Major Additions - Zoints LOCAL. Social networking, enhanced profiles, blogs and MUCH more

Zoints Local 2.0 - Enhanced profiles, social portal, networking, blogging, and more

Zoints Local is now Gold!

Before installing, we encourage you to make backups and take the appropriate cautions that you would with any significant addition to your forum community.

We would also like to encourage developers to share hacks with the community at dev.zoints.com . Your improvements and enhancements are helpful and appreciated.

What is new to Zoints Local? What makes 2.0 worth the wait?

We know that many of you have waited patiently for this much anticipated update and we love you for it. Let's discuss why 2.0 is just plain awesome and why your forum users would want the creativity and connection it provides.

Zoints Local still brings truly customizable and unique profiles, unlike any free system out there, and is simple to install but let's check out the bullet points of new features for 2.0.0.2 RC1.

Community Central by Zoints - Your Forum's Social Hub

To develop a well connected and devoted user base, members need a personal connection to your forum. Community Central ties members together by creating personal connections and curiosity. Think about it like a community portal for your members and everything they do that isn?t posting a thread.

Activities on non-forum based aspects of a site are often lost or go un-noticed. Community Central is the hub for your users: to see who has updated their profile, to know who is interacting with others, to read the latest blog entries, to find popular tags on profiles/blogs/threads, and more. Community Central shows what?s going on in your community and encourages more connections, more community, and more fun. And, Zoints Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP!

Community Tag Pages show for each popular tag who is tagged with it, what blog entries are tagged with it and what threads are tagged with it (threads tagged by Zoints Thread Tags.) It's almost as if it is the ultimate search on an accurately and frequently tagged forum and brings content not found through any other function to connect it all.

Community Central is completely controlled within your vB Admin CP for easy access to manage it's system, templates and so on.

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Completely Overhauled, Total Blogging Solution

Another great addition to Zoints Local is its totally revamped blogging system. No longer will you need to seek out expensive paid alternatives to find a full feature blog for your forum. The blog page itself is now a block page with AJAX drop and drag technology, which means users can add relevant (and of course irrelevant) blocks to their blogs' content. Users can now create multiple blog categories for all of their entries which allows for improved organization of a user's entries and easier search for content. All blog entries can now be tagged with entry moods and entry tags, so if this was a blog entry on my page likely my mood would be Teary (tears of joy) and my tags could be Zoints Local 2.0 - vBulletin.org - ZL etc. There is also now RSS Syndication with the blogs so guests or other users would be able to easily subscribe to a user's blog and creating another path to your community. As far as new blocks; there is the blog panel, blog archive, blog tag cloud, recent blog comments, blogroll, and a blog categories list. When you put it all together, the blog is vastly improved and will offer a more rewarding experience to users.

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Activity Blocks and the XPSF MP3 Player

Other new blocks added to the profile page, include the Network Activity Block, Personal Activity Block and an XPSF Music Player. The activity blocks increase the chances members will continue to network with one another. The Music Player adds depth to the user?s profile. These additions are a huge addition to any community and help create and foster a need for members to return to your forum.

vB Product Improvements

The vB product has also seen a few changes to help further integrate Zoints into your community and improve the likelihood of profile interaction for your members. Member profiles now show within the postbit the last date they were updated and can be highlighted if they were updated on the same day you see their post (to encourage members to view updated profiles.) Also, you can display recently updated/created or random profiles on forum home. So whether you want to see the active and updated profiles getting the attention or for your new members to get a few warm welcomes, this will help.

Tighter 3.7 Integration

With the 3.7 version, there has also been integration with new features from vB 3.7. Both on Community Central and on individual profile blocks, there is use of the new 3.7 Social Groups and Photo Albums (including displaying a user's albums if the profile block for it is enabled.) You can see both of these in action on various screens in this thread.

What is Zoints Local?

Installed on your forum and under your control, Zoints Local is what you want it to be for your community. If you want to provide your members with a homepage they can personalize, you can. If you want members to share more about themselves via greatly enhanced profiles, you can. If you want members to have access to a complete blogging solution, you can. Networking? Resumes? Photos? Video sharing? No problem. Via Zoints' page and block management system, you can do what you want, how you want, with ease. Learn more about pages and blocks.

