I saw that you were going to draw after I think it was 300 entries just after you put that raffle up, thought it was a good idea and coded the option. It immediately draws the raffle after the entry limit is reached.

So it does exist, it just hasn't been blended into a release yet. But to be painfully honest.. I may reserve that for a paid version of the raffle system. We'll see how things go.

nhawk, I know that you were debating whether we'd have a version available for 3.8x .... any new thoughts on it?

I love what you've done and I love the template edits by ChromeDome :)

Nhawk, I'd be interested in hearing what will be in the "pro" version of the script. It's a great script!

Thanks MTP! ;)

I still might.

I have installed 3.8 on my development server, so I'm one step closed to starting. ;)

At the moment, I'm still not 100% sure that I want to go with a "pro" version. I have to weigh the cost of bringing a site online to support it versus the return on investment. And I really didn't start doing mods for the cash. I actually enjoy coding. But after releasing a few mods, I understand why many people have gone in that direction or stopped releasing/supporting their mods completely. I don't think people realize how much work goes into some mods. In any case, it's a decision I need to make that can be influenced greatly by people hitting the 'support developer' button. Not only for my mods, but for any mod people use, by any author.

Unless someone has more suggestions, as it stands now there would only be two additional features. The ability to restrict access by geographic location (country) and the ablility to draw after x entries.

Well for what its worth I appreciate your effort. I know that it may feel challenging sometimes with some of the questions and comments but I know a lot of us here do appreciate it.
It is developers like you that make our product/s great!!

Keep up the great work!!!:up::)

Not sure what I'm doing wrong but everytime I try to add my own picture to a raffle, I see the following warning messages displayed both on the main page and on the raffle page.

I've tried using different file types (jpeg, gif and png) and I've ensured they are under the default image size limit (the image size that I was trying to use was 105 x 130 px and the file size is 258k. The place where the image is located on the site I CHMOD'd hoping that that would fix the issue. Not sure what else to do.

Any help would be appreciated.

Some servers don't allow URL access to files. Try changing http://www.thepokemonexpress.com/images/raffles/accelgor.gif to ./images/raffles/accelgor.gif

You won't be able to see the image in the ACP, but it should show in your raffles.

Just to keep everyone up to date..

I have begun the process of porting this to 3.8.x.

It shouldn't be to long before it's done.

Nhawk just like to say what a great job your doing with this mod Thank you

YESSSSS!! Awesome :up:

Released today...

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=265536

Where was the warning that this mod would install a copyright notice on all of my site's pages!?! Uninstalling. Thanks for wasting my time.

There should be an option too remove it for people who have donated I think.

You haven't removed the vBulletin or vBSEO copyright. So why is this an issue?

My copyright does not contain any links.

I might consider that if people actually donated.

chriske.. check your pms in a minute.

I really mean no offense by this, nhawk, but your mod could hardly be compared to vBSEO. I appreciate the hard work that you and other coders put into your work, but I can't have copyright notices for every mod that I have installed, the list would be 400 pixels high or close to it if I did. I really do not appreciate the copyrights being added without any warning whatsoever. Now I have to find all of the files associated with your mod and delete them.

BTW, vBSEO lets people know that the copyright will be added BEFORE they purchase the product.

Well, then I think you're missing out on some really great mods then. Because many of them do add a copyright.

And I do find it very offensive that you would not even consider using it with the copyright intact. My work is no less important than vBSEO or any other mod that adds a copyright. And the fact that you even looked at it, tells me you have a need for, or might want this add-on and are incapable of coding it yourself. So, my time and effort is worth the copyright.

I will not remove my copyright for anyone that does not make at least my minimum request for support donations. I put to much time making it into what people wanted it to be to do that.

EDIT:

I will make your major effort to remove Raffles from your system easier..

Delete:
raffles.php
admincp/raffleadmin.php
images/raffles
includes/functions_raffles.php
includes/cron/raffledraw.php
includes/xml/bitfield_raffles.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_raffles.xml

I'm really excited about this mod, but for some reason it's not installing. I've added all the files into the correct folders... Checked, checked and rechecked. Then, I try importing the XML file and it was "you must add all files before installing"

Any ideas why it would say this?

If this is happening, one or more of the files are in the wrong location.

They should be in the following locations..

<forum root>/raffles.php
<forum root>/admincp/raffleadmin.php
<forum root>/images/raffles/raffle.png
<forum root>/includes/functions_raffles.php
<forum root>/includes/cron/raffledraw.php
<forum root>/includes/xml/bitfield_raffles.xml
<forum root>/includes/xml/cpnav_raffles.xml

<forum root> is the folder where your forum's ajax.php, album.php ... index.php, etc files are.

edit: NOTE: the admincp folder should be where YOUR admincp is, which is not necessarily the same name (admincp). Personally on live sites, I rename admincp to some random set of charaters for security purposes.

Cool idea, will install!

