PayPal Donations For vBulletin 3.5.0

Sorry Guys...I have disappeared from vB coding completely for the time being...RL is paying me $35/hour to ignore it lol. Hope you understand why I haven't been around...

Paypal Donations For vBulletin 3.5
Version 2.02b

Hack Provided and coded by )O( Cloudrunner )O( of The Noble Pagan.
Release version: 2.02b
Release Date: 03 July 2005

Change Log

Paypal Donations 2.02

• Fixed Bug introduced with the installer for the tables from 2.01
• Added Who's Online Support Plugins For Donations Script

Paypal Donations 2.01

• Fixed a small bug in the display of the top / last donors on the donate page.

Paypal Donations 2.00

• Ported system over to vBulletin 3.50
• Added ability for the installer to install template edits automatically
• System installs plugins automatically
• Fixed some minor bugs that were present in 1.07 of the 3.0.7 vBulletin donations system.

Special Thanks

Special Thanks goes to the following people, without their support, this would never have happened:

dsboyce8624
guvner
SLeeeper
And all of the Alpha Testers that helped out with this Hack!

I couldn't have done it without you all, Thank you!

)O( Cloudrunner )O(

What Paypal Donations Is:

Paypal Donations is a complete system that controls donations and how they are received via backend interfacing between your vBulletin server and Paypal's payment gateway server. The beauty of this marriage of servers is quite simply automation of the donation process as well as security of the transactions for both you, the administrator, and your users. With the Paypal donations system installed on your forums, you will be able to bring in that much needed income to not only keep your forums alive, but also to help defer costs of doing so to the users of your site without having to bug everyone and beg for money.

This seamless integration of Paypal as your backend payment processor not only provides your user with a well known and safe payment processor, but you are saved the hassle of opening a merchant account with your banking institution as well as saves you time in the process as it takes only a few short minutes to sign up with Paypal if you are not already an account holder there.

System Requirements

OS: vBulletin 3.5 (if you are running this already, then your server has the required installation, GD libraries are required, as well as CURL capabilities for this system to work)

Things To Do Before Installation

Direct File Edits To vB Resident Files: 1 (needed to group templates in AdminCP)
File Uploads: 34 (Of which 18 will be deleted after installation, leaving a total of 16 Files on your server)
Direct Database Queries: None, the installer does these for you
Direct Plugin Installation: None, the installer does these for you
Direct Template Modification: None, the installer installs all new templates, and modifies the resident templates as needed

The uninstaller will remove all modifications (to include the templates) should you decide to remove the system from your server.

How To Install / Upgrade Paypal Donations

Installation and Upgrading are as easy as a human like me could make it. Simply upload all the files from the archive to your server keeping the folder hierarchy intact and then point your browser to the installation file. On most servers it will be one of the following:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/admincp/donations_install.php
• http://www.yourdomain.com/forum/admi...ns_install.php

Just follow the prompts from there folks, the installer does all the database, template, plugin, phrasing, and settings automatically for you!

If you ever decide to remove the system, just upload the install files and folder again and run the installer and choose uninstall. The uninstaller will remove any and all modifications that it did to your files, database, and templates automatically as well. Its as easy as you can get!

Time to install: less than five minutes depending on your upload speed.

Steps To Perform After Installation

1. You must make sure that you have either a Business or Premiere account with Paypal.
   1. If you do not, then you will need to upgrade your Paypal account to that level before this system will work.
2. You must have Paypal's IPN (Instant Payment Notification) turned on in your Paypal Profile.
   1. You do not need to have it pointing at any particular file for this system to work as the system will tell Paypal where to send the IPN to credit your users and notify you of the transaction.
3. You will need to run through the donations settings at the end of the installer and make sure that you have all the required information in there.
4. Please note that this system can be placed into test mode (default setting is ON when system is first installed).
   1. This setting tells the system whether to speak with the real Paypal Server for transactions or with Paypal's Sandbox (testing) server. If you wish to test the system before going live you will need to have access to Paypal's Sandbox server, you can sign up for access there at: http://developer.paypal.com.
5. You will need to input your Paypal Account Email into the settings
6. You will need to input the full URL to your donate.php file so that your users can make it back to your site after payment
7. You will need to input the full URL to your ppverify.php file so that Paypal can send your IPNs to you and your system can process the information and give your users credit for the donation

License

Originally Posted by Brandon J. Briggs aka. Cloudrunner

As the original author of the Paypal Hacks for vBulletin 3.0.x and 3.5.x I give full authorization to modify, recode, compile and/or reverse engineer the paypal donation hacks to any and all fully licensed members of vBulletin.org. I also give permission to fully distribute any derivative works that are created due to this authorization without need of providing credit or other means of recompense.

