Miscellaneous Hacks - vBISpy - AJAX real-time feed of new posts/threads

This is a port of vBISpy by MPDev to vBulletin4. MPDev has given me permission to port this modification, if any staff need to see it, I can forward the PM.


If you use this modification, please >> Mark As Installed, Nominate for MOTM, or Support Developer <<, thank you


What is this!?
vBISpy is an AJAX real-time feed of new posts/threads for your vBulletin 4.0 forum.

Please note that this is currently in Beta. The style is not perfect, but the mod should be fully functionial.


Current Version
2.0.4 - You can find the 3.6.x version, here.


Features flagged for future version(s):

• looking for suggestions

Will this work on x.x.x ??
Unless otherwise stated, this will work on all 4.0.x versions. This will not work on 3.x.


Sounds cool. How do I install?

1. Extract the zip, you should have the following directories/files:
   
   

   /
   |_ vaispy.php
   
   /clientscript/
   |_ va_effects.js
   |_ va_prototype.js
   |_ va_spy.js
   
   /images/
   	/misc/
   	|_ pause_down.gif
   	|_ pause_up.gif
   	|_ play_down.gif
   	|_ play_up.gif

2. Upload: (in the below instructions 'yourforum' would be where you have vBulletin installed)
   
   • vaispy.php to /yourforum/vaispy.php
     
   • /clientscript/*.js to /yourforum/clientscript/*.js
     
   • /images/misc/*.gif to /yourforum/images/misc/*.gif

Upgrading
Unless noted otherwise, just upload and overwrite 'vaispy.php'.


Customization
Virtually all the code to customize the page is in the vaispy.php script; there are no plugins, no templates and no phrases. You do not need to do anything further; this should work right out of the box.

If you'd like to block certain usergroups from viewing vBISpy; or certain forums from being displayed - edit vaispy.php

PHP Code:

/**
* Do not list these forums even if they have 
* permissions (test categories, etc)
*
* Enter them by ID, separated by commans (eg: 1,2,3)
*/
$blockforums = '';

/**
* Do not allow these groups.
*
* Enter them by ID, separated by commans (eg: 1,2,3)
*/
$blockgroups = ''; 


In your browser, open the URL:

http://www.yourforum.com/forum/vaispy.php

You can see examples of this at:

• Anyone wanting to list here as an example?

Note: Neither I nor MPDev claim ownership of this code except for the file vaispy.php - the rest of the files were using 'freely distributable' (although modified to suit vBISpy) sources. As such, you may use these files as you wish, but please do not remove the copyrights.


Changelog
2.0.4 - June 23, 2011
- Changed 'xml' to 'feed' when the script is requesting data via AJAX
- Updated code that checks for blocked groups and forums so that it works properly.
- Added version string (?v=) to script calls.
- Updated template html to include facebook data if enabled.
- Updated css link rendering to determine if templates are stored as files or not.

2.0.3 - March 25, 2010
- Updated alternate row colors to use stylevars.
- Added ability to block certain usergroups by editing vaispy.php.
- Fixed possible bug where in certain situations a database error would occur.

2.0.2 - January 23, 2010
- Hopefully the incorrect showthread link is now fixed.
- Added alternate row colors.
- Changed default xml delay in va_spy.js to 3000 from 7000.

2.0.1 - January 21, 2010
- Fixed issue with incorrect path to thread statusicon's
- Edits to clientscript/va_spy.js to hopefully fix issues with incorrect showthread link.
- Removed &nbsp;'s from the rows generated if displayed rows are less than 20

2.0.0 - January 21, 2010
- Ported to vBulletin4 with permission from MPDev



If you use this modification, please >> Mark As Installed, Nominate for MOTM, or Support Developer <<, thank you

[Alien]

Originally Posted by compuminus

Ideally the alternate row colors would be drawn from the stylevars, as opposed to being hard-coded into the php. I have a light and dark style for my forums, so as it stands now, vBISpy won't look right with one of them. Perhaps alt1 could correspond to threadbit_background and alt2 could be threadbit_alt_background ? Thanks for porting this to vB4!

I have this same issue, please consider this it's very important for those with light and dark styles both!

[compuminus]

I just noticed another issue that I'm surprised I hadn't spotted before:

All of the lower menu items disappear on the vaispy.php page (New Posts, Private Messages, FAQ, Community, etc.). Only the very top level items appear (Forum, What's New, etc.)

Should be a reasonably simple fix...

[SpankMe]

Originally Posted by compuminus

Great. It's not a perfect icons coding though, since it does not always correctly use the thread_dot_16-right.png or thread-16-right.png as opposed to thread_dot_16.png or thread-16.png, respectively (when appropriate), but it's pretty close.

Look forward to the new release! Thanks!

For now just..

cp statusicon/thread_dot-16.png BP-Brown/statusicon/thread_dot_hot-16.png
cp statusicon/thread_dot-16.png BP-Brown/statusicon/thread_dot-16.png
cp BP-Brown/statusicon/forum_old-16.png BP-Brown/statusicon/thread-16.png

it fits well. And it's green.

[New Joe]

Any chance of getting this made: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=126421
vBISpy module - live AJAX feed of new threads - for vBAdvanced CMPS

[dosadno]

Sorry if this has been asked, but how can i set it to be viewable by only certain usergroups?
I would like that only admins and moderators can use this mod...

BTW great mod

[Sushubh]

i guess do not reveal the URL of the vaispy page!

that's what i do. only a limited number of people know about the vaispy page on my forum.

[dosadno]

There must be a beter way, besides, tab with the url is alredy publised

[shofolofo]

yes I need this aswell .. anyway to define the user group ids ?

[chris1979]

Are there some customisation instructions somewhere? I cannot remember from the 3.8 version... how do we select which forums to include, and how can we set how often to check for updates?

[Eric]

Originally Posted by shofolofo

yes I need this aswell .. anyway to define the user group ids ?

This will be in the next update. In the meantime, if you want to block certain usergroups from viewing vaispy...

Edit vaispy.php and find:

PHP Code:

// #######################################################################
// ######################## START MAIN SCRIPT ############################
// ####################################################################### 


and after that, add (only an example)

PHP Code:

if (is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 8))
{
    print_no_permission();
} 


Where '8' would be the usergroup id. You can also do multiple usergroups. Let's say you had 8, 9, 10 that you wanted to block:

PHP Code:

if (is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 8, 9, 10))
{
    print_no_permission();
} 


Originally Posted by chris1979

Are there some customisation instructions somewhere? I cannot remember from the 3.8 version... how do we select which forums to include, and how can we set how often to check for updates?

Since this is based on the original vBISpy, I've not really changed the mod much. It doesn't make use of the product system/templates/phrases/etc, so it has to be done manually. You can not currently choose which forums to include, you can only choose to exclude forums:

Around line 44 in vaispy.php

PHP Code:

/**
* Do not list these forums even if they have 
* permissions (test categories, etc)
*/
$blockforums = ''; 


As far as the time between updates, that's controlled by the javascript, in the clientscript/va_spy.js file. In that file, around line 38 you'll see:

/* Delay between polls to the XML feed for new updates to page */
var xmldelay = 3000;

This value is seconds x 1000

So, let's say you wanted it to be 6 seconds, you'd change it to:

/* Delay between polls to the XML feed for new updates to page */
var xmldelay = 6000;