Geek Article System 3.5 RC2
 

Woohoo.

This is the RC for the next release of the Geek Article System.
I have decided to take it out of private beta as results from the private beta are taking yonks to come back in. I have fixed all known issues so we should be cooking on gas (hohohahaha).

Special thanks to gltdn for help with beta testing

Install instructions:
Read the readme in the package. Should be straight forward stuff.
It is important to note that THIS IS FOR A CLEAN INSTALL. I will devise an upgrade script when the package is final.

New features:

• Crap loads.
• New Article header image functions (global gallery, forum gallery and uploadable images)
• New forumdisplay/threadbit look and feel
• Synopsis box
• Post as user
• Autolink into the Geek Autolink system
• Turn on/off synopsis/byline
• Auto synopsis (if synopsis is off or left blank, it uses first x amount of posts from article)
• Synopsis uses BB code
• etc...etc...etc

A word about the installer.
This has taken me ages to do. The installer does everything for you (including all file changes). It will make backup copies of all files changed, make the file changes, and leave them in a folder for you to copy over when you are done. This may not work with PHP in safe mode. If you are using PHP in safe mode, you may have to do the changes manually (which you have the option to do anyway).

Click the install button if you install. Otherwise you may miss very important updates.

Demo: http://www.thenailgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

Missing phrases after install? Just search for a GAS phrase name... edit it, then click save. This will rebuild your phrases.

nJoy

To upgrade from 3.5 you CAN do this:

Run the uninstall for version 3 and replace the following files with clean copies:
showthread
editpost
newthread
printthread
includes/function_showthread

Then remove the GAS reference in admincp/index.php

Then follow the install instructions for this package.

Does upgrading using those instructions keep the old artitles or will the tables be overwritten?

Thanks

Hey, nice work! I've been watching this project with a keen eye for some time... And I like! I'm eventually going to move over to a new article system from vBarticles for various reasons. Nice to see an installer that modifies the files for you too!!! Haven't seen that since my days in UBB. :D

Hi The Geek,

first - thank you, for that wonderful hack.

I think I found the first little bugs:

1) Deletion of an article, doesn't delete the row in geek_articles table.
2) The file GAS_image_upload.php is not in the ZIP-Package
3) On showthread.php Templates 'GAS_article_pb' and 'GAS_showthread' needs to be cached.
4) On forumdisplay.php Template 'GAS_threadbit' needs to be cached.
5) When I edit an article, the article-image disappear.

Keep on the good work...

Looks cool! (maybe there could be an addon to get news off rss feeds :p)

Hey Juan - It will keep the articles as is. However It just occured to me that the DB will have to be manually altered as it only does a clean install if it doesnt already exists. In other words if the table exits 0 it ignores it and there are a couple of columns that need adding. Ill post an updated on that tonight.

Magic - Cheers for the info - Ill do an update later tonight

Updated package but....

1) Didnt address this as of yet. The only downside to the article header row not being deleted is that its a spare row floating about. Ill address this eventually but since I dont see it as ever being a problem - Ill make it low priority :)
2) The file was in the root of the folder... It goes in your root directory.
3) Done... thanks!
4) Done... thanks!
5) Cant reproduce. Maybe it was the missing GAS_image_upload file?

Let me know if that sorts it. Thanks again!

BTW: just updated package so that when upgrading, it will upgrade the geek_article Table too.

2) root dir of the forum or the server?

Sorry man - forum root :)

Ok, thanks! :)

Remaining Issues;


// Showthread/Article

.Tweaks needed

>> bottom COMMENT button needs a space from article body(perhaps another <br />?(I use FIREFOX/Have not checked under IE))

To fix this edit GAS_showthread and find:
Replace with:
// Editing Article


.Article Image

>> is showing to be edited/changed
>> is NOT getting edited/changed

Thanks... make sure you installed the latest package and reverted your templates from the private beta test. The comment placement was fixed.

