NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15


Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
• Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

• Provided option of not importing attachments
• Provided option of pause between messages
• Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
• Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
• Provided "Default Footer" option
• Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
  (written originally by KevinM)
• Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
• Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
• Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
  (use prefix)
• Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
  as vB3.0.3
• Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
• Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

• Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
• Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
  each group.
• Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
• Scheduled task log is now working
• Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
• Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

[Cold Steel]

Originally Posted by lierduh

The single quote in the message ID is the cause of the problem. Message ID should not contain quotes charactor. You can either bypass this message by editing the lastmsg in the control panel, or do the following:

Around line 338 find:

(post.msgid = '$par_msgid') AND

Change it to:

(post.msgid = '" . addslashes($par_msgid) . "') AND

Thanks.

Made the change, but now I'm getting this error:

Getting message number 300622: 
'Re: When did "oriental" become a bad word?' from nttran@webtv.net. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 300623: 
'Re: Japanese loves American fashion.' from Charley Brown and Almighty Snoopy. Thread found by References.
Getting message number 300624: 
'Re: Ref: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?' from Mike1. Thread found by References.
<html><head><title>asiansINC.com Database Error</title><style type="text/css"><!--.error { font: 11px tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; }--></style></head>
<body></table></td></tr></table></form>
<blockquote><p class="error">&nbsp;</p><p class="error"><b>There seems to have been a slight problem with the asiansINC.com database.</b><br />
Please try again by pressing the <a href="javascript:window.location=window.location;">refresh</a> button in your browser.</p><p class="error">An E-Mail has been dispatched to our <a href="mailto:">Technical Staff</a>, who you can also contact if the problem persists.</p><p class="error">We apologise for any inconvenience.</p><form><textarea class="error" rows="15" cols="100" wrap="off">Database error in vBulletin 3.0.1:

Invalid SQL: INSERT INTO post 
					(postid, threadid, title, username, userid, dateline,
					pagetext, allowsmilie, showsignature, ipaddress, iconid,
					visible, isusenetpost, msgid, ref, parentid)
					VALUES (NULL, 33342, 
					'Re: Ref: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Justified?',
					'Mike1', 0,
					'1087752217',
					'(alfred montestruc) wrote:

&gt;....societies have....


Ambiguous-Collective fallacy.  (It\'s a popular one.)

Lemme help ya:  http://home.mn.rr.com/meadowbrookhome/z/FALLACYS.HTM


No charge.

--

Reply to mike1@@@usfamily.net sans two @@, or your reply won\'t reach me.

Anarchy: The political manifestation of Liberty.
Capitalism: The economic manifestation of Liberty.
\&quot;An election is nothing more than an advance auction of stolen goods.\&quot;
-- Ambrose Bierce, \&quot;The Devil\'s Dictionary\&quot;
\&quot;Democracy: Nine Nazis and one Jew voting in the 1932 German elections.\&quot;
', 1, 0,
					'For-Gilly\'s-benefit@usfamily.net', 0, 1, 1, 
					'&lt;For-Gilly's-benefit-AE567C.01160607042004@phswest.com&gt;',
					'&lt;5dda60h3nm2n3as4k80kemmaaf6pb2v8kh@4ax.com&gt; &lt;c2c06a17.0403311712.1ded4c6c@posting.google.com&gt; &lt;ht9p60p9o42esuufj2mqghisklr4os2q21@4ax.com&gt; &lt;c2c06a17.0404031725.609a165a@posting.google.com&gt; &lt;hstu60htq5qcemv309jel8f9neu9g10v64@4ax.com&gt; &lt;c2c06a17.0404041024.7a514d28@posting.google.com&gt; &lt;For-Tom_Cerco's-benefit-A772E2.23264904042004@phswest.com&gt; &lt;c2c06a17.0404050502.26a4556f@posting.google.com&gt; &lt;For-Tom_Cerco's-benefit-358608.22421205042004@phswest.com&gt; &lt;c2c06a17.0404061456.69a8fa88@posting.google.com&gt;',
					0 + 0)
mysql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax.  Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 's-benefit-AE567C.01160607042004@phswest.com&gt;',
					'&lt;5dda60h3n

mysql error number: 1064

Date: Sunday 20th of June 2004 12:23:37 PM
Script: http://forums.asiansinc.com/gateway.php
Referer: 
Username: Webmaster
IP Address: **.**.**.***
</textarea></form></blockquote>

</body></html>

[Cold Steel]

Originally Posted by Cold Steel

How do I determine which one is gateway.php?

Is there a way to get it to run more than every 30 minutes? I keep on getting this message:

Another instance of gateway.php is running, try again in 30 minutes if the script was crashed.

when running it manually. Would the same thing happen if I set it to cron?

[Cold Steel]

After disabling the one newsgroup above that is still giving me mysql errors, I have gateway.php set to run every 10 minutes via cron.

However, I am getting tons of doubleposts in those newsgroups. I think it must be because of gateway.php, because Agent and Google don't show the double posts. I don't think they're being threaded properly, either. I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could take a look for me:

alt.asian-movies
http://forums.asiansinc.com/forumdisplay.php?f=74
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...n-movies&meta=

alt.food.asian
http://forums.asiansinc.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=al...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Cold Steel

Thanks.

Made the change, but now I'm getting this error:
[/code]

Around line 392, find:

'{$message['message-id']}',
'{$message['references']}',

Change them to:

'" . addslashes($message['message-id']) . "',
'" . addslashes($message['references']) . "',

[Cold Steel]

Woohoo, working like a charm again.

Positive Karma for you if this place had it.

[Qwest]

Mine was working fine, then all of a sudden it started getting stuck on "Getting message number 11653:".

It goes that far then says done. Of course when I try to refresh it I get the 30 minute warning. No new posts are picked up even after I've added new news groups.

Please Help!

[Cold Steel]

You may want to do these fixes:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=217
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=224

I've had no problems after I made those changes.

[Cold Steel]

How come some posts go through, but some don't?

This one didn't go through - http://forums.asiansinc.com/showpost...04&postcount=2

But these four did - http://forums.asiansinc.com/search.php?searchid=20571

[trackpads]

Originally Posted by KevinM

Yes you can. Find this:

PHP Code:

else if ($killfileresult = checkkillfile($message)) 


and change it to to:

PHP Code:

else if ($killfileresult = checkkillfile($message) AND $grouptype == 'news') 


This will work on newsgroups only.

To work on mailing lists only:

PHP Code:

else if ($killfileresult = checkkillfile($message) AND $grouptype != 'news') 


I haven't tried it, but it should work.

Thanks!!!!!

[Cold Steel]

Is there anyway to set it so vB signatures ARE passed into the newsgroups?