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vB Assistant · **Released**: 03-29-2003

Name: vB Assistant
Version: 1.1
templates to edit: 1 - 2

Description: vB Assistant is like a mini cpanel for your members, it small yet contains lots of information.

It will help you get to things much faster in a organized fashion. It will tell you all you need to know about your private messages, How many you have, how many in total, and show you the newest one in detail. It will show you the name of the person that sent it, the link directly to the PM (no hassle with going to inBox first), When you get a new PM within 24 hours It'll let you know with a flashing image and a "Received Today!" caption.

After the message ages (24 hours has past) it'll show the date instead. vB Assistant uses all your current forum settings, from date format, to forum title name.

vB Assistant will also let you know when a thread you started has a new reply which you haven't read. You will see a "View Replies" when someone posts in your thread. It will also tell you who the poster is, without even visiting the thread!

It checks when was your last visit and determines if you read it or not. It wasn't easy since there isn't a "message unread" column in the database, so i managed to use the last login time.

vB Assistant has a mini quick search box, just type and hit enter.

When a user is not registered and he/she views vB Assistant, it will let them know what feature they have access to, and also tell them to register to get access to those features. (PM, cpanel links, etc...).

The buddie list is also available, clicking the username takes you to the PM window, clicking the red X will remove the buddie.

Each section in vB Assistant has a expandable/collapsible switch, If you do not want to see a part of it just click and it folds away with cool javascript affect

By having expandable/collapsible sections vB Assistant becomes even more compact and organized.

vB Assistant will also refresh every two minutes by default, it can be changed if wanted.

I see vB Assistant as a mini messenger that you can keep open (since it's small) while you browse the 'net

There is also a mini statistics section that will show you some information about how many registered members, users online, total post, etc...

Plus it will keep track of how many posts were made in the last 24 hrs.

Anyway, you get the idea.

Installation:

Very easy: Instructions are attached.
couple variables to edit, couple templates and your done.

Other information:

I wasn't going to release this yet, because i wanted to add more features, and remove anything that i later find unnecessary, But I am releasing in hope that i can get some ideas from you people on improving it.

If you find any bugs let me know and i will fix them. I have tested it many times. And have been using it for a couple days.

It should work with vbulletin version 2.x.x. I've tested it on 2.2.9 and 2.3.0

Please lick install if you find this useful

Updates:
March 30th: New version 1.1 Released.
Changes:

- Added: a PM Meter, shows percentage of how full inBox is
- Added: a preview of the private message, will show 75 characters of the message.,
- Added: 5 new images, for Meter.
- Fixed: PM Meter disappears when you have 1 new message to make space for the PM preview, Meter returns once the PM is read.

April 1st:

- Fixed bug: PM would show 1% full inBox when you had no PM's, now shows 0% when you have no messages in inBox

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To upgrade simply re-upload assistant.php and overwrite. Edit new configuration settings.

Clear browser cache first to download the update.

Yo. · #32 03-30-2003, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Today at 02:21 PM pugmy said this in Post #30
A great hack. works perfectly.

How can you make the assistant always stay on top of other windows? (Just like MS Messenger)

I know this tag, <body onBlur="window.focus()"> but
this is pretty annoying since you can't virtually do anything with other windows
because it not only stays on top but forces window focus to it.

Any alternative ways to make it stay on top like MS Messenger?

I'd like to learn this as well.

again, wonderful job.

This is actually the reason I made the changes that I did, I prefer docking to having a window on top. In fact I wish MSN Messenger could dock to the side as well.

Sebastian · #33 03-30-2003, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Today at 06:13 PM Yo. said this in Post #32

This is actually the reason I made the changes that I did, I prefer docking to having a window on top. In fact I wish MSN Messenger could dock to the side as well.

Looks good the way you have done it. Some people don't like frames though

djr · #34 03-30-2003, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Today at 12:12 AM Sebastian said this in Post #31
The reason i used javascript:redirect is so it doesn't go to that page from the vb Assistant, it will use another broswer window to go to that page, if you remove it it will use the same window as vB Assistant.

I have the vBAssisant as a side toolbar in Windows now (with auto-hide), but with every link I click, I get a Javascript error with 'opener is null or not a object', obviously because it can't find the original window. What needs to be changed to allow it to open urls (e.g. 'new posts' link) from the assisant window?

Quote:

As for keeping the menu's closed after a refresh, it's possible, but it would require a cookie possibly.

I for one wouldn't mind that

djr · #35 03-30-2003, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Yesterday at 11:11 PM Yo. said this in Post #29
I have modified this hack to work as a docked frame instead of a popup. If people like this for some reason, I can post the modifications here at vB.org.

I'd like that. Users will have an option if they want it floating or with the docked frame as you did. If you want to post the instructions, please do!

- djr

Yo. · #36 03-30-2003, 09:29 PM

Quote:

I have the vBAssisant as a side toolbar in Windows now (with auto-hide), but with every link I click, I get a Javascript error with 'opener is null or not a object', obviously because it can't find the original window. What needs to be changed to allow it to open urls (e.g. 'new posts' link) from the assisant window?

I'm not certain, but I think to use cross-window JavaScript both windows need to be part of the same process, which I don't think happens when you add a toolbar to Windows.

Yo. · #37 03-30-2003, 09:32 PM

Quote:

I'd like that. Users will have an option if they want it floating or with the docked frame as you did. If you want to post the instructions, please do!

You're right, it would actually be very easy to let users choose whether to open it in a frame or as a popup, I'll add that, then write and post the instructions soon.

msimplay · #38 03-30-2003, 09:35 PM

Vbassistant should become default in vb3

djr · #39 03-30-2003, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Today at 12:29 AM Yo. said this in Post #36

I'm not certain, but I think to use cross-window JavaScript both windows need to be part of the same process, which I don't think happens when you add a toolbar to Windows.

I understand about that, but I need to know what parts need to be rewritten to make it compliant with a Windows toolbar. What Javascript parts need to be replaced with 'normal' urls? I was in the process of doing this, as I typed before, but couldn't get it to work properly.

pugmy · #40 03-30-2003, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Today at 11:12 PM Sebastian said this in Post #31

@pugmy: Keeping vB Assistant on top of all windows can be annoying for some users, as you already mentioned.

hmm... not really.

For example, Messenger can be on the top without getting focus
(which allows you to do whatever with other windows even Messenger is on top)
The body tag always gets its focus (which is not good).

Right now, the Assistant keeps getting behind your browser everytime you click a link on Assistant.
(especially when your browser window is maximized)
If you want to use assistant, you have to change window focus to Assistant manually.
This is rather clumsy. An option to keep Assitant on top should be useful.

Using FRAME like Yo is one way to get around.
But just wondering if there's other ways to do so.

Yo. · #41 03-30-2003, 09:59 PM

Quote:

I understand about that, but I need to know what parts need to be rewritten to make it compliant with a Windows toolbar. What Javascript parts need to be replaced with 'normal' urls? I was in the process of doing this, as I typed before, but couldn't get it to work properly.

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do, where do you want the pages to show up when you click the links in the Windows toolbar?

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