Last Post Subject w/ Trim

Show the last post subject to the index page of your forum

@13thoughts was looking for this on twitter. Basically this snippet adds the last post subject to the index page of your forums, but if the title is over a certain amount of characters, it gets trimmed (. . .) That way everything stays the same length and generally looks nicer

Last post subject

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#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
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includes/functions_display.php
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#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
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            $template->assign_block_vars('forumrow', array(
                'S_IS_CAT'            => false, 

You can change the 28 to another number. Play about with it until it loks right for your forum

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#-----[ BEFORE ADD ]------------------------------------------
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            $char_limit = 28; 
            $new_last_post_subject = (utf8_strlen(censor_text($last_post_subject)) > $char_limit + 5) ? (utf8_substr(censor_text($last_post_subject),0,$char_limit) . '...') : censor_text($last_post_subject); 
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#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
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                'LAST_POST_SUBJECT'        => censor_text($last_post_subject), 
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#-----[ AFTER ADD ]------------------------------------------
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                'NEW_LAST_POST_SUBJECT'    => $new_last_post_subject, 
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#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
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#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
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styles/YOUR_STYLE/template/forumlist_body.html
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#-----[ DIY INSTRUCTIONS ]------------------------------------------
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You're going to want to add the following code in:

   <!-- IF not S_IS_BOT --><a href="{forumrow.U_LAST_POST}">{forumrow.NEW_LAST_POST_SUBJECT}</a><!-- ELSE -->{forumrow.NEW_LAST_POST_SUBJECT}<!-- ENDIF -->

Somewhere around

    <!-- IF forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME -->

As an example, here's what I did for a forum of mine:

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#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
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                      <!-- IF forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME --><dfn>{L_LAST_POST}</dfn> {L_POST_BY_AUTHOR} {forumrow.LAST_POSTER_FULL}
                      <!-- IF not S_IS_BOT --><a href="{forumrow.U_LAST_POST}">{LAST_POST_IMG}</a> <!-- ENDIF --><br />{forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME}<!-- ELSE -->{L_NO_POSTS}<br /> <!-- ENDIF --></span>
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#-----[ REPLACE WITH ]------------------------------------------
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                      <!-- IF forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME --><dfn>{L_LAST_POST}</dfn> <!-- IF not S_IS_BOT --><a href="{forumrow.U_LAST_POST}">{forumrow.NEW_LAST_POST_SUBJECT}</a><!-- ELSE -->{forumrow.NEW_LAST_POST_SUBJECT}<!-- ENDIF --> <br /> {L_POST_BY_AUTHOR} {forumrow.LAST_POSTER_FULL}
                      <!-- IF not S_IS_BOT --><a href="{forumrow.U_LAST_POST}">{LAST_POST_IMG}</a> <!-- ENDIF --><br />{L_POSTED_ON_DATE} {forumrow.LAST_POST_TIME}<!-- ELSE -->{L_NO_POSTS}<!-- ENDIF --></span>