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

[Keesa]

dammit. i just created empty forums with mo discusions and no way to move them. this kinda blows.

[Phalynx]

They are not gone, they are just hidden. Edit the settings of your group and enable messaging again.

[Keesa]

Actually, no.

In one case, it simply deleted all the messages.

In another, it created a forum on the main part of the board, but did not move any of the messages.

I think I just misunderstand what this is supposed to do.

Thanks though

[Phalynx]

This mod does not delete any social group discussion.

[BoyG]

good day. i seem to have lost the forum. they are not being displayed in the category where they're supposed to be. i see them in Admin CP but they're not on their main page. what could be the problem?

[Phalynx]

Check if the forum is defined as visible. Normally it is not.

[benstillman]

Anyone know of anything similar to this for vB4? I currently use it on 3.8, but want to upgrade (finally) to 4.

[jilly]

I am using SocialForums, obviously, and I also use the selective forum filter mod
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=132279 - my problem is that I can't get the social forums to show up in the list of forums to be excluded. I have run the back end php query that is supposed to make all your forums be excludable, and it still didn't affect the social forums. this was the query:

To enable "can be excluded" in all forums, run this query:
UPDATE PFXforum SET excludable = 1
To disable "can be excluded" in all forums, run this query:
UPDATE PFXforum SET excludable = 0
In both cases, PFX must be replaced with the actual table prefix that you have defined in config.php.
If you have not defined a prefix, remove PFX from the queries.
After you run either one of these queries, you must then open and save any one forum for the forum cache to be updated.


I have no table prefix for my tables, so i removed the PFX and ran it plain. Does the social forums mod add any special table prefix to the tables it creates?

Any other ideas as to why they won't show up and allow themselves to be excluded? The groups are a combination of public and private groups.

[BamaStangGuy]

I simply can not get this to work perfectly. It imports some discussions and messages but for some reason leaves a lot more behind. We have some discussions with over 15,000 messages. Is this a problem?

[sticky]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

There will be no vB4 Version, as my time does not allow it.

What if you were paid for your time? Name how much it would take.