Invites System

I no longer support my hacks. Please feel free to update them and release new versions elsewhere as long as I get the credit for the original modification.

/*=========================================*\
|| Invites System
||
|| Author : Anton Kanevsky
|| Works on : vBulletin 3.5.0
|| Released : Dec 19, 2005
||
|| Time required to install: 1 minute
|| Difficulty: easy
\*=========================================*/

DESCRIPTION

A complete invites system for your vBulletin board.

STATISTICS

File Uploads: 3
Template Changes: 4
Products to Install: 1


FEATURES

Configuration Options:

• The system can be turned on and off.
• Registration can be set to either require invite code to sign up or to continue allowing regular registrations when the system is on.
• Invite Expiration Period.
• Minimal Posts Required to Receive Changes in Number of Invites.
• Minimal Reputation Required to Receive Changes in Number of Invites.
• Number of Posts Required to Get One (1) Invite.
• Number of Invites Received or Subtracted per Reputation (+ for positive, - for negative).
• Initial Number of Invites Given on Registration (Sign Up).
• Usergroups that May Not Use Invite Manager.
• Usergroups that May Use Invite Manager (Optional Override).
• Initial Registration Usergroup (only pertaining to registration by invites).
• Do or Do Not make users linked by an invite mutual buddies after the completion of registration of the person invited.
• Single / Multiple Address Line Field.
• If Multiple, Number of Fields to Show.

Miscellaneous Features:

• Upon invite-based registration, the person who issued the invite is set up as a referrer of the person invited. Therefore, free specification of a referrer is restricted during such registration.
• Image (GD) Verification.
• Administrator can manually edit any user's invite count.
• If a user is permitted to issue invites (based on both the number of unused invites and the system permissions), that user has a link to invites of usercp home (says "Click here to invite new users!"). When a user has no invites left, the link does not show up. Nevertheless, as long as system permissions allow access to the Invite Manager, the usercp navlink continues to show up, so that the user would have access to his/her invite history, which is available just below the "Issue New Invite" form.
• If registration is set to require invite code to sign up, the navbar register link becomes hidden.
• If registration is set to continue allowing non-invited sign ups, the number of invites available to any single user is unlimited. Therefore, the number of invites left does not show up.
• Invite History in UserCP, on the bottom of the invite manager.
• Single-Line AddressField, with Unlimited # Of Simultaneous Recipients, within the bounds of invite tokens.
• Multiple-Line AddressField, with Limited Configurable # Of Simultaneous Recipients, within the bounds of invite tokens.
• Unregistered Users, Banned Users and Users with No Forumview Permissions cannot use invite manager. Therefore, you do not have to specify those usergroups in the list of usergroups that may not use the invite manager.
• Invite counts are automatically updated once a week, based on the admincp-configured settings.
• Per-user invite usage restriction.
• Inactive users, who do not post anything new, will gradually lose all of their invites.

VERSION HISTORY

1.5.0
A new, commercial release.

1.4.0
[+] Image verification to avoid multiple submits.

1.3.0
[+] New Config Option: Single-Field / Multiple-Field Address Line (Default: Multiple-Field)
[+] New Config Option: Number of fields to show if multiple option is chosen.
[+] User Option, which lets an administrator restrict invite system usage for that single user.
[F] Fixed Bug, which prevented a user from registration if COPPA was enabled.
[F] Fixed Bug, which prevented a user from sending out an invite if he had zero invites and dependency on registration was turned off.
[F] Fixed Bug, which continued to show the invite form after it was submitted, even if there were no more invites left.

1.2.0
[+] New Config Option: Usergroups that May Use Invite Manager (Optional Override).
[+] New Config Option: Initial Registration Usergroup (only pertaining to registration by invites).

1.0.2
[+] Ability to send unlimited simultaneous invites, within the bounds of invite count owned.
[+] Improved invite interface (see screenshot).
[F] A couple of hard-coded forgotten phrases have been moved into the phrase system.

1.0.1
[+] Amount of posts required to get one invite is now configurable
[+] When a user can issue invites, he/she has a link on usercp (which says "Click here to Invite a New User!")
[+] When invites are required to register, there is no direct "Register" link in the navbar
[+] When invites are not required to register, there is no limitation on invites, and therefore the number of invites left is not shown
[+] Administrator can now edit invite counts manually using Admin Manager
[+] Administrator can now specify which usergroups cannot use Invite Manager
[+] More descriptive AdminCP Hack Options
[F] Added TABLE_PREFIX to the Install Code
[F] Fixed a Typo in Registration Code
[F] In the Invite History, invites are now lister in a descending order, rather than ascending. In other words, the latest invites are now on the top.

1.0.0
Initial Release

The installation manual is contained within the attached file.

IF YOU LIKE MY HACK, PLEASE CLICK INSTALL

[COBRAws]

Originally Posted by FireFish

Being a commercial version, I assume this isn't free. How much is it?

As a customer I recomend you to buy the full version

[FireFish]

Originally Posted by Psionic Vision

I am not sure I understand the question - please clarify.



Not currently (never requested), but it can add users to a primary group automatically.



As it states on the page, a license is $24.99, and that includes one year of support and updates.

1 User meant me allowing someone (1 named user) to dispense invite links & have users who register with them automatically joined to a secondary user group.

