Hi Robin,

I’m writing some code to pay a little “reward points” bonus to the author of a forum topic, when that topic receives X number of replies.
All works fine, hooking to bbp_new_reply.
But I would like to exclude any replies by the author themself from the total replies count.
Total replies count is currently bbp_get_topic_reply_count( $topic_id )
So I need to subtract author_own_replies from that total.

I have $topic_id, $author_id, $reply_id, $forum_id

Any easy way to achieve this?

I’m trying to avoid SQL queries.

[@robin-w Moderator 1 month, 1 week ago]

Very briefly tested as I am on holiday tomorrow, but try this

$r = array(
		'post_type'              =>bbp_get_reply_post_type(),   
		'post_parent'            => $topic_id,  
		'author__not_in' => array( $author_id)
		);
	$reply_posts = new WP_Query($r); 
	$count = $reply_posts->post_count;

[@thinlizzie Participant 1 month, 1 week ago]

Thanks Robin, tested, works perfectly, your help is very much appreciated.

[@robin-w Moderator 1 month, 1 week ago]

Great – glad you are fixed

[@thinlizzie Participant 2 weeks, 1 day ago]

Just a little follow up question … I’m looking at modifying my “reward” system, ignoring the number of replies and simply rewarding based on forum engagement. So a reward is triggered when a user creates a new topic or posts a reply ( capped at one reward per day, to avoid spam reward-mining )

What should I do?

1. Create two reward functions, hook one to bbp_new_topic and hook the other to bbp_new_reply ?
2. Create one reward function and hook it to some kind of combo “bbp_all_user_engagement” thing, if that exists?
3. Something different?

Cheers!

[@markkavin Participant 2 weeks, 1 day ago]

You can achieve this without raw SQL by looping through the replies and filtering out the author’s own ones. Something like this:

$reply_count = 0;
$replies = bbp_get_all_child_ids( $topic_id, bbp_get_reply_post_type() );

if ( ! empty( $replies ) ) {
foreach ( $replies as $reply_id ) {
if ( get_post_field( ‘post_author’, $reply_id ) != $author_id ) {
$reply_count++;
}
}
}

This way you count only replies not made by the topic author. Then you can compare $reply_count with your threshold to trigger the reward.

It’s lightweight, avoids direct SQL, and keeps everything inside bbPress/WordPress functions.

[@robin-w Moderator 2 weeks ago]

so when a user posts a topic or they reply to a topic, you want to give them a reward immediately, but then not give them a further reward for the remainder of that day ie give them a reward for the first post they make each day.

and not use the previous reward system

Yes?

[@thinlizzie Participant 2 weeks ago]

Hi Robin, yes that’s correct. The previous system worked fine but was not really encouraging forum participation so it will be replaced.

The daily-limit is handled by a simple flag in the usermeta table, all good.

I’m really just asking if there exists a combo version of bbp_new_topic and bbp_new_reply for me to hook onto, or if I should simply hook onto both of those, separately.

eg.

add_action( 'bbp_new_topic' , 'my_reward_function' );
add_action( 'bbp_new_reply' , 'my_reward_function' );

function my_reward_function() {

	// check daily-limit flag, bail if set to today's date
	// update the user's reward info
	// set daily-limit flag to today's date
}

[@thinlizzie Participant 2 weeks ago]

Hi @markkavin,

Thanks! Much appreciated!

[@robin-w Moderator 2 weeks ago]

no combo, so just hook separately 🙂

[@thinlizzie Participant 2 weeks ago]

@robin-w

Cheers!