Post by Proxy - Let your staff post using another username(s)
 

Hack: Post by Proxy
Version: v1.00.1
Author: MarcoH64
vB version: Tested 3.5.3

Description
With this modification installed, members of usergroups that have permission, will be able to make posts using a different username (post by proxy).
This can be usefull if you want to let Staff members (for example: moderators, administrators) make posts that can not be resolved to a single
staff member. Members that are in a usergroup that has permission to see the real poster, can view both the Proxy username and the real
username.

Features
- Members of a usergroup can be given permission to create posts by members of another usergroup.
- Usergroup permissions control who can view the real poster
- Username can be choosen when creating or editing a post/thread
- Original poster is stored in history
- Postcounts updated on a change of the posters username
- History is updated when a username is changed (from ACP)
- Fully phrased
- Automatic templates edits at runtime. Instructions for manual edits for modified styles are provided.
- As a litle bonus: Usergroups can also be given permission to sent Private Messages on behalf of another username.

Installation
See install.txt

Configuration
See Manual.txt

Change Log
Version 1.00.1 21-02-2006
- Fixed bug giving an error message when PHP setting 'allow_call_time_pass_reference' was set off
Version 1.00 09-02-2006
- Initial Release


Please don't forget to click Install at vbulletin.org.
If you like this work and would like to support the author, donations are always welcome at Paypal: marcoh64@gmail.com

I like it. :)

Installed.

Oh goodie.

/me installs

Oh very fine!
~Ziki clicks install~

Then also please click the button :D

No you can not. It is a Usergroup permissions, not a forum permission. Maybe i'll think about adding that in a future version.

OK ... thanks.

I was thinking of using it like the anonymity hack to let users post anonymously in a "confessions" forum. (the proper anonym hack is buggy) :)

I'll look forward to the time you do, but I may still use it for it's proper purposes in the meantime.

Yes i saw the other thread about anonymous posting, and i also had this hack in mind when i said i would come with something that might be adjusted for that purpose.

[high]* projectego clicks install :)[/high]

this is cool if your dumping the forum and installing a fresh copy or moving to vB

Please explain, i don't really get what you mean.

Thanks Marco!
its what i was looking for;)
very usefull, same as all of ur Modifications ;)
Welcome back to NL:banana:

Yes, it's great. Thanks.

Nobody any errors or other complaints?;)

I like to see that too. Thanks.

Well, it?s only me or signatures don?t appear in proxy posts?

I like this hack :)

Which signature did you expect, from the real poster or the Proxied user? Never tested with signatures, so there might be a problem, please feedback.
Thanks. :D

Just did some testing on my testboard, but the signature of the (real/proxied) user is showing fine with me. Even if you edit the post and update the poster.

Ok, if i understand correct, all that would be needed to turn this into an Anonymous Posting hack, would be forum permissions. Right now only Usergroup permissions are possible.

What would be needed?
A. A forum setting (ie. every usergroup can post in that forum using 1 of the defined users).
B. A Usergroup/Forum permission. (ie. you can set for each Usergroup for each forum what permissions they have).

One thing i did notice - if you post as another user, then look at their member profile, you can see that they haven't been online when posting. For instance, i tested it with a phantom user i made a few days ago - and he managed to post on 12th Feb even though he hasn't been online since 6th. :p

Is there any way to update the last date online when the post is made?

Other than that, great addon - should be really useful! :)

Hmm never thought about that, shouldn't be a showstopper i think, since in most cases this will not be a real user that ever login. But i will keep it in mind for the next release.

Just because they aren't real users doesn't mean we don't want them to look like real users :)

If a user is invisible it will look like that anyway. Invisible users "last seen" status will be the day that they "vanished"

Hey, cool goodie!
[high]* Hellcat runns off to install and test :)
[/high]
[EDIT]
Installed.
But now I'm getting this:Besides that it's working....


[Edit #2]
This seems to fix it:
Remove the "&" from the first parameter in all calls to mh_pbp_modify_template() in the plugins and the PHP file.

That removed the warnings for me and everything still worked fine.

Thanks, will look into it. What PHP version are you running (PHP5 with strictmode??)?

I got that on my local PHP 4.4.0 testinstall with almost every PHP (INI) setting on default value.

clicks install... installed it and got the same errors as hellcat

tried doing the "&" removal trick and now it doesn't work at all...

update: removing the "&" from the uploaded file gets rid of the second error message

update: disabled for now, but hoping to resolve the problem - definately a cool idea :-)

That is exactly the method I want/plan to use this! Thanks again MarcoH64.

Has anyone tried it yet as a substitute for the anonymous hack? What happens if you try to PM someone that is using their proxy/alias name? Does it show the proxy name in the "Recipients List"?

Also, to whose profile does it take you to when you click on the proxy's name in the postbit?

Can you provide me a link to a phpinfo() page on your server.

And yes removing teh & in the function definition will make the hack not work.

It will really appear to be posted by the Proxy user. So all links will point to the profile or PM of the proxy user.

If you don't want to PM a "Anonymous" user, set his profile to not allow PM's.

In other words, if I clicked on the link for "smod" (as shown in your screenshots) where would it take me?


Sorry for my confusion...

:o

Then it would take you to the profile of "smod".

PS The original poster name is only visible of your usergroup has permission to view it.

sent via PM

Is this going to be a planned feature in the future? I would be really interested if forum settings were added to this hack.

I asked for feedback on what permission method would be preferred for this to function, so i can implement it.

Until now nobody responded, so i am not working on it.

Southpaw, you only plan to have anonymous posting feature in one forum?

I was going to allow anonoymous posts in any forum.

Anonymous postig in any forum should already be possible with the current version.

Bug Fix version 1.00.1 released:

Changes:

Version 1.00.1 21-02-2006
- Fixed bug giving an error message when PHP setting 'allow_call_time_pass_reference' was set off


This release needs only to be installed if you have 'allow_call_time_pass_reference' set to Off, and you are getting errors warning you about: Call-time pass-by-reference has been deprecated

To upgrade, do an overwrite install of the new product file.

Edit: Also the files in the upload directory must be re-uploaded to your server for this patch.

Yea, I was going to limit it to only one forum so that it can't be abused through my whole site.

Then please take the time to answer the questions i have asked here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....2&postcount=20

I think B would be ideal since you can set it to work like A, but also have the option to do more advanced things, like make a usergroup that is banned from using the proxy in the specified forum for abusing it.