Cel Social Groups Notifications

[cellarius]

What does this mod do?

This mod adds social groups to the notifications dropdown. Your members will get notified if there are groups containing unread messages; they need to be members of that group or have to be subscribed to that group. The counter will show how many groups with unread messages there are.


Installation:

Just import the product file in AdminCP->Product Manager. Done.
Make sure you understand and comply with the read marking requirements (see note down this post).


Settings:

Show notification for new messages in groups the user is a member of, subscribed to, or both
Select usergroups who can use the mod (i.e. who will get notificatons)
Select whether to link to usercp.php or group.php
Make sure you understand and comply with the read marking requirements (see note down this post).Note: This mod will only work with database and automatic forum read marking!



This mod will not work with cookies or simple database read marking. This will not be changed and is due to the limitations of the read marking system.
If the ressources for this trouble you, you don't want to run this modification anyway. Any workarounds would be more ressource intensive than using this option in the first place.
To set this, go to AdminCP->Settings->Options->General Settings->Thread/Forum Read Marking Type and set this to the third option: Database (automatic forum marking)
Note on ressources:

Note that this modification adds a maximum of two queries to every pageload. Both are not too heavy, going to slave servers only if existent, and there are several mechanisms in place to prevent unnecessary querying.


Version history

3.8.006: added option to link notification to custom URL
3.8.005: queries completely reworked, should be more stable now and fixes some read marking issues
3.8.002: bugfix, use slave servers
3.8.001: initial release
#### Don't forget to click install! ####
No support if you don't!

This mod is also available for vB4:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=228280

[smnet]

Wow.... people have been wanting this forever...

I will watch and wait to see if any bugs crop up before using this...

Thanks,

Rob

[cellarius]

Well, I tested before release, of course - and if everybody did like you, bugs would never be found :)

[ShawneyJ]

nope, just will not work at all. 3.8.4 - added the usergroups, tried other templates. tried everything and no go. will tag this mod. thx

[cellarius]

nope, just will not work at all. 3.8.4 - added the usergroups, tried other templates. tried everything and no go. will tag this mod. thx
Works for me on my live site and two test-installations. :erm:

[smnet]

Well, I tested before release, of course - and if everybody did like you, bugs would never be found :)

Yes, well I'm sorry but our development version is 4.0, and i aint putting it on the live 3.8 until it's gone through it's paces.

I'm not being ungrateful..... just careful

[cellarius]

Yes, well I'm sorry but our development version is 4.0, and i aint putting it on the live 3.8 until it's gone through it's paces.

I'm not being ungrateful..... just careful
Hey, that's perfectly ok ;)

BTW: Updated to 3.8.002, minor bugfix :)

[Taragon]

thanks!, however, it isn't working for me aswell.

[cellarius]

I wonder why that is - it works fine for me on not only one installation, plus my vB4 testbeds (it's the same code).

If you're interested I'll look if I can add debugging functionality. Nonetheless I have to ask the obvious: There were new messages in social groups you were subscribed to or members of? If set to subscribed, it's not enough to be subscribed to single discussions. This mod works on group level, not discussion level (the latter would be a killer query). And you noticed the Limitations? DB read marking only?

[Taragon]

I have to admit I'm not exactly sure how to handle group subscriptions. Actually, I didn't even know there where any.
My db read marking was already set due to another product.

It's working like a charm right now, but only when having “groups the user is a member of” selected. Not when having “both” selected.

Thanks a lot, and much appreciated!

[Taragon]

Would it be possible to hook this product to a certain phrase the way ie. this product does? https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=185636
if ($vbulletin->options['latest_auto'])
{
// adds location to forumhome template
$vbulletin->templatecache['FORUMHOME'] = str_replace(
$latest_location,
$latest_location.'$platest',
$vbulletin->templatecache['FORUMHOME']
);
}
preferably at both FORUMHOME and group.php

[cellarius]

You want to show the latest groups discussions or messages on forumhome? There are other mods for this, IIRC, and no, this is not possible with this mod. It only delivers a single number (the number of unread groups).

[Taragon]

Not exactly. I only want the number of unread groups (like your mod does), but not placed at the notifications menu, but at forumhome (and preferably at group.php)

[cellarius]

Ah, ok. This is easy: The code in the main plugin (should then be changed to a hook so it is only executed on a page were you want to show the number) saves the result in a variable: $vbulletin->userinfo['cel_groupnotification']. This should be available in templates as $bbuserinfo[cel_groupnotification].

[Taragon]

thanks! :)

[AzzidReign]

Ahh, I posted in the 4.0 thread. I still have 3.8 so I guess I'll be installing this one lol Thanks again!