Zoints Local takes your forum's basic profile and turns it into a portal where a whole new world opens up, all on your website. As you can see below, your members can have everything from a personal homepage to an enhanced profile, blog, network, pages to show off their vehicle and anything else that can be dreamed up. And don't worry, we even include a page that shows the entire default vBulletin profile if you want it.

The key to Zoints Local is that the power is in YOUR hands. We know that today?s forum member is looking for something beyond a basic layout that they can find on any forum they joined powered by the same software, it?s just not worth their time to invest in creating a profile that many on the forum will overlook. Zoints Local 2.0 addresses this issue by expanding on the connectivity to provide you with a social networking solution that will make your dedicated members even more committed to your forum. Through measures such as our new central page, new activity blocks and postbit profile update indicators, your members will have a reason to check out other profiles, make new friends and get to know their current ones better. In a world where forums now have to compete with so many other time competitors online, forums need more than just content to drive members back, they need a true community aspect. By building a connected community, your members will not just remain loyal but they will be much more likely to recruit for your forum as they have such a positive affinity for the community. Zoints Local will help to provide the tools to make that possible.

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Some sites using Zoints Local
Hundreds of forums are currently running Zoints Local. Here are just a few:

Forum: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/
Zoints Local: http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/z/missionhockey21/

(If you would like your forum featured above, please contact Doug)

What will Zoints local bring to my forum?

Zoints Local brings a new level of possibilities to your community development and overall website appearance. There are so many features and options that it?s impossible for us to list them all here. As a community based platform that allows forum owners to share blocks, the opportunities to expand your site with Zoints Local continue to grow every day ? there?s just no telling what feature, block or idea will come out next. At the Zoints Development Forum you can download blocks posted by other community owners and developers. This way, if you own a writing forum, a software forum, a nursing forum, or a forum dedicated to any other topic, you can contour pages and blocks to specifically fit the needs of your community. Learn more about sharing blocks.

A few of the blocks and pages packaged with Zoints Local:
About Me, My Activity, My Discussions, My Links, Instant Chat, XSPF Music Player, My Media, My Photos, My Interests, My Communities, My Network, My Network Activity Quick Comments, Ratings, My Blog, RSS Feeds, Social Actions and many more. Virtually any existing "widget" shared on the internet can quickly be converted into a block, many in just a few minutes.

What else does Zoints Local offer?

Zoints Local is a state of the art product with all sorts of amazing features that go beyond the normal forum profile.

Drag and Drop technology - Do you want to move a block from one part of your profile to another? Do you want to change the order of your pages? No problem, just drag and drop! It's that easy.

Social Networking - Forget just friends, Zoints Local allows your members to create as many "Groups" as they want. We all have friends, family, colleagues, forum friends, and various other people in our lives.

Comprehensive privacy controls - Your members can create a variety of groups and show each group different content on a page by page basis. Zoints allows you to show what you want, when you want, to whom you want. Learn more about Zoints' Privacy Controls.

Style Sharing - When your members create custom styles, they can easily share them with other members of your community via the Styles Database.

Global Search - Zoints Local includes a global search that bridges communities and creates a virtual freeway between forums on the internet. Searches conducted through Zoints return results from every community that uses Zoints Local. Think of it as Google, for people. Google sends you a lot of traffic, and so can Zoints People Search.

The best part about Zoints Local is that you pick what to let your members use and what not to let them use.

What sort of administration options exist?

The Zoints Local system gives you extensive control of how your Zoints profiles should behave. You can turn features on and off, determine if you want your members to be able to edit/create/manage styles of their own, define default styles, define the default block layout, default pages, edit block options and much more.

Zoints Local 2.0 now implements a file-based phrasing system which will allow the system to be ported to other languages in a much simpler way. If you create a language system, please share it with us so you can help out other forums in need of the same one! Also with 2.0 is improved Module API and block management, all of which are detailed in the links below.

Zoints Local 2.0 also brings new user control options to your forum. You can login in as a user or edit their options from one click on their profile page. If a user is deleted or banned, their Zoints Profile account is closed. You can list reasons as to why an account is closed in case other members are curious. And you can now view comments left by each user in case you had a troublemaker or a spammer that you need to quick seek and destroy all traces of.

You can now find zAdmin by simply accessing your vB Admin CP and going to the Zoints Profile Settings section. If you are in a panic, in a rush or new to Zoints, all of your settings can be found from this simple area.

