Forum countdown timer (for WSO)

by 14 replies
18
Hi could anyone suggest a way I could have a pre launch countdown timer that could be inserted into a WSO thread?

Thanks
#programming #countdown #forum #timer #wso
  • Not possible, as you have to use either Javascript or Flash to make a countdown timer... neither of which will work in a WF post.
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    • Oh Brandon, you have to think outside of the box a little more than that.

      You can post a graphic on a WSO from your server. You can also make a CRON job on your server to run a PHP script that updates the graphic ever 1 - 5 minutes or so. See where Im going with this?

      Now this wont put a live countdown timer on the WSO, that is it wont update as your watching the page, however it will display the current countdown time to visitors when they load the page.

      I think thats about the best you can do.
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      • [1] reply
  • Thanks both of you. Although static still handy to know something is possible
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    • Definitely possible, if you don't mind having a countdown that's static. I could knock out a script that could do that within a hour or so.
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  • Get an html counter from timeanddate.com and just post it in the thread. They have some nice countdown timers that will work. Countdown or countup, whatever you want -- and you can set the lowest number to either seconds or minutes, etc.
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    • I don't believe that will work.....iFrames are not allowed in the forum
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  • Here's how to do a mock countdown timer in PHP Image only Countdown Clock
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  • I'm thinking it maybe possible via animated GIF but that could take time.
  • How about:

    1. create sub folder
    2. put .htaccess to redirect all .gif files via php parser
    3. create php script with end count down date
    4. determine current date of when the file has been requested
    5. determine exact number of seconds between current request datetime and countdown datetime
    5. create a xx minutes (or seconds) animated gif on how many time is left towards countdown date of course showing 1 frame per second
    6. show animated gif

    Say for example a user only spends 2 minutes max looking at the first thread then jsut create a 2 min animated gif on the fly with correct count down results.

    Then in case user outstays the gif just make sure animated gif does not repeat and last frame is a message / header / background color of the forum

    comes pretty close I think
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  • Do animated gifs actually animate when embedded into the forum? I can't recall ever seeing one here. I know sites like facebook disable gif animation and I kind of assumed WF did the same thing.
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