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.

[Tigga]

Actually, I didn't think about that... If it would be easier for you, you can put your server in dubug mode (Just add the code $debug="1"; at the bottom of your admin/config.php file, right before the ?>). Upload that file and then you'll see your Global template set when your edit your templates. Add the templates to that set and it will work that way too. Oh, and don't forget to take your board out of debug mode after you finish since it can be a security risk.

[Yuber]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
arracing - Ok, this should work for you... I have 2 files attached here (one in this post, one in the next... sorry, I'm being lazy and doing it this way rather than zipping them ) that should help allow you to turn myvbindex into more of a portal rather than just a homepage script. Since the only things you'll be using for the left side of the page are the poll, custom templates, and search, those are the only parts I put in the "portal" part. If you ever decide you need to add something else to that side let me know and I can tell you how to change it.
Now for the instructions... First open the include.php file attached here. Change the path in the chdir part to point to your forums (just as you did with the myvbindex.php file when you first installed it). Then upload both the include.php and myvbindex.php files to the root folder on your server and after they are uploaded you can check the myvbindex.php page to be sure it still loads right. Then you will want to create a new template called include with the following content:

PHP Code:

$index_header

<table width="100%" cellspacing="10"><tr align="left" valign="top"><td width="165">

$custom1

$search

$custom2

$currentpoll

</td><td valign="top"> 


Then you would want to create another new template for the content of the page. It can be called whatever you would like. You would place the following content in the template (or at least something like this):

PHP Code:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<!-- no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="no-cache">
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1">
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
<!-- end no cache headers -->
<META NAME="title" CONTENT="$hometitle">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="">

<TITLE>$hometitle</TITLE>
$headinclude
</head>
<body>
$include

<-- YOUR CONTENT GOES HERE -->

</td></tr></table>

$index_footer

</body></html> 


Obviously replace the <-- YOUR CONTENT GOES HERE --> part with the html code for the content of that page.

Now for the last part, which is actually getting that template to display. You want to create a new file... It can be called whatever you would like, but must have a .php extension. The content of the file should be something like this:

PHP Code:

<?php

$templatesused .= 'testpage,';

require("./include.php");

eval("dooutput("".gettemplate('testpage')."");");

?>

The only things in that need to be changed are the 2 places you see "testpage". This should be changed to whatever the name of the template you just created is. Change that, upload the file, and it should work just fine. One thing to note... In the first part where you see $templatesused, make sure there is always a comma after the template since there will be more templates called from the include.php file. Also, one nice thing is that you will be able to use replacements in your new templates, and these pages will change to reflect the style a user has selected if you use the replacement tags for the colors and such. And of course to create other pages like this, you would just create a new template and new page, and change then put the name of the template in the 2 places for that page.
Well that should be everything you need to do. If you have any questions or problems let me know.

How would I do that if I want the login, and the weather on the left side as well?

[Tigga]

You would use the same files I posted above, but you would have to remove some code from the myvbindex file and place it in the include file...
First, in myvbindex.php you would need to find:
// Show Avatar

You would highlight everything below that, up to:
// Online Users
(about 45 lines of code)

Remove that from the myvbindex.php file, and paste it in the include.php file right before:
// Current Poll

Then you would find:
// Weather - by JJR512

Highlight everything below that up to:
// Search Box

Remove that and paste it in your include.php file right under the last code you added.

[arracing]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
Actually, I didn't think about that... If it would be easier for you, you can put your server in dubug mode (Just add the code $debug="1"; at the bottom of your admin/config.php file, right before the ?>). Upload that file and then you'll see your Global template set when your edit your templates. Add the templates to that set and it will work that way too. Oh, and don't forget to take your board out of debug mode after you finish since it can be a security risk.

Ur the man!!! And this site rockz too!!

[arracing]

okay i just noticed this. In my lateste post table. where its supposed to say the last poster. it doenst show up. This happened after i uploaded the new myvbindex.php file. I went and looked at the old one before the new upload and copied the whole latest post section to the new one and still nothing shows up. Whats going on?

http://www.ar-racing.com/myvbindex.php

[arracing]

what i did to try and solve this was use my old myvbindex file instead of the one you gave me. It worked with the old one. I was trying to compare the 2 files and the old one doesnt require the include file but the new one does. However everything is still working using the old file. So what is your new myvbindex file doing and why is it calling that include file. Whats the include file doing?

If you go to my site now its using the old myvbindex so thats why the last poster is working. But im trying to understand why you made me upload those 2 files if everything is working fine with the old one. I must be missing something.

[Tigga]

That's wierd... You are using myvbindex 3.1, right? The only difference between your old myvbindex and new one shoud be that it uses the require tag to also pull the info from include.php, and some of the features (search, custom tempates, & poll) were moved to the include file instead. It's a little better to do things that way incase you ever change it, but otherwise there wouldn't be anything wrong with using your original myvbindex file for your index page, and then the include file with your new pages.

[Littlebit]

Hi Plurplanet,
From my index.php, I ran across a 404 error from the pop up to take me to a new pm message. The link, for some reason, is mysite.com/private.php?s=
and leaving out my forums directory in the bburl.
I can't figure it out.

[Tigga]

I could have swore I put the instructions to edit that in the install file, but I guess not. Sorry about that...
You can fix it by editing your head_newpm template and looking for 2 places that you'll see private.php. Just add /fourms/ (or whatever your forum folder is called) in front of that and it should fix the problem.
By the way, I haven't forgotten about your PM. I've just been really busy this week and haven't had a chance to look into those problems you asked me about yet. I'll try to look at those for you before the weekend though.

[Yuber]

Thanks a lot Plur, i'll try it out tonight and tell you how it works and/or if I have a probs.