I am releasing this authorization in the hopes that someone will be able to carry on the work that was begun.

Final words

You will need to add a link somewhere in your navigation system for vBulletin pointing your users to the donations page (if you installed the vBadvanced Module then you have a link on the home page, but you might want to add one in the nav bar as well), as well as setting up your paypal account to give IPN responses to you, you can do this in your Paypal Profile under Instant Payment Notification.

To play in PayPal's Sandbox you will need to be registered with their developer network and setup a few sandbox accounts to play with the sandbox properly. I have throughly tested the sandbox functionality, and it is working until they decide to change coding standards again.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy this hack, Please feel free to send feedback to tnp@noblepagan.com !

Thank you!

)O( Cloudrunner )O(

P.s. Should you feel the need to donate to me in thanks, I will not stop you , in fact I will say thank you and that your support is greatly appreciated. If you do donate to me for this hack, I will give the recognition here as well as on The Noble Pagan. You can find my donations page here (also works as a demo site should you feel the need to check it out):

The Noble Pagan Donation Page

[djsydeburnz]

I wanted to type something in response to some recent remarks that were made. There are alot of us folks that know just enough about this stuff to be able to make a few edits and get things working. We look to a 'community' like this to be able to make changes to our sites without having to learn all the coding necessary. If we all knew how to do it, sites like this would be non-existent. No offence to this site, but if everyone knew how to do it, they would be doing it, not looking for add-on, hacks, etc.

I think one of the things you see on boards like this is that back in the day, when things were new and exciting, everyone liked helping each other out. Now that things have been around and vbulletin is gaining popularity, you have people that have grown tired of helping others and hang out just to pounce on any opportuntiy to let you know just how much you do not know.

I came over to vbulletin from postnuke for the very reason I am speaking about here. While I know there are lots of good people involved, they just cant help everyone.

Maybe I jumped the gun upgrading to 3.5.1, but it seemed the right thing to do.

I know there are individuals out there that know what I am talking about. I also know there are people that have found out a way to use this 'mod' without any errors. Heck, most of the errors that people post on here are basic php/sql errors that alot of folks on here can pinpoint the cause. It would be nice if anyone out there that has had problems and finally got it working could share their experiences.

sorry for the rant.

[SCRIPT3R]

i agree... and as i've said before, i'm more then willing to help as much as i can. just ask. but may i also suggest reading through the thread a few times to make sure your question hasn't already been answered... even i made that mistake. i've alredy been able to install this on several forums for other people, so it's a very usuable hack. and feel free to check it out fully-functional at my forum.

[Rich]

Hello,

in everyone's defense... have you any idea how many of the mods here don't have that supported button checked... even though they're supported - a ton! have you also noted that this particular mod/hack/whatever DOES have a list of

Quote:
Supporters / CoAuthors
dsboyce8624
guvner
SLeeeper

That means that DURING DEVELOPMENT of this modification, those users helped out with the core code of the modifications and reported errors that had been corrected for the version of VB that the mod was written for.

i guess i could also point out again that the majority of coders here DO NOT accurately check any of those side boxes. notice this hack DOES NOT have the Beta button check although it clearly is. to a new vb.org user or someone new to this particular thread/hack... i can see this as very confusing.

This is NOT confusding. BETA is NOT checked because this modification was not a beta WHEN IT WAS RELEASED! When this modification was released, it worked fine. The only thing you needed to change was the vBulletin to read vbulletin in the xml. When this modification was released, it was for vB Version: 3.5.0 Beta 4 and it wasn't a beta. Everything worked for that version!

It doesn't matter how many coders actually click the supported box. If it is not checked, they have stated that they do not intend on supporting the modification. If they have time, and they do still support the mod, that is a bonus. If life happens, and they walk away from the mod leaving it unsupported, they are not doing anything they didn't already say they would do.

I don't know cloudrunner, so I am not trying to defend his actions on a personal level. I am however pretty tired of coming to vb.org and seeing people talk trash when the version of vb they are running is not the version the mod was written for and the mod is listed as unsupported.

Look under my name, I am a member. I am not a coder on the level that a lot of these people are. I myself have helped in this thread several times. I would love to see this mod updated to 3.5.2 but I am not expecting it to be because it is listed as unsupported.

Helping in the thread as members is great, but leave the trash talk about the author out. Its old and tiring to read people saying someone abandoned a mod when it is clearly listed as unsupported and was written for a version that is several versions old now.

