Major Additions - vBExperience 4

vBExperience 4.1 for vBulletin 4

Tested with all Version of vBulletin Forum and Suite 4.0.4 -> 4.1.11

Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

Triple Winner of the "Mod of the Month"-Award (March 2008, September 2009, July 2010) on vBulletin.org.

What is vBExperience?
vBExperience is your free feature packaged solution for motivating your users. vBExperience is an advanced and highly customizable level/promotion and activity measure system with awards, achievements, promotions and activities. It will calculate an activity and experience score for every user based on their activites on the forum. Now your users will see how their level is increasing by participating on your forum.

Communities are not only defined by post count, they need much more parameters: Are the postings the user creates helpful? Are his threads frequently read? Does the user participate on the community by posting pictures, attachments, leaving visitor messages, tagging threads? How can the user's activitiy be compared to others? All this can be answered with this mod. Additionally your users get awards and collect achievements for beeing active on your board.

vBExperience is fully translated to many languages. Beside english there are language files for german, french, italian, portuguese, spanish, swedish and chinese simplified. Polish, turkish, persian are not fully translated.

Comments, suggestions, translations, bugs, etc... are very welcome! Support is only given to people who have clicked "Mark as Installed":
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/vborg_mis...hreadid=245023


/***** Demo *****\
No Demosite currently available.


/***** INSTALLATION *****\
Please read the file readme_install_uninstall_upgrade.txt for detailed instructions!


/***** Primary Support *****\
As vBulletin.org does not offer any help managing modifications, espacially the complex one like vBExperience, I have to decided to open a site together with TheMayhem that is dedicated just for this.
It features a forum not just a single thread, a bug and feature tracker. And you also test our modifications over there.



/***** Featurelist *****\

*** Plugins ***
vBExperience can be easily extended by using it's custom data provider interface (CDP). With the CDP everyone is able to create plugins that integrates into vBExperience calculation process. There are already several plugins like Post Thanks Integration.
The plugins data can also be used to create achievements, awards and also promotions.


*** Insight Experience ***
The insight into your personal experience and what's going on on the community. Currently support basic services like activity and some featured achievements, there are plans to extend this with helpful hints on how progress, depending on users points. Also a statistics module is in work.


*** Awards ***
Motivate your users to be the best in a defined category! With the Awards you are able to reward users who collect the most points, f.e. by making new friends and leading a social group.
The awards are shown in Rankings and Profile. You can set them also to display in postbit near the username. There is a scheduled job running once a day (02:30h) to calculate them.
Via AdminCP they are completely customizeable and can also be assigned manually.

Currently there are six default awards: Most Popular, Activity Award, Posting Award, Community Award, Frequent Poster, Blog Award, Calendar Award, Discussion Ender, Master Tagger, User with most referrers, Downloads, Arm of Law, King of Publishing.
You can create as much awards as you like. Just select a title, choose from one of the 250 images and select the required points for it.


*** Achievements ***
Achievements are very similar to the awards a reward to the user. Unlike an award an achievement is not limited to a single user.
Similar to awards, you can create as much achievements as you like. Just select a title, choose from one of the over 500 images and create the required condition for it.


*** Promotion system ***
The promotion system enables you to move users to other usergroups, depending on their experience points. You can create conditions that have to be met to be promoted. Benefits and extended permissions will be shown automatically to the user. Promotions are showing also possible jumps from current to the next possible group with the required conditions.
Using this you can create multiple groups and assign additional features. Just an example: Usergroup 1 has no custom avatars and just a capacity of 20 private messages. With a condition of 1000 Experience points the user moves to Usergroup 2, where the user is able to upload his own avatar and store more private messages.


*** Rankings ***
Showing User, Level, Awards, Activity Points (experience, thread, post, user, misc) - sortable.


*** Social Groups Rankings ***
Starts the competition between social groups! This feature ranks the groups depending on their average user experience points.


*** Earn Points ***
This is an overview for the user on how points can be collected. It features also a possibility to compare own points to the community's average. All data is beeing pulled automatically from the database.


