Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums for vB3.8

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.8

Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.8 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.7. Please use the version for vBulletin 3.7

Support will be only given for people who clicked Mark as INSTALLED.

Description
Not satisfied with vBulletin social groups messaging function? With SocialForums your social group leaders can create a standard forum for their group.
A group leader can only create a forum if the group has at least 5 members - this can be changed via settings. Optionally the group leader can be a moderator of such a social forum.

What about old discussions?
Via AdminCP, SocialForums, you can transfer all discussions and messages to a new forum. No post would be lost.

Permissions
There are advanced permissions (Forum and Archive). This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.

Demo
None, see screenshots

Installation
This product is fully phrased and uses template hooks. No file changes or manual template edits needed.
1. Upload bitfield_socialforums.xml to existing folder /includes/xml/
2. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
3. Fresh Installation: Just import the product. Upgrade: Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
4. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

Troubleshooting
Q: I don't see a link to create a forum. Why?
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, espacially if the user is allowed to create forum.
A: Check if the usergroup meet min users requirement, see AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums.

Q: My users see the forums, but they shouldn't!
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, if the users usergroup is set to "can see".
A: Did you disabled the restriction mode? Enable it.

Todo
- By deleting a group the forum should also be deleted/archived. Currently this has to be done manually.

Known Issues
- On big boards with hundreds of social groups this mod can really impact the performance because of the mass of new created forums. If you still want to use this mod use the "Minimum Members" feature with a higher value. Using the permission check there are additional two queries on every page.
- With activated option to add owner as a moderator the transfering leads to removing all moderators of the linked forum

History
2.1.0, 11th August 2009
- Social Groups without a forum are listed in AdminCP and can be automatically converted with few clicks.
- Fixed errors converting bigger discussions
- Minor changes and fixes

2.0.1, 05th March 2009
- Convert ignores now deleted discussions
- Threads on Groups equipped with mark on new

2.0.0
- First official release for vBulletin 3.8
- Possibility to transfer Social Group Discussion into a real Forum
- New layout for threadlisting, similar to a real threadlist in a forum
- Possibility of a notice in Forums associated with a Social Group
- Discussion/Message counter is showing Thread/Reply counts. Phrase "Discussion" and "Message" cannot be changed to "Thread"/"Reply".
- Transfering a Group to another user updates now also the moderator
- Minor changes and fixes

[simonaB]

Hello everyone, I installed this product and applied the relevant permits.
But if I try to open a forum in my group, I get this text: "Invalid parent forum specified. Please check settings."
What should I do? Thank you

[simonaB]

Hello everyone, sorry the bad English, but I am Italian! Yesterday I installed this product, and I am very happy ... But I have a problem. When a user creates a forum, and writes a post, I appears in this forum "father." Panel administrator of the product, I set "Should they be visible by default? If yes, the forum's display order is set to the value of the group id .--> NO". But I do not understand what I have to insert here: "Parent Forum
The forum where all created new social forums are attached to. "I can explain better please?

[GHC Webmaster]

Originally Posted by simonaB

But I do not understand what I have to insert here: "Parent Forum The forum where all created new social forums are attached to. "I can explain better please?

Al the social forums are subforums of another forum. This "another forum" is the parent forum you have to set.

For example if you would have forums like

General Discussion
Chitchat
Helpdesk

You create a forum after that called "Social Group Forums" (for example) and then set this new forum as the "parent forum". Then all the Social Forums become subforums of this "Social Group Forums".

So you get:

General Discussion
Chitchat
Helpdesk
Social Group Forums
Social Forum 1
Social Forum 2
etc

You can probably also set a forum of the type Category as the parent forum, but I haven't tried this yet.

Hope this helps.

Walrick

[ytorus]

I can't find the option, how to change the permission for special social groups and special forums.

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by GHC Webmaster

You can probably also set a forum of the type Category as the parent forum, but I haven't tried this yet.

You can set every forum and category as parent, as long as it is manageable via AdminCP

Originally Posted by ytorus

I can't find the option, how to change the permission for special social groups and special forums.

Check vBulletin's usergroup permissions

[WDZaphod]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Great Idea, but I think this violates the vBulletin License.

Mmmmh, what's the difference to a Socialforum? Instead of creating a hidden subforum per Socialgroup it woud be a hidden subforum per User, I don't think this would violate any part of the License?
Pleeeaaaasssseee

[Adromir]

Although i created a parent forum and set it in the Admincp, i still can't convert discussions to threads

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by WDZaphod

Mmmmh, what's the difference to a Socialforum? Instead of creating a hidden subforum per Socialgroup it woud be a hidden subforum per User, I don't think this would violate any part of the License?
Pleeeaaaasssseee

Few years ago there was a hack which allowed creation of forums. Jelsoft has banned it.

Originally Posted by Adromir

Although i created a parent forum and set it in the Admincp, i still can't convert discussions to threads

Are you getting an error?

[Adromir]

No, the Threads just dont show up in the parent forum.

[Phalynx]

Strange. While you are converting, are the thread titles showing up?