Before anyone comments on a mod, they need to read and see what version of VB the mod is for and if it is listed as supported. If it is for a different version of Vb and is listed as "unsupported", there is nothing to complain about. This mod WASN"T abandoned. It is several versions old and listed as unsupported.

[MissKalunji]

and it doesnt say that its supported

[djsydeburnz]

i would agree with all of that as well. the biggest problem was that everyone kept asking the same question regarding the xml file when vBulletin just needed to be changed to vbulletin.

i just cant seem to find any info on how to fix my user cp page. whenever you click on 'edit options' i get my header, the left navigation and blank page in the main area with this eror on the top:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home/httpd/vhosts/syde-sho.com/httpdocs/forums/profile.php(2702) : eval()'d code on line 56

i have even uninstalled the mod, but dont know enough about php to know what this is telling me, or how to fix it.

[MissKalunji]

Originally Posted by djsydeburnz

i would agree with all of that as well. the biggest problem was that everyone kept asking the same question regarding the xml file when vBulletin just needed to be changed to vbulletin.

i just cant seem to find any info on how to fix my user cp page. whenever you click on 'edit options' i get my header, the left navigation and blank page in the main area with this eror on the top:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home/httpd/vhosts/syde-sho.com/httpdocs/forums/profile.php(2702) : eval()'d code on line 56

i have even uninstalled the mod, but dont know enough about php to know what this is telling me, or how to fix it.

THe Author replied to that before....search within the thread

Yeah, theres a bit of a problem with the auto install routine, it tries to ammend the modifyoptions template for you, but unfortunately, messes it up a bit.

To add it in yourself in modifyoptions template

find:
Code:
<td><label for="cb_invisible"><input type="checkbox" name="options[invisible]" value="1" id="cb_invisible" $checked[invisible] />$vbphrase[use_invisible_mode]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[invisible]" value="1" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</fieldset>
</if>


add under:
Code:
<!-- DONATIONS -->
<fieldset class="fieldset">
<legend><label for="cb_showdonor">My Donor Status</label></legend>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="$stylevar[formspacer]" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>Shall We Show Your Donor Status To The Public?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><label for="cb_showdonor"><input type="checkbox" name="showdonor" value="1" id="cb_showdonor" $checked[showdonor] />Show My Donor Status To The Public</label></td>
</tr>
</table>
</fieldset>
<!-- END DONATIONS -->


That will give users the option back to display their donor status or not.

[djsydeburnz]

i am pretty sure i checked that thread out and it was just needed if the checkbox wasnt showing up. in my case, none of my edit options are showing. so, i figured i woud uninstall, then reinstall. now i am getting an error when installing that seems to have something to do with the the phrases:

[QUOTE]Database error in vBulletin 3.5.1:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE zvb3_language SET title = title, phrasegroup_ppdonations = 'a:45:{s:19:\"a_special_*****i removed alot of text from the error message to make it fit******$s\";}' WHERE languageid = 1;

MySQL Error : Unknown column 'phrasegroup_ppdonations' in 'field list'
Error Number : 1054
Date : Saturday, December 10th 2005 @ 12:18:58 PM

[djsydeburnz]

well, i found the mistake. apparently in the install, it double up a script. when looking closely at my modify options, under the code i was supposed to fix i saw this:

<if condition="$show['reputationoption']">

<if condition="$show['reputationoption']">
<fieldset class="fieldset">
<legend><label for="cb_showreputation">$vbphrase[show_my_reputation_level]</label></legend>

notice the reputationlevel if statement in there twice. geez. im guessing this is why i was getting errors trying to reinstall as well. two days of grief over something i either did when modifying that file, or it could have happened on the install.

\tips hat to misskalunji

maybe i should be asking you my questions regarding the profile page customization?

[djsydeburnz]

one last question. i tried using that fix for the postbit / postbit_legacy, but forums dont show the 'donor' button to siginify that particular member did donate. was that fix for this particular issue? or just for layout issues? ive put this code in several places tyring to get it to display the donor status of members with no luck:

<!-- DONATIONS -->
<if condition="$post['donor'] == '1'"><if condition="$post['showdonor'] == '1'"><div><a href="$vboptions[bburl]/donate.php"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/donate_donor.gif" border="0"></a></div></if></if>
<!-- END DONATIONS -->

last question as its the only thing left for me to fix

[|oR|Greg]

When I click on a blank donate button, I get the error from Paypal stating "Please enter an amount greater than zero." If I assign the button a dollar amount, it works fine.... anyone?