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!

[cddw.ltd]

Right, I asked for a bit of help on a forum about incrementing a number in the database each time the RSS posts, and this is the help I got back -

To create the table - (I'm using 'forum_' as for my tables)

PHP Code:

create table forum_rsscount (
   userid int(8) not null,
   posts int(8) not null default 0,
   primary key(userid)
) 


then this in the code for the postcounts -

PHP Code:

update forum_rsscount
set posts = posts + 1
where userid = X 


but it didn't work Anyone got any suggestions?

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by cddw.ltd

What about setting a variable (would it have to be in the database?)

Called $rssposts or something, and in the same way that the users postcount is incremented for each post to increment the $rssposts variable also?

To account for the threads already posted I can just give the variable the current number to start with?

If you want to fiddle with this more, you may want to look at the threads table instead. When you install AboutToday, a field called histtd_threadid is added to the thread table. When a thread is created by AboutToday (either by a user manually or by the auto creation process), that field is populated. If you counted the number of rows where that field has a value, it would give you the number of posts done via the AboutToday program. Something like:

PHP Code:

$abouttodayposts = $db->num_rows($db->query_read("SELECT histtd_threadid FROM `" . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread` WHERE histtd_threadid NOT LIKE """)); 


NOTE: if you uninstall and reinstall AboutToday, that field is dropped then readded so any threads created before the reinstall would no longer have that field populated.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by cddw.ltd

then this in the code for the postcounts -

PHP Code:

update forum_rsscount
set posts = posts + 1
where userid = X 


but it didn't work Anyone got any suggestions?

If you want to use this kind of logic, I had trouble too with the "set posts = posts + 1". It didn't work or gave me an error. I forget exactly what. Instead, I went with:

PHP Code:

            // update post count for user
            $posts = $db->query_first("
                SELECT posts
                FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum_rsscount
                WHERE userid = X
            ");
            
            $newpostcount = $posts['posts'] + 1;
            
            $db->free_result($posts);
            
            $db->query_write("
                UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum_rsscount
                SET posts = ".$newpostcount."
                WHERE userid = X
            "); 


EDIT: well, I just tried the code below (for the user table) instead of the code above and it worked! I must have had a different problem before:

PHP Code:

$db->query_write("
                UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user
                set posts = posts + 1
                where userid = ".$postuserid."
            "); 


What part is not working for you? (BTW - it may be better to continue this via PM)

[hilfe-forum]

Originally Posted by westpointer

I'm not getting any errors from that feed. Did you install ver 2.0.3 of AboutToday? If you did and our still getting that error, try deleting and re-entering the feed. But ... make sure you have ver 2.0.3 installed.

Ok i update to 2.0.3 it works perfekt!

Thanks for this Hack your support and thet you gif your time for us!

Ps.

how can i make a <b>

on this site http://www.hilfe-forum.eu/abouttoday.php?do=rss&id=8

befor the talk it Button???


(sorry for my bad english!!)

[shanemcse]

I upgraded to ver 2.03 and my feeds are still not auto updating. They do update when I do it manually. I remember reading in the 25 pages someplace that a site with low traffic will not auto update for some reason. Can you re-post the fix or tell me what I can do to get the auto update to work.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by shanemcse

I upgraded to ver 2.03 and my feeds are still not auto updating. They do update when I do it manually. I remember reading in the 25 pages someplace that a site with low traffic will not auto update for some reason. Can you re-post the fix or tell me what I can do to get the auto update to work.

Look under your scheduled tasks and make sure you have a scheduled task called "AboutToday". By default, it will run every 15 minutes. If you want your feeds to update more often than that, you'll need to make a need scheduled task. If you arrange the times right, you could then get the feeds updated every 7 minutes. BUT ... the scheduled tasks are run sequentially each time a vb page is loaded. So, if your board goes for 2 hours with no hits, no scheduled tasks will run.

For the next release, I may include a file that can be set to run from unix cron ... but I haven't decided if it's really worth the trouble or not.

EDIT: one more item ... when you are looking at the scheduled tasks, run the "AboutToday" task to make sure it is working okay. Maybe you forgot to load the cron_abouttoday.php file to includes/cron

If you want me to look into this more deeply for you, PM me your login for a forum account with admin privileges and the url to your site.

[shanemcse]

Originally Posted by westpointer

Look under your scheduled tasks and make sure you have a scheduled task called "AboutToday". By default, it will run every 15 minutes. If you want your feeds to update more often than that, you'll need to make a need scheduled task. If you arrange the times right, you could then get the feeds updated every 7 minutes. BUT ... the scheduled tasks are run sequentially each time a vb page is loaded. So, if your board goes for 2 hours with no hits, no scheduled tasks will run.

