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

[Freesteyelz]

They remain as forums. You'll need to manually delete the forums if anything.

[Tettinntil]

Installed and so far so good - beautiful that I can fix things in the CP. My first install after I bought out my former partner and this was fun Thank you!!!

[MrEyes]

A curious problem of sorts.

I have downloaded and installed the mod onto a absolutely clean vBulletin 3.8.4 install (i.e. no mods, template hacks etc).

I then created a group and then clicked the link to create a forum for the group, this presented me with the following message on a standard VB redirection page:

"Cannot create forum!"

However, the forum is created and everything seems to work exactly as it should.

Having briefly delved into the code it seems that the issue is something to do with these lines in the

if (CreateForum($group))
{
	eval(print_standard_redirect('sf_invalid_forum', true, true));
}
else
{
	eval(print_standard_redirect('successfully_edited_group', true, true));
}

Having checked the CreateForum function in functions_socialforums.php it would seem that this returns true if the create is successful and false if not. So the syntax of the code above should be:

if (!CreateForum($group))
...
...

I have tested this on my test install and this seems to resolve the issue, but I am posting here just incase I am missing something.

[Phalynx]

Seems really a like a bug. Thanks for showing it.

[saikat]

Hi Phalynx,

First of all , thanks for the awsome code. Worked like a charm. Heres my question:

I would like the group forums to be visible to everyone, but they should only be able to post/reply in the forum if they have joined the group, else the "Reply/Quote" button should point them to the "Join" page for the group.

Is this something that is doable by your code? Any pointers?

thanks,
saikat

[franvsl]

Hi!!

Congratulations for that great job.

My question is about the box "The forum where all new created social forums are attached to." in the socialforums settings

What am I supposed to write there? A number (if so, which number??) or the name of the parent forum?. I tried both, and when I click the button "Create Forum" I get an error saying "Invalid parent forum specified. Check settings"

Thank you!

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by saikat

Hi Phalynx,

First of all , thanks for the awsome code. Worked like a charm. Heres my question:

I would like the group forums to be visible to everyone, but they should only be able to post/reply in the forum if they have joined the group, else the "Reply/Quote" button should point them to the "Join" page for the group.

Is this something that is doable by your code? Any pointers?

thanks,
saikat

Check usergroup permissions.

Originally Posted by franvsl

Hi!!

Congratulations for that great job.

My question is about the box "The forum where all new created social forums are attached to." in the socialforums settings

What am I supposed to write there? A number (if so, which number??) or the name of the parent forum?. I tried both, and when I click the button "Create Forum" I get an error saying "Invalid parent forum specified. Check settings"

Thank you!

You must enter the ID of the parent Forum.

[franvsl]

Thanks!

Now I can create the forums, but when it is done, I can't see the forum in the group. The forum is created, and I can see it in the forums list, but it doesn't appear in the social group:

http://www.vs-rtc.com/foro/group.php?groupid=1

Any ideas?

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by franvsl

Thanks!

Now I can create the forums, but when it is done, I can't see the forum in the group. The forum is created, and I can see it in the forums list, but it doesn't appear in the social group:

http://www.vs-rtc.com/foro/group.php?groupid=1

Any ideas?

Please check permissions and also if you modified a group-related template.

[l_amhed]

Thanks for this usefull and killer hack !

I've got some minor errors :

- Some special characters are not well displayed, such as à é ü ' (there is a \ just before them)
- The sticky threads are not displayed correctly on top of the threads listing.