Updated Community Bulletin Generator

SPECIAL NOTE for those upgrading to vBulletin v2.0.0: You will need to make changes to the default RC3 files, as you did with the previous version files. The files are member.php and admin/index.php. After you upgrade to RC3, the link in your Admin CP will no longer be there. In order to find instructions for upgrading, go to http://yoursite/forum/admin/commbull.php and click the link for Instructions. Make these changes to your files, and reupload the two modified files. The link will then be back in your Admin CP.
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With Kier's permission, I am rereleasing this hack. It has been updated, but most of the credit still goes to Kier. I just added a couple things. Namely, I took Kier's starting point for birthdays and reworked it a bit so they can now be included. I also added 3 new sets of Latest Threads input, and added a sorting option to get topics with no replies (aka "Virgin" topics).
I also added a box to change the section separation character (Kier had it as a "-", now you can change it) and the list item character (Kier had it as an "o"). There are also instructions on how to integrate it into your Admin CP.

To install, just upload it to your Admin directory and go to it in a browser.

If you had previously installed Kier's original version, simply overwrite the commbull.php file on your server, and make this change to your admin/index.php file:
Find

<a href="email.php?s=<?php echo $session[sessionhash]; ?>"> Email users </a><br>

and right below it, add

<a href="commbull.php?s=<?php echo $session[sessionhash]; ?>"> Send Community Bulletin </a><br>

Upload your admin/index.php file and go to your Admin CP. You should see the new option under "Users" on the left-hand side.

Hack version: 0.98

Changes since v0.97: Fixed a stupid bug that screwed up the script when you posted a copy to a forum and that forum didn't count posts toward post totals.

Changes since v0.96: Fixed a minor bug that was causing large problems when the number of emails to send was more than it was set to per page.

Changes since v0.95: Minor cosmetic changes; fixed "copy post to board" function so it actually works; added option to exclude threads from being used more than once (if doing multiple blocks); fixed sorting by most replies/most views so they don't return threads with 0 replies or 1 view, respectively;

Changes since v0.93: Option to post a copy of the email to your board, to a forum you specify using a username your specify (If you do this, there is a function to exclude certain parts (for example, the user info section that details username/password etc) and it parses URLs so the message on your board has hyperlinks to the threads/polls/etc); various cosmetic upgrades; minor little things here and there; fixed/changed "Only include threads that have been started or replied to since this date?" so it doesn't defeat the purpose of specifying a date.

For version: v2.0.0

Info for Clean Install -------
Files needed: commbull.php

Files to edit: admin/index.php, member.php

Templates to edit: none

Instructions are in the script itself. When you first run it, it will tell you what you need to do. If upgrading from Kier's original version, see instructions above.
End Info for Clean Install -------

Info for Upgrading from v0.90, v0.91, v0.93, v0.94, v0.95, v0.96, v0.97 ------
Files needed: commbull.php

Files to edit: none

Instructions: Upload the commbull.php file from the commbull98.zip file.
End Info for Upgrading -------

Please do not bug Kier about this hack!
Please also DO NOT contact me via AIM, ICQ, PM, or email about this hack. Post your question/problem here and I will try to help you.

[LuBi]

I'm going to post in the request forum and we'll see if anyone wants to help us out here. Can you guys just post in here a list of features you would like to see. Thanks!

when you say.. save settings (I have not downloaded or installed this yet) do you mean the settings for what is emailed out and everything.... ?

I would not personally think it would be all that tuff to do..

[LuBi]

Well Brad not like what's sent. In this code there are setting you have to set before the mail goes out. We want to be able to make it so it remembers or saves these settings.

[LuBi]

Just posted a request to add those save features to this hack. Tube please add this to your own hack to make things easier you do such a good job updating hacks.
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=28107

Can anyone addon to this hack Updated Community Bulletin Generator we need it badly. I would rather have tube himself do it but he hasn't answered any of our requests so it's out there for you guys. thanks from all of us who requested this addon to the hack.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...threadid=16290

[SirSteve]

Another welcomed addition would be to make it easy to distinguish categories and forums. I have several categories with the same forum names (example would be general news for a toys section another classified section) but I don't want to include the classified section and it is hard to tell which is which. Is this written clearly?

[Afterburner]

thx great hack, works fine in 2.0.3

[SirSteve]

It's not saving the option for my users:

Change "receive community updates" from yes, to no.

[FWC]

What a great hack. I got home from work today and had an email from the Webmaster talking about site upgrades. Amongst other things he lamented the lack of a newsletter feature we used to have when we were on the now defunct Rivals network. I sent back an email telling him to give me a few minutes. Then I sent him a Community Bulletin.

[Steve Machol]

I just got around to installing this hack Very nice job tubedogg!

I have one minor problem with dates though. Here's a excerpt from a test bulletin I sent:

Title: "TIPS ON DISPENSING" (posted 01-18-2038 by harry a saake)
o 238 replies, 2473 views, last post: 03:58 PM, 10-06-2001 by ph
o http://www.optiboard.com/forums/show...&threadid=1034

The posted date on this should actually be 10-29-2000. This exact date error (01-18-2038) is repeated for every thread that was originally started in my UBB forums prior to upgrading to vB.

Any idea how to fix this?

[Steve Machol]

I found another problem in the statistics:

STATISTICS:
we have had the following activity since 10-01-2001
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o 37 new members
o 1,866 new threads
o 577 new posts
o 3 new polls

There are only 81 new threads so far this month - not 1866. The posts and members are correct though.