For the next release, I may include a file that can be set to run from unix cron ... but I haven't decided if it's really worth the trouble or not.

EDIT: one more item ... when you are looking at the scheduled tasks, run the "AboutToday" task to make sure it is working okay. Maybe you forgot to load the cron_abouttoday.php file to includes/cron

If you want me to look into this more deeply for you, PM me your login for a forum account with admin privileges and the url to your site.

Yes, my site does not currently get a lot of activity. So it doesn't update as expected. I did test the cron job and it does work it also works when done manually. Is there no easy way to schedule an update for those of us with low activity sites?

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by shanemcse

Is there no easy way to schedule an update for those of us with low activity sites?

The only other way (if your board has low activity) is for me to write a file that can be run via cron. I'll look into doing that.

[hilfe-forum]

we use your awsome hack and it works great!

but we have a problem we need so solve somehow:
in our forum you have to be loged in to open topics or to reply...but we have one forum that is open for guests.

we have pointed your hack to this open forum to create new topics based on the rss.
-> but if guests create these topics they are not created. <-
it works with loged in users.

is there something we have to consider or configure? how can we solve that?

any help would be very apprechiated.
please let me know if you have solved this kind of problem for your board.

you can see the problem in action here:
"http://www.hilfe-forum.eu/abouttoday.php"

new feeds without a created topic cant create topics from guests.

after a guest clicks on the "talkit"..or in our case "Deine Meinung dazu?"-button this link will be created :

http://www.hilfe-forum.eu/abouttoday.php?do=addtalkit&rssid=1&story=%5BURL%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2-0%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.n-tv.de%2F688363.html%26cid%3D1102931349%26ei%3D_QC2ROKOC8y2wQHd36zhCQ%5DBombenserie+in+Bombay+-+n-tv%5B%2FURL%5D%0D%0A%0D%0A%0D%0A%5BURL%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2i-0%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.azonline.ch%2Fpages%2Findex.cfm%253Fdom%253D2%2526rub%253D100004699%2526nrub%253D0%2526sda%253D1%2526Artikel_ID%253D101290162%26cid%3D1102931349%26ei%3D_QC2ROKOC8y2wQHd36zhCQ%22%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.hilfe-forum.eu%2F%5B%2FIMG%5D%0D%0Aazonline%5B%2FURL%5D%5BURL%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2-0%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.n-tv.de%2F688363.html%26cid%3D1102931349%26ei%3D_QC2ROKOC8y2wQHd36zhCQ%22%5D%5BB%5DBombenserie+in+Bombay%5B%2FB%5D%5B%2FURL%5D%0D%0A%5BB%5Dn-tv+-+vor+1+Stunde+gefunden%5B%2FB%5D%0D%0ANach+der+Anschlagserie+in+Bombay+hat+die+Polizei+in+der+Nacht+zum+Donnerstag+mehr+als+180+Menschen+in+der+westindischen+Finanzmetropole+voruebergehend+festgenommen+und+befragt.+23+davon+wuerden+weiterhin+verhoert+%5BB%5D...%5B%2FB%5D++%0D%0A%5BURL%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2-1%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.zisch.ch%2Fnavigation%2Ftop_main_nav%2FNEWS%2FInternational%2Fdetail.htm%253Fclient_request_contentOID%253D194667%26cid%3D1102931349%26ei%3D_QC2ROKOC8y2wQHd36zhCQ%22%5D180+Menschen+nach+Anschlagserie+in+Bombay+festgenommen%5B%2FURL%5D+Zisch%0D%0A%5BURL%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2-2%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ftd.de%2Fpolitik%2Finternational%2F95386.html%26cid%3D1102931349%26ei%3D_QC2ROKOC8y2wQHd36zhCQ%22%5DTote+bei+Anschlagserie+auf+Zuege+in+Bombay%5B%2FURL%5D+Financial+Times+Deutschland%0D%0A%5BURL%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.de%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dde%2F2-3%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ln-online.de%2Fwirtschaft%2Fboerse.htm%2F1903225%26cid%3D

...this link doesnt create a threat

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by hilfe-forum

we have pointed your hack to this open forum to create new topics based on the rss.
-> but if guests create these topics they are not created. <-
it works with loged in users.

Please try the attached abouttoday.php file. Let me know how it works! Thanks!