*** Give Away Points aka Point Donation ***
Users can donate their points to other community members. Choose the field which will be used for give away and select the amount that will be transferred. Admins can donate custom points to the user.


*** Statistics aka Leaderboards ***
The leaderboard is showing a Top-x list of the leading users. Usefull for optimizing points of the point provider. Only enabled point providers with results will be displayed.


*** Shop aka Market ***
vBExperience integrates easily with the Point Market System v3 by TheMayham (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=232676).
It features a virtual item store, username items, bank, gifts, gambling, lottery, and a lot more!
As of vBExperience 4.0, the vBExperience 3.8 Shop has been discontinued.



/***** Collecting Points *****\
vBExperience is collecting points for a user counting his actions in the community. The collected points can be used to reward users with awards, achievements and promotions - even if the collected data comes from a plugin.

Beside the automatic collection, the admin can manually donate custom points to the user, for example for a special reward. Of course you can use this also for awards, achievements and promotions.


Taken into calculation are these things:
Threads
- Creating threads and gaining additional points from views, replies, votes and ratings to this thread
- Creating thread tags
- Making a thread sticky
- Socialgroup Discussions (Discussions, Posts)

Posts
- Creating posts
- Views on attachments (needs "Who Downloaded This Attachment?" installed)

User
- Days since registration
- Average posts per Day (for users who are registered for at least seven days)
- Referrals
- Received infractions
- Given infractions ("Arm of Law")
- Reputation / Use of reputation system
- Visitor messages on profiles
- Creating social groups and getting members
- Uploading pictures
- Making friends
- Completing profile

Misc
- Doing calendar entries
- Writing vBulletin Blogs (vBulletin 4 Suite required)
- Publishing content with vBulletin CMS (vBulletin 4 Suite required)
- Manually assigned points

Additionally there is support for 3rd party modifications:
- Point Market System / Items Shop (included)
- Project Tools (plugin)
- Who Downloaded This Attachment? (plugin)
- DownloadsII v6 (included)
- LDM Links and Downloads Manager (included)
- Abe1 Post Thank You (plugin)
- DBTech Advanced Post Thanks/Like (Lite) (plugin)
- DBTech Advanced @UserTag (plugin)
- Helpful Answers (plugin)
- iTrader (plugin)
- ibProArcade (plugin)
- v3arcade Champions and Submissions (plugin)
- vB Tournaments and Ladders (plugin)
- Advanced Forum Points - set points independent for every forum (plugin)
- Consuming points by downloading attachments ("pay" for attachments) (plugin)
- IWT Time Spent Online (plugin)
- PhotoPost Pro 7 (plugin)
- PhotoPost vBGallery 3 (plugin)
- 8WR Media Library (plugin)
- vBSoccer (plugin)
- vBookie (plugin)
- vBookie Cash (plugin)
- Farcaster's Event Attendance (plugin)
- PhotoPlug (plugin)
- EasyForms (plugin)
- Triple Triad (plugin)
- AWCoding Donation System LITE (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Donation System PRO (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Subscription System PRO (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Credit Purchase System LITE (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Credit Purchase System PRO (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Pirate Poker PRO (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Pirate Poker Platinum (shipped within that product)
- AWCoding Product System PRO (shipped within that product)



You have to install these modifications for your own, vBExperience doesn't install nor touches these.
More addons will be published as soon as they are finished.



/***** Calculation of the activity *****\
The system calculates the activity (week, month and also a custom defined datespan, 60) by counting the actions a user has done. An action can be a post, a new thread, rating, download, etc... The activity bars will be filled during the first weeks. This has changed from earlier versions where just postings, visitor- and group messages have been counted.



/***** Settings *****\
You can control how many points are given to every calculation. For example you can give many points for creating new threads but only a few for views of that thread. Setting a value to 0 will disable a setting.
Many settings regarding the behaviour of vBExperience are making it easy to adjust it to your needs. You can select from 10 colors for the progress bars and also choose from around 250 icons.
Additionally, you can set ignore users (f.e. for bot users), forums (f.e. offtopic forums) and usergroup id's. Please keep in mind that out of the box the usergroupid 6 (Administrators) is beeing ignored.



