Add-On Releases - Topic (incl. Blog) of the Week/Fortnight/Month Nomination v1.636

On my board (USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D), we get many comments daily or weekly on many different topics and there are so many topics in the community that to be honest, we had a tough time remembering the topic being reviewed to offer a timely comment or response. Obviously, we needed a weekly/monthly topic nomination system with which we could get our community to commit to one topic as a group and then comment on it during the course of the week/month.

Cruising vB.org at warp speed, I failed to find a nomination system readily available. Hence, I quickly wrote this mod (on my way to the bridge).

Acknowledgement:
This release would not have been quickly possible without the existence of most hacks released at vB.org, especially the "Thank You" hack by Abe1, which provided this mod basis structure. Our thanks and all the merit goes to Abe1.

A nice set of button and awards images have also been kindly provided by PrinceEdward to whom we also extend our thanks.

Many constructive feedbacks have been given by those members at the vB.org community who downloaded the first releases of this Mod, the implementation of which has led to an improved version of the Mod. We extend our thanks to those members.

What this mod does

It adds a "Topic Of The Week/Month" nomination system to your community.

What is Topic Of The Week/Month?

Topic of the Week/Month is a contest that select posts on which your community can commit to as a group and then comment/discuss on them during the course of the selected week/month. Any listed topic (post, thread) is eligible for the Topic of the Week/Month selection.

What determines a Topic Of The Week/Month?

Topic Of The Week/Month is based on a simple nomination system. Throughout the selected forums, members with adequate permissions can nominate their favorite topic by clicking on the award nomination button below the post.

The five topics with the most votes during the course of the week/month are automatically displayed on a nomination thread including a poll feature. At the end of the week/month, the first three topics with the most votes are the award winners of the contest.

Features:

1. Uses AJAX technology.
2. Uses one query per show thread page
3. Fully phrased to allow (language translation) (addition v 1.3)
4. Places an easy to use "Nominate Post" button next to the edit button
5. Automatically create a nomination thread for discussions on nominees
6. Displays a varying nomination stamps on posts that have been nominated for the contest. The color of the nomination stamps varies depending on how many users have nominated the post. (addition v 1.2)
7. Displays an award winner stamp op award winner posts at the end of the Topic Of The Week/Month contest. (addition v 1.2)
8. Via postbit pop-up, displays link to find all nominations or nominees made by a user (addition v 1.35)
9. Via postbit pop-up, allows selected usergroups (e.g. Moderators or SuperModerators) can withdraw all user?s nominees from all posts (addition v 1.2) or to remove all current nominations on a given user (addition v 1.35)
10. Option to select the maximum number of topics that must be displayed in the poll (addition v 1.2)
11. Option to take or not into account for nomination only posts made during the month preceding the nomination cycle time (addition v 1.2)
12. Option to consider the maximum number of posts a user can nominate per cycle time (addition v 1.2)
13. Nominated posts titles hot linked in the poll to actual thread/post of the forum. Links displaying on the same page (No. popups) (addition v 1.3)
14. Automatically closes the nomination thread at end of the contest cycle time (weekly/monthly)
15. Quick link to nomination thread via the "Quick Navigation" menu
16. Quick link to award winners page via the "Quick Navigation" menu (addition v.1.1)
17. Automatically update the nomination poll whenever a post is nominated or withdraw from the contest.
18. Separate looks for postbit and postbit_legacy
19. Places all post nominees in one small box
20. Displays award winners in one small box
21. Quick link to nomination thread via the "small box" on the thread page
22. Option to allow award winners to re-enter the contest after X days
23. Users cannot nominate the same post twice
24. Option to not allow users to nominate their own post
25. Counts nominees submitted by a user
26. Counts how many times a nominee is submitted
27. Shows how many nominees a user submitted in every post of his
28. Shows info in member's profile
29. Option to search for posts nominated by a user
30. Option to search for all nominated posts
31. Administrator can withdraw all nominees of a single post
32. Selected usergroups (e.g. Moderators or SuperModerators) can withdraw all nominees of a single post (addition v 1.10)
33. Users can withdraw their own nominee
34. Option to disable the mod on selected forums
35. Option to disable the mod on all but the first post of a thread
36. Option to disable the mod on all but the first post of a thread in specific forums
37. Option to enable/disable view of nomination date on specific or all forums
38. Option to add to post count when someone nominate a post.
39. Option to give reputation points to the user whose post is nominated.
40. Option to ban selected usergroups from using the mod
41. Option to ban selected users from using the mod
42. Option to display user?s nomination statistics on postbit (addition v 1.10)
43. Option not to display nomination statistics on postbit for selected users (addition v 1.10)
44. Option not to display nomination statistics on postbit for selected usergroups (addition v 1.50)
45. Option to display or not the hall of fame link in Quick-Links (addition v 1.3)
46. Option to select forums on which nominations must be considered (addition v 1.35)
47. Hall of fame re-designed to handle a Top 10 award winners, all time cumulated (addition v 1.3)
48. Option to refresh the poll thread if for some reason a post referenced in the poll came to be deleted (addition v 1.3)
49. Option to use the current week number or month, or the next week number or month, in the contest title (addition v 1.3)
50. Option for archiving nominations in the "Nomination Thread" automatically whenever a user nominate a post. (addition v 1.35)
51. Option to automatically send a PM to award winners at the end of the contest (addition v 1.4)
52. Option to automatically add points to award winners? reputation at the end of the contest (addition v 1.4)
53. If the current ?Nomination Thread? is deleted for whatever reason, a single manual run of the cron file will suffice to create a new thread, avoiding a clean install of the product.
54. Option to nominate blog entries (addition v 1.6)
55. Option to have award winners or nominated posts icons displayed on posts, so that nominated posts can be easily identified when listing posts.
56. Option to close current nomination thread and create a new one directly from the ACP

