Forum countdown timer (for WSO)

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

Thanks
#countdown #forum #timer #wso
  • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
    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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    • Profile picture of the author FirstSocialApps
      Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

      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.
      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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      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
        Originally Posted by FirstSocialApps View Post

        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.
        I actually thought about suggesting something similar to that (use PHP to get the countdown value from the current time, and then output that as an image via the GD library). But judging from the simplicity of the OP's question, I assumed he wouldn't be prepared to go that far down the PHP rabbit hole ... especially considering that the end result wouldn't even be an animated countdown... just a static one.
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        • Profile picture of the author FirstSocialApps
          Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

          I actually thought about suggesting something similar to that (use PHP to get the countdown value from the current time, and then output that as an image via the GD library). But judging from the simplicity of the OP's question, I assumed he wouldn't be prepared to go that far down the PHP rabbit hole ... especially considering that the end result wouldn't even be an animated countdown... just a static one.
          Yea it is kind of a pain for a static counter. I really think thats the best that can be done though To bad we cant iframe in a site, that would be awesome.

          Something that did pop into mind though is this: Is there a way to pull in some flash the same way a youtube video link is auto parsed?
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  • Profile picture of the author mike gregory
    Thanks both of you. Although static still handy to know something is possible
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      Originally Posted by mike gregory View Post

      Thanks both of you. Although static still handy to know something is possible
      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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      • Profile picture of the author mike gregory
        Originally Posted by BenQ View Post

        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.
        Surely not if HTML is not allowed??

        Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

        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.
        That would be cool
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  • Profile picture of the author BenQ
    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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    • Profile picture of the author rbeckwith
      Originally Posted by BenQ View Post

      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.
      I don't believe that will work.....iFrames are not allowed in the forum
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  • Profile picture of the author mojojuju
    Here's how to do a mock countdown timer in PHP Image only Countdown Clock
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    :)

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  • I'm thinking it maybe possible via animated GIF but that could take time.
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  • Profile picture of the author SteveSRS
    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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  • Profile picture of the author longblog
    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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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      Originally Posted by longblog View Post

      Do animated gifs actually animate when embedded into the forum? I can't recall ever seeing one here.
      Well here ya go then.

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