Searching within Private Messages

[MaximumTaco]

Hey everyone,

I have been searching for a way to better search through my private messages. A while ago I was trying to get a list of what I'd traded over the years, another time looking to see if I'd recieved/given all the references I ought to have, and etc, and I found that it was very difficult to get through the many pages of messages. I tried exporting it, but Excel does horrible things to the formatting, and I hadn't had time to figure out a good way to import this stuff into SPSS or Access for better data management.

I searched online and found a mod for the PHPBB software <<http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1612515>>that would allow for some fairly powerful searching within a user's PMs. Is there any chance that something like this could be implemented here at Bartertown? It would be of tremendous use to me and I'm sure to many others (like you admins!) who surely get many more messages than I do. Is there already a function like this that I just haven't found yet?

Just a thought/suggestion - is this possible?

Thanks!
-Daniel

[montaa]

Download the messages in XML format and use XMLspy to search/organize. If you're a coder you can do anything you want with it.

http://www.altova.com/simpledownload2c. ... 5QodYzqXmA

[MaximumTaco]

My problem with that solution is that I'm not an XML coder, and you still have to download all the files one page at a time from each folder, and every time you get more PMs you'd have to do it again if you want your database to be up to date!

If this mod would work with the PHPBB in use on Btown it would be a really excellent upgrade, especially considering how much gets done by PM on this forum. Just was wondering if this is a possibility

-Daniel

[MaximumTaco]

If not for the whole forum, is there any way I can apply something like this locally so that I'd at least be able to use that function? Or do mods like this have to be managed server side?

It just seems like a feature that would see a ton of use here.