Installation instructions

Version 1.63

1. Uncompress the archive
2. Upload the content of the "upload" folder into your forum root directory
3. Import the "product_nominate_topic.xml" product via your ACP:
   ACP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Product -> Add/Import Product (Allow Overwrite if you are upgrading)
4. Adjust the mod settings as you see fit.
   Specify the Forum ID that will receive nomination threads. Also specify the User ID of the nomination thread owner.
   ACP -> vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> Nominate Topic Mod
5. Save the specified settings
6. ACP -> Scheduled Tasks -> Scheduled Task Manager
   Nominate Weekly Or Monthly Topic Mod -> Run Now

Enjoy

Update in version 1.01
Nominated posts titles hot linked in the poll to actual thread/post of the forum

Update in version 1.1

1. Postbit_legacy fixed
2. Quick link to award winners page via the "Quick Navigation" menu
3. Selected usergroups (e.g. Moderators or SuperModerators) can withdraw all nominees of a single post
4. Option to display user?s nomination statistics on postbit
5. Option not to display nomination statistics on postbit for selected users
6. Small bugs fixed
7. Tested on vB 3.7.0 and vB 3.7.2
8. Working on vB 3.6.8 and above

Update in version 1.2

1. Displays a varying nomination stamps on posts that have been nominated for the contest. The color of the nomination stamps varies depending on how many users have nominated the post. (addition v 1.2)
2. Displays an award winner stamp op award winner posts at the end of the Topic Of The Week/Month contest. (addition v 1.2)
3. Via postbit pop-up, displays link to find all nominations made by a user (addition v 1.2)
4. Via postbit pop-up, allows selected usergroups (e.g. Moderators or SuperModerators) can withdraw all user?s nominees from all posts (addition v 1.2)
5. Option to select the maximum number of topics that must be displayed in the poll (addition v 1.2)
6. Option to take or not into account for nomination only posts made during the month preceding the nomination cycle time (addition v 1.2)
7. Option to consider the maximum number of posts a user can nominate per cycle time (addition v 1.2)

Update in version 1.21

1. Fix for transition to Week 28 on cron file
2. Fix Unknown column error when adding a nomination.
3. Few bugs on withdraw nomination

Feedback are welcome and implementation of constructive suggestions will likely be carried out during weekends only, as I am kept busy with other matters during working days.

