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

[ravenfaust]

Mine Says You need more members to create a forum
how can i fix this?

[Bluefin221]

Has anyone had a look at this on VB4? On my vb4 test site this mod still works however it has a couple of errors and its the only mod stopping me from just upgrading.

I'd be willing to part with a few quid to get this sorted for vb4 now.

Errors displayed:

This error is displayed when you access any of the social forums, you can still access them however with the error displayed at the top.

Warning: fetch_template() calls should be replaced by the vB_Template class in [path]/includes/functions.php on line 3780

Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #1 is not an array in [path]/includes/class_bootstrap.php(1111) : eval()'d code on line 19

This error is when you access a normal forum not related to social forums.

Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #1 is not an array in [path]/includes/class_bootstrap.php(1111) : eval()'d code on line 19

Error displayed to guests trying to access normal forum

Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: /home/main/public_html/community/includes/class_core.php
Line: 4269

On explorer it knocks the templates all over the place although in firefox everything looks normal apart from the errors displayed.

[ExplosiveGFX]

I imported the german language by mistake, how do I undo this? I tried reimporting the product but it doesn't work, the german language is still there...

[identitas]

Unauthorized person can see the forums, even though usergroup-permissions are right.

And subforums is not visible, or even threads from subforums. Maybe something that is not included for the moment, but maybe will? Il Hope

[hollosch]

@Phalynx: What's the plan for this mod & vB4 ?

[Varsh]

Seems like he hasn't been online in a month - I hope he does though as I also want vBExperience.

[choccyclaire]

I'd like there to be a feature where they go into sub forums according to what category the group is in on the sg feature.

[buro9]

Originally Posted by Bluefin221

I'd be willing to part with a few quid to get this sorted for vb4 now.

I'd be willing to throw some money towards this too.

Or I'd be happy if the coder allowed someone else to pick up the pieces and carry on with the development for vb4.

[mikeylikesitz]

any word on this being updated?

[Tettinntil]

Originally Posted by GHC Webmaster

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

I installed this today, but the "SocialGroup"-button does not display on the Admin CP. Does anybody know why?