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AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site! · **Released**: 02-05-2006

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.

The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.

The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.

So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
- Hockey
  - Professional
  - College
  - High School
- Football
  - American Football
  - The Rest of the World (Soccer)
- Baseball
with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

CyberRanger · #**122** 03-16-2006, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bukusami

HI,
Just installed as per install.txt and had to uninstall/install the product.xml a few times ot catch this error, ended up with print screena s it is only there for a second.

Is this error going to cause a issue? i havnt gone any further yet as a previous hack allready took up a day so i wanna go slow on this one.

Attachment 44402

That's odd. I don't think it will cause a problem yet I'm not sure why you'd get that. If you currently have the hack installed, try adding an RSS Feed and see if it works. I promise you that your time spent will be under five minutes. Just set the usergroup permissions for the admin group, add a feed, and see what you get on the abouttoday.php page.

Bukusami · #**123** 03-16-2006, 02:04 PM

seems to be working ok, thanks!

/me clicks install

venomx · #**124** 03-16-2006, 02:19 PM

When I upgraded I got the same error. But I reinstalled and it worked fine...

hadog · #**125** 03-17-2006, 04:32 PM

I have been getting the same error too..... I re installed and over wrote

when I go to admincp and abouttoday I get a page not found error for rss feeds and categories

Any solutions for this.
I checked and I think I followed the directions properly.

CyberRanger · #**126** 03-17-2006, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hadog

when I go to admincp and abouttoday I get a page not found error for rss feeds and categories

Any solutions for this.
I checked and I think I followed the directions properly.

Can you check to make sure the file abouttodayadmin.php is in your admincp directory? If it is and you are still getting that error, please try reloading the file (abouttodayadmin.php) again.

Thanks! Let me know how it goes.

CyberRanger · #**127** 03-17-2006, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bukusami

HI,
Just installed as per install.txt and had to uninstall/install the product.xml a few times ot catch this error, ended up with print screena s it is only there for a second.

Is this error going to cause a issue? i havnt gone any further yet as a previous hack allready took up a day so i wanna go slow on this one.

Attachment 44402

I pinned down this little error (which was so stupid on my part ... I simply had a comment done wrong for ver 1.3). The attached version has know had that fixed. I don't think it would cause anyone a real problem but to be safe you may want to download the attached product again and reimport the xml file.

hadog · #**128** 03-17-2006, 07:06 PM

Hi
Solved it...and it was my fault...in my haste I didn't copy the admin.php to the proper area :surprised:

I do have one other question......I have looked but still am a little lost....an rss feed I know what it is but where do I get one? Trying to track down info on this leads to some very confusing stuff.

beansbaxter · #**129** 03-19-2006, 05:49 AM

This is running just fine on my 3.5.2 forum...will the RSS feeds update automatically or do I need to always force the RSS updates.

ubblite · #**130** 03-19-2006, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beansbaxter

This is running just fine on my 3.5.2 forum...will the RSS feeds update automatically or do I need to always force the RSS updates.

They will update automatically. Default settings make the RSS update every 60 minutes but you can change the setting for each RSS feed in your AdminCP/AboutToday settings.

10JQKA · #**131** 03-19-2006, 07:42 PM

I have tried everything to get the sidebar to show the rss feeds, but to no avail. I have added the php script to the forums directory like stated ion a previous post. I have set the myfeeds to 2 in settings like it says. I have also added the $myfeeds variable to the sidebar template. I have also added th evariable myfeeds to the rss feed aswell and still nothing. I also made sure that the usergroups premissions allow them to view the feeds. and still NOTTA
please help

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