Update in version 1.22

1. Fix Duplicate entry issue.
2. Clean cron file
3. Full phrasing for those who wish to translate it.

Update in version 1.3

1. Nominated posts titles hot linked in the poll to actual thread/post of the forum. Links displaying on the same page (No. popups) (addition v 1.3)
2. Option to display or not the hall of fame link in Quick-Links (addition v 1.3)
3. Option to select only one forum on which nominations must be considered (addition v 1.3)
4. Hall of fame re-designed to handle a Top 10 award winners, all time cumulated (addition v 1.3)
5. Option to refresh the poll thread if for some reason a post referenced in the poll came to be deleted (addition v 1.3)
6. Option to use the current week number or month, or the next week number or month, in the contest title (addition v 1.3)
7. Fully phrased to allow language translation (addition v 1.3)
8. Cron file up-to-date

Update in version 1.35

1. Option to select forums on which nominations must be considered
2. Option for archiving nominations in the ?Nomination Thread? automatically.
3. Fortnightly cycle time added
4. Fully phrased to allow language translation (addition v 1.35)
5. Few reported bugs fixed

Update 14/07/2008 in cron file
I noticed that some code instructions fail to work properly depending on the PhP version been used.

If you are running the v 1.35 and TOTW on a weekly basis and if for some reason, your cron file failed to work and create a new nomination thread on Sunday 13, July 2008, please use the attachment "updated-cron-14-07-2008.zip". The instructions are given in there.

Update in version 1.40

1. Option to automatically send a PM to award winners at the end of the contest (addition v 1.4)
2. Option to automatically add points to award winners? reputation at the end of the contest (addition v 1.4)
3. If the current ?Nomination Thread? is deleted for whatever reason, a single manual run of the cron file will suffice to create a new thread, avoiding a clean install of the product.

Update in version 1.50

1. Option not to display nomination statistics on postbit for selected usergroups (addition v 1.50)
2. Few display titles fixed
3. Additions made for users who had problems displaying the nomination button and stamp on their styles. Checkout the "Readme and installation" file.
4. Cron file completely rewritten. Why?
   The previous cron file worked fine only when they were activated manually from the Run button in the Admin CP, but they were failing to run on their own as a scheduled task. I noticed that vbulletin global variables were no longer been passed to the cron file. Why??? I have actually getting the values of vbulletin global variables needed for the cron directly from the database.
   If you noticed that the "Nomination Thread" of the past week did not closed properly, proceed as follow:
   1. Open the cron file (upload/included/cron/
   2. Search for "// $createNewThread = 1;"
   3. Replace it by: "$createNewThread = 1;"
   4. Upload the cron file and run it manually (only once), just to close the previous thread and open a new one.
   5. Upload the original cron file back (the one with "// $createNewThread = 1;")

Update in version 1.51

1. For weekly nominations, Cron file set to create a new "Nomination Thread" every MONDAY's (00:10AM) as the week numbering starts on Monday's and not on Sunday's (as set in v 1.50)

If you are running v 1.50 with weekly cycle time and noticed that a new nomination thread has been created but the display title is still that of the previous thread (week 30), then this is for you. Do not delete the newly created nomination thread (with title week 30). On Monday 21st July, 2008, after 00:10AM, proceed as follow:

1. Refresh your poll from the ACP -> Nominate Topic -> Refresh Poll (This will update the display title of both the poll and the nomination thread)
2. Upload the content of the attachment v 1.51 to your root directory. (DO NOT MANUALLY RUN THE CRON FILE)

Topic of the Week-Month Nomination v1.51 Updated Prod and Cron

1. Automatic PM subject phrase moved from "<phrasetype name="Email Subject Text" fieldname="emailsubject">" to "<phrasetype name="GLOBAL" fieldname="global">"
2. For monthly nominations, Cron file set to create a new "Nomination Thread" every 1st day of the month (00:10AM) and not on the last day of the month.

