What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

by Howard Miller -
Number of replies: 4
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I've had some complaints about the 'recent conversations' not showing everything it should. 

It's not clear - for a start - how 'recent' is defined. Having dug into the code I find an unreadable SQL query (why-oh-why etc.) that doesn't help at all. However, I can see that it should be displaying messages from the 'mdl_message_read' table but it seems to be displaying only some 'random' selection of the messages in the table (even taking into consideration multiple messages from the same user - it should only show the most recent).  

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

by Colin Fraser -
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So, you are suggesting the selection criteria should be based on a time/date frame rather than random?...cool idea.

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In reply to Colin Fraser

Re: What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

by Howard Miller -
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I don't know.... is it random?

I spent half-an-hour staring at another monster bit of SQL trying to figure out what it did and I still have no clue. I wish devs wouldn't do this sort of thing. I'd much rather trade a little bit of performance for code that someone had a clue of understanding - rant rant. 

Having said that, to me, 'recent' does imply 'stuff that happened since some arbitrary date' and that does not appear to be how this list is selected. 

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In reply to Howard Miller

Re: What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

by Colin Fraser -
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Well, my SQL is a little rusty, and I am too lazy to go searching for the code, want to let me know where it is and I will try to pick it apart.. going to have a little time over the next two months or years or so,  or just message the code, and I should be able to figure out what tables it is using, at least, and perhaps suggest how it is selecting its data. Cheers...

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In reply to Colin Fraser

Re: What does 'recent' mean in 'recent conversations'

by Howard Miller -
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My SQL is actually quite good and I was stumped (in that I couldn't see why it was missing some messages). Still, you're very welcome.

Look in message/lib.php and find the function 'message_get_recent_conversations()' - round about line 700 in 2.7.3

Good luck big grin


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