Integration with vBulletin - YAFB - Yay! Another Facebook Bridge

This is not just a "port" for vBulletin 4 of this modification, this is the next version of the modification which support both vBulletin 4 and vBulletin 3 family

IMPORTANT: FILE ISSUES HERE: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletinfacebook/issues/list (require a Google Account)

Yay! Another Facebook Bridge 3.3.2
Tested to work with vBulletin 3.7.x and 3.8.x (3.6.x requires some manual edit, contact me for detail instruction)
Tested to work with vBulletin 4.0 (use different .xml import file)
Please note: this product requires PHP5. If you get weird error messages, please check if you PHP version is still 4 (which is very old and you should change to PHP5 as soon as possible). Also, MySQL 5 is strongly recommended

[WHAT IS IT?]
There are many vBulletin - Facebook bridge out there but installing is always the problem for most of forum owner. So I decided to build this product from scratch and provide you the ability to install this Facebook Bridge into your forum in 10 minutes. The detail install instruction can be found below (under the Feature section). A few technical notes: This product uses Facebook Connect to maintance connection between vBulletin forums and complicated (and awesome) Facebook servers. All most everything is automatically done by the script, even the Administrators don't need to do any manual editing (yeah, I'm talking about manual templates editing, you WON'T need to edit templates each time you implement a new style). Once again, most of everything is options which can be enabled/disabled via AdminCP or UserCP interface. All possible type of caching is use to improve performance and reduce heavy PHP load on server side or javascript load on client side. Well, it's quite a long paragraph for introducing. Let's make it work!

[SEE IT IN ACTION]
Screencast:
1. Installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ComjeipReE4
2. Connecting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7m85O_iX70
3. Posting and Notifications: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBwwiffLvJ8
Demo board:
vBulletin 3.8: http://daohoangson.com/vb38
vBulletin 4: http://daohoangson.com/vb40
Authentication Username: demo. Password: demo.

[MAIN FEATURE]
*** Damn easy to install!
1. Loaded with long list of actions/notifications: posting thread, posting reply, rating thread, sending pm, sending visitor message, uploading image (avatar/profile picture), uploading pictures, comment on pictures. This list are designed to be expandable easily later by me or other people who loves to develope this product (well, if you do, contact me right now!)
2. Ability to quick register with Facebook credential but Administrator can disable this function via AdminCP. Facebook proxied email addresses are handled completely and vBulletin can send email without any problems (of course, the member must grant the Email extend permission). There is a setting in AdminCP to disallow Facebook proxied email addresses also for boards that need email explicitly
3. Ability to auto login with Facebook session (Administrator can turn this on or off in AdminCP and members can enable or disable this feature on their accounts either)
4. Other abilities: Display a profile block on vBulletin member page. Display a wall tab/box on Facebook profile page. Synchronize avatar from Facebook.
5. [AdminCP] Administrator can "edit" template bundle easily. Actually the old template will be deactivated, the new template will be registered and then all action associated with the old template with be updated with the new template bundle id. Oops, why you need to care about all of it? I did it for you already! Just go the the editing page and click Edit. Yay! All done
6. [AdminCP] Staffs can manage connected users and see basic information about them (including granted permissions)
7. [AdminCP] Administrator can decide to: migrate connected users from other products to YAFB, restrict private forums from being posted to Facebook, view detail log of YAFB in action, send notifications to connected users
*. [Experimental] I have added a fun feature that generate the Fans List, the photo will be posted to new thread with friend tagged (if available). The main purpose of this bonus feature is to demostrate the ability of the bridge. If you have an idea, contact me and I will implement it if I can
*. [Experimental] Friend Inviting functionality is added. Access from UserCP > Facebook Bridge > Invite Friends

[CHANGE LOG]
Version 3.3.2 (released on Jun 10, 2010): Register On-the-fly issue with vBulletin 3.8.4 fixed
Version 3.3.1 (released on Jun 08, 2010): Bug fixes and Migration for vBulletin 4.0.3
Version 3.3 (released on Apr 06, 2010): Auto login related features added. User experience reached a new higher level!

[NEW INSTALLATION]
*. Upload all files/folders in folder "upload" into your forum root (Please upload before importing product)
1. Import Product:
1.1. Go to AdminCP
1.2. Plugins & Products ~> Manage Products ~> Add/Import Product:
1.2.1. Browse to the .xml file (use product-yafb.xml for vBulletin 3 and product-yafb_vb4.xml for vBulletin 4)
1.2.2. Click Import

2. Fill the settings:
2.1. Go to AdminCP
2.2. vBulletin Options ~> vBulletin Options ~> Yay! Another Facebook Bridge
2.2. Create a Facebook Application if you haven't had one for your forum. Refer to the Creating Facebook Application below if you don't know how to do it
2.3. Fill the API key and Secret into the approriate fields. You can leave the Template fields untouch (the will be filled automatically). If you want to use the Account Reclamation feature, please place http://domain.com/forums/register.php?do=fbb_reclaim into Account Reclamation URL field. With other fields, it's your decision to made
2.4. Click Save and you are done!