Topic of the Week-Month Nomination v1.51 Updated function

1. Function updated (see attachment) as a result of exchanges with Kevil via TeamViewer.

Update in version 1.60

1. Option to nominate blog entries (addition v 1.6)
2. Option to have award winners or nominated posts icons displayed on posts, so that nominated posts can be easily identified when listing posts.
3. Option to close current nomination thread and create a new one directly from the ACP (NOT VIA THE CRON)

Update in version 1.61

1. Typing mistake fixed in the "nominate_topic_admin.php". nominate_topic_amount instead of nominated_topic_amount.
2. Fix for "Could not find phrase 'This is an automatic message to inform you that your post ..." message.

Update in version 1.62

1. Typing mistake fixed in the "nominate_topic_admin.php". nominate_topic_amount instead of nominated_topic_amount.
2. Fix for http:"//... occurring in the poll while listing blog entries.
3. Display of nomination stamps while listing blog entries from the blog.
4. Fix for displaying of blog entries in poll when a post is nominated from the non blog board.

Update in version 1.621

1. Fixed "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /includes/cron/nominate_topic_cron.php on line 584"
2. Fixed ": syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/nascartr/public_html/community/admincp/nominate_topic_admin.php on line 435"

Update in version 1.63

1. Fixed link call, requested by TsirhCitna
2. Fixed "Hall of fame" display.

Update in version 1.635

1. Bug Fix by vbboarder implemented ? ?can?t find phrase? error in PM subject

Update in version 1.636

1. Default value for "cycle time header" set to use the current cycle time (current week/fortnight/month instead of next week/fortnight)
2. Option to nominate own post activated by default.

Feedback are welcome and implementation of constructive suggestions will likely be carried out during weekends only, as I am kept busy with other matters during working days. Also, feel free to add improvements in those files and post them.

To other coders: feel free to add improvements to the Mod (files) and post them. I will directly use your updated files for the next version of the mod.

[ZGeek]

Originally Posted by MrEyes

Hello all,

I seem to be experiencing a small problem with the PMs that are sent after a poll closes. For example

Title


Body


The first obvious problem is the missing phrase from the title, after hunting around in this thread it seems that this problem was reported and fixed a few weeks ago. I have the latest version of all files so not sure why this is still happening.

The second issue is that I do not use reputation on my board so when the PM refers to these it is meaningless. In ACP I have set reputation bonus to 0 and disabled.

The final issue is this in the PM body:



What is that?

And finally, a small suggestion it would be great if the PM told the receiver what position their thread came in. For example "Your thread came [first/second/third]"

I'm also getting these strange PM's.

[Spank]

Is it possible with this hack to have different categories for topic of themonth.

EG my forum is for graphic designers, traditional artists, story writers, film makers and musicians. So I would like seperate awards for each. Also though I only want my members to be able to vote once for each category each month.

[J98680Bxxxxx]

I just came back yesterday, now checking all complains

Originally Posted by Vinyljunky

Great mod

I have a feature request:
My postbit_legacy is getting a bit full
I'd like to be able to display the award for Topic of The Month but not the statistics "Nominated 13 Times in 6 Posts" "TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1"

How about displaying an award for "Last Months Winner" and "Previous Topic Winner". The alt tag of the image would contain the description of the award

I use VBExperience So for me it would be neater to use that to display the award. However the relevant columns are displayed within VBExperience (So I will ask that mod creater for help).

J98680B2423E Could you tell me which fields VBExperience would need to count to do this?

Thanks again for a brilliant mod! :up:

Regards

VinylJunky

user -> nominate_topic_nominated_awards, nominate_topic_nominated_times, nominate_topic_nominated_posts, nominate_topic_user_amount

Originally Posted by mokonzi

J98680B2423E, is it possible to create a plugin that works in tandem with this mod: vBExperinece?

I think it would help make full use of this product

I think that it's possible to take the results of this "Topic of the Week/Month Nomination" into account in vBExperience, as the definitive results are kept in the user table:

user -> nominate_topic_nominated_awards, nominate_topic_nominated_times, nominate_topic_nominated_posts, nominate_topic_user_amount

Originally Posted by powerful_rogue

Hi,

Just a quick question!

