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!

[x YNWA x]

Also another question is how do I setup the "Include this Feed in $myfeeds2 variable" and "Include this Feed in $myfeeds3 variable" options?

Would like rss feeds about something else say at the bottom of my homepage to go with the ones on the right, how would I add the no2 variable and no3 into the portal? thanks

[venomx]

Hey mccollin you have a bug on your forum index..

Welcome to the NorthEastFoto.com.
Welcome to the [ARG:3 UNDEFINED] forums.

[x YNWA x]

I really need some help on this please.

I have 6 feeds now and they are all in one big list at the bottom of the site, is there any way I can get them into colums like I can with the variable 1 option? Thanks

[demojames]

Marked as installed with no problems! Thanks for a great mod!

[towermatt]

This is amazing, I installed it quickly with no problems.

One piece of advice for anyone who wants to put it on...

read this thread, top to bottom. Your questions will be answered and if you say you don't have time, that's pretty rough for a free modification.

[deezelpope]

Well said, Towermatt! This was one of the first mods I installed, and it was a walk in the park! I LOVE this mod!!

[towermatt]

Originally Posted by CyberRanger

I think I remember (and it's an easy fix) but could you post your abouttoday_myfeeds plugin here? (or PM me your site url with an admin login and password)

Absolutly!!

But, I was wondering if anyone got a solve to this? Mine doesn't show either

feel free to check out the great page I created from this--very fun.

http://www.thedarktower.com/feeds

[Dave Hawley]

The 1st few I checked were working just fine.

[towermatt]

Oh yeah, the feeds are perfect.

Whole thing is wonderful. Its just that $myfeedsdetail variable that is supposed to populate if it is checked on the feed (and also set to yes in the settings)

From what I have read, its supposed to display the entire story if you have it going. Like the view you get if you click the link.

I wanted to use it as a mod on that CMPS page above to act as like a "front page" kind of graphic.

Great the way it is, would be perfect with that little bit. All the $myfeeds, $myfeeds2 and $myfeeds3 variables worked like a charm after I created the forum templates and modules for them.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by towermatt

Oh yeah, the feeds are perfect.

Whole thing is wonderful. Its just that $myfeedsdetail variable that is supposed to populate if it is checked on the feed (and also set to yes in the settings)

If you look at the plugin abouttoday_myfeeds:

FIND

PHP Code:

$myfeedsdetail .= '<td valign="top">'.$rssfeeds['desc'].'</td>'; 


change to

PHP Code:

$myfeedsdetail .= '<td valign="top">'.$rssfeeds['description'].'</td>'; 


I think that will get it working.