I see that the permissions to create a dorm is based on post count. Is there any way (or plans) to make this where, say, only subscribers can create a dorm rather than based on posting points?

Does this work with 3.0.3?

Yes, I'm running it on a heavy modded 3.03 to boot

Thanks, I appreciate the fast response.

Works great on my heavily hacked 3.03. Wish I had started using it earlier.

AARGH. Darkwaltz, I'm not sure what I did, but once I moved the Dorms into an "inactive" and "invisible" forum parent. And now, I can't invite people to join the dorms, apparently, my PM's are not being sent to people to invite them.

Any idea what sort of things would stop this? Being a child of an "inactive" parent forum? A child of an "invisible" forum? Would permissions of the parent forum affect your dorm permission structure?? Wish I knew more about how you've got this set up so I can troubleshoot it, but, I'm a bit bewildered.

Had it working PERFECTLY before I moved the dorms into a parent forum. Didn't like them being exhibited on the forum index page on their own.

thanks
rich

docvader: no, shouldnt have done anything, although you might want to try running the 'update dorm forums' function at the bottom of the dorm config page in the acp. UPDATE: yeah, just checked the code, the script should fix your problem (after all it was coded for stuff like that :-p)

bishop93: no, not really, although might be something to look into..

jd210: apparently yes

Thanks for the quick reply.

Having it post based, I'm sure, works for many sites that would utilize such functionality. On the other hand, having this as a subscriber "perk" is exactly what I need and the functionality that you have already built into this mod is fantastic! I just need it to be able to be configured for subscribers only since I just can't allow anyone to post a 'dorm' and I don't want to created inflated post counts to limit people (my only other thought for a solution, that is). :(

I have the rest of this week to test anything out that you might want if you decided to take a crack at it. We go live on Sunday and I'll have to postpone this feature if not. But otherwise, I'm open to suggestions and implementation tests even on the test server later.

hmm, maybe i could put in a usergroup thing.

oh, and to eliminate the 'inflated post count' problem, just set the default dorm setting of 'posts count towards postcount' to off (and run the update function if you have existing dorms) and if you want to undo any postcount from previous forums, update counters. thats what my forum does :-p

so, two things i might do if i have some time...
password and usergroup support, and the auto-template-installer

:D Thanks! I'll be looking forward to it -- if you have time. ;)

oh, a quick and dirty hack you could do yourself if i dont come through for you~

find in dorms.php...
now, usergroups have certain id numbers, which you can find by hovering links in the acp usergroup screen. so if you want to restrict it to certain groups, find the number (ill call it X for my example) then edit that line to be...

this will restrict the page from being accessed by any usergroup that isnt X (which i assume would be your subscrber group, or any existing one you might want) also, you can allow more than one, by just finding out the extra groups' numbers (Y and Z for the example) and adding more and etc's to the code...

this isnt confusing is it? like i said, this is the less elegant way to get what you want in case i cant find time to do it elegantly :-p

Thanks DW. Your support of this hack is unsurpassed and greatly appreciated.

I still have some troubles. Got it to work again, reinstalled php file and templates (I had altered the templates a little), and now it's sending PM's and allowing the opening of threads. However, my registered users, who I accept into the dorm, cannot access it. Get the usual "you have no permission" error.

I'm baffled. Any suggestions???

rich

what are your global dorm settings, and parent forum settings?
do you mean they cant access the panel, the dorm forum they belong to, or the threads that were created in the dorm forum?

OK DW, you da man. I had the parent forum as one of my older restricted forums, and the permissions setup was keeping people out. I trashed it, and created a new parent forum. I figured out a few things, which I'd like to share with you all, in case you're trying to do this. I think this works. DW no doubt will have more and better suggestions.

I made a link to the dorms.php in my navigation bar. That is the only entrance to the dorms. I think, for this to work, you have to make members try to enter via your http://www.site.com/forums/dorms.php link. If they try to access through threads on your forum index page, in some cases, they will be able to view what's going on.

I made a parent forum in vb, which you can call whatever you want. I made mine as follows:
act as a forum: no
forum is active: no
forum is open: no
index posts in search: no
no password


I found that if you make it active, ie, visible, people can access it via the forum index page, where they can see the forum. (I tried to make that link the forum/dorms.php link, but was unsuccessful in doing so; my ignorance as to how to do that properly I guess).

This way, it's not visible. People don't know it even exists, unless they enter through the navigation bar link. The nav bar link brings them to DW's dorms area, where the dorm figures out access. People can't bypass and enter the area, because the dorm php takes care of all access.

So far, so good.

Thanks
rich
x.russbo.com/index.php

OK, the above keeps it from being seen on the forum index, and keeps non dorm members out, but anybody who clicks on "New Posts" or some sort of "Posts from one, two, etc days ago" can see the dorm threads pop up, and read them. That's the issue. How do we get around that? I'm keeping forum and child forum off of the forum jump menu also. Can't seem to figure out how to keep it from showing up on any sort of forum search.

I see Boxingscene in post 77 has the same issue.

Thanks!
rich
http://x.russbo.com/vb/index.php

OK, easy fix, which is why it took me a few hours to figure out.

I made the parent forum "active" so that it is visible on the forum index page. It will show the various dorms underneath it.
If you alter permissions for that parent forum, and set everything to "No" for all usergroups (except for your main admin, user id 1), when people do a search query, the parent forum, and the various dorms underneath, will not show up in any search (new posts, last day posts, two week posts, etc).

Accepted dorm members can access the dorm area via the dorms.php link, where ever you may have placed it.

Love this hack.
rich

Aargh. Again. That didn't do it. Keep looking...

Think this works.

I made the parent forum inactive so that it doesn't show.
I made the permissions for registered users so that they can post in the parent forum, but cannot search.