2.* Creating Facebook Application:
2.*.1. Go to Facebook Developer > Create Application page http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php (login if you didn't)
2.*.2. Enter the Application Name. Suggestion: Put your forum name here. Don't forget to tick the Agree radiobox and then click Save Changes
2.*.3. Now you can get your API Key and Secret (that are needed in step 2.3)
2.*.4. And go to the Connect tab, fill your forum url into Connect URL, fill your domain into Base Domain.
2.*.5. You are done with required information. But you can go through other tab and enter more detail about your forum, your application. I suggest putting a nice icon, banner into it. Happy customizing!

[UPGRADING]
Just upload overwrite files/folders then reimport the xml file. Do not forget to check "Yes" under "Allow Overwrite" to upgrade

[CONFLICT]
Since this product interfere with the registration procedure, I have found some other plugins/products that conficts with this product. Below is the full list of known confict and action taken to resolve the issue
No Spam (Human Verification): Temporary disabled during Facebook registration
vMail (Email Verification): Temporary disabled during Facebook registration

[OTHER PLUGINS/PRODUCTS]
I have developed an easy to use options/permissions system that allow other plugins/products to add it's actions into this bridge and let the forum members experience a whole new era of connections. I did a small demostration with my kBank System (which is a money system with award/thank functionality and a useful hiding feature) and it runs pretty well. If you are interested in testing kBank in action with YAFB, contact me. If you are a developer who wants to integrate your plugins/products with this Bridge, contact me either! You are all welcome
*Also available: Publishing Blog (vBBlog) to Facebook [New! Updated on Jan 10th, 2010]


[KNOWN ISSUES]
FILE HERE: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletinfacebook/issues/list (require a Google Account)

[Zaiaku]

Recap for people who aren't searching through the thread.

Before posting problems make sure you are using the latest version. Version 3.2.1

Everyone concerned about Runbox
Just incase everyone starts wondering about this runbox thing. Don't worry your members aren't being signed up to anything else. As going through the code the plugin doesn't seem to be active. Possible something for future use. BBR-APBT has already stated that the plugin can be deactivate without hurting anything. Just go to your plugins page in your Admin CP, CTRL+F runbox, deactive the 1 plugin, save and your done.

Everyone who's not seeing buttons and the auto template edits
If you not aware auto-template edits usually depend on something that is already present in the target template. If you have altered a template there is a chance that you made have remove something so that the auto-template edit doesn't take place. Always try in a default template to make sure.

Everyone with errors in Edit Avatar page
BBR-APBT posted the fix here.

Different email address issues
I have members that are different email address and has not been a problem. If you did a test account try clearing cache/cookies. Remember to do a total uninstall of the app on facebook. Please remember facebook changes coding like the weather.

Connection/Notification Issues
OK this seems to be a browser issue. As I've tried the mod in many browsers. Remember facebook isn't too found of firefox many times. Google chrome works great but sometimes doesn't get sent to facebook. Any problems I have had in this area has been on the facebook site.

Auto changes in settings
I have one member that avatar gets sync when she decides not to have it sync. She'll turn off the feature and about a week later it turns itself bacc on. I have no being able to reproduce this but I think this issue comes up with 2 or more people using the same computer. So say PersonA has their own account on your forum and facebook and then Person be has their own accout on your forum and facebook, and they using the same computer account this problem can arise.

[Rob F]

Excellent post Zaiaku

Currently playing about with this on my test site and was getting some strange errors and actions ... thanks to your post I now realise this was because I was using Firefox at the time. Have now tried doing the same actions in IE and its working exactly as it should

[RedTrinity]

Originally Posted by Zaiaku

Try turning all all your mods except for this one and see if the problem is still there.

That was the first thing I did, to work out if it was a mod causing it... and sure enough with the plugins disabled, the forum worked fine. Turned them on, the problem was back again. So I started trying to narrow it down to the problem one.

Turning off just the Facebook mod alone fixed it in the end.

[BBR-APBT]

Originally Posted by RedTrinity

That was the first thing I did, to work out if it was a mod causing it... and sure enough with the plugins disabled, the forum worked fine. Turned them on, the problem was back again. So I started trying to narrow it down to the problem one.

Turning off just the Facebook mod alone fixed it in the end.

What they meant was to turn off all plugins and leave only the facebook modification active.
Then see if you have the problem. If you do not have the issue with only facebook modification active, Then it is another mod interfering and not the facebook modification.