/***** Performance, especially on Big Boards *****\
vBExperience has been tested on smaller and also on some bigger sites. I know from boards with around 120k users running this mod smoothly. More about this topic can be read in the file readme_optimization.txt



/***** Frequently asked questions *****\
Q: How do I change the name Experience to something new?
A: You can change the name via phrases. Just search and replace all phrases that contains the word "Experience".

Q: When installing vBExperience, does everyone start from scratch, or will it automatically configure everyone's points based on actions before the install?
A: If you recount, vBExperience will calculate ALL existing data since the beginning of the board. If you used vBCredits, vBActivity, uCash and similar systems - there is no need to convert the points.

Q: My conditions don't work correctly on achievements and promotions.
A: Conditions in achievements and promotions are calculated in POINTS, not in count of items.
If you create an achievement for reaching the first 10 Days, you must enter the points needed for this. If you reward 2 points for every day, you have to set 2 points for every day since registering. Calculation: 10 days * 2 points = 20 as condition. So you will have to set 20 as the condition.

Credits for images
- FAMFAMFAM, http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
- IconExperience



/***** History *****\

vBExperience 4.1.1

Please reinstall ALL plugins you are using from the ZIP\Plugins! Espacially if you get SQL Errors after reinstalling vBExperience.

- Fixed Plugin for 8WR_Media_Library
- Fixed Plugin for Advanced_Forum_Points
- Fixed Plugin for Attachment_Consumes_Points
- Fixed Plugin for EasyForms
- Fixed Plugin for Post_Thanks_Abe1
- Fixed border around boxes
- Fixed not correctly saving award images
- Extended character length for manual award assignment
- Several smaller fixes

vBExperience 4.1.0, 16th December 2011

- Introduced the feature to start the calculation by a defined date. By default all data will be considered for calculation. Please keep in mind that there are some data that cannot be filtered by date, like added friends. You need to re-install all plugins to have them obeying the new calculation limit. This feature has been sponsored by BryanB. Thanks!
- Fixed Discussion Ender, can be now disabled by setting value to 0
- Fixed Arm of Law, can be now disabled by setting value to 0
- Insight: Optimized layout
- Insight: Optimized colours for darker styles
- Achievement "Three Friends" renamed to "Social" (does not affect existing achievement)
- Renamed point descriptions so they can be identified better as point system (f.e. Days since registered -> Points for every day since registration)
- Added: Romanian Translation (thanks to Teascu Dorin)
- Custom Points can now have a category, can be used as entry point for other modifications using vBExperience points, eg. Market/Shop purchases
- Fixed several smaller issues

Changelog for other versions is in history.txt

[Talk-Pets]

Is it possible to give awards to specific users in different sections based on activity (starting threads, posting replies)?

Not covering the whole board but for each section.

If possible, a guide on how to do this is appriciated

[noddyy]

Great mod!
One thing though, Admins seem to be NOT counted in awards? is this a setting i have missed or a bug?

[Breixo]

I completed the Spanish translation (v4.0.2). If there is any mistake, please report. The translation is in action on my forum:
http://www.movilesdualsim.com/foro/xperience.php

Not all the sentences are in this file, you will have to translate them manually through Admin Panel. Hope it helps!
----------------------

He completado la traducci?n de este plugin (versi?n 4.0.2), han sido muchas l?neas y seguro que por el medio hay alg?n error. Si lo quer?is ver en acci?n est? activo en mi foro:
http://www.movilesdualsim.com/foro/xperience.php
Al parecer no est?n todas las l?neas de texto en este archivo, algunas frases es necesario traducirlas directamente a trav?s del Panel de Administrador (no he encontrado otro m?todo). Pero por lo menos el trabajo m?s gordo est? incluido en este archivo.

Espero que os sirva de ayuda

Un saludo!

[sixdemons]

Originally Posted by ESKORPION

Installed and work it!

