the Admin you can enable/disable user groups, and forum categories. It seems to be looking for changes but not displaying any changes.

 

[TransAmDan]

Just testing again today, as it looks like something has updated.

 

[TransAmDan]

Yay it works, I reckon the lack of updating automatically was something to do with a cached file, so now that updated overnight. Awesome.

 

[an88fiero]

It works !!!

I just went to post on word association and you beat me to it Dan

It popped up with yours just as I was about to hit submit

 

[TransAmDan]

, Good to know, that's perfect then, doing what it was intended.

 

[AmericanThunder]

http://www.solent-renegades.co.uk/gadgets/17645-lenovo-laptop-3000-n200.html#post50971

Now you just need another laptop to do testing on :tt2:

 

[saleen 192]

Sounds like a good add-on if it does what it says on the tin.

Be carefull if it dose what it say's on the tin lol