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Ok, well, thanks very much for all your help. looks like ill have to give up on this.

Sorry, i misled you there, i thought you meant access to my root folder on my website mysite.com/root I dont have access to the part of my server required to insatll any of the UDF's

Yes i have access to the server root. Thanks again

sorry, i made mention of it in the last post on page one, this was the thread that was merged, i thought i had better concentrate on this part first, since i didn't want to be accused of duplicate postings again. anyhow, it doesnt matter how ugly it is really, it wont be used for display, only to mods of my fourm to help them find all the broken links to pictures. In essence i want to strip everything out of the posts excpet for the http (urls), i am happy for it to show that no matter how ugly and once the "big cleanup" has been done, then its only a question of running it once a week or even once a month. would a multi-pass be the easiest option ? also, can someone pls show me how to donate!

would your suggestion to do it with php mean i would have to start again and dump my query ?

some posts have one, others have 4 or 5. Can i just go with what i think the maximum will be and contruct it from that? so, if i thought the max would be two, do i simply add SUBSTRING_INDEX( SUBSTRING(post FROM LOCATE('http://',post) ), ' ', 1 ) that many times?, becuase i think it woul still find the first one again ?

sorry, didnt get to edit it in time. I have replaced the line and it does grab the first instrance of "http" from the post , but it then moves on to the next post and finds the first instance of "http" there. The trouble is, it doesnt show the 2nd instance of "http" in the 1st post? http://www.mysite/pic1.jpg this is line one, post 1 http://www.mysite/pic2.jpg this is line two, post 1 http://www.mysite/pic3.jpg this is line three, post 1 http://www.mysite/pic4.jpg this is line one, post 2 so it gives me http://www.mysite/pic1.jpg http://www.mysite/pic4.jpg But so happy to get it grabbing only the URL, thanks very much fenway

I'm sorry, but i cannot find a < in anywhere in my query? Do i replace the line you gave me with the one ? SUBSTRING(post FROM LOCATE('http://',post) FOR LOCATE(' ',post,LOCATE('http://',post))-1) AS url or do i add it ?

Sorry, i have only just understood what you meant. Here is another insert for you bf_posts INSERT $INSERT[] = "INSERT INTO ibf_posts (pid, append_edit, edit_time, author_id, author_name, use_sig, use_emo, ip_address, post_date, icon_id, post, queued, topic_id, post_title, new_topic, edit_name, post_key, post_parent, post_htmlstate) VALUES (1, 0, NULL, 1, 'Test Poster', 0, 1, '127.0.0.1', <%time%>, 0, 'Here is a test post&#33;<br />Its tricky to describe my problem so ill use pics here we go<br /> <br />Im trying to do this short tutorial http://majorgfx.net/Animation.htm<br /> I think i did every thing right up to here http://img438.imageshack.us/img438/844/28nh.png but at this part of the tutorial http://img438.imageshack.us/img438/641/13hz.png <br />it all goes wrong because i can see my line http://img438.imageshack.us/img438/2826/36at.png<br /> <br /><br />which i now see is gonna be a problem because the line will go across the whole pic at the end and not just the bit i selected only thing i could think of was click the eye to hide that layer but iv clicked everywhere around were iv marked the red circle http://img438.imageshack.us/img438/8876/45mo.png<br /><br /> <br /><br /> the line isn't there if i hide that layer now...', 0, 1, NULL, 1, NULL, '0', 0, 0);"; ibf_topics INSERT $INSERT[] = "INSERT INTO ibf_topics VALUES (1, 'Welcome', '', 'open', 0, 1, <%time%>, 1, <%time%>, 0, '<%admin_name%>', '<%admin_name%>', '0', 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);"; and my query again is this SELECT post_date , DATE_FORMAT(FROM_UNIXTIME( post_date ) , '%d-%m-%y') AS formatted_date , LEFT(title, 20) AS title , post , SUBSTRING(post FROM LOCATE('http://',post) FOR LOCATE(' ',post,LOCATE('http://',post))-1) AS url FROM ibf_posts, ibf_topics WHERE post LIKE '%tp:%' AND topic_id = ibf_topics.tid AND forum_id = 58 ORDER BY post_date DESC LIMIT 0 , 60 END; I hope i have done it right this time.

