Add-On Releases - CES Site News

CES Site News
Version: 1.6.3
vBulletin 3.7.x, 3.8.x supported

*** NEWS ***
5/15/2008 - v1.6.3 released
5/5/2008 - v1.6.2 released
5/2/2008 - v1.6.1 released
4/17/2008 - v1.6.0 released
11/7/2007 - v1.5.1 released
9/9/2007 - v1.5.0 released
4/12/2007 - v1.4.1 released
4/5/2007 - v1.4.0 released
4/1/2007 - 4/2/2007 - v1.3.1 through v1.3.2 released
3/30/2007 - v1.3.0 released
3/23/2007 - 3/26/2007 - v1.2.0 through v1.2.4 released
3/14/2007 - v1.1.1 released
3/12/2007 - v1.1.0 released
2/9/2007 - v1.0.8 released
1/29/2007 - v1.0.7 released
1/23/2007 - 1/27/2007 - v1.0.0 through v1.0.6 released

Known Issues:
- none

What It Does:
This allows you to turn one of your forums into a news blog.

Live Installation: http://www.crackedeggstudios.com/news.php
This site is usually an update or two ahead of what's available in this thread, because that's where we do all our testing.

Products to Install: 1
Plugins Included: 14
Files to Upload: 7
Files to Edit: 0
New Templates: 8
Template Edits: 0

Mod Features:
- adds options to the Forum Manager
- uses forum permissions
- threads in the given forum become articles
- pull articles from other forums
- full-text articles are displayed in a customized forumdisplay
- post replies are added as comments
- set number of articles and comments per page
- turn on/off announcements in news display
- turn on/off attachments in news display
- turn on/off last comment in news display
- ajax quick edit in news display (basically, quick edit in forum display)
- display articles on every comments page
- limit size of article preview
- additional BB-Code tags for articles

BB-Code Tags:
[previewlength]value[/previewlength]
Placing this anywhere in an article overrides the preview limit for that article only. Multiple [previewlength] tags are cumulative. A "Read More..." link will appear if this tag is used.

[preview]value[/preview]
Placing this anywhere in an article defines text that will only show on Newsdisplay. Text contained in this tag completely replaces the post text on Newsdisplay. Multiple [preview] tags are cumulative. A "Read More..." link will appear if this tag is used.

[more]value[/more]
Placing this anywhere in an article defines text that will only show on Shownews. Text contained in this tag does not replace the post text on Shownews. It only hides text from Newsdisplay.

*** Changelog ***
As of Version 1.6.3:
- bug fix: preview functions do nothing since alias support added
- bug fix: preview functions never worked on editpost or newthread
- bug fix: inconsistent postbit after quick edit
- updated files: news.php, shownews.php, ces_news_bbcode.php,
ces_news_quick_edit.js

As of Version 1.6.2:
- bug fix: more database errors in vB 3.6.x
- bug fix: post controls hide on news display in IE7
- bug fix: threadbit and postbit widths inconsistent
- updated templates: ces_news_postbit, ces_news_threadbit
- updated files: shownews.php

*** Screenshots ***
1. New Forum Manager Option
2. Site News Settings
3. News Articles (forumdisplay)
4. Comments (showthread)

[dizzy100]

What templates does this mod use ? I need to edit them as they are now 100% correct for vbulletins default style (top by the reply pushes out slightly and a few other minor cosmetic issues).

[thincom2000]

NEWSDISPLAY
news_threadbit
SHOWNEWS
news_postbit
news_comments
shownews_similararticles
shownews_similararticlebit

[SnitchSeeker]

Originally Posted by thincom2000

I am unable to duplicate the 404 error you describe.

http://www.crackedeggstudios.net/sho...47c8c53&?t=373

That's a link from thread #72 if you click the commments link: "Comments (2)"

Downloads back online thread #76 is also a 404 for me.

There were others but I can't remember where right now.

You would have to find your own javascript for show/hide of comments. This not possible with vBulletin's vbcollapse feature since each comment uses a new table. You should then edit your SHOWNEWS template to include the changes you want.

Actually I was more thinking of a different page (maybe the same url followed by /comments ). I use vbseo so all my urls are, well, seo'd. I can figure this one out I guess, but how about simply using a type of show/hide on the main page? Where the default (or defined) amount of preview words are shown and then a link for (full story) which opens the rest of the story on the same page (javascript or ajax) instead of taking you to the thread page with comments? That would be wicked!!

As for the [preview] tags eating unsupported preview text, the tags never disappear for me when I try to edit, even with text between. This may be because you are using the WYSIWYG editor, in which case you should not be able to modify any BB-code after submission. Switch to the Standard editor and you should see it again.

As for the practical use of the [preview] tag, I will change the name to [previewlength] for the next update, and add a [more] tag which will encapsulate the text that hides on preview for the next update. How's that?

That sounds great! The "more" text could be shown when people click a "more" link from the main news page like I described above, right? Or would it just take you to the thread?

[SnitchSeeker]

Oh, I just thought of something important (in my case at least).

Does this support vbSEO? Will vbseo work with this mod? If not I can't use it I'm afraid.

[thincom2000]

I don't have vbSEO so I don't know. Also I have no idea how you got the session data to appear in those URLs, especially being a guest. What browser are you using?

[SnitchSeeker]

Internet explorer 6.

As for vbseo I'll check with them.

[thincom2000]

As for vbSEO, if you needed any plugins for forumdisplay or showthread, you should be able to use them for this. This hack just adds a second forumdisplay (NEWSDISPLAY) and showthread (SHOWNEWS) that use different templates. I don't see why it wouldn't work, although I have no way of testing it personally.

[SnitchSeeker]

I'm sure it would still work for the rest of my forums but I'm less sure about if it would work for the news section after I switch to your templates. For example, it doesn't work on the firstpost template I use to show first post on all pages in the new forum. But that is only for one post, not the whole forum, so I can live with it. If this modifies my whole forum (the news one only of course) than I am afraid it might not "seo" the threads and such which is where I get most of my google traffic so that would be bad.

I'm posting a question about it over there and we'll see what they say.

[Danisty]

Okay, I don't know much about this kind of stuff, so if you don't mind answering a couple of questions...

Can this hack pull from multiple forums? Also, is there any way to make it so each forum it pulls from has it's own news page?

Can this hack pull from forums that aren't viewable by guests or even registered members? I basically want an articles hack, but I don't like any of them that I've seen. I'd like it so members never even knew these articles were pulled from a forum, so it would be best if I could turn the forum off for everybody except the usergroup that would be writing the articles. Then registered members and guests would just see it as an articles page that matches the layout of the forum, but doesn't look exactly like a forum. Am I making sense?

[thincom2000]

This mod does not do exactly what you describe. It sounds like you are looking for an RSS-type feed.

This mod alters a forum of choice so that the first post of each thread becomes an article. The articles are pulled from threads, but only to the FORUMDISPLAY of that particular forum. The FORUMDISPLAY by no means really looks like a forum anymore as a result because the text of the recent articles displays there.

Clicking on an article title, clicking a "Read More" link (if you have a preview limit set), clicking the comments link, or clicking to view the last comment will all bring up a page similar to SHOWTHREAD, which displays the article at the top, and comments below. If you wanted to disable comments, you could just remove those links from the NEWSDISPLAY template, and

This hack makes use of forum permissions, because technically the news is still a forum, merely presented differently. So you could disable replies to threads, and set particular usergroups that are permitted to create threads (articles) per forum.