Once again, make sure you have reverted your templates. There was a typo in that was causing the article header image not to display but this was fixed.

Let me know if that sorts it as both issues seem fine on my system.

Hi Geek,

1) I think we misunderstood: I talked about the db table geek_articles. ;)
When I delete an article, the article-row stays in the db-table 'geek_articles'.
2) Sorry, i've overlooked it.

One new little bug:
Tested with TABLE_PREFIX: Do a fresh Install - the installer creates the the table 'geek_articles' without the prefix.

Thanks for address the reported bugs so fast.
Testing the new Version asap.

Hey Magic - Na, I know what you meant. It doesnt remove the entry from the geek_articles table. But like I said - I cant foresee that as causing any problems.

THanks for the heads up about the table_prefix. However thats a trip as it is in there! I am wondering if the scoping of table_prefix has been changed. I dont use them so ill have to look into that a bit more. Can anyone else verify?

Thanks again Magic - your points are helping me get this thing live ;)

If you do an install shouldn't this overwrite your existing templates? Because all templates are shown to be last edited by the install script;

Last edited March 13 2005 at 13:10 by Geek

Also note; The header image is showing, what I tried to say is that it cannot be changed to something else if we wish to.

Hi Geek,

5) When I edit an article, the article-image disappear.

This happens only when I set in the gas-options 'Use first attachment thumbnail as avatar' to yes.

By the way, in the gas-options, under 'Header images' there is a input row without title and description. The name of the text-input is 'ugs_allow_header_upload'.
Maybe it helps to find it.

I'll try the help to find bugs as fast as possible, to help to get this superb addon live.

Cool guys.

I have:

• Sorted out the bugs where regarding 'show first thumbnail as avatar'. Now you can get the same forum home effect as when using header images - but with thumbs! However I STRONGLY advise having users upload or choose from the gallery instead - it is MUCH faster.
• I found the TABLE_PREFIX bug so that now works.
• The Image header option in editthread and newpost only appear if you are not using the 'show thumbnail as header image' option. THis was the source of earlier confusion.
• I found the missing phrase in the admincp
• I fixed the comment button spacing (sorry gldtn - I hadnt updated the install package with the latest template).
• Bunch of other minor fixes too.

Package is updated :)

question The_Geek are some of the intros on http://www.thenailgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17 supposed to be blank?

Yea - havent filled in all of the synopsis's yet.

ok just was making sure that it was compatible with safari ;)

Package updated to beta 1.03
Very minor bug in GAS_article_pb. For those that updated to 1.02, simply upload latest files and re-install the templates only.

Looks very good as always, Geek. I will wait to install when it's out of Beta though.

Woo-hoo. Gotta love a Beta :)

Package updated to 1-04. Minor bug found in step 603.
To upgrade from last 2 packages just replace all files and then manually replace step 603.

Thanks guys (think it should be almost there now!)

This may be a silly question, but after installing this, then what do we do if there's no listing for this in our VB Options? :)

Its graduated to its very own admin page ;)

There should be a Geek Article System link in your admincp (one of the file edits was adding this)

well, no link... in the left column?

Everything else is fine, created the templates fine etc, added the edits, just can't find the admin link,

Did you check manually edit the files or did you run the auto file editor?

If you did the auto, did you copy the changed files from gas/changed/ into their corresponding forum/ folder location?

In there will have been gas/changed/admincp/index.php which will be your altered admincp page with the GASK group in it.
You could also just go to admincp/GAS_admin.php

damn, know why, I use 3.05, and I bet you those **** devs changed something again. doing a dirct url to the admincp shows the thing though, so I can change them there, or at least try too. Maybe I have a ghost or something. (Note to other people, update the phrases...)

could be the phrases didnt update.

Please check your admincp/index page for the GAS edit though. If that didnt go through - it should have informed you to do it manually.