Ok, many thanks

I am sorry fenway, i dont mean to hassle you but if you don't have time i am willing to ask paid help. Maybe there is something i can be doing in the meantime that will give you some better clues?

just as i thought (not really) But i really do appreciate your help

Sorry, you have lost me there, but thnaks for taking the time in doing this for me. P.S. i cannot find how to donate

Many thanks, i hope i have done this right. ibf_posts TABLE[] = "CREATE TABLE ibf_posts ( pid int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment, append_edit tinyint(1) default '0', edit_time int(10) default NULL, author_id mediumint( NOT NULL default '0', author_name varchar(32) default NULL, use_sig tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', use_emo tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', ip_address varchar(16) NOT NULL default '', post_date int(10) default NULL, icon_id smallint(3) default NULL, post mediumtext NULL, queued tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', topic_id int(10) NOT NULL default '0', post_title varchar(255) default NULL, new_topic tinyint(1) default '0', edit_name varchar(255) default NULL, post_key varchar(32) NOT NULL default '0', post_parent int(10) NOT NULL default '0', post_htmlstate smallint(1) NOT NULL default '0', post_edit_reason VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL default '', PRIMARY KEY (pid), KEY topic_id (topic_id,queued,pid,post_date), KEY author_id (author_id,topic_id), KEY post_date (post_date), KEY ip_address (ip_address), KEY post_key (post_key) );"; ibf_topics $TABLE[] = "CREATE TABLE ibf_topics ( tid int(10) NOT NULL auto_increment, title varchar(250) NOT NULL default '', description varchar(70) default NULL, state varchar( default NULL, posts int(10) default NULL, starter_id mediumint( NOT NULL default '0', start_date int(10) default NULL, last_poster_id mediumint( NOT NULL default '0', last_post int(10) default NULL, icon_id tinyint(2) default NULL, starter_name varchar(32) default NULL, last_poster_name varchar(32) default NULL, poll_state varchar( default NULL, last_vote int(10) default NULL, views int(10) default NULL, forum_id smallint(5) NOT NULL default '0', approved tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', author_mode tinyint(1) default NULL, pinned tinyint(1) default NULL, moved_to varchar(64) default NULL, total_votes int(5) NOT NULL default '0', topic_hasattach smallint(5) NOT NULL default '0', topic_firstpost int(10) NOT NULL default '0', topic_queuedposts int(10) NOT NULL default '0', topic_open_time int(10) NOT NULL default '0', topic_close_time int(10) NOT NULL default '0', topic_rating_total smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', topic_rating_hits smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (tid), KEY topic_firstpost (topic_firstpost), KEY last_post (forum_id,pinned,last_post), KEY forum_id (forum_id,pinned,approved), KEY starter_id (starter_id, forum_id, approved), KEY last_post_sorting (last_post,forum_id) );"; ibf_posts INSERT $INSERT[] = "INSERT INTO ibf_posts (pid, append_edit, edit_time, author_id, author_name, use_sig, use_emo, ip_address, post_date, icon_id, post, queued, topic_id, post_title, new_topic, edit_name, post_key, post_parent, post_htmlstate) VALUES (1, 0, NULL, 1, 'Invision Power Board Team', 0, 1, '127.0.0.1', <%time%>, 0, 'Welcome to your new Invision Power Board&#33;<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Congratulations on your purchase of our software and setting up your community. Please take some time and read through the Getting Started Guide and Administrator Documentation. The Getting Started Guide will walk you through some of the necessary steps to setting up an IP.Board and starting your community. The Administrator Documentation takes you through the details of the capabilities of IP.Board.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> You can remove this message, topic, forum or even category at any time.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Go to the documentation now...', 0, 1, NULL, 1, NULL, '0', 0, 0);"; ibf_topics INSERT $INSERT[] = "INSERT INTO ibf_topics VALUES (1, 'Welcome', '', 'open', 0, 1, <%time%>, 1, <%time%>, 0, '<%admin_name%>', '<%admin_name%>', '0', 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);"; If you consider i dont have to pay, i will make a donation to the board instead, if i can find the paypal button

ok, have changed back to that piece of code you supplied. But the results are still giving me text after the end of the URL (as in Post no Sorry to keep troubling you, should i post in "paid help" section for someone to work on this for me, i am running out of time.