Some question... the spanish translation don't work, why? I have vb 4.0.6.

spanish translation works perfectly for me on v4.0.6PL1

All seems to work perfect on my board except the activity lvl.
can someone explain me how exactly works? I did the recount and update the activity PPD. but all my users are in activity lvl 0. including myself.

is the activity calculated after a week? are any way to calculate the activity from this month?

I got to say that my forum has been inactive (for users) for about 2 days now, since I'm doing some mayor changes on the themes, templates and mods. is this has something to do with the activity? all my users has been really active this week except this last couple days that I disable the forum entrance.

I remember this mod from v3.8 a couple years ago and the activity was calculated immediately for all users. is there a way to calculate activity from last 30 days and show on the activity bar?

thanks.

[Dark_Jack]

Congratulations!!

[Phalynx]

I returned yesterday from vacation and now I'm going fully supporting this.

Originally Posted by KProjects

Thanks - just updated.. my users love this mod.

I see that you made it so achievements can replace each other.. how do you set this since mine is still showing alllll achievements - ie: 100 points, 250, 500, 1000... so that it just shows the 1000 points achievement.

If you didn't replaced the existing achievements they won't replace each other. Either you edit them for yourself setting the replacements or you just clear them add create default achievements.

Originally Posted by ellinofatsa

i go to recount the xperience points via maintenance tools and i see this problem database has encountered a problem. MySQL Error : Table 'xxxxxxxxx_vb.pp_photos' doesn't exist

any help for that?

It seems you don't have PhotoPost installed withing vBulletin. Uninstall the addin for PhotoPost.

Originally Posted by Tahooma

Hi
I installed it and it simply does not count my points.
When i click on "recalculate points" in the admincp, then it recounts correctly.
But after for example creating a thread, nothing happens.

any hints on this one ?

Thanks and BR

EDIT:
Nevermind, didnt know it takes 10 minutes to calculate...

Please click "Mark as Installed" to get support.

Originally Posted by Aramist

Hi Phalynx !

Any chance to vbexperience works with microCART ?

Ty in advance.

This is something that must be done by the author of microCART.

Originally Posted by staffurdu

hmmm i dont know if anything is wrong with vbexperience or with my forum. when i choose Position in postbit to custom location and add "$xperience_postbit" in my postbit_legacy it dont show bars instead it simply shows text "$xperience_postbit".

hmmm what wrong?

This is a known issue that will be fixed with the upcoming 4.0.3

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by boxingasylum

Hey Guys

Iv'e uploaded VbExperence to the server in a new directory but Im getting errors when trying to run the php setup files, I just need to know how to install it. Can anyone help please?

Please click "Mark as Installed" to get further support. Also, please read the file readme_install_uninstall_upgrade.txt

Originally Posted by ESKORPION

Installed and work it!

Some question... the spanish translation don't work, why? I have vb 4.0.6.

What exactly does not work?

Originally Posted by MicroHellas

Hello,

As many members asked me to implement my microCART with vbExperiance, I'll be greatfull if someone tells me the table and field names where the total points are storing.

Thank you
Maria

Originally Posted by Bouncer222

user>xperience contains the total amount of points.

This will not work this way. Please have a look at the plugin ZIP\extras\Addons\vBookie.xml to see what has to be done.
Maria, if you need further assistance with that PM me.

Originally Posted by tattooz

Where are the permissions for this mod? I would like to make it inaccessible to unregistered guests

"Can View Members"

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by clarkey25

Hi, this may be a really dumb question, but is Promotion the same as level?

Currently I have 1 promotion from Registered Usergroup to Pro Gamer Usergroup. So is that level 1? If I added a new usergroup with a promotion that would be level 2?

No, Levels are independent of promotions. Levels are defined by importing a level product file, see readme.
With the promotions your can promote users to another usergroup.