Hi Geek,

one more bug in actual Beta Release found:

When I create a new article, fill out Byline and Synopsis, hit Preview and then create the article, the Byline and Synopsis disappear.
The same, if I edit an article and hit preview first.

One more:

In printthtread.php Template 'GAS_printthreadbit' should be cached.

yeap, now it works, reloaded it in.

Least I have it listed in now, now just to figure out how to get the thing to display the way I want it.

You know Geek, your installer is very cool and all, but there's nothing on the settings themselves. I redid the phrases, and also reupped the includes file as well.

So a couple questions here:

My forum is a subdirectory, that make a difference? So absolute path to images will be /var/www/html/forums/gas/images?

also, in the first field, for forums. I'm assuming that would be the id number, but multiple forums would be say 2,33, 19 right?

I guess the converter should now work as well, but we would still have to edit each thread then for a synopsis and a byline? Yikes. over 400 articles. :)

Excellent installer!! :D:D If there was an award for best installer, you'd win it Nail Geek! Anyway, so far so good. :)

Bit of a silly question.... can we upload our own article header images and if so, how?

Thanks guys.

I am very proud of the installer. In fact, it has taken me almost as long to code that as to code the hack! I just felt that with so many file modifications - its would be a butt pain to manually maintain and install (especially as we have seen so many vB security updates as of late). Im glad it is working well for everyone so far.

Now on to the Q's:
Magic: Im on to the Preview bugs now. Should have fixed in the next couple hours.
I will also add the template chache for print thread
Shiva: Ill add an install page for the settings. Im not sure what your absolute server path will be for your setup. However in the next install, Ill have the file do a pretty darn good guess for you ;)
Yes, you are right about the forum ID's. Comma seperated. You will need to edit for synopsis/byline and header images

Snow - Your Article Header images go in gas/images. Replace the default, or dump several in there. When you click the Image button in a new article, it pops up a window with all images in the gas/images directory INCLULDING any images it finds in gas/images/forums/[CURRENT_FORUMID]

In other words, you can have a global gallery for users to choose from in gas/images/
And then have forum specific gallery images in gas/images/forum/[forumid]

Furthermore, users can upload their own by clicking the image button (as long as there are not usergroup settings preventing them in the admin page)

Hope that makes sense ;)

Thanks everyone

Geek,

I'm still unable to change the image header after I set one. In other words, after I submit an article and choose the article image and want to change that image later I can no longer change it.. I choose the image that I want to change to and it selects it, but when I hit apply changes it does not change to the image I choose.

I have the latest beta version installed,but did not do a fully clean install.. All I did is replaced all the *.php's files from the mod and re-ran the install script, but the databases remains the same according to your installer that ignores database modifications if it's already there(I think you said thats what it does earlier in this thread). If your sure this was fixed let me know so I can drop the tables added to the database and do a fully clean install.

Thank You!

Package updated.

This package rectifies the previewing of new or edited threads munching your synopsis and images.
I also adjusted a few phrases (mainly admin cp ones) to be more explanitory.
I also added the GAS_printthread template to the global template cache.

To upgrade from 1.04, overwrite all existing files with this latest package and reinstall the templates and phrases ONLY.
To apply the printthread fix, manually complete step 702.

Thanks

Hey gldtn.

I cant verify at this end - all seems to be working fine. The table wont have anything to do with it - I suspect a template or file modification.

I just changed a couple of things in the last package that may have actually fixed it now that I think about it. Upgrade and let me know so I can look into it more.

Thanks

Seems to be working up to a certain point. It now changes only if I upload a new image, but if I try to choose/select an image thats already on the server It does not change back. I also encountered a weird problem, when I uploaded http://www.fruitbody.org/forum/gas/images/default.jpg. It gave me this http://www.fruitbody.org/forum/gas/i...1/default2.jpg.

thank you for this hack, it is superb Geek :)

PS: I have a prob, I obtains a white page in "forumdisplay" (category)