Ive had this running for a fortnight and its worked great - however are the top three people supposed to get a little award after they have won?

Nothing is showing up at all.

Edit - Ive just noticed that it only shows up on the actual post they were awared the award for.

TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0 - Is it possible to make this clickable to it takes the person clicking it to that members award?

Also, how do a change "TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0" to say " TOTF Award(s): 0"

After the first poll finished - It dodnt close the thread and start a new one, it just continued on the first one. Is there anyway after each fortnight the thread can close and a new one start up? Would also be quite cool if uit automatically created a new thread saying "This fortnights winners" and showed who won with their awards.

Edit the phrases "nominate_topic_has_not_won_TOTWFM_yet" and "nominate_topic_nominated_awards_TOTWFM". You can also edit those directly in the ".xml" product file.

Originally Posted by animate

nope we didn?t
but is dosen?t metter, we have testing all 2 Options
Mod install with manually start the cron, so then we bevome the starting thread but voting button forward to 404

and Install the mod without start the cron the no new Pollthread is made and the nomination button forward to 404

re push, i?ll hope i become an answer, pls.
with this problem we can?t use this mod so then we must de-installed an re-nominatet...

I will activate my TeamViewer at around 18:00 CET. My settings:
ID: 51 429 434
PW: vborg

Send me a session invitation so that we take a look at your intallation.

Originally Posted by TsirhCitna

I have a request.

When the polls are created the link is in this format: http://www.tenstones.net/forums/showthread.php?t=394634 which doesn't link correctly with vBSEO installed.

If I refresh the poll it becomes: http://www.tenstones.net/forums/show...79197&p=394634 which links correctly.

Is there a way to make it use the 2nd format all the time?

Will fix it. Thanks for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Lift for Life

I'm embarrassed to admit this because I probably overlooked something simple,,,,, but after installing I get a 404 error page when I click the Nominate button.

Then, after manually the cron job, the View Poll Results thread simply reads "Awaiting nominees..."

Can you tell me what I missed?

Thanks,

Lift

It's awaiting nominees. Try to nominate any post and checkout the resulting poll thread.

Originally Posted by nike.stars

i notice that everytime user make a vote, it shows up new post in the topic the cron created, can i disable that so only the polls data is collected?

You can disable it from your ACP -> Nominate Topic -> Nominate Topic Settings -> Archive Nominations -> NO

Originally Posted by imedic

I have upgraded to 1.51 and works fine even if I didn't understand very well the reason.
I wait for next month to see if it creates the topic with the next month (and not the same as the already finished month).

On the other hand I have a suggestion to Enterprise master
It should be interesting to have a small icon next to attachements, deleted messages icons and the stars when you browse the topics. This is next to last message column.
I guess a small medal but with big differences between place 1 , 2 and 3 should be great.
This way while browsing subjects new users have incentive to visit the most appreciated topics.
Maybe even make it sticky or with different color ...
Or a combination Number 1 with different colour and 2 & 3 with small medal icon.

Thanks for the feedback, will see how to implement it.

Originally Posted by thecricketzone

help pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same as already said above. I will activate my TeamViewer at around 18:00 CET. My settings:
ID: 51 429 434
PW: vborg

Send me a session invitation so that we take a look at your intallation.

Originally Posted by soulface

2 uncached templates when reading a PM msg.

Thanks for the feedback. Will fix those accordingly.

Originally Posted by stwilson

To the developer, thank you for the excellent mod. I need a little help.

I have a custom design and cannot get the nomination buttons to show. I have done all of the edits that were suggested for a custom site, per the read me. I have also uploaded the images to my custom images directory too. I can see the nomination statistics in postbit and the Quick Links show the appropriate links and the automatic thread creation works but I cannot get the nomination buttons to show.

Any suggestions?

Does it display on the default vBulletin style?

Originally Posted by stwilson

After testing some more, here is something I found:

If I navigate to the pages via my phone I can see the images to nominate a thread. Clicking on them works too. I nominated two topics and they got added to the TOTM thread. If I then go back to my computer, I cannot see the nomination images. I have logged in under different accounts and still nothing. Cleared my browser's cache, nothing. Not sure what to do now.