Originally Posted by Kunimo Snake

I was wondering, is there a way to make it so that instead of having points displayed as current, you can make them displayed as cumulative? In other words, when you spend them or lose them you stay at the same displayed number but ofc you lose them from your bank? This might not relate to you, but to the market addon but thought I may as well post on both

If you dont understand what I mean then sorry, just ask and I'll rephrase it xD
Thanks in advance
Snake

Please click "Mark as Installed" to get further support. And no, as the points are always recalculated.

Originally Posted by idslamyou

The promotions don't seem to be working. I have a promotion setup for posts>20 to switch my users to a different usergroup. I have my points for a post set to 2, so that would mean that after 10 posts the user should be promoted. I have users with 20-50 posts who have not been promoted. The experience promotion system is enabled in the settings and I have tried to "update promotions" from the recount menu with no success. Any ideas?

Also, will the VB promotion system still work with the VBexperience promotions enabled?

Yes, both can coexist, as long as you don't setup a promotion that collides. Please check if the jumping path is correct, f.e. if the user is in the usergroup that has to be promoted.

Originally Posted by masonox

Tried a search of this mod but did not return a proper result but

On my forum, it is sowing in post bit only the award, or an achievement, but not both. Is this intended? Or is there a way to get them both to show in postbit?

thanks

They should be both displayed. I cannot confirm a bug with that.

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by DstrucTIonS

Installed, but can't get the promotions to work. I have 2 promotions setup and no users are being moved to new usergroups even after they surpass the limits in the promotions.

Help?

Thanks,

Please check if the promoted users are in correct usergroup. Also it does only work for primary groups.

Originally Posted by kersti

Please please please add this to the top section of the mod page - took me ages to find it!

It is difficult to read a file called "readme_install_uninstall_upgrade.txt" before installing such a complex modification?

Originally Posted by kersti

I'd like the bars and awards etc to be on the left of the signature, same level as the signature - seems like a lot of wasted space there, anyone done this?

Check in settings/options if the other locations are ok for you.

Originally Posted by stwan

Phalynx, the problem is with plugin vBExperience (links)] executed on hook location global_setup_complete

Change hook location from global_setup_complete to process_templates_complete and that should fix conflict vBExperience 4 with vB Tournaments and Ladders Manager.

Fixed in 4.0.3:
http://www.vbaddict.net/project.php?issueid=42

Originally Posted by MrD

Hi,
any Timeline, if a new killexp. are Avaible?
ANy Tables are not delete correctly :9

Fixed in 4.0.3:
http://www.vbaddict.net/project.php?issueid=48

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by Talk-Pets

Is it possible to give awards to specific users in different sections based on activity (starting threads, posting replies)?

Not covering the whole board but for each section.

If possible, a guide on how to do this is appriciated

This can be accomplished by creating an CDP Plugin:
ZIP\extras\Custom Data Provider

Please check that readme there.

Originally Posted by noddyy

Great mod!
One thing though, Admins seem to be NOT counted in awards? is this a setting i have missed or a bug?

Yes, there is a setting for ignoring admins.

Originally Posted by Breixo

I completed the Spanish translation (v4.0.2). If there is any mistake, please report. The translation is in action on my forum:
http://www.movilesdualsim.com/foro/xperience.php

Not all the sentences are in this file, you will have to translate them manually through Admin Panel. Hope it helps!

Thank you for sharing.

Originally Posted by sixdemons

spanish translation works perfectly for me on v4.0.6PL1

All seems to work perfect on my board except the activity lvl.
can someone explain me how exactly works? I did the recount and update the activity PPD. but all my users are in activity lvl 0. including myself.

is the activity calculated after a week? are any way to calculate the activity from this month?

I got to say that my forum has been inactive (for users) for about 2 days now, since I'm doing some mayor changes on the themes, templates and mods. is this has something to do with the activity? all my users has been really active this week except this last couple days that I disable the forum entrance.

I remember this mod from v3.8 a couple years ago and the activity was calculated immediately for all users. is there a way to calculate activity from last 30 days and show on the activity bar?

thanks.

The activity works based on activities. You will need to enable them. It needs also some days to have it working like intended. As it's more accurate than the old system it needs some time to fine tune for your board.