Dynamic Announcements: Programmable Forum Home Announcement/Message with conditionals

(This hacks works with both 3.5.x and 3.6.x)

This hack allows you to post powerful dynamic announcements (changing according to different conditions) on forum home page. It differs from vbulletin's default announcements in 2 ways:

• The announcement is displayed in forum home page, not inside thread view. So visitors will read them on home page without clicking any links.
• The Hack's announcements are not static: ie. they can be powerfully programmed to display different texts according to different conditions.

For instance you can tell "why they should register" if visitor is a guest, but if he is a member with 0 posts, you can tell him why he should start posting etc.! All in one announcement! Everybody will see the relevant text according to his status. (This is the hack everybody keeps asking in the TheAdminZone.com whose using the hack for members with 0 and 1 posts.)


This version of the hack is for vbulletin 3.5.x and 3.6.x (vb 3.0.x version is here and vb 2.x version is here. 3.5 version is coded as a plugin so you can install it WITHOUT modifying vb PHP files. It is easily installed in 2 steps through your admin cp.

Basic Usage of This Hack: You can set a text in your Admin CP and it's displayed in forum home to all users. Alternatively if you want, you can set another text as a popup announcement and it is displayed to all as a pop up announcement (it can't be killed with popup killers software!)

Advanced Usage : With conditionals you can set different texts/notifications/messages/announcements and they will be displayed if your pre-configured condition applies. This allows you to create powerful announcements/private messages/texts which address their receipt only if a certain condition is met. Some examples:

You can set to show an announcement in forum home IF:

1. user is X
2. user's usergroup is Y
3. user has X posts or has more than Y posts but less than Z posts
4. his last visit time was X days ago
5. today is X, hour is between Y and Z, day is wednesday, month is Y, week is month's 2nd week, today is user's birthday
6. etc.

Here is a Screenshot from a general table announcement.
Here is a Screenshot from a popup announcement.

Some Features:

• Coded as a vbulletin pluggin. Can be installed easily without hacking PHP files.
• It's Admin CP integrated
• Smiley, BBCode, HTML, IMG tags are supported in announcements.
• You can address your users with their usernames inside announcements (Use $bbuserinfo[username] variable)
• Announcements are displayed directly in Forum Home so users are forced to read them.
• The Conditionals help you to design powerful and ever changing announcements/private messages/forum home notifications.
• Poupup announcement can not be killed by popup killer software

Hacks of Hack:
* For CMPS Integration see here
* French Translation by Allan : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=143
* Nested Conditionals by dc3dreamer : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=175
* Hack Annoucement appears in all vb pages:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...498#post911498



IMPORTANT FOR 3.x USERS:
If you were already using this hack in 3.0.x, remember to do 2 things:
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Follow this instructions to remove the remnants of 3.0.x hack.
AFTER YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Go to your admin cp / styles, find these 3 styles:
dfh_announcement
dfh_announcement_headercode
dfh_announcement_popup
and REVERT THEM so that your new templates that comes with 3.5 version will apply.

About vb4.x version:

I didn't consider porting this hack to vb4 because vbulletin has now a VERY SIMILAR feature in vb4 called "NOTICES". You can find it under your admin cp/Notices submenu/Notice Manager. It is not as powerful as this hack as this hack allows you to use any kind of conditional to produce your announcement but it is more user friendly because you don't need to deal with conditional syntax, you simply build your announcement (notice) with menus
If you install the hack, click INSTALL, thank you..

Logician \\=^))

[Logician]

Originally Posted by TitanJeff

Love this hack but wanted to ask if the color red can be changed on the pop up. Also, I have a spacing issue with it on the front page with more space above it than below. I'd like it to be even if possible. http://www.gotitans.com/goForum/

Thanks for a great addition to my forum!

Edit template "dfh_announcement_popup" and you'll see the part that says "background-color: red;". Your other spacing problem can adjusted by playing the style code in the same line.

[ggiersdorf]

GREAT MOD WOW! thanks but I have one question can I some how change the timing between postings for groups? Like the Guest one I want Every time they visit the home page, but Only want to send a message to Admins every 24 hours say etc, etc

can the interval be added into the condition statements?

Thanks in Advance

[secret1980]

is it possible to bring the pop up in the middle of the page ?? it comes in the middle for opera & firefox but it comes in the left side for IE.

btw great hack clicked install

[phonexpo]

Installed, thanks ;-)

[kushtiUK]

Originally Posted by breaume

For all you VBA CMPS users I have this working on the CMPS home Page. Here is what I did. I am no coder but it works on my site. I also add step 2 to forum display and showthread.

1. in the Plugin System -> Plugin Manager
move Dynamic Forum Home Announcement Hack by Logician from forumhome_complete to Global_start hook location

2. edit adv_portal template just the same as in the forumhome template.
Replace

</head>
<body>
$header
$navbar

with

$dfh_announcement_headercode
</head>
<body>
$dfh_announcement_popup
$header
$navbar
$dfh_announcement

3. ADmincp -> VBA CMPS -> Default Settings -> Portal Output Global Variables

Add the following
dfh_announcement
dfh_announcement_popup
dfh_announcement_headercode

and Save

I have tried this by following all your instructions but it does not show on my main page - has anyone else found this problem?

[dreck]

Originally Posted by breaume

For all you VBA CMPS users I have this working on the CMPS home Page. Here is what I did. I am no coder but it works on my site. I also add step 2 to forum display and showthread.

1. in the Plugin System -> Plugin Manager
move Dynamic Forum Home Announcement Hack by Logician from forumhome_complete to Global_start hook location

2. edit adv_portal template just the same as in the forumhome template.
Replace

</head>
<body>
$header
$navbar

with

$dfh_announcement_headercode
</head>
<body>
$dfh_announcement_popup
$header
$navbar
$dfh_announcement

3. ADmincp -> VBA CMPS -> Default Settings -> Portal Output Global Variables

Add the following
dfh_announcement
dfh_announcement_popup
dfh_announcement_headercode

and Save

Very nice!!
I love having the forum display and showthread.

Thanks, dreck

[blue6995]

I can get the Forum Home Table Announcement to appear but I can't get the pop-up announcement to work!

[Living in music]

Hi! Anyone can help me to do this? When users enter and login to forum homepage,popup will appear but only one time.Users won't see popup again when they're back to forum homepage.This will help to avoid reading popup a lot of time which users usually feel displeased.I think if it's successful,this mod will be perfect.On the other hand,anyone knows how to make popup move along scroll bar?

I love this mod thanks.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by Living in music

Hi! Anyone can help me to do this? When users enter and login to forum homepage,popup will appear but only one time.Users won't see popup again when they're back to forum homepage.This will help to avoid reading popup a lot of time which users usually feel displeased.I think if it's successful,this mod will be perfect.

There is a hack setting for this so that you can configure it as you like: admin cp/vb options/Dynamic Forum Announcements/ Popup Frequency (In Hour)

[folkish]

Originally Posted by bang

I have the vBShout hack installed, and the accouncement box appears under the shoutbox. is there a way to move it directly under the navbar, above the shoutbox?

I'd like to know the answer to this as well.

Installed, btw. Great hack.