[cellarius]

nope, just will not work at all. 3.8.4 - added the usergroups, tried other templates. tried everything and no go. will tag this mod. thx
I had this mod tested by other coders on their sites, and the modification does work. I also do not understand what you mean by "tried other templates". This mod has no templates, and no template changes have to be done.

[mbc100]

i will installed later

[AcidX]

Didn't work for me either. Uninstalled :(

[Rasher54]

Not working for me either :/

[cellarius]

Not working for me either :/
What are your settings for read marking? How exactly did you go about testing it?

[goshalim]

Not working for me eigher

I did downloaded with no problem test it but never receievd any message

Iam using 3.7.3 and if i download it it comes database error !!!!!

Any help please

[kmohamed]

it looks great maybe i will give it a try

[Taragon]

like said earlier I've got it working at our board.

fyi I'm using these settings:

[cellarius]

Not working for me eigher

I did downloaded with no problem test it but never receievd any message

Iam using 3.7.3 and if i download it it comes database error !!!!!

Any help please
This mod can't be used with 3.7 series (and there's no plan to change that, since the groups structure has changed in between 3.7 and 3.8 a lot).

[goshalim]

Ok thank you for you reply .

Is there is something similar for our version please ?

[cellarius]

Not that I know of, but feel free to use the site search ;)

[MrRem]

Lovely Mod. Installed :)
Demo Site for you here:
http://www.swedishseat.com/index.php

[yahooooh]

is not shown in the list when there are no new entries
it should work as other notice ,
social group 0 when there are no new entries in groups

[yahooooh]

unstall
it does not work also !
v 3.8.4 pl1

[Naan-Kadavul]

thankssss

[MrRem]

Does this need any template edits to appear in a custom theme?
I have changed my database read settings but still this isn't working :S

EDIT: Works fine :)

[Mark.B]

I have this installed but turned off as I can't quite get it working correctly.

1) When there are new messages, I can get the notification to show up in the notifications list, but when there are none, the entry should still be there but marked with a "zero" to make it consistent with the other notifications, but this isn't the case.

2) Sometimes when someone posts a new group message, two notifications show up but you cannot get rid of the first one - it still thinks there is a new message when there is not one.

But thank you for developing this, with tweaks it will become a must-have.

[cellarius]

This new build entails:


complete rewrite of the database queries. This should some problems some users have been experiencing.
the groups line is now always showing in the notices dropdown (i.e. also if it's at 0), as requested.I hope that in this version, the mod will work for everyone who had issues before. Please remember that you will find subscribed threads marked as new only in UserCP and groups you are a member of on the groups page. This is somewhat disparate, but can't be helped.

[Thelonius Beck]

Thank you. This has been long awaited.

*Edit; Product failing to recognize when messages have been "Read".

[Taragon]

Thanks!
Do you suggest upgrading to the latest version, even if the previous one worked(s) like a charm? (meaning, except for the altered dropdown menue, have any new features been added?)

Again, much appreciated!

[cellarius]

Yes, I do suggest upgrading. The new queries are lighter and more "robust". The news are under the hood :)

[Thelonius Beck]

Thank you. This has been long awaited.


*Edit; Product failing to recognize when messages have been "Read".

Yes, I do suggest upgrading. The new queries are lighter and more "robust". The news are under the hood :)

My comment was in reference to the upgrade. Please advise.

[cellarius]

Do you use this setting (see note in red in mod description):
To set this, go to AdminCP->Settings->Options->General Settings->Thread/Forum Read Marking Type and set this to the third option: Database (automatic forum marking)

With any other setting there the mod won't work.

[Thelonius Beck]

Do you use this setting (see note in red in mod description):
To set this, go to AdminCP->Settings->Options->General Settings->Thread/Forum Read Marking Type and set this to the third option: Database (automatic forum marking)

With any other setting there the mod won't work.

Thank you for doing the thinking for me :blush: My bad. Great mod, thank you very much.

[cellarius]

No prob, as long as we get it working :)

[Alfa1]

How can I get this to work with vbadvanced?
If a member clicks on the link from a vba page, it will send the use to mysite.com/group.php instead of mysite.com/forum/group.php

[cellarius]

How can I get this to work with vbadvanced?
If a member clicks on the link from a vba page, it will send the use to mysite.com/group.php instead of mysite.com/forum/group.php
Check out the new build I just uploaded - you now can define a custom URL in AdminCP.

[Alfa1]

Very nice. Thank you.

