Logical problem. Started forum from scratch, need advice on legends

Hey guys,

Ok. I took on the monster task of coding my own forums for a site of mine! (Ouchies. But, in all honesty.. they're not overly complicated. It was much easier to implement a forum into the current user system than convert the user system into a forum)

Even though i did the code in PHP.. it's not necessarily a php problem

So, the forum is just about finished. Just one little problem holding me back...

You know when you view a forum? And there's the forum legend at the bottom (a 'key'..). Well, let's say we have 2..

• New Posts
• No New Posts

So.. i figured the easiest way to do it would be to have a column in the users field.. with $user->last_loggedin.. and a collumn in the forums field $forum['last_updated'].. meaning i could simply..

<?
if($user->last_loggedin > $forum['last_updated']){
     // show the "New posts!" icon
} else {
     // show the "Nooo new posts!" icon
}
?>

PHP:

Now, the problem arrises when the user is logged in.. everything is fine.. until someone else posts a new topic/post..

That then means, that the $user->last_loggedin < $forum['last_updated'].. meaning that the forum doesn't show as being updated.. doh!

I could reverse the arguments of the original php code (above).. so that...

<?
if($user->last_loggedin < $forum['last_updated']){
     // show the "New posts!" icon
} else {
     // show the "Nooo new posts!" icon
}
?>

PHP:

But then that will throw out my "New posts" when the user first logs in..

It seems it's one or the other..

And damn, that seems like a really complicated way of saying that.. but i thought in detail would be the best way. It's driving me crazy.

Is there any way to get both? Like.. i know vbulletin and other forum software manages it, but i don't really fancy trolling through vast amounts of code like that.

 

So you're saying if you are logged in nothing works, but when you're logged out it works fine?

 

The problem I think is that when your user logs in you update his lastlogin time.
You should store his last logout time I believe rather than his last login time.
And all posts since the user logged out last time should be considered new during his current session.
IMHO.