If the parent forum is active and visible, registered users will be able to see it and enter through forum index, but not through the dorms.php link. So, I made it invisible.
Turning "search forum" in the permissions off, for the parent forum, keeps registered users from searching in the "new posts, etc" search.php query.

Also, I used this hack, even though the above seemed to do the trick: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...exclude+forums

Confused? So am I. But, we're testing this now, this seems to do the job.

rich

hehe, i really hate seeing all that you went through today, and i wasnt online at all to help out during it >.< but i think that one of the features i was planning would have taken care of exactly what you were trying to do :-p

utilizing the password system would i think be something like this...
------------------------------------------------------
admin options: allow password use/require password use (y/n)

dorm leader then can create a password for dorm which will be put un-md5'd into the dorm table (ull see why in a sec) upon creation of dorm, then setting the password into the forum system as normal. then pming the leader a backup copy of the password for himself.

subsequent members then get pmed a copy of the password upon acceptance, and the leader can change the password when he likes, which then sends an update pm to existing members, etc.

the password system then works like any other passworded forum, as the dorm hack would only use the password system as a wrapper (much like everything else :-p) thus....disabling vieiwing of contents/updates from non-members (those with the set password, on top of posting access with the dorm hack itself). oh, and also the proper authorities of course bypass the passwording to allow for moderation, but this is a standard vb feature of passworded forums :-p (which also works to advantage)

now keep in mind this is just me thinking out loud for right now, but if you think its great ill work on that :-p

Great idea. If you've got the time, I'd use it. But, to keep your life simpler, which is always a nice thing to do, is there anyway of keeping the new posts in the dorms off off the search.php? There is a simple &exclude command that you can keep in the navbar search link, to exclude search of some forums, but the problem is, the dorm keeps creating new forum numbers. So, that's a difficult option to implement. (Which is why I went the route I did; my above suggestions works, by the way).

thats why i said i wish i was here BEFORE you went to all the trouble to get what you wanted :-p but theres more than one way to skin a cat, my way would have done what you wanted, and also what someone wanted previous to you~

oh, and i just looked at your sites implementation of my hack, and im impressed o.o, even better than i intended it...

memo to self for next version: fix bug with title length for text titles...

oh, and i might make a hard-installer template utility, with a press/lift/stick functions...for admins, and release here..

Thanks. I like this hack, because I want an "invitation only" section on my forum, for people to discuss private issues, with invites out to only those that they want to invite. It's perfect.

Let me know what else you come up with, I'm more than happy to play with it on my site. Right now, my implementation of it seems to be doing exactly what I wanted it to.

hey Darkwaltz4 you are one of the few that helps every user congratz on that I might install your hack when I get home
I just wanted to say that.

o.o thanks, i want to see that my hacks end up working like i wanted them to, for more than just myself :-p

oh, and my template wizard is done :-p wrote it in under 3 hours, i feel special ^_^ ill be using it for the auto-template installer for the dorm hack (which is why i wrote this wizard) ill be putting it on vborg in the morning, going to bed now..

goodnight :)

on a side note, the next version of the dorm hack will have a template install file rendered with the hack i just wrote last night, PLS Hard Install Template Wizard ...so go check it out :-p (especially if you write hacks yourself, will find it very useful)

this will give me a chance to check out the new upgrade to the PLS Hard Install Template Wizard! I will install both of them later this week. I assume this dorm system is OK with 3.0.5?

Just installed on 3.0.6 with no problems. Thought I'd mention it for those who aren't sure if they should try it or not. :)

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Thanks..again, apologzing for absense

Ismba: youve posted in both versions' threads of this hack, i hope you dont get confused, as each are slightly different, and this version i would say has more features and is easier/better to use, also.. to copy/paste from an email about the same question regarding uninstallation..
-------------------------------------

The Dorm manager system manipulates existing features of vbulletin, built to circumvent blocks in certain situations.....therefor..

to remove the features from your forum, just delete dorms.php, and set the permissions of the dorm forums back from locked, etc. if you want to finish it off, delete the dorms_ tables in your database. this will not harm your forums in any way, and as long as you remove links and mention of it, it will be as if the dorm system never existed :)

does this work with vbulletin 3.0.7?

well since it states above that it works ok on 3.0.6, i'd say it's going to work on 3.0.7.

Ok, I will figure it out soon ;)

works with 3.07 so ya know.

Quick question: Can members be allowed to join more than one dorm? If I make it public in the options, well that defeats the purpose of having the dorms. If I make it private, only one dorm is allowed per person, either to join or create.

Is there a way to make it so that members can join more than on dorm?

members join more than one: no
public defeats purpose: not entirely, as people would still be able to 'belong' to their own selected group of friends
way to join more than one: no, THAT would defeat the purpose. you may as well just have regular forums then. if someone wants to post in not their dorm, they can just post in the public thread of that dorm. (or if they want to switch, they quit the first and join the new)

I'd like the threads to be private also... where only the dorm users and admins can see them. Any fix for this yet?

alright, i think ill take this back up again, and add in the password system :) as well as fix up some stuff, and use my template installer (which is created) which i promised :p

cool.. thanks!

wow, youre not going to believe this...but yeah, the version up there right now, is using the vb2 version templates o.o thats why theres 13 of them...

I apologize to anyone who used them, there should have been 9, and im positive thats where all the design errors came from.

When i post up the new version, it will have all of the correct templates, and installed with my installer, so upgrading to the correct versions will take seconds. Again, probably the biggest blunder ive made in haste >.<

Right now ive finished redesignig the files in vb coding standards, and organized things in a much better manner, so the next update with the password thing should be up by hopefully tomorrow.