mYvBindex v3.1

mYvBindex 3.2.2 released! (5/22/03)

mYvBindex 3.2 will allow you to include different options from your vBulletin message board on your website's index page. Everything is completely template based so it is very easy to customize and change everything through your Admin CP.

Features:

• Login box for members to log in to your site on the homepage.
• Post News in a forum you specify and have it appear on your homepage.
• Show the latest threads started in your forum on your homepage.
• Show a poll and allow users to vote and see the results on your homepage.
• Shows users avatar, new private messages, and buddy list for members who are logged in.
• Shows a list of active users.
• Shows statistics such as total members, threads, posts, top poster, newest member, and today's birthday's.
• Shows a mini calendar with links to days with scheduled events, and a box with today's scheduled events.
• Search box to allow users to quickly search your forums.
• Current weather and updates on your homepage.
• Set and change all options via the Admin CP.
• Ability to easily switch on/off the polls, users avatar, buddy list, online users, search box, calendar, weather, custom templates, news icons, news comments, smilies, set the maximum number of news posts, and many other options via the Admin CP.
• Everything is completely template based so it is very easy to customize.
• Install file that will make all database queries and templates for you in seconds.
• Uninstalls in seconds.
• Tested and stable with vBulletin v2.6+

Screen Shots:
Guest Homepage
Admin Homepage
User Homepage
Admin CP


Queries:
A nice feature of mYvBindex is that it performs only 11 queries with all the options turned off, no matter how many news articles or latest threads you choose to display. Some options will cause the script to perform extra queries, but even with all the options turned on it still performs only 29 queries at max.

Here is a list of each extra function that will cause extra queries:

• Poll - 2 queries
• User's Avatar - 1 query
• Private Messages - 1 query
• Buddy List - 1 query
• Online Users - 3 queries
• Mini Calendar - 1 query
• Weather - 2 queries
• Poll and/or News Smilies - 1 query
• Stats - 5 queries

*Mini Hacks:*
Adding More Custom Templates
To add more custom templates to your mYvBindex, please see this post.

Stylin' Buddy List - by MartynJ
This will add your the users avatar and usertitle to the buddy list (Similar to and inspired by velocd's Stylin' Buddy List hack), and adds no extra queries to your homepage.
Download (Screen shot included in zip)

Shoutbox Integration - by MartynJ
This hack integrates the ever popular Shoutbox hack with your mYvBindex.
Download (Screen shot included in zip)

TWCommish's vB Shoutbox Integration - by Brahm
This is a slightly different shout box made by TWCommish. His hack is required and can be found here. After downloading his hack, use Brahm's instructions here to integrate it with mYvBindex.

Attachments in News Posts - by Tigga
This hack allows attachments posted in news posts to be viewed in the news section on your homepage.
Download

Allow users to set homepage options - by Tigga
This mini-hack will allow your users to set which options they would like displayed on the homepage. They will be able to turn on/off avatars, weather, custom templates, and etc on a per user basis.
Download *Note* It may be necessary to open this file in a text editor (other than notepad) to get it to display properly.

Multiple News forums from different links - by Tigga
This hack allows allows you to have a link to a "different index file" which will pull news posts from a different forum.
Instructions can be found here


Credits:
mYvBindex uses modified versions of the following hacks:
Mini Calendar from vbPortal - by wajones
vB Weather Mk. 2- by JJR512


Copyright:
This hack is NOT to be re-distributed or placed on website for download without permission. All copyright notes in the script itself must remain unchanged.

Please don't forget to hit the Install Button


Updates from version 3.2.1
After the release of v3.2.1 a couple of small bugs were found. They affected the ability to edit a news post from the link on the homepage, pulling the wrong post from a thread for the news section, and updating your most users ever online if a new record is set. The changes from v3.2 to 3.2.1 were minimal, so those should be the only bugs found. Upgrading once again is very easy. Just download the new files, change the path in the myvbindex.php file, and upload it over your existing one.

Updates from version 3.2
v3.2.1 is again just a small maintenance release. The main change in this version is the way the forum permissions are done. Before, the forum permissions would cause the latest threads query to take much longer than it should (mostly on larger forums). Now with the new permissions system in place, the query to pull the latest threads should take less than 0.01 seconds. Other than the permissions section, the only other changes were a few optimizations to the code syntax. Upgrading from v3.2 is simple - Just upload the new myvbindex.php file over your existing one and you're done.