I added this to a large site, and got many bug reports from confused members, because when I started to use this mod, all members had more notifications, than they could discover. Many groups that where not listed in bold on group.php did cause a notification by this mod. The groups also did not have any bold / unread threads.

Only after they go to each group, one by one and use the 'mark group as read' function, the notification went away.

Its still driving my members mad, though an announcement does help a lot.

[Alfa1]

This modification has really increased activity in my Social Groups! My members are posting up a storm. Where I had only a few new posts to approve a day, I now have a new one every few minutes.

[Mark.B]

This is now pretty much perfect, thanks Cellarius.

Another of those "why isn't it in the default build?" addons - of which there are several for Social Groups.

[Mysterious Ride]

<font color="DarkOrchid">Hello,

I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong, but its not working on my board. I did everything that you said, but it still doesn't show up. Could there be something that I'm missing?</font>

[DieselMinded]

Im using Inactivity/Cookie Based how can i get this to work?

[cellarius]

Im using Inactivity/Cookie Based how can i get this to work?

From the mod description:
Note: This mod will only work with database and automatic forum read marking!

Since I don't put up red waring messages lightly, the answer of course is: You can't. If you want to know why, fell free to read the first post, right unter that red text.

[DieselMinded]

Yeah i read that , Usually after 4 pages on a mod 99% of the things in the first post don't apply anymore :D

[jdougher]

I installed this, and it provides only a general notification that send people to the main Social Groups page. There's no indication of which particular group caused the notification, and because of that, users have no idea of how to dismiss the notification. How frustrating!

This is going to drive our users absolutely nuts with anger, and rightly so.

Please tell me I'm missing something.

If this feature is to be useful, it must send a user directly to the social group that created the notification.

[cellarius]

I installed this, and it provides only a general notification that send people to the main Social Groups page. There's no indication of which particular group caused the notification, and because of that, users have no idea of how to dismiss the notification. How frustrating!
Where does it say in the mod description it would do anything else?

This is going to drive our users absolutely nuts with anger, and rightly so.
Then don't install it.

Please tell me I'm missing something.
No, you don't.

If this feature is to be useful, it must send a user directly to the social group that created the notification.
This is not possible with the current read marking system of vB (or only with an insane cost of ressources). This mod is as it is - if you don't like it, don't install it. That easy, really.

[Alfa1]

While this add-on does greatly confuse a portion of our members, and it does notify of unread social groups, even while no groups are in bold, and thereby is not perfect, this add-on has made my once barely active groups now almost as active as my high traffic forums. In this regard its an absolute winner. Thanks.

[jdougher]

While this add-on does greatly confuse a portion of our members, and it does notify of unread social groups, even while no groups are in bold, and thereby is not perfect, this add-on has made my once barely active groups now almost as active as my high traffic forums. In this regard its an absolute winner. Thanks.

I got nothing but complaints about this mod. We left it installed for two days and had a thread with loads of complaints about it.

[Alfa1]

I can imagine. I had the same. But thats where your staff needs to jump in and explain to your members how to deal with the notifications. Preferably with a step by step instruction with pics. After that 99% of the complaints will be solved.

The pictorial guide on how to clear your "Social Group" notifications:

- Go into each group that you are a member of. Thread titles in bold text indicate that
the thread has new messages.

- Now, either read all the new messages, or mark the group read by clicking
Group Tools (circled in the above pic)...

- This will drop down a menu with the option to "Mark This Group Read"

- Doing this will remove any notifications of new messages from whichever
group you use this option in.

- You will probably have to do this in most (or all) groups you are a member
of, regardless of whether they are indicating new messages with bold text
or not. Continue marking your groups as read until all notifications are
gone.

- Once you have cleared these initial weird notifications, this functionality
seems to work well.
It is best to add your own screenshots that are specific to your own site.

IHTH

[cellarius]

I got nothing but complaints about this mod. We left it installed for two days and had a thread with loads of complaints about it.
As I said: If you of your users don't like the mod, don't install it. It works within the boundaries of the vB read marking system. If you do not like those boundaries (I don't like them either), this is the wrong place to complain.

[majidgbox]

hi dear

I installed your hack, .... in a group that I belong it is sent new discussion ... in notifications dropdown, I notice that a discussion has been sent. but with click on the notification, it isn't died!
help me!
tnx

[majidgbox]

the problem solved ..! :)

[BlackThorn]

Nice idea thanks, installed but when I've send a comment or message to a group, why only show "groups.php"? I go to only groups.php why don't go original group 12-group-manowar.html ?

Explain: groups.php (showing this) - groups/25-elvis-presley.html (don't show like this)

[cellarius]

Because that information is not available where my mod hooks in, and the cost to query it would be insane (given that it would have to be queried on every pageload and read/not read-queries are quite complex).

