AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site!

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

1. An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.
   
   
   
   
   
   The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
   
2. A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.
   
   The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.
   
   
   
   
   So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
   • Hockey
     • Professional
     • College
     • High School
   • Football
     • American Football
     • The Rest of the World (Soccer)
   • Baseball
   
   with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by CarpHunter

Installed it and like it very much INSTALLED

I encountered one little error though.

Thanks for catching that. I'll be sure to include the fix in my next release.

[CyberRanger]

The biggest change in this release is the ability to have RSS Feeds AUTOMATICALLY create threads!

[FleaBag]

A fantastic update! I had recently installed this and wondered where the thread creation option was (having viewed the demo link) - very pleased to see this emerge! For some time I thought I was missing an option.

Great work and thanks for the continued updates, I plan to make this a big part of my site's appeal!

[MorrisMcD]

Looks good.. But all I am getting now is this

XML error: Empty document at line 1

[Benedict]

top work I'll install the update sometime this weekend :thumb:

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by MorrisMcD

Looks good.. But all I am getting now is this


XML error: Empty document at line 1

Well, that's not good! Is this a new install? My guess is that it is and that your server doesn't allow fopen, but that's only a guess.

For now, go into admincp -> About Today -> RSS Feeds. If this is new, delete the Yahoo and the CNN feeds. That should stop the error. Now, add a feed and see what happens.

If this an upgrade, did you recently add a new feed? If yes, that feed may be bad. Check the URL in your browser and see what you get.

[CyberRanger]

I've temporarily REMOVED version 2.0. A last minute change I made can cause duplicate threads when a feed is set to auto-add threads. I should have a fix later today (May 20).

If you have already installed ver 2, please do not set feeds to auto-add a thread.:cross-eyed:

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by westpointer

I've temporarily REMOVED version 2.0. A last minute change I made can cause duplicate threads when a feed is set to auto-add threads. I should have a fix later today (May 20).

If you have already installed ver 2, please do not set feeds to auto-add a thread.:cross-eyed:

Ver 2.0.1 loaded to fix the problem cited above. Also, if you now add an invalid RSS Feed URL, you will receive an error message letting you know that.

[MorrisMcD]

Originally Posted by westpointer

Well, that's not good! Is this a new install? My guess is that it is and that your server doesn't allow fopen, but that's only a guess.

For now, go into admincp -> About Today -> RSS Feeds. If this is new, delete the Yahoo and the CNN feeds. That should stop the error. Now, add a feed and see what happens.

If this an upgrade, did you recently add a new feed? If yes, that feed may be bad. Check the URL in your browser and see what you get.

This is an upgrade... All my feeds from the previous version are still there.. Should I readd them?

My server is Windows 2003.. Is that a problem?

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by MorrisMcD

This is an upgrade... All my feeds from the previous version are still there.. Should I readd them?

My server is Windows 2003.. Is that a problem?

Win2003 shouldn't be a problem, especially if you already had active feeds. Install the AboutToday 2.0.1 files then delete and readd your feeds one at a time. That should help you find the problem feed.