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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!

AAN · #**482** 08-07-2006, 02:24 AM

Is there a demo of this someplace? Or a forum where I can see it in action?

CyberRanger · #**483** 08-09-2006, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AAN

Is there a demo of this someplace? Or a forum where I can see it in action?

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...day.php?do=rss

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/fo...day.php?do=rss

http://www.hockeypacific.com/abouttoday.php?do=rss&id=1

blogtorank · #**484** 08-09-2006, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris-777

One small request: Next revision, please use <br /> instead of <br> for us compliance nuts.

Find & Replace inside EditPlus works great on a windoz box

blogtorank · #**485** 08-09-2006, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forum...day.php?do=rss

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/fo...day.php?do=rss

http://www.hockeypacific.com/abouttoday.php?do=rss&id=1

Westpointer,

Here you go give them this link:

http://www.google.com/search?q=abouttoday.php

mathias · #**486** 08-11-2006, 05:37 PM

I got a wierd problem... it makes the thread and everything but when the product is enabled I can't post a thread or reply...

The following errors occurred when this message was submitted

1. The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 1 characters.

always says its to short but its not?

CyberRanger · #**487** 08-11-2006, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathias

I got a wierd problem... it makes the thread and everything but when the product is enabled I can't post a thread or reply...

The following errors occurred when this message was submitted

1. The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 1 characters.

always says its to short but its not?

PM me your site's url plus the account info (username and password) for a vb account with admin rights and I'll check it out for you.

nologic · #**488** 08-11-2006, 08:12 PM

I installed this and the RSS feeds show up when I'm logged in as admin but they don't show up when I log in as a normal user. Any idea how to fix this? I'm on 2.0.4 and VB 3.5.4

ubblite · #**489** 08-11-2006, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nologic

I installed this and the RSS feeds show up when I'm logged in as admin but they don't show up when I log in as a normal user. Any idea how to fix this? I'm on 2.0.4 and VB 3.5.4

Did you change usergroup permissions?

wolfyman · #**490** 08-11-2006, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

Couple more ideas to help you here (cause you really do need to fix this our your won't be able to change any usergroup permissions)

1. Check you includes/xml folder for any xml files associated with the "Profile Comments" system. Remove any if you find them then rebuild your bitfields.

2. Trick the system! Add the field vbspacecomments back into the usergroup table. (ALTER TABLE usergroup ADD vbspacecomments INT( 10 ) UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL)

[This isn't an issue caused by AboutToday. I don't want first time readers to be confused and think it is or was.]

beautiful, that fixed me up. Thanks, I searched my butt off to find the answer!

nologic · #**491** 08-12-2006, 09:50 AM

Yep, that was it. I figured it out before I got the answer. Thanks though.

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.05252 seconds Memory Usage 2,323KB Queries Executed 25 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (6)bbcode_quote (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (6)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (4)pagenav_pagelink (2)pagenav_pagelinkrel (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
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