Biggerorge i'd love to know more about your success running raflfes how you have done it, what you have found you needed to do rules wise, what makes one a success etc

Also yes PLEASE add a paypal functionality to this and you will have one of the best mods out there

Paypal is already supported through the AW Coding's Credit Purchase System.

How do I set it up to use paypal for a purchase of a virtual ticket?? Also, how do you set the amount for the ticket??

Download and install AW-Coding's Credit Purchase System and use these settings (as shown on the raffle settings page)...

Credit Purchase System -> Purchase Settings:
Units = 1
Custom Table = user
Custom Field = raffletickets
Custom User Field = userid

Set the price per ticket there. Also be sure to match the price in the raffle when you set it up.

It would be nice for a COMPLETE walkthrough on how to set each up to work with each other. I tried and I can get the raffle up and see it but no purchase button shows and when I hit enter me, I get a vb error..

Setting the raffle up is simple, it is just the CPS setup that is :confused: as there ar sooooo many options.

What I am doing is raffleing off a prototype to raise $ for the actual production product. I need 3 options as far as price to enter the raffle. 1 "ticket" =$10, 3=$25, 15=$100.;)

The only parts in CPS that concern the raffle system are the 4 mentioned above and the purchase amounts. It looks like you have the purchase amount filled out from what you're saying.

Then in the raffle system, when you set up the raffle enter the Cost Per Ticket. (NOTE: Enter only the first dollar amount. In your case it would be $10.00.

I would also think you've set up the paypal account info in CPS.

Then when you try enter the raffle and don't have any raffle tickets in your account, you will see this message..

Click that link, and you are taken to the CPS to purchase tickets.

After that point, any problems with the CPS have to be taken up with AW-Coding.

NOTE: There was a bug in the CPS where purchases and credits were not being handled properly for custom fields. AW-Coding is aware of it. There is a patch for it in the Raffle installation. If you find ticket purchases aren't crediting properly either contact AW-Coding or reinstall the Raffle system so it can patch the CPS.

Here are the patches as AW-Coding would like to see them.

In plugin AWCL- Units Updates locate this code:
And replace with this code:

In plugin AWCL- Trans delete locate this code:
And replace with this code:
The patch included with the raffle system is slightly different, but either one works.

I uninstalled it cause I think I should have installed the CPS FIRST, then your Raffle so that is what I did and now after setup, it seems to work BUT...

When the user clicks on the "HERE" to buy and it takes them to the Paypal screen, if they hit cancel, it still signs them up for a ticket and acts as though they purchased :confused::eek:. The PM and everything gets sent saying thanks for the purchase.

Now what?? lol..

Sorry to say this but now.. you need to contact AW-Coding. That's in their ballpark.

I do know the purchase doesn't actually take place and no tickets are issued.

I get a Fatal error when i run the Sheduled task manager. The raffle should have already be drawn automaticly but it is not.

I use version 1.1.8

Any ideas?

I'm having a problem with drawing raffles as well. The Task runs as far as I can tell (meaning it's in the log that it ran), but no raffles are drawn that should be. I only have 1 raffle and it should be complete as the draw date is today, that date is on the server and the task was run.

So I ran the task manually and saw no errors on the page, but still no draws.

Thanks for any help, this is my first raffle I was testing giving out a couple free video games to my members and well... hopefully I can get this fixed soon so I don't look like more of an idiot than usual. ;)

Thanks for any help you can provide!

*EDIT* - When I run the raffledraw.php, I get not visual feedback (makes sense, it's a cron), but it runs so quickly and there's no logs, it just feels like it's not doing anything.

*EDIT* - Ok, I've figured this out. I'll try to be clear, but... I think this is going to be confusing.

The problem is that my server time is in GMT, which is -8 from my time.

When I created the raffle, the only way I was able to get the dates to display correctly on the raffle portion people could see, was to set the draw date for a day LATER than I really wanted it to go. But on the raffle page, it looked like a date earlier than actually set.

So, I've been looking at the raffle page expecting it to draw, but when I edited it, then I saw that the draw date was in fact 7-03-2011, even though it was displaying 7-02-2011 on the raffle page.

So for now, I dropped the date back a day and now it's waiting to draw and I'll run the cron and it should do what it should of.

BUG #1: So I guess the problem is that either the raffle page or the raffle entry page aren't using the same timezone modifiers or something and that's where the confusion started. So I guess that's a bug of some sort. =) Awesome stuff though and donation should be there by the time you read this!

*EDIT* - Ok, I did that and now am getting the same error as reported by someone else above: Fatal error: Function name must be a string in /home/XXXXX/public_html/includes/cron/raffledraw.php on line 195

I checked that line in the file and it has a $ next to the fetch_phrase function, I removed that and it ran.

BUG #2: At least I think this is a bug, it let the same member win twice... They had 3 tickets in, which is fine, but.. I didn't really want the same guy to win twice as the prizes were the same. I basically wanted one unique winner per draw, is that possible?