Here?s a couple screenshots from the admin control panel:

How do I get started? (Installation, Support, Update Instructions, Changelog)

Getting Zoints Local running on your site is a quick and painless process. Just follow the simple steps below and you can have your site running Zoints Local in a matter of minutes. Once you have the system setup, it?s completely up to you to decide how you want things to work. Customize, add on or leave the system exactly as it comes out of the box ? Zoints Local gives you the power to choose!

Step 1 ? Download the attached zip file.

Step 2 ? Upload everything under the "upload" folder to your forum's root.

Upload the /z/ folder to your forum's root directory (one of the below examples should fit most setups):

yourdomain.com/z/ or
subdomain.yourdomain.com/z/ or
yourdomain.com/forumdirectory/z/


Step 3 - Run the installation script found at /z/install/index.php and follow the directions

Step 4 - During the installation you will need to register your forum with Zoints to obtain a token and authentication key

Step 5 ? Once installation is complete, log in to your vBulletin Admin Control Panel and upload the plugin product file found in the /products/ folder

Step 6 ? Configure Zoints as you see fit! The new Community Central feature can be configured under the Zoints Local vBulletin options.

Promoting your forum through Zoints

Along with all of the features, tools and added functionality Zoints Local offers for your site, the Zoints is also interested in bringing you more traffic. Here?s how:

1. Add your forum to the Zoints directory at http://zoints.com/communities after you install. More information can be found in this thread.

2. The Zoints network will include your site in searches and other relevant results bringing you qualified traffic without any additional effort.

3. If you install Zoints Local on a Big-Board, please email us at big-boards@zoints.com with your url so we can get you added to the Zoints Enabled directory on BigBoards.com

Support

Due to the scope of this software, we ask that help requests be submitted at http://network.zoints.com in this specific forum so we can provide quick, efficient support.

Changelog

The full (and very lengthy) changelog can be found in the download.


Upgrade Instructions

Zoints Local 2.0.0.5 RC1 & RC2
============================================

Please note: Do not upload the following two files:

/z/install/index.php
/z/install/detail.php

STEPS:
* Download: Zoints Local-2.0.0.5RC1-vB3.6.x.zip ... that is all that is needed for 2.0.0.
1.0.4b .zip is available for archive purposes.
* UPLOAD THE ENTIRE CONTENTS of the /upload/ folder found in the
zip.
* After uploading the new files, access the following page in your browser:

http://yourdomain.com/forum/z/install/manager.php
(Replace "http://yourdomain.com/forum/" with your forum's URL)

And select to upgrade Zoints Local
* Import Zoints Profile vBulletin Product titled product-zointsprofile-2.2.3-3.7.x.xml and make sure to select the "Overwrite" option!
* Alter the Zoints Profile vBulletin settings to configure the new Social Portal via the vBulletin AdminCP

You're done!


***System Requirements***

Zoints Local requires the following:

- A linux or windows based webserver. Windows in ISAPI mode is not currently supported.
- vBulletin forum software (additional platforms will be added soon).
- PHP 4.3.3 or greater.
- MySQL 4.1 or greater.
- Your server must allow port 80 post and get requests to be made to Zoints.com
- Safemode is not currently supported.



*** Zoints Local 2.0 does not support Autonomous mode.

That's it!

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by carleboy

i am the only admin account at the moment and it is the one i installed the forum with so i dont understand it?

Yeah, do you think you can open up a ticket with us? I have never dealt with an issue like that so being able to communicate more in-depthly about it will allow us to hopefully find a solution for you.

To open up a ticket, go here and provide the link to your forum and describe the problem again (in case another staff member takes it on):

http://zoints.com/support.z

Originally Posted by basil2005

i uploaded in.. the main root.. like www.mallubasil.com
not at the mallubasil.com/forum

Ah ok, that's what I figured. Please remove that file (the .htaccess provided by Zoints) from your main root and place it inside the /z/ folder on your server and you should be good to go.

- Reid

[basil2005]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

Ah ok, that's what I figured. Please remove that file (the .htaccess provided by Zoints) from your main root and place it inside the /z/ folder on your server and you should be good to go.

- Reid

ya.. now it is working but a new problem..

http://mallubasil.com/forum//z/MalluBasil/

there is 2 // /forum//z/MalluBasil/

[powerful_rogue]

In regards to the blocks - Is there anywhere else these are available? Activity at dev.zoints.com is very very low.

