Just for the purpose of the excercise I have installed Slackware, MySQL 1.23.39, Perl 5.6 (from slackware pkg distribution) and compiled modules from CPAN (no errors and no forced installs) on yet another machine. And as you may have guessed already - inserted news posts have threadid 0. So it's either down to perl version or the fresh install of vBulletin 2.0.1 doesn't take the mod as good as vB upgraded from betas? :(

Mine is installed on a fresh 2.01. I'm using Perl 5.005_03 and always have. I know chrome was using Perl 5.6, how about you?

Would it be possible to split this thread up? Its a pain in the arse going through 40 pages of posts to find a keyword or two :)

It certainly does still work ( the admin stuff that is ) ... the message was a WARNING only indicating that the GLOBAL had already been defined.

This is correct... it is defined in the calling 'adminfunctions.php' and I think is valid on subsequent deeper calls.

I'm still waiting for my sys-admin to activate the additional perl modules. The rest is ready on my side... hopefully today sometime.

Thanks for your help so far..

shri, this list is BIG yes... however it essential to keep it as one.
Take some advice and start from the beginning of the posts. It is VERY important to get a good handle on things and makes the implementation easier.

All persons on this thread have been a great help so far.
I hope to have the USNET Gateway active soon. If I experience problem I know where to come to ! so, split it up,

nooooooooooooooooo thanx

clear example that vb needs subthread handling ;)

hmmmmm ... when you start ordering a list like this
hmmmmmmm ... does it not become a forum ..

admin??? a sub-forum structure for recognized and elite projects


>> USENET Gateway (top of the list please)
....

vB can handle this easy ............ :D

I'm sure the mod will split accordinglly --->

eg..
Release download area
The Package Contents
System Requirements
Installation
Problems

Do you reindex the word table through the vb cp at "Rebuild search index"? Thanks.

FastForward

I have installled the hack to turn the quote button into a reply button inside the newsgroups. It works fine. One question though by doing this will this also make the quote button in a regular forum other than a newsgroup act the same. It does on mind just need to know if it is suppose to or not?

Joey

Yep.. that's correct. Select the 'Empty First' option aswell.

It works exactly as it always did in a normal forum.

All it really does differently is to pass the postid of the 'quoted' post as a form parameter back to the script.

Thanks . I think I might have the problem with the lastactivethread I was working on last week I forgot to put the string in the config.php file, Here is where I put it at but when I open the forum it will not open. It's torwards the bottom.

<?php
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Please note that if you get any errors when connecting, //
// that you will need to email your host as we cannot tell //
// you what your specific values are supposed to be //
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// type of database running
// (only mysql is supported at the moment)
$dbservertype="mysql";

// hostname or ip of server
$servername="";

// username and password to log onto db server
$dbusername="";
$dbpassword="";

// name of database
$dbname="";

// allow password viewing / editing in control panel
// 0 = not visible or editable
// 1 = not visible, but can be edited
// 2 = visible and can be edited
$pwdincp=0;

// technical email address - any error messages will be emailed here
$technicalemail = "support@realwebhost.net";

// use persistant connections to the database
// 0 = don't use
// 1 = use
$usepconnect = 1;
$lastactivethread_length = 35;
?>

My guess is you somehow have white space at the end or beginning of the file. Also make sure you didn't save it in DOS format.

Finally, you don't actually need that in the config if you are happy with the default of 35 characters.

My usenet template was working fine, then I posted a message and now it's using the default template. The only other thing I did was subscribe to a usenet forum, but that didn't kill it, it was posting a message that caused the problem. I'm racking my brain but have no clue why.

Uh, I always found cron complicated. what does 2>&1 do? And sorry, but can you explain the exact line for getting it emailed? Thanks!

If I didn't thank you already, thanks for an awesome script. You should get some benefit for all this hard work!

what an excellent idea. Is this for outgoing posts? I'd like this feature for incoming posts to exclude the really bad profanity!

I don't understand how the spamkiller works at all. I tried to read it but it doesn't make sense to me. Can someone explain what it does and if possible to give examples like you are talking to the dummest perso there is? :( Thanks!

P.S. the latest instructions seem to still have an error?
Section 4 from vb_code_Changes
how could the old code have "inreplyto" as a field?

Doing the above will email you with any output the script generates.

The redirection bit is to ensure the script output AND the cron output is redirected.

A simple little change to one query in newnews.pl will allow the vB moderation system to be honoured. I'll post the fix later tonight.

Just a cut & paste error. I imagine there's a few more errors in the instructions too :)

As for the spam filters... unless you want to use regular expressions, you can simply enter a string leaving the defaults. If the string is contained in either the header, body or both (whatever you have selected) it will be rejected.

The option to span lines is there for safety when using regular expressions. By default, it will only match if the string is all on one line. Without this check it would be very easy to inadvertently match every message and reject the lot. It's impossible to give you a tutorial on regular expressions in one post. I recommend you do a quick search and put aside a few hours, weeks or days :) to learn all the possibilities. The script uses standard Perl regular expresions (as opposed to POSIX used by ereg in PHP).

I'll post some examples when I get home later.

That helps a bit, and I'll live w/o learning the regexes :)

What I still find confusing is the following options:

Delete vs Edit, plus select button?? Delete what? Edit what?
-----

then lower

Add vs Update, plus submit button.

