eRDM's Remote Avatar System v1.0
 

eRDM's Remote Avatar System
Version 1.0

About this hack:
One of the most annoying features or lack of feature in vBulletin is the impossibility of having remote avatars as an option. For those who don't know it can be a security risk, so be responsible ;)

With the introduction of 3.7 avatars have become a very important feature. They are being displayed at every corner, and using profile fields alone just couldn't cut it. Ugly questions marks everywhere was not nice.

Well worry no more, with this product you can have avatars almost everywhere without file or template edits. Unfortunately in this first release and due mainly to the lack of skills it will require a bit of work to set up initially, but is well worth the effort.

There is only one place unfortunately that will require a file edit. Unless someone discovers a work around or Jelsoft adds the apropiate hooks it will require the manual edit. Since it is in a rather hidden place (profile.php?do=buddylist) it should really be classified as optional.

Features:
Enables Remote Avatars in without file edits in the following places

• Postbit(_legacy)
• Memberinfo
  • Visitor Messages
  • Friendlist
  • Stats
  • Subtitute Profile Picture with Avatar
• Memberlist
• Picture Comments
• Social Groups

Opcional: Enable Remote Avatars in Contacts & Friends

Installation information on hack

• Files edited: 1 (optional)
• Templates edited: 0
• Files to upload: 0
• Queries added: 0
• Plugins used: 14
• Time to install: 15 minute max

MAKE SURE YOU CLICK INSTALL!

FAQ

• Q. Will it work in 3.6
  A. NO. It will not work in 3.6.x The hack uses many plugins not available in 3.6. However, maybe disabling the 3.7 plugins (for 3.7 features) postbit, memberinfo, and memberlist might just work.
• Q. Will there be new releases?
  A. Yes. There will eventually a new version which uses vBulletin settings (variables) to determine the profile fields. This will make the hack userfriendly. Sadly I spent the last two days figuring the hooks out, so will leave this feature for next time.
  Suggestions, and omited avatar places, and bugs are more than welcome ^^
• Q. Will it break my board?
  No. It shouldn't. however consider this modification in beta stage and work accordingly. ALWAYS backup before installing hacks.
• Q. Is this hack supported?
  A. Yes. I'll try to give my best support.
  If it is an error or something not working, please make sure you hace followed the instructions carefully, and renamed the fields correctly. Otherwise post a picture and all the information you can regarding the problem.
• Q. How do I disable the Avatar overwrite for the Profile Picture?
  A. Go to
  AdminCP > Plugins & Products > Plugin Manager >
  look for "Product : eRDM's Remote Avatar System"
  uncheck "Profile Picture (user avatar img)"
  Go down to the end of the page and press "Save Active Status"

Version History
Version 1.0.... 23/5/08

Version 1.0.1.... 23/5/08

• Updated Install file. Steps are now named more clearly for reference purposes
• Updated Avatar profile field expression to ^http://([A-Za-z0-9/.~_-]+)\.(jpg|gif|png)$|^$

Version 1.0.2.... 25/5/08

• Cleaned up some redundancies in the code.
• Added version checking capability
• Fixed some minor spelling mistakes on the plugin names

Version 1.0.3.... 29/5/08

• Updated instructions for profile.php edit to reflect 3.7.1
• Simplified instructions for profile.php
• Added another plugin to display Remote Avatars when posting AJAX visitor messages

Thanks for sharing dude.. Will install when i upgrade to 3.7.0 GOLD.......

My feature request is to allow avatars from a select domain only such as photobucket.com, this would reduce the security risk as files are also scanned by the free image host as they are uploaded, possibility for allowed image hosts only?

In order to only allow certain hosting sites, you would need to update the expression in the Avatar profile field box from ^http://([A-Za-z0-9/.~_-]+)\.(jpg|gif|png)$|^$ to whatever suits the hosting site you desire. Unfortunately I'm no good with this sort of rewrites. vBulletin gives a link to http://au2.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php and explains the rewrite system.

What I would try to do, is identify the pattern with the host you want to allow, and match it in the expression. For example to allow photobucket only (not tested)

^http://[A-Za-Z][0-9][0-9]|.photobucket.com|([A-Za-z0-9/.~_-]+)\.(jpg|gif|png)$|^$