News & Email Community Bulletin Generator

Updated 30 Nov 2001
Fixed a typo and Birthday Date Bug
---------------------------------------------

Here's a new version of the Community Bulletin + HTML
With the changes and the inclusion of the news section I have
titled it News and Email Community Bulletin Generator.

Here's a list of the changes/modifications that were made

Include News Articles (Threads) in bulletin.
Remove vbCode from news articles before sending email.
User email options include HTML or Text.
Forums are sorted by displayorder.
Category forums do not contain yes/no option.
Private forums marked as no by default.
Fix lasteventdate bug.
Modify admin/index.php installation instructions for version 2.2.x and version 2.0.x.
Include Admin CP edit user option to include Receive Community Email Bulletin and Type (HTML or TEXT).
Remove user password, send link instead.
Preview of HTML and TEXT email.
Post to Forum can be HTML or TEXT
Modified a few mysql SELECT * queries to include only necessary fields.
Cosmetic changes
......

To install
Copy the commbull.php file to the admin/ directory.
WIth a web browser access the commbull.php file.

Example: http: //yoursite.com/forums/admin/commbull.php

Follow the additional installation instructions.

This hack is based on Community Bulletin Generator by Kier
and additional Community Bulletin Generator functions by Kevin

Additional: This hack has only been tested on my machines. I don't have the ability to send emails
to a lot of users so this has not been tested either.

Remember: BACKUP and TEST.
213

[christec]

I can not replicate this problem on my machine. I'll keep looking though. I did notice that the thread (in pic) "The Future of Opticianry" had 83 replies and only 41 views. Is this correct. Could there be a problem with the database? Not sure, I just noticed that.

[Steve Machol]

The reason for the discrepancy in that thread is that thread when I was still running UBB. Since switching to vB it hasn't had many views.

[Steve Machol]

Any progress on figuring out the problem I'm having? I need to send out my monthly newsletter in the next couple of days and would like to use this. However I can't use it if it picks old threads.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[christec]

After carefully looking at the dates you are choosing I am seeing (see pic) that you choose Jan 11, 2001. Every thread in the bulletin (see pic) is after that date. The format is day, month, year. Not month, day, year.

[Steve Machol]

OMG, I feel so stupid! I was thinking like an American and assumed the first field was the month not the day. Thanks!

[FWC]

Originally posted by smachol
I was thinking like an American and assumed the first field was the month not the day. Thanks!

I hate that when that happens.

[DarkReaper]

Originally posted by DarkReaper
Would it be possible to have it remember settings? That would help a LOT.

It would save time, as the settings wouldn't have to be re-configured every time...

[Sadie Frost]

(Edit: Answered my own stupid question lol)

This looks great, btw!

[Ninth Dimension]

This is a fantastic hack, i'm very very impressed with it, I do however have some questions (i'm sorry if these have already been asked)

First off, I would like to add the ability to change the users commbull details in the control panel, but the text file included in the zip file with the instructions on it is all squshed up, with no line breaks making it very hard to read.

second of all, I'm really interested in knowing how I might be able to edit the colours of the html email so they fit into my site better, how would I do this?

Edit OK, you can ignore the above, i've done it now

Cool script.

[Ninth Dimension]

This is a fantastic hack, however i've just noticed a problem with it. The Plain text mail that is sent out is fine, but the HTML email has a problem, none of the new lines (in the features news articles bit at the top) are converted to <br>'s in it, which means that it is all delered at one big block of text, which can be hard to read.

Now i'm no expert on this, but I should image this can be solved by using the nl2br() function, any ideas?

Thanx in advance, cool script.