Same as already said above. I will activate my TeamViewer at around 18:00 CET. My settings:
ID: 51 429 434
PW: vborg

Send me a session invitation so that we take a look at your intallation.

Originally Posted by MrEyes

Hello all,

I seem to be experiencing a small problem with the PMs that are sent after a poll closes. For example

Title


Body


The first obvious problem is the missing phrase from the title, after hunting around in this thread it seems that this problem was reported and fixed a few weeks ago. I have the latest version of all files so not sure why this is still happening.

The second issue is that I do not use reputation on my board so when the PM refers to these it is meaningless. In ACP I have set reputation bonus to 0 and disabled.

The final issue is this in the PM body:



What is that?

And finally, a small suggestion it would be great if the PM told the receiver what position their thread came in. For example "Your thread came [first/second/third]"

Thanks for the feedback, will take a look at the mod during the weekend.

Originally Posted by Ideal Web Tech

We would like to point out this has a serious problem on the profile page. Where you set your hook in the profile page for stats for the profile in member_profileblock_fetch_unwrapped you didnt specify a block id so the query is basically run inside a loop so you get one call of the query per block instead of just calling it once.

We had 16 queries on our profile page from that hook so for now since we were wanting to show the awards stat somewhere else I just adapted the code and moved it to another hook for now instead of setting up an id like should have been done. Basically if you have 16 blocks on your profile page thats 16 queries instead of 1 without the id.

Later we will see about posting up some fixed code when we go and add it back into the statistics tab on our site. But this is just a heads up for the developer and any big sites using this modification right now who may want to disable that hook location for the moment if they are having high loads since installing this modification.

Thanks for the feedback. Will fix it accordingly.

Originally Posted by soypod

I was having an issue with this mod, the nomination thread that was created by the cron run didn't use my translated phrases (my forum is spanish).

I watched a bit in the cron php file, and I figured out what is the problem: the phrases table is queried like this:

$get_phrase = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT * FROM `". TABLE_PREFIX ."phrase` WHERE `varname` = 'nominate_topic_nomination_thread_title_fortnight'");

The problem is that it doesn't select any language, so mysql just returns the default phrase. It should have an extra "where" clause like this:

languageid = (id of the forum default language)

Where tie "id of the default language" should be queried from the vbulletin settings.

Thanks for the feedback, will work on it.

Originally Posted by ZGeek

I'm also getting these strange PM's.

If you have disabled the mod, please also disable the associated cron.

Will update the cron file accordingly to take this into account.

[logicuk]

Sweet cant wait for 1.52

[J98680Bxxxxx]

Originally Posted by logicuk

Sweet cant wait for 1.52

Will do my best to give an updated version with most feedback implemented by Saturday 30th - 08 - 2008.

[tekguru]

Sounds great, glad to have you back in action!

[jGas]

i'm not able to display the images!

i've uploaded the images to the custom path of images, followed all the advices in the doc, also tried in a new template, unmodified!

i've also tried to disable the thankyou hack

[eak]

I wish to nominate 4 times per month

Ex. First nominate August 1-8
Second nominate August 9-17
Third nominate August 17-24
Last nominate August 24-31

How can I set

Or How to choose a date to start and stop nominate

Sorry For my English langauge

Thanks

[jGas]

Originally Posted by jGas

i'm not able to display the images!

i've uploaded the images to the custom path of images, followed all the advices in the doc, also tried in a new template, unmodified!

i've also tried to disable the thankyou hack

i'm sorry..maybe i've found a problem...it works in all forums except the forum where only mods and admins can enter!

[J98680Bxxxxx]

Originally Posted by eak

I wish to nominate 4 times per month

Ex. First nominate August 1-8
Second nominate August 9-17
Third nominate August 17-24
Last nominate August 24-31

How can I set

Or How to choose a date to start and stop nominate

Sorry For my English langauge

Thanks

Just use the default cycle time: "Weekly". It makes life easier for all of us.