[Release v2.0.3] 'Member of the Day' Hack

Just for the record, this is my first hack release :D

OK, this hack displays a 'Member of the Day' as seen on (wlukes) SitePoint forum. It basically randomly chooses a member from your member list and displays them as a 'member of the day' for 24 hours. Example: http://forums.killermovies.com/

Requirements: Perl, Crontab, VBulletin v2.0.3 (should work on other versions - untested!)

Steps:

1) Run the following query in either a Telnet session of Phpmyadmin:INSERT INTO replacement (replacementsetid, findword, replaceword) VALUES (-1, '{memberoftheday}', 'Admin');

2) Add the following anywhere in forumhome template:The YOUR_FORUM_NAME Member of the Day is <b>{memberoftheday}</b>

3) Modify the attached file and change the <DATABASE NAME> <SERVER> <USERNAME> <PASSWORD> to their appropriate values for your setup. Rename to updatemotd.pl.

4) Upload the attached file updatemotd.pl to your forums directory and make it executable. I suggest you run 'chmod 700 updatemotd.pl' to stop people running the script from the web.

5) Create a Cron job that will run at midnight and execute that script. You can use the following in your crontab:0 0 * * * UNIX_PATH_TO_FORUM/updatemotd.plThats all folks! :D

[maverick1236]

create a cron job???????????

[Razzie]

Yes, its like a 'Scheduled Tasks' version of Unix/Linux.

You WILL need access to crontab, otherwise the hack won't be automated.

[maverick1236]

im running win2k server
can it be done?
any links to tutorials?
tx!

[Razzie]

Not too sure about Win2k. You might want to contact your host and ask if they've got anything equivalent of crontab.

[maverick1236]

[QUOTE]) Upload the attached file updatemotd.pl to your forums directory and make it executable. I suggest you run 'chmod 700 updatemotd.pl' to stop people running the script from the web.

[Razzie]

Sorry, but I'm not really an expert on Win2k hosting.

The file IS a perl file. You will also need perl - as was stated in the requirements.

Don't think Win2k have an executable option on files...again you might want to contact your host.

[merk]

Its called Task Scheduler.

You must be at the console to access it, i have no idea how to do it over telnet.

[Sarge]

There has to be a way of doing this without cron
Sarge

[Razzie]

There IS a way of doing this without cron, but I chose this option as it would put the least amount load on the server. With this option, no extra SQL statements are executed.

[malc]

thanks for the hack :)

You can re-ad the attachment please ;)