Updates from version 3.1
v3.2 is mostly another maintenance release, and will hopefully be the last release for vBulletin 2.X (unless any bugs are found). Here are a list of all the changes.
Fixed a bug where setting the "Show Latest Threads Icon?" option to "No" could disable the latest threads section.
Fixed a bug where signatures with vBcode were not displayed properly in the news section.
Fixed a bug where the icons in the news and latest thread parts weren't displaying the right icon for some users.
Added an option to completely disable signatures in news posts.
Added an option to select a random poll from any forum for the poll part of the hack.
Further optimized parts of the code and slightly changed part of the structure.
Now shows "No Buddies Online" in the buddy list if no buddies are online.
Changed so it will no longer show a default icon for the news and latest threads unless your options are also set to show a default icon on the forumdisplay page.
Now shows the last poster and last post time when you hold your mouse over the title of a thread in the Latest Threads part.
The install script has been re-written so you can install, upgrade, uninstall, update your news posts (useful for first time installations where a news forum already exists), or install just the templates (useful after upgrading vBulletin to a new version) all from one file.
Significantly reduced the size of the weather_install.php file (from 3.0 MB to 1.25 MB) so it will not take so long to upload to your server.
Fixed a couple of small spacing issues in the poll templates.
Fixed a problem with JJR512's weather hack not pulling the weather forcast.
Added a FAQ section to the readme file to help common problems.

Upgrading should take no longer than 2 minutes and instructions can be found at the bottom of the readme file.


Updates from version 3.0
v3.1 is mostly a maintenance release to help cut down on first time installation problems. Other than that, the biggest difference you will notice is the template "style" has changed to mesh better with vBulletin (see screenshots above). You do not have to install the new templates as you will have the option to install the new templates or to skip that step in the install file. Other than the templates, here is a list of the other changes:
A few more "error checking" features have been added to ensure you won't get a nasty sql error if you leave your News or Poll Forum ID, or any of the other fields blank.
The problem some users were experiencing with the temperature for the weather part of the hack should be fixed for good.
The "Show Poll" option in the Admin CP is removed as this can now be disabled simply by leaving the "Poll Fourm ID" filed blank.
Fixed a small typo and optimized parts of the code a little further.
Slightly changed the position of the days and numbers in the calendar part.
Fixes a bug where the Today's Birthday part wouldn't point to the correct url.

Upgrading should take no longer than 2 minutes and instructions can be found at the bottom of the readme file.


Updates from version 2.0
Removed the option from the Admin CP to allow smilies in News posts as this can now be set per post just as you would when making a regular post.
Added a stats section with info such as total members, threads, posts, newest member, top poster, and today's birthdays.
Added a "Today's Events" section under the calendar that will display any events that are scheduled for the current day, and will only be visible if there are events listed for the current day.
Added an option to show the poster's avatar with the news post.
You can now have your signature displayed with the news post. This is controlled when posting the message just as you would with a regular post.
Added an option to display the news post's rating with the news.
Added options to show small icons to allow users to show a printable version of the news post and an option to allow users to email their friends a link to the news post.
Added an option to allow/disable HTML in news posts.
Added an option to allow/disable the [img] tag in news posts.
Shows the number of times a news post has been viewed.
Shows the number of new posts since the users last visit.
Shows the number of replies to the poll if poll discussions are allowed.
Fixed a bug where the search box would take you to the search page rather than displaying the results.
Fixed a bug where setting the News Posts Maximum to 0 would disable the news rather than giving it no limit.
Optimized the code a little more to increase performance.


Help & Support
Before asking for support Please read the F.A.Q in the readme.html file! Most common problems are answered there! If you have any problems or questions that are not covered in the F.A.Q. please please post them here. I will be more than happy to help in any way I can if the request for help is made here. Anyone trying to contact me via email, private message, my website, or any other means will be ignored.

[Brahm]

Okay I made a few edits to my own tastes and put it all in a text file: Check it out Plurplanet and let me know what you think.

This is the addin info on how to integrate the TWTcommish "Shoutbox" hack onto the Myvbindex page.

[Brahm]

Problem.
I replaced my forum from http://forum.mydomen.com to the http://mydomen.com/forum - just copied all files into other folder on the same server. And everythings works fine, except News - News is not showing in center of main page - what is problem? I changed all links in AdminCP and myvbindex.php...
Maybe I forgot something else?
News shows like usual threads in right panel...

