Phpbb 2.0.22 show active or recent forum topics question..

Hi, Ive searched around but haven't had any luck, Basically what im trying to do with phpbb version 2.0.22 is to show the last 5 or so active or recent forum topics on my mainpage of my webpage..

I found this code but its given me error when I load it. Maybe someone can lend a helping hand real quick on this.. Thank guys!

<? 
/**
* Mod Title:   Latest Topics
* Mod Version: phpBB 2.0.4
* Author:      Charlie Page
* Description: Shows latest topics on any page
* Release:     v1.0, 05.30.2004
***
* Demo:                http://www.xboxassassin.com/e3
* Installation Level:  Easy 
* Installation Time:   1 minute
* Files To Edit:       This one 
* Included Files:      php-latest.php
***
* Installation Notes:
* Upload this file and set $ppath and $url, 
* Include this into a page and your done!
*/
$url = "/forums";	// If url is - http://www.yourforums.com/forums , then enter in "/forums"
$ppath = "/home/MYSITE/public_html/MYSITEAGAIN/forums/config.php";    // Physical path to the config.php file
if(empty($count))
	$count = "5";    // How many topics to link to

//-----------------[ DO NOT EDIT BELOW HERE ]------------------------- 
include_once("$ppath"); 
$db = @mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuser", "$dbpasswd") or die("here we die at connection"); 
@mysql_select_db("$dbname",$db) or die("here we die"); 

$prefix = "$table_prefix";

$query="SELECT * FROM $prefix_topics ORDER BY `topic_id` DESC LIMIT 0, $count";
		$result=mysql_query($query);
		while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
		$topicid = "$row[topic_id]";
		$title = "$row[topic_title]";
		$forumid = "$row[forum_id]";
		$replies = "$row[topic_replies]";

echo "- <a title=\"$title\" href=\"$url/viewtopic.php?t=$topicid&sid=$forumid\">$title</a> (<i>$replies</i>)<br>"; 

}
?>

PHP:

this is the error im getting

Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/MYSITE/public_html/MYSITEAGAIN/phpbb-latest.php on line 33

HTML:

 

Try changing the limit value to $count or hard coding the value to 5 and see if it works.

 

Could someone update the full code for this....looking for it as well

 

I realize this is a bit of thread necromancy, but I found this thread through a search engine while I was having the same problem, so I post the solution here for the sake of posterity.

The problem is it's trying to select from a table name stored in a string called "$prefix_topics". As you notice, that string hasn't been defined, so it's a blank string, and the query returns nothing, because no valid table was selected.

Change that line to:

$query="SELECT * FROM `" . $prefix . "topics` ORDER BY `topic_id` DESC LIMIT 0, $count";

PHP:

and it'll work perfectly. This is the code to fulfill the author's original intent - to use the $prefix string from config.php, and tack 'topics' on the end, so the selected table is "yourphpprefix_topics".