[huntrKillr]

Hello, I followed all installation directions etc. etc. yet when a profile is click on my forums it goes straight to a directory showing all my folders. What am I doing wrong and also, is there a way to show how many vbcredits a person has on their profle? As of right now I have it disabled so I can't show you an example but I was wondering what I was doing wrong. Thank you.

[Shanj]

I have a vb set to private membership. It is invisible to outsiders and all members accounts are created by me.
Can I run zoints on my vb and keep it all completely private? I mean only our members can see each others zoints pages?
No public URLs? No access by any outsiders?

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by basil2005

ya.. now it is working but a new problem..

http://mallubasil.com/forum//z/MalluBasil/

there is 2 // /forum//z/MalluBasil/

Alright basil, first go here and ensure that your forum path doesn't accidentally have a double slash inputted:

http://www.yourforums.com/forumpath/...p?cmd=settings

Originally Posted by powerful_rogue

In regards to the blocks - Is there anywhere else these are available? Activity at dev.zoints.com is very very low.

Block development at dev.zoints.com is the only place I know of. We are really dependent on third party developers developing blocks as it would be a never ending process for us to create blocks that would satisfy all, let alone support them. If you or anyone else is interested in block development, I would suggest starting a thread there and maybe those with the talent will come to help out and develop what the community is looking for.

Originally Posted by huntrKillr

Hello, I followed all installation directions etc. etc. yet when a profile is click on my forums it goes straight to a directory showing all my folders. What am I doing wrong and also, is there a way to show how many vbcredits a person has on their profle? As of right now I have it disabled so I can't show you an example but I was wondering what I was doing wrong. Thank you.

Like I mentioned a few posts above, if you are using mod rewrite (with the .htaccess file), is the .htaccess file placed in the correct location? If so, could you please turn off mod rewrite and see if that corrects the problem? Typically, if mod rewrite is not enabled (on the server, not the feature in Zadmin) a 404 error will be given so I don't suspect that is it alone but the .htaccess file could certainly be placed in the wrong location.

If that fails, open up a ticket with us so we can pursue it further.

As for vB Credits, it would be possible if you or someone else developed a block for it, but I don't believe one currently exists (to my knowledge.)

- Reid

[Shanj]

I would love to use zoints to provide a high quality profile service for a particular site I run using VB - so my members can see each others' interests, pictures etc. But this particular site I need all services to be private, so the members do not have access to other zoints users/ nor vice versa, should external zoints users have access to them.

I have another site where the full zoints service would be great but not for the members only site.

I have set up a test account on zoints to see what it's like.
Please can you tell me if I can set certain privacy options from admin level -
OR
I can put comment code around bits of code to hide/disable certain functions if I'm told where to look or it's findable in page templates.

1. Set any join/ register options to hidden (my members are created by me ONLY on our VB forums)
2. Set all zoints pages on my site only viewable by my members.
My members are not searchable by other zoints users on other communities.
3. Profile page: Under My Network, Find Friends only searches my memberlist
4. Profile page: Under My Network, My Communities is disabled (hidden)
5. On the toolbar Search only searches my memberlist
6. On the toolbar Communities is hidden.
7. On the toolbar People displays only my members and I can disable all the most popular/ most viewed/ highest rated tabs.
8. In Settings - Notifications only trigger by my members.
9. In Settings - My Referrals is disabled/ hidden
10. In Settings - Home Community is set to mine and cannot be changed.
11. Community Filter is disabled/ hidden
12. Blocked Members is disabled/ hidden.

[Strike3ForumsMH]

Originally Posted by Shanj

I would love to use zoints to provide a high quality profile service for a particular site I run using VB - so my members can see each others' interests, pictures etc. But this particular site I need all services to be private, so the members do not have access to other zoints users/ nor vice versa, should external zoints users have access to them.

I have another site where the full zoints service would be great but not for the members only site.

I have set up a test account on zoints to see what it's like.
Please can you tell me if I can set certain privacy options from admin level -
OR
I can put comment code around bits of code to hide/disable certain functions if I'm told where to look or it's findable in page templates.