[BlackThorn]

Ummm, well thanks again.

[TheInsaneManiac]

I would actually enjoy this if my members actually didn't have to read all of their groups in order for it to work properly. Thank got for paid technicians and coders. =D

He had me run a query to reset all the users groups to their status being read and now the mod works flawlessly!

[Mysterious Ride]

<font color="DarkOrchid">I really need some help with this. I've done everything, but it still doesn't show the dropdown menu. I can see the notifications when I go into my CP, but I would like the dropdown menu to be there to. Could someone please tell me how I can fix it so that it does the dropdown.</font>

[cellarius]

This mod does not show anything in your usercp. You just need to import the product file and make the required settings in your admincp. Instructions for this are in the first post, I really can't add to that - just follow them. The dropdown menu is not generated by this mod, this mod only adds to it. Does the entry for social groups show if you have, say, an unread pm?

[Mysterious Ride]

<font color="DarkOrchid">Then do you know which mod does the dropdown notifications? Since this one only adds to it. I thought it was the actual mod for it. Sorry, I wouldn't have been buggin' if I known this wasn't the whole mod. I had been looking everywhere for that notification mod.</font>

[cellarius]

The notifications menu is not created by an addon at all. It is standard vbulletin.

[Mysterious Ride]

<font color="DarkOrchid">Okay. Because I looked everywhere, but when I didn't find it I thought it was an addon. Maybe I didn't look in the right places. I'll go look again. Thanks for the help. Really appreciate it.</font>

[goshalim]

Hi also from me
I have install it and its working perfect , i was waiting for this mod for a long long time.
Thansk a lot .

I have only one question to make please.
Some users receiving notification that there is something in one of the social group they are a memmber , but when they go there there is nothing new to dead or see , but they still have the message that there is a meessage new.

Why this is happening ?

[goshalim]

Still recieving faulse notification , please someone can help ?

[Ramsesx]

Wished I've seen this earlier. Thanks Cellarius.

[viper357]

Great mod, thanks, working perfectly on 3.8.5. Just one question though, is there any way to make it send a PM or email for when a New Thread is started in a group they are a member of?

[ricardoNJ]

Nice, thanks!

[Lightmaster-AH]

He had me run a query to reset all the users groups to their status being read and now the mod works flawlessly!
Can I have this query? thanks!

[Sworm]

This mod will not work with cookies or simple database read marking. This will not be changed and is due to the limitations of the read marking system.

Hi, great mod, very useful, but i not have understand well the up step, please can anybody make me a simple example? Thanks

[jdougher]

Very nice. Thank you.

I added this to a large site, and got many bug reports from confused members, because when I started to use this mod, all members had more notifications, than they could discover. Many groups that where not listed in bold on group.php did cause a notification by this mod. The groups also did not have any bold / unread threads.

Only after they go to each group, one by one and use the 'mark group as read' function, the notification went away.

Its still driving my members mad, though an announcement does help a lot.

Was this problem ever fixed?

[jdougher]

I would actually enjoy this if my members actually didn't have to read all of their groups in order for it to work properly. Thank got for paid technicians and coders. =D

He had me run a query to reset all the users groups to their status being read and now the mod works flawlessly!

Can you show us this query so that we can run this?

[Alfa1]

No. The problem lies in limited functionality in vbulletin itself. The best approach is to request functionality group notifications from vBulletin Solutions: http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIV-10815
https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/389825-Groups-Comparison-vB-v.-Ning?

[Cuyabro]

thanks!

[Rapz]

I have a question. When someone posted a new discussion, the group names gets bold but when I click on "mark group read" the notification doesn't go away. it's still there (but the group is no longer bold) what am I doing wrong? thanks :)

[MoMan]

I've had to modify this mod so that the notification properly goes away. Specifically, you need to check whether the last social group read marking time is greater than the last post in all subscribed social groups.

[Morrus]

I've had to modify this mod so that the notification properly goes away. Specifically, you need to check whether the last social group read marking time is greater than the last post in all subscribed social groups.

Would you be so kind as to share how you did that? That problem is bugging my users.

[vBMerkezi]

thank you

[Kolektor]

also, hope this will also alert the group when a photo is added to the group.

[desmomax]

hy there...

very nice mod.. i really need it.. i use vb 3.8.7 i tried to install but i dont have any drop notification menu.. :-9

what's wrong?

http://s28.postimg.org/7w1dkq6yl/Schermata_08_2456878_alle_11_21_04.png

my forum

www.ilbraccoitaliano.net/forum