I need to know what version of vBulletin you two are running.

The cron draw works fine in 4.1.3 and 4.1.4. (just tested it again) However, if it's not working for you with the $, remove it as Trek did.

So far are the draw date and time goes, it uses vBulletin's TIMENOW so it should match whatever vBulletin is running at. I will look into this a little more though.

EDIT: I just removed the $ from line 195 and it runs for me that way too. So I will remove it in the next update.

I'm running vb 4.1.4 and the latest version of your raffle mod for download here at vb.org.

Like I said, the cron was easy to fix, there's a typo on that line in the source file. Just remove the extra $ and you're set.

The larger issue for me was the time one. Where the dates I set in the adminCP for the raffle, showed differently than when viewing the raffle as a user.

There should be entries in the scheduled task log that look something like this..

15 Draw raffles 15:15, 2nd Jul 2011 Start drawing raffles
16 Draw raffles 15:15, 2nd Jul 2011 Draw raffle Test - winner Snog
17 Draw raffles 15:15, 2nd Jul 2011 Finished Drawing Raffles


As I said above, I'll look into this more. But I don't see the problem on my dev server or a on live site either.

I don't see this on either my dev server or a live site. But, removing it (the $) doesn't seem to hurt so it will be in the next update.

If this is a problem, go to Raffle Settings and change 'Allow One Member Multiple Wins' to no.

I may have this date/time thing sorted out. It's very hard to explain, and I'm running short of time today. I'll try to post an explanation tomorrow morning.

I had already set that, but it didn't appear to matter. I just got your PM though and will reply there.

OK, let's see if I can explain this. It gets complicated so hang in there, there is a fix at the end. ;)

First, this isn't a bug with setting the end date of the raffle.

When you set an end date, the program converts that date to it's proper Unix timestamp.

When it is displayed on the Raffle Edit page, it is displayed in it's originally entered format.

When it is displayed anywhere else, it is displayed in the date/time format chosen by the member viewing the raffle. (the same thing vBulletin itself does with date/time data)

Remember, the time displayed is NOT the time being used by vBulletin. It is just a DISPLAY format. Not a data storage format. All times stored in the database are in your Servers time zone. Not in the time zone you chose to display as a user or the one used as the default display in vBulletin.

Scheduled Tasks use the server's date/time to run. (this is a function of vBulletin, not the Raffle system)

So, in this case...

If you're in the Eastern time zone and you're server is -8 hours from your time zone, and you're expecting the raffle to draw at 10:00am your time. That will never happen with any Scheduled Task in vBulletin. The server time hasn't reached the 10:00am time yet.

By editing the raffle, you actually did nothing to make the task run. The raffle was already waiting to be drawn at 10:00am server time. Which was still somewhere near 8 hours away.

By running the task manually you did find a bug in the one line. But I'm not so sure it's as much a bug as it might be a PHP version difference. I say that because it runs without a hitch on PHP 5.2.4 and PHP 5.2.9 with or without the '$' in that line. Again, I'll remove the '$' from it for compatibilty sake in a release later today.

Back to the time problem and a possible fixes..

If you are on a dedicated server, the fix should be obvious. Change your server's time from your control panel (or via SSH) to match the time zone you want it to match. (may require a server reboot) And if you're using PHP 5.1 or later, you might also need to edit php.ini because it might be using a different time zone. (see first link below) It's as simple as that. But remember, members will see that date as it should be shown for their date/time display choice.

If you're on a shared server, there are a couple of possibilities...

1) If you use PHP 5.1.0 or later and have access to PHP.INI for your site, edit PHP.INI so it includes the date.timezone setting. See this page for more information..
http://www.php.net/manual/en/datetim....date.timezone

2) If you don't have access to PHP.INI and your PHP version is equal or greater than 5.0 you can TRY adding the date_default_timezone_set to vBulletin's config.php. MAKE IT THE FIRST ENTRY AFTER THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE. See this page for more information..
http://www.php.net/manual/en/functio...mezone-set.php

NOTE: Item 2 has not been tested. The worst thing that could happen is vBulletin would refuse to run and you would have to remove that new line from the config file.

3) If neither of those work, or your PHP version is prior to 5.0, you will need to live with the server time for Scheduled Tasks.

How difficult will it be to change it from saying 'raffle' to 'prize draw'?

I'm totally unable to duplicate this, even with one member having 20 entries and 1 other with one entry.

I'll continue to see if I can duplicate it.

Not difficult at all.

Edit the phrases in Phrase Manager.

As an addendum to my post about date/time.

I somewhat overstated what is happening.

The date is being displayed as it should be. But, if you select to have the time displayed with it, that IS a bug. More a missed item than a bug.

The time being displayed on the Raffle pages IS the raw unconverted time that the task is scheduled to run at. It is NOT being converted to the members date/time zone display choice.

I'll see what I can do with that in the next release. ( possibly tomorrow )

In the mean time, do not display the draw time to your members.