AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site!

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.

1. 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!!
   
2. 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!

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

gREAT HACK!!
but strange (minor) problem:

I have it set to create thread (talk about)....
but when it does it posts the link and some remnant code...
ie output to created reads like this:
--------------

Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 2007 - Ve3d.com[URL=

--------------
the link works fine. but what's the "[url="?
any ideas how to get rid of it...or what's it SUPPOSED to look like?

PS. how do you change the ORDER in whick the RSS feeds and About Today are listed?? :/
I added a new RSS...but it appears in the middle of the list and I want it at the end. Is there a way to do this?

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by GrendelKhan{TSU

PS. how do you change the ORDER in whick the RSS feeds and About Today are listed?? :/
I added a new RSS...but it appears in the middle of the list and I want it at the end. Is there a way to do this?

The RSS Feeds "Name" determines the sort order. If you look at the image below, the sort order of the feed is determined by 1. What will display as the feed "Title" is 2. If you leave the "Title" blank, then the "Name" is also used as the display title.

but strange (minor) problem:

I have it set to create thread (talk about)....
but when it does it posts the link and some remnant code...
ie output to created reads like this:
--------------

Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 2007 - Ve3d.comurl=

--------------
the link works fine. but what's the "url="?
any ideas how to get rid of it...or what's it SUPPOSED to look like?

When the feed is created into a thread, any html img tags are converted into bbcode IMG tags. I find that the feed image tags tend to contain dynamic url's. Unless you have set vbulletin to allow dynamic img tags (admincp -> vbulletin options -> Message Posting and Editing Options -> Allow Dynamic URL for IMG Tags), vbulletin will convert the dymanic bbcode IMG tags to bbcode URL tags. But ... that conversion seems to not always work. If it's not an img, then the conversion from an html a tag to a bbcode url has not worked right.

Can you give me the url to the RSS Feed? That will let me better examine what is happening in your situation.

[TRR]

I don't get any RSS feeds.

I even deleted out the defaults and added the
http://feeds.feedburner.com/NoteFromTheBook
feed that was in this thread. I run the cron job, and force the rss feed update, and nothing. No errors or anything.

[TRR]

Does anyone know how I might go about troublehooting the ^^ issue? :nervous:

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by TRR

I don't get any RSS feeds.

I even deleted out the defaults and added the
http://feeds.feedburner.com/NoteFromTheBook
feed that was in this thread. I run the cron job, and force the rss feed update, and nothing. No errors or anything.

My guess is that your server doesn't allow fopen. If you check your phpinfo, is allow_url_fopen set to yes?

[TRR]

Good call; it is set to "no". I am on the phone with my support dept. people while they scratch their heads and try to figure out what I am talking about. lol

[TRR]

Well, I am officially educated. It was just a simple change in the php.ini file to turn it on. Thanks; this has to be one of the greatest mods I have used.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by TRR

Well, I am officially educated. It was just a simple change in the php.ini file to turn it on. Thanks; this has to be one of the greatest mods I have used.

Awesome! Glad you were able to get the ini change done.

[j1mmy]

You guys seems to be way ahead of me, but im trying to install it on 3.5.4 and no luck so far. I dont know what im doing wrong, i think this is the first time ive installed a mod. Could up provide some guidance please..anyone??

[Nathan_R]

Edit: I found that my feeds updated one time then stopped. In light of this, I'm removing my code modifications until I can get the cURL subs working again.