1. Set any join/ register options to hidden (my members are created by me ONLY on our VB forums)
2. Set all zoints pages on my site only viewable by my members.
My members are not searchable by other zoints users on other communities.
3. Profile page: Under My Network, Find Friends only searches my memberlist
4. Profile page: Under My Network, My Communities is disabled (hidden)
5. On the toolbar Search only searches my memberlist
6. On the toolbar Communities is hidden.
7. On the toolbar People displays only my members and I can disable all the most popular/ most viewed/ highest rated tabs.
8. In Settings - Notifications only trigger by my members.
9. In Settings - My Referrals is disabled/ hidden
10. In Settings - Home Community is set to mine and cannot be changed.
11. Community Filter is disabled/ hidden
12. Blocked Members is disabled/ hidden.

1. Join/Register features are done through vBulletin, so if your setup is currently enabled as you mentioned, it will remain like that and Zoints will not affect how prospective members can or can't sign up.
2. You can elect not to join the Zoints Community Directory, meaning no Zoints member will find your site through us. As for pages, those are not viewable if the profile is clicked from vB, however, if a person knew the URL to directly go to a profile, that will circumvent that functionality. BUT, users can define their privacy settings to not allow guests to view, which will counteract that.
3. By default, there will be a checkmark to make it so that users will only search your forum, although that checkmark can be unselected by which members would search Zoints as a whole.
4. The My Communities block can be turned off.
5. Same answer as #3.
6. Communities cannot be hidden as that is a violation of use of Zoints Local.
7. The People page is not included with Zoints Local, that is a feature of our social network.
8. The notifications are only triggered by actions on your site, nothing to do with Zoints.com or the profiles there. Notifications will result in PM's on your site (or emails).
9. Referrals are just a feature of Zoints.com, not Zoints Local.
10. Another feature of just Zoints.com. On the Zoints navigation bar however, the button "Forum" will of course link to your site.
11. Community Filter is a feature relevant to Zoints.com only, thus it's not included with Zoints Local.
12. Blocked Members is a feature that comes with Zoints Local and cannot be turned off to my knowledge, but I don't believe we would have any problem with that being disabled should you know how to. Users in effect can block as it is if they made their profile only accessible via friends list.

Sorry for the blunt nature of the responses, I just answer long question lists like that naturally I suppose. Also, I was planning to answer your original question, but you happened to have asked it as I was working on the other responses (just so you don't think I was ignoring it.) Hopefully this helps you understand a bit better.

- Reid

[jdelasko]

Originally Posted by Strike3ForumsMH

I don't know what the solution could be other than the engineers coding a version with that included. I am assuming there was some difficulties which made it impossible to include at the time of the past releases. You've opened up a ticket and posted over there (at the support forums) as well, so if an answer is to be found regarding this, it'll be there.

- Reid

I'm beginning to believe that No one is concerned about a wysiwyg editor. It would be nice to hear someone from Zoints give ocassional updates on this issue to let us know what the plan is... or even if there is a plan. This is not a trivial issue for a lot of Zoints users.

The fact that I opened up a support ticket is irrelivent. I did that when I thought I had some sort of installation or settings problem and I did not realize at the time that it's a coding issue. I've also noticed that some of the customizations I added to my vbulletin editor are not ported over to the Zoints pages nor does some of my custom BB code work in Zoints. Bummer.

[Shanj]

Thank you that was a marvellous response - lightning fast and yet thorough and informative - and not condescending. Have no idea why you're apologising - I couldn't have asked for a better reply.

Please could you just add a little to these 2 replies. Sorry to ask more and I don't expect response in minutes again! Just would like to know fairly soon without pressure.

3. [Search on the top toolbar] You said:
By default, there will be a checkmark to make it so that users will only search your forum, although that checkmark can be unselected by which members would search Zoints as a whole.

Is this checkmark in the member's settings?
I'm not sure if I understand. It sounds like you are saying that I can as admin default this to checked but it can be unchecked at member level?

If this is so a workaround is that I set it as default checked to my community only. Then I go in the code and comment out the lines of code that display the option with its checkbox to the member.
I can do this kind of commenting out for myself if someone could help me locate the page template. Have done it quite a bit on my VB.

6. Communities cannot be hidden as that is a violation of use of Zoints Local.

So if I have elected not to join the Zoints Community Directory, what happens when the Communities button is clicked on the top toolbar?
A message saying access is not permitted?

Thank you again for outstandingly good help.