Did you go in myvbindex.php and edit the below line to look like this:

PHP Code:

// Enter The Full Path To Your Forums Here
chdir('forum');
// No Further Editing Necessary 


[Tigga]

Zalbard - I just moved servers a little while ago and have a few issues to straighten out, so as soon as I finish that I'll post instructions on how to turn it into a 'portal'.

AZone - Were the news posts made before or after you installed the script? If they were made after you installed the script, check your newthread.php and newreply.php files to make sure that you edited them right. If the posts were made before the script was installed, see this post for quick instructions on how you can update them - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...825#post333825

Brahm - I'll check it out in a few and probably add it in with the mini-hacks on the first post.

[AZone]

I determined the causal factor - it is Thread Preview Hack. After I uninstall it - News works nice.

[Zalbard]

I do need a portal type site, so please help as soon as possible. Thanks!

[Tigga]

Zalbard - Ok, Here are instrutions to turn this hack into a portal. It will require a little work, but if you read carefully and follow these instructions you shouldn't have any problems.

First make a copy of the mYvBindex file and rename it "include.php" (of course you can call it whatever you'd like, that's just what I called mine). Then you should remove the parts of the script that are not used on those pages such as news, polls, weather, and calendar in my case. You don't really have to delete those parts, but it makes for a little faster loading time and less queries, so it really is best if you do. If you just start wherever the code for a specific function begins and remove all code up to where the next function begins it should work fine, and there are notes in the script telling where each part starts. Then you would want to create a new template in your Admin CP (I called mine "include"). You would put the same content in your include template that is in your index template, but you would cut out the $newsbits and everything below that. Then in your include.php file the last couple of lines looks like this:

PHP Code:

$getbgrow=getrowcolor();
eval("dooutput("".gettemplate('index')."");"); 


Change the template there to "include" (or whatever you named your new template). Then near the top of the file you will see a list of every template the scipt uses. Be sure to change the very first place it says index to the name of your include file. You can also delete any templates in that section that won't be used with this file. It's not that big of a deal if you don't, but again it would be better to do so and will result in faster page loading times.


Now you will pretty much have your header file made. Next you would want to edit your html pages that you would like this header to appear on. There are a couple of ways to do this, so here are the best/easiest two.


One way is with the php include function. You will need to remove everything above the top of your files so that the only thing before any content is something like this:

PHP Code:

<?php

include('/home/path/to/your/include.php');

?>

Remember that should be the only code before any content of your pages. You will also have to rename any html files you change to have a php extension for that method to work. You do not need to have any <head> or <body > tags at the beginning as these will be pulled from the include template, but be sure to close them at the end of the files. Also be sure that the starting <hmtl> tag is not also in your include template. Then just upload the files to your server and it should work fine.


An alternative to using the PHP include function would be to use server side includes. You would do everything exactly the same except when editing your files to add the header, you would put some code like this at the very top of your file instead of the PHP tag:

<html><!--#include virtual="/include.php" -->

You will also not have to rename your html files to have php extensions if you use that method. One note though... You will have to be sure you can include php files on your server. This is something that is usually controlled by your host, so if you're not sure if you can do this or how to change it so that you can, you should contact your host and ask them to change it for you.


That should be everything you need to do. If you have any problems let me know and I'll do my best to help you out.

[Tigga]

Brahm - I added your shoutbox integration in with the mini-hacks on the first post.

AZone - Ahhh yes, a hack like that could affect your myvbindex page and vice versa. If you want to give me a link to the thread preview hack I can take a look at it and see if I can tell you what would need to be done differently so that both hacks would function properly.

[Highlander]

the news forum is not showing up .. hugh .. any idea?

http://www.spieleplanet.org/forum/myvbindex.php


and is it possible to ge tmore than one news forums.. i need minimum 4 forums to be shown as news forum .. please help me with this.. nobody the last 4 motnh could helpo me to mak e portal news forums more than one !

[Brahm]

Thanks Plurplanet, that's my first.

[Tigga]

Highlander - Were the news posts made before or after you installed the script? If they were made after you installed the script, check your newthread.php and newreply.php files to make sure that you edited them right. If the posts were made before the script was installed, see this post for quick instructions on how you can update them - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/show...3825#post333825

Showing the news from multiple fourms isn't hard. Just open your myvbindex.php file and look for:

PHP Code:

thread.forumid=$newsforum 


Replace that with:

PHP Code:

forumid=X OR forumid=Y OR forumid=Z OR forumid=W 


(replace x,y,z, & w with the id numbers of those forums)