P.S. Great post Zaiaku

[RedTrinity]

Originally Posted by BBR-APBT

What they meant was to turn off all plugins and leave only the facebook modification active.
Then see if you have the problem. If you do not have the issue with only facebook modification active, Then it is another mod interfering and not the facebook modification.

Ahhh..... gotcha Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try it tomorrow (about to head to bed lol) and let you know how I go!

[Nadeemjp]

hey mrpaint, i am having errors, alot of errors whenever someone accesses the albums.
i am posting one of the errors as below:

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.1:

Invalid SQL:

			SELECT
				a.userid, a.attachmentid, a.state, a.contentid, a.filename, fd.userid as uploader, fd.extension, fd.filedataid, fd.thumbnail_dateline AS dateline, fd.thumbnail_filesize AS filesize, at.extension, at.mimetype, album.state AS albumstate, album.albumid, album.userid AS albumuserid, pbp.requirement AS privacy_requirement, a.fbbypass, a.fbpid
				
			FROM attachment AS a
			INNER JOIN filedata AS fd ON (a.filedataid = fd.filedataid) LEFT JOIN attachmenttype AS at ON (at.extension = fd.extension) LEFT JOIN album AS album ON (album.albumid = a.contentid) LEFT JOIN profileblockprivacy AS pbp ON (pbp.userid = a.userid AND pbp.blockid = 'albums')
			
			WHERE a.attachmentid = 282 AND a.contenttypeid = 8;

MySQL Error   : Unknown column 'a.fbbypass' in 'field list'
Error Number  : 1054
Request Date  : Sunday, January 31st 2010 @ 04:56:15 AM
Error Date    : Sunday, January 31st 2010 @ 04:56:15 AM
Script        : http://www.familybunker.com/forums/attachment.php?albumid=150&attachmentid=282t&thumb=1&dl=
Referrer      : http://www.familybunker.com/forums/members/aamir.html
IP Address    : xxxx
Username      : xxx
Classname     : vB_Database_MySQLi
MySQL Version : 5.1.30

with 3.8.4 there wasnt such error.
cna you cure it?

[Zaiaku]

Originally Posted by Nadeemjp

hey mrpaint, i am having errors, alot of errors whenever someone accesses the albums.
i am posting one of the errors as below:

Database error in vBulletin 4.0.1:

Invalid SQL:

			SELECT
				a.userid, a.attachmentid, a.state, a.contentid, a.filename, fd.userid as uploader, fd.extension, fd.filedataid, fd.thumbnail_dateline AS dateline, fd.thumbnail_filesize AS filesize, at.extension, at.mimetype, album.state AS albumstate, album.albumid, album.userid AS albumuserid, pbp.requirement AS privacy_requirement, a.fbbypass, a.fbpid
				
			FROM attachment AS a
			INNER JOIN filedata AS fd ON (a.filedataid = fd.filedataid) LEFT JOIN attachmenttype AS at ON (at.extension = fd.extension) LEFT JOIN album AS album ON (album.albumid = a.contentid) LEFT JOIN profileblockprivacy AS pbp ON (pbp.userid = a.userid AND pbp.blockid = 'albums')
			
			WHERE a.attachmentid = 282 AND a.contenttypeid = 8;

MySQL Error   : Unknown column 'a.fbbypass' in 'field list'
Error Number  : 1054
Request Date  : Sunday, January 31st 2010 @ 04:56:15 AM
Error Date    : Sunday, January 31st 2010 @ 04:56:15 AM
Script        : http://www.familybunker.com/forums/attachment.php?albumid=150&attachmentid=282t&thumb=1&dl=
Referrer      : http://www.familybunker.com/forums/members/aamir.html
IP Address    : xxxx
Username      : xxx
Classname     : vB_Database_MySQLi
MySQL Version : 5.1.30

with 3.8.4 there wasnt such error.
cna you cure it?

What version of the mod are you using?
Can you verify in myphpadmin there's that column is in your db?

[vexvegaz]

quick question guys... in the forum manager option where "Page ID to publish feed when new thread posted", how do i set it up so it posts to a group page wall or application page wall instead of the owner wall?

tnks in advance

[BBR-APBT]

Originally Posted by vexvegaz

quick question guys... in the forum manager option where "Page ID to publish feed when new thread posted", how do i set it up so it posts to a group page wall instead of the group owner wall?


tnks in advance

I was wanting to publish it to a Facebook Page instead of my profile. But that will inquire a bit more coding. I did not suggest it yet because it is best to have 100% working code before adding more features to the code. More features = more bugs to iron out.

How ever I am looking at writing a addon to this modification to do just that. Since Mrpaint gave permission to write addons for anyone. I figured I would take that up.

[vexvegaz]

hey BBR, glad to hear that its not a setting i missed somewhere. and thank you for adding to this addon. since your thinking of doing a addon can you also add an option to post in group page too? that would be great.

thanks again BBR