[akanevsky]

Originally Posted by FireFish

1 User meant me allowing someone (1 named user) to dispense invite links & have users who register with them automatically joined to a secondary user group.

Yes, there is a special page that is used to send out invites - these invites are e-mails that contain a special link that, when used, make the new registrant a referee of the inviter and places him or her in an optional usergroup that you define if you want to via usergroup options.

[FireFish]

Got it; sounds like a nice buy; I'll give it a try.
Before buying, do you have a document you can give me outlining the differences in the free Invites you made vs. the Commercial (only if you happen to have one)?

Just curious as to what to expect.

[VaaKo]

Does it work with 3.6.x?

[akanevsky]

Originally Posted by FireFish

Got it; sounds like a nice buy; I'll give it a try.
Before buying, do you have a document you can give me outlining the differences in the free Invites you made vs. the Commercial (only if you happen to have one)?

Just curious as to what to expect.

The following features exist only in the commercial edition:

• Better Invite History (invites can be purged / cancelled, holds more information). Has fancy enchancements such as status highlights, etc.
• Daily invite reminders and expiration notifications, can be turned off if desired
• Ability to define how often reminders can be sent.
• Ability to reject received invitations.
• Ability to permanently opt out of receiving future invitations, with automatic marking of invite as rejected and with an admincp database management interface.
• Automatic prevention of invites from being sent out to already registered e-mails.
• Automatic prevention of invites from being sent out to the same e-mail multiple times.
• Ability to define users as "First Friends". Such users become mutual buddies with all new registrants, whether invited or not.
• As an alternative to automatic allocation (which can be turned off), there is an "Allocate Invites" tool, which gives you an ability to give out X invites to members that match a certain criteria.
• Image verification to prevent multiple submissions.
• MSN Contact Grabber included.
• A Lot More Configuration Options
• Usergroup placement feature is much more developed
• Invitation hash is stored in a cookie and is not lost between pages.
• If an invited person signs up without specifying invite code, the invite for that e-mail gets marked as accepted.
• More informative e-mails.

That's just some of the feature differences. If you wish, please - feel free to register at visionscripts.com and try out the online demo of the front-end.

Originally Posted by VaaKo

Does it work with 3.6.x?

The version available here does not - because of the cron issues (although it will soon be updated). The commercial edition, however, works with both 3.5 and 3.6.

[FireFish]

Originally Posted by Psionic Vision

The following features exist only in the commercial edition:

• Better Invite History (invites can be purged / cancelled, holds more information). Has fancy enchancements such as status highlights, etc.
• Daily invite reminders and expiration notifications, can be turned off if desired
• Ability to define how often reminders can be sent.
• Ability to reject received invitations.
• Ability to permanently opt out of receiving future invitations, with automatic marking of invite as rejected and with an admincp database management interface.
• Automatic prevention of invites from being sent out to already registered e-mails.
• Automatic prevention of invites from being sent out to the same e-mail multiple times.
• Ability to define users as "First Friends". Such users become mutual buddies with all new registrants, whether invited or not.
• As an alternative to automatic allocation (which can be turned off), there is an "Allocate Invites" tool, which gives you an ability to give out X invites to members that match a certain criteria.
• Image verification to prevent multiple submissions.
• MSN Contact Grabber included.
• A Lot More Configuration Options
• Usergroup placement feature is much more developed
• Invitation hash is stored in a cookie and is not lost between pages.
• If an invited person signs up without specifying invite code, the invite for that e-mail gets marked as accepted.
• More informative e-mails.

That's just some of the feature differences. If you wish, please - feel free to register at visionscripts.com and try out the online demo of the front-end.



The version available here does not - because of the cron issues (although it will soon be updated). The commercial edition, however, works with both 3.5 and 3.6.

Sounds nice; two more quick questions:

1) Is there a way to 'mass-refill' all member's invitations by a set number? Or, possibly give 20% more invites across the board based on registration volume?
I obviously wouldn't want to handpick & manually adjust for random members by hand.

2) Is it easy to 'upgrade' from your free Invites mod to the commercial one? Should I uninstall this one first? Will the db changes have issues when installing the commercial version b/c of changes the free one may have already made?

[akanevsky]

1) Is there a way to 'mass-refill' all member's invitations by a set number? Or, possibly give 20% more invites across the board based on registration volume?
I obviously wouldn't want to handpick & manually adjust for random members by hand.

Yes, there is a special allocation tool for that, and it's interface is very similar to that on the "find user" screen. E.g. you can filter users by anything you want.

2) Is it easy to 'upgrade' from your free Invites mod to the commercial one? Should I uninstall this one first? Will the db changes have issues when installing the commercial version b/c of changes the free one may have already made?

You'll need to undo and then redo template modifications, but aside from that it's just a re-upload of files and the product xml, and then a revert of any modified templates.

[Bubble #5]

Originally Posted by Psionic Vision

The version available here does not - because of the cron issues (although it will soon be updated).

Looking forward to being able to use this again

[FireFish]

Originally Posted by Psionic Vision

The version available here does not - because of the cron issues (although it will soon be updated). The commercial edition, however, works with both 3.5 and 3.6.

I forgot to ask & forgive me if I 'overlooked' this in your documentation:

How are your customers notified of product updates? Do I need to subscribe somewhere? Is the download process of updates simple? From the customer area?

I want to make sure I'm notified once the Allocation feature is fixed.