Vbulletin World Map System
 

Summary:

The core of this system I developed approximately 3 years ago but was unable to practically distribute it on vborg due to the fact the GEOIP City Database was a very expensive software product; and it is needed to map IP Addresses to Global Lat/Lon Coordinates.

With the recent availability of a "Lite" version of the City Database I have decided to build from the ground up a new hack that utilizes it to display 2 map structures.

1. Plots Your Current Members/Guest Online available on the Whos Online Page.
2. Plots Your Registered Members last known Coordinates on the Member List Page.
3. Coordinates are calculated from IP Addresses stored in your Forums Database.

Features:

• Automatic & Accurate plotting of your Guest & Members on the WorldMap.
• WorldMap Page to view Both Maps, added to your navbar.
• Enable WOL, Member Plotting Independently
• Control Panel Options
• Specify Plotting Image Type, Size, Color
• Specify Opaque, Alpha Transparency
• Support for Payed Full Version of City Database
• Updates on Scheduled Task Interval
• Map is shown small and expands on Mouseover, then contracts back.

Instructions:

1. Download Zip File
2. Read INSTALL.TXT
3. Run the crontask manually the first time, so it will generate your images.
4. Click Install if you like it :)

Updates:
3/14/2006 - Forgot to uncomment keep-alive code.
3/12/2006 12:54pm -
1. Added a new Realistic World map
2. Configuration Editor partially remade, allows easier selection of Maps.
3/8/2006 11:35pm - Added a worldmap.php Page, for viewing both maps.
3/8/2006 9:52am - Fixed the jpeg output problem.

Note:

The GEOIP Binary Database can be located here:

http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoi...iteCity.dat.gz

Cool, will check it out.

Thanks, hope someone finds some use for it...

I got just the thing for this, thanks!

[high]* Brad installs. :)[/high]

Installed...

However I am missing the image.. seems for me to be pointing to an image which does not exist in the worldmap folder..

http://www.onlinewarfare.net/forum/online.php?

Its looking for the image here:

http://www.onlinewarfare.net/forum/w...rldmap_wol.png

**EDIT.. I missed out a step.. all working now.

Run the crontask manually for the first time.

Posted at same time.. ran the CRON job and this was output -

Warning: fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /worldmap/geoip/geoip.inc on line 398

Fatal error: error traversing database - perhaps it is corrupt? in /worldmap/geoip/geoip.inc on line 418

**EDIT.. I missed out a step.. all working now.

Go here and download the file at http://www.maxmind.com/app/geolitecity

and make sure you place it in the worldmap/geoip/ directory.

ie. yourforum/worldmap/geoip/GeoLiteCity.dat

If you havnt done that, I cant help you.

Sure I will do that now.. I could not find this on the initial instructions? Or am I just thick lol.

**EDIT.. I missed out a step.. all working now.

Im pretty sure its there in the install.txt

installed, and runs a treat...
but, im still having the same problem on my board that i have with the vbplaza hack...where it WONT display PNG images......

so i had to rename them all to JPG...to get it to work.
if anyone has a workaround or solutionas to getting PNGs to display correctly, id be grateful.

the hack isnt the problem, its a VB problem im told...(something to do with imagemagick, and GD...along with PHP)??

Well take note that I do provide the option in the control panel to switch the output to a jpg file.

Try that out and see if it works.

Yer.. I missed that step.. I have extracted the file and am uploading.. god damn I am thick today :ermm:

yes you do, and it was noted, but there were no jpeg files in the attached download??
as i said, i had to convert the png`s to jpg`s to get them to show.

what i didnt see was the instruction to run the cron job, to generate them...my bad...lol

not having a go mate, was just asking if anyone might be able to help.
was just hoping someone might be able to point me somewhere that explains why most people can see PNG`s, but others cant.....

All working now.. good stuff :classic:

http://www.onlinewarfare.net/forum/online.php?

Ps. Redownload the zip file, and overwrite your current class_wmp.php with the new one, i made a fix.

Set the output type to jpeg in the control panel, and run the crontask it should output jpg type files.

It will automatically convert the files to jpeg format bro, GD image library takes care of that :)

Update:

Fix a problem do to a typo in the configuration that prevents jpegs from being available for output.

Just to clarify.. This isnt like the Google Satellite Map thing where users place themself, is it?

Or from why I am gathering, this one will show up on whos online and automatically place them by their IP somewhere on the map?

Nope.. this is done automatically from the data in your Forums Database.

I was actually thinking about using the google/yahoo api.. but it wasnt realistic adding potentially hundreds of thousands of custom markers on a map system like those would be horrible resource wise.. not to mention the bandwidth needed to do it on each page load..

Thus this system build the image and saves it.. ie. no overhead.

Ok.. Cool.. Thanks.. It looks pretty spiffy.. :) I will probably install this later tonight or sometime this week

Thanks!

EXCELLENT. Been wanting something like this, due to the resource issue (and lack of participation) of the manual Google maps. Installing now!

Thanks

Its a great little hack.. wondering if a coloured map is possible? White is a little bland.. or are you limited?

Well I put the template maps in their own maps directory for a reason, it shouldnt be too hard to add support for more maps in the future.

Couldn't I create a second page for the map? Give the members the option of choosing the whos_online map version or the old whos_online?

when i run the cron....

Warning: main(/home/webnoob/public_html/forums/./includes/cron/wmp.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /admincp/cronadmin.php on line 64

Warning: main(): Failed opening '/home/webnoob/public_html/forums/./includes/cron/wmp.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /admincp/cronadmin.php on line 64

Done

As said in the instructions.. the included wmp.php from the zip file must be placed in your vbulletin cron directory.

You can do whatever you want.. all the template edit does is add a lil javascript to handle the auto resize..

Other than that its just a simple <img> tag.

I know, im a idiot....i just realized.

I'm smelling a Hack Of The Month here.... :D

Installed and working great:
http://www.fireblades.org/index.php?page=membermap

(Clickable for full size.)

Nice, like how you did that :)

Try the diamond pattern with a size of 1. Usually that looks the best for large numbers of locations.

ps. bah i double posted..

Take a look now. It's kinda hard to see the spread in the scaled down version, which is why I went with Dot and 5. Any other ideas?

Yep looks good ;)

well, you could up the size.. but i would leave the diamond.. or go to the crosshair..

Suggestion for a future version perhaps:

Have it generate close-up maps of various regions. Like USA only, Europe, etc.

Would there be a way to just put the world map in a different location, like a completely different page?

You can put it wherever you like.. It's just an image. See my post at the bottom of Page Two for my location...

awesome, but I have no idea how to create a custom page on vb, and do not want to install the HTML Template system... :(

I imagine he did it using add a page with vBCMPS or something.. I am trying to figure it out now :D

Yes, I used CMPS. But there are some threads here on vbulletin.org that show you how to create a vB page. From there, all you have to do is add HTML to display the image.

So I want to add a BBCODE page or a template page?