Viewing word count for topics in phpBB3

Question: you want to be able to see the word count for each post in phpBB3. How do you do that?

Answer: You need to edit two files in the phpBB3 code to get this to work. Read on.

We need to set up a variable called MESSAGE_ROW_COUNT, and display that in the template.

First of all, open /<phpbb3>/viewtopic.php and go to near line 1401. This is where the $postrow array is created.

      $postrow = array(
         // more code setting up $postrow elements
      );

Somewhere in the middle, add this additional element:

                'MESSAGE_WORD_COUNT'                    => str_word_count($message),

Then go to /styles/prosilver/template/ and go to line 189, and add this line:

     <!-- IF postrow.POSTER_POSTS != '' --><dd><strong>Word Count:</strong> {postrow.MESSAGE_WORD_COUNT}</dd><!-- ENDIF -->

I put this in line 189, where it is just below the name and details of the person who posted the article. However, you may prefer to put it somewhere else.