Are those 2 separate forms, hence separate submit buttons? If so an <HR> tag would be nice.

----
BTW, this is only meant as constructive suggestions but you went WAY above the call of duty, how you say?

The [ Select ] button places the higlighted line into the edit fields when the 'edit' radio button is selected, or deletes the highlighted line when the 'delete' radio button is selected.

The submit works the same way, but you get to chose whether you want to add whatever's in the edit boxes as a new record, or edit the existing one.

I tried it with seperate forms and it was a lot more confusing, trust me. Although they are seperate forms, once the first [select] button is pressed, the other button comes into play for the pre-filled edit fields on the same form. Besides, the usenet.php file is an undocumented mess and there's no way I'm going to back to re-write it :) . I will fix the [Review/Insert Orphans] option though... one day.

well my custom usenet template still doesn't work, maybe I'll try deleting it and redoing it. But I forgot to write down which templates need modifying. I think it was postbits and also newreply for the quoting....

In the meantime, it looks like when you put in a smilie, the post shows up twice, once with the smilie translated and once with the smilie as plain text...

OK, fixed the template problem. Turns out even if you don't allow users to choose their customer templates, when choosing a template you still have to click on "override user templates for this forum".

One more technical question. I'll give an example posting.

This is vb style linear forum
---
1. Post 1 = test1.
2. Reply1 to Post1 = hello.
3. Reply2 to Post1 = hello2.
4. Reply1 to Reply2 = hello3.
5. Reply1 to Reply1 = hello4.

In a threaded forum it would appear thusly:
---
1. Post 1 = test1.
2. Reply1 to Post1 = hello.
5. Reply1 to Reply1 = hello4.
3. Reply2 to Post1 = hello2.
4. Reply1 to Reply2 = hello3.

Since usenet is threaded, it should up the second way, right? And this seems to be the case. But not when I'm sending a reply via my forum.

Do I need to modify the postbit quote button, or the "Reply" button to point to something other than the first topic? Oh, while writing this I realize that there needs to be a reply button on each topic for this to work right, so I guess it won't. Never mind.

Assuming you added the $postid hidden variable to the template, that's all you have to do.

The behaviour you are seeing shouldn't happen very frequently in normal use. My guess is that you posted a bund of replies between usenet pulls. Remember, the msgid is not allocated until the post reaches usenet. Then we have to wait for the next pull to actually find out what it was allocated. This can cause slight ordering problems if a lot of local posts are made in succession in the same usenet forum.

interesting! I see, ok....

I'm almost done but what's missing still is that outgoing messages don't always go out. So if I get you right, it's waiting for the message id to be assigned and only then will it go out? Cool!

Yep... that's exactly right.

Now you've got it all installed and working, I'm about to release a new version, so you'll have to do it all again :D

I'll have it ready tomorrow. Some changes are:
the support for moderation
a new module is used to handle email addresses (Mail::Address) Replies are handled differently. It is now far less strict about having an immediate prior message number before being inserted. It should get rid of the large number of orhans.
A lot of other little changes aswell.

when checking the words table this message appears in the log.


DBD::mysql::db do failed: Duplicate entry 'cheesehead!' for key 2 at www/admin/newnews.pl line 628.

can it be suppressed ?

================================
Also I seem to be getting a loop

Great news.
Thanks Fastforward

3 cheers to the orphan Eliminator

Joey

when does it appeear ?

hack on a hack:

I duplicated the newposts() code in search.php called it
newpostsusenet() change the SQL select and bingo ..

You can then offer new forum posts and new USENET posts search links.

Can this be included in the package please?

Good idea... I never thought of doing it this way. Simple and effective. Just the way I like it :D

I hoped to get the new version out today, but it's already 11:30pm and I haven't documented the code changes or SQL changes yet. I'm afraid it will have to be delayed again. Sorry. I'll see if I have time at work tomorrow to finish it off.

Fastforward,

Could you PLEASE put the new version in a new thread? :)

Cheers,
Shri

A USENET button

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/

Great news on the new release.


Has anyone managed to get a free outgoing message server working? I'm trying to use pubnews.netcom.net.uk, albeit without luck. It says that it is working, (posting message to whatever.newsgroup by whoever) but, alas, it isn't.


I've spoken to newscene, and may buy an account with them - not using too much transfer - but I'd prefer to keep costs down if if can.

Has anyone managed to get it working? Is it a fault in my installation or does http://pubnews.netcom.net.uk not work? Is it worth getting a separate, paid account?

Many thanks.

Andy I use usenetserver.com. about 20.00 every 3 months, 57,000 groups great upload and download time. A very knowlegde guy told me about them from this board.
I tried the free ones not very reliable.
Joey

That sounds great. Did you have a chat with them beforehand about their terms of service? Or is the existing terms of service cool with using it for a gateway?

Thanks for your help.

I talked with them on the phone and told them what I would be doing and how much I would be polling them. They replied no problem.

DBD::mysql::db do failed: Duplicate entry '[/size' for key 2 at newnews.pl line 626.
DBD::mysql::db do failed: Duplicate entry '[size=1' for key 2 at newnews.pl line 626.

Could you please answer - why it appears only when usenet script runs?

try turning off indexing. worked for me.

No, pubnews.netcom.net.uk did not work for me either. In my case too, the program said the postings are sent.

I wonder if this is a temporary problem!