NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V3.5.0Alpha 1 (21 Jul 2005)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack was originally coded by Gilby for vB2. I modified the hack to work with vB3 and have been maintaining and improving the hack. I have now done the modification for this to work with vB3.5.

The very original hack by Gilby can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15

The vB3 version can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65152

Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files.
No need to manually run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

It is not a must to click "INSTALL" for this hack if you use it, I do try better answering the questions from people who do.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the second post within this thread first. It may be surprising, but it is possible your question is answered in the adminCP NNTP settings.

Please always provide more details about your problem. Examples and debug messages will certainly help. Well, if you don't even try to have some effort to compose your question, the answer you get may also not include much effort.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 21 2005 (release version 3.5.0 Alpha 1)

AdminCP xml file is written by Kadence.

• Ported to work with vB3.5.
• Existing bug fixes.
• Debug message can be sent by email or logged in vB Tast Scheduler.
• Known problem: image attachment thumb nail creation still needs work.
• Needs to be done: Documentation.

Quick installation instruction:
1) Upload files to their correct directory
2) Enter AdminCP, click on NNTP Settings once to install/upgrade. Change settings to your like.
3) Click on NNTP Groups once to install/upgrade.
3a) For new install. Run once
http://www.yourdomain.com/setlastmsg.php

Delete this file afterwards.
If you are upgrading from an older version. There is no need to upload this file. Actually this file should not be there except brand new install.

4)
Manually run in debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

[ka99]

Can someone tell me how to limit the size of the 'from_name' field when importing groups ?

in some posts the size become long and that force the width size when displaying forums list.

Thank you,

[donnacha]

Can anyone give me some pointers in dealing with my problem, described a few posts above (#128)?

I'd very much appreciate it if someone could get me moving in the right direction.

[Neobud]

donnacha, the author of this scrpt is overseas at the moment so it might be some time before you get an educated answer. However, it looks like your site defaults to your home page as its 404 Error page. I suggest you check that all the files included within the zip file are placed exactly where they are meant to be (the file unzips into its correct directory structure).

Read the readme.txt file again. Your error messages suggest that you may not have all the files in the correct location.

I wasn't sure if the "vbdir" part of the example URL is meant to be replaced by the actual path I my forum uses, so, I also tried...

You must always refer to your OWN path to your OWN forums. The example provided is just that - an example! It won't work on your setup.

[blist]

how are you guys automating gateway.php to run?

script seems to be running fine if I manually go the URL with

/gateway.php?debug=1

[limey]

I don't think this has to do with the DC Seo URL Rewrite plugin but I get the error:

PHP Code:

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /functions_hacks.php on line 6 


[limey]

actually its those two lines that have to be added to showthread.php per instructions.

[limey]

actually its those two lines that have to be added to showthread.php per instructions that cause the error message.

[twin]

Hallo,
I have two questions:
1. is it possible to set this plugin to autorefrash the newsgroup becouse now I have to load gateway script to update latest posts from newsgroup.
2. Is it possible to set small message e.g "This message was send from MyDomains.com" when people are sending a messeges to the newsgroup from my forum.

Hope you understand my poor english

[donnacha]

Neobud, thank you so much for your kind advice, I now have now have Usenet forums up and running at my site, www.edinburghtalk.com.

It turned out that the problem was down to a mistake (or, rather, omission) in the readme.txt, obviously there's a fair amount of stuff that hasn't been updated.

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to address my problem, and thanks to Lierduh for making this incredible extention available for vb3.5 - it's going to make a huge difference to users of sites like mine.

I am now concentrating on making this more usable, in particular I want to find a way to make the "remove Reply button, use Quote buttons instead" amendment more user friendly, possibly by using a different version of the Quote button in Usenet forum or, perhaps, a repeated reminder throughout such threads.

[oldengine]

Has anyone successfully implemented posting? If so, what usenet provider do you use and at what cost?