Dynamic Announcements: Programmable Forum Home Announcement/Message with conditionals

This hack allows you to post powerful dynamic announcements (changing according to different conditions) on forum home page. It differs from vbulletin's default announcements in 2 ways:

• The announcement is displayed in forum home page (or other board pages), not inside thread view. So visitors will read them without clicking on them.
• The Hack's announcements are not static: ie. they can be powerfully programmed to change themselves according to many conditions.

Basic Usage : You can set a text in your Admin CP and it's displayed in forum home to all users.

Advanced Usage : With conditionals you can set different texts/notifications/messages/announcements and they will be displayed if your pre-configured condition applies. This allows you to create powerful announcements/private messages/texts which address their receipt only if a certain condition is met. Some examples:

You can set to show an announcement in forum home IF:

2. user is X
3. user's usergroup is Y
4. his profile field Z is X
5. user has X posts or has more than Y posts but less than Z posts
6. his last visit time was X days ago
7. today is X, hour is between Y and Z, day is wednesday, month is Y, week is month's 2nd week, today is user's birthday
8. User is invisible/visible
9. user is using style A
10. his cookies are on
11. his timeset is set to A
12. etc..

The conditionals even allows you to design "Board Tips" ever changing according to user's seniority or post number. See how-to document for conditional usage and more info..

It's tested in both v.2.2.6 and v.2.2.7 but it should work with any versions > 2.0.3. (v.2.2.8 or later Users READ HERE!) I'm using it in my own board and a friend's board for more than a month and found it quite stable and released it. Although not likely, if you found any bugs, holler and I'll fix it..

Here is a Screenshot from a "general announcement".
Here is a Screenshot of announcement which is addressed to a certain user.

Some Features:

• It's Admin CP integrated (Screenshot)
• Smiley and BBCode in announcements are parsed
• You can address your users with their usernames inside announcements (Use $bbuserinfo[username] variable)
• Announcements are displayed directly in Forum Home so users are forced to read them.
• The Conditionals help you to design powerful and ever changing announcements/private messages/forum home notifications.

If you have problems displaying HTML/smilie/bbcode in your announcements, make this tiny change in hack code

If you install the hack, click INSTALL, thank you..

Logician \\=^))

[Shpookdefied]

Ok, I haven't installed it in all the template sets. I'm gonna go do that now, and I'll let you know how it works. Much respect for the amount of support you've given though.

[w596]

Another AWESOME hack from Logician.

Thanks,
w596

[Logikos]

Ok i have installed this hack EXACTLY as instructed.

and im getting this error when trying to load my site

Parse error: parse error in /home/hazelboy/public_html/Forums/admin/functions.php on line 855

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: vbdate() in /home/hazelboy/public_html/Forums/admin/sessions.php on line 400

Note: I have installed this on every style.

Any help is greatly appreciated, as this would be a GREAT hack to install.

-Nem

[Logician]

Originally posted by []\[]emesis
Ok i have installed this hack EXACTLY as instructed.

and im getting this error when trying to load my site

Your problem is related to STEP 2. Check very carefully, you applied it correctly.

BTW.

before ?> add:

means "add one line above ?>", not append.

So after installation if your last line of functions.php became like this:

PHP Code:

// Logician Dynamic Forum Announcements Hack ?> 


This is wrong. It should be like this:

PHP Code:

// Logician Dynamic Forum Announcements Hack 
?> 


More info can be found here

Hope this helps..

[Shpookdefied]

lol Me and Nemesis got it working, Logician. We just installed all the hacks on our PC vbulletin, then uploaded the .php files. Works great, and I love this hack. Thanks!

[Buddha]

logician, i've got a quick question for you. i installed your hack sometime ago, and i love it. i would have loved a nav link instead as well, instead of digging for it in the options, but i did make it bigger, and i'm trying to add a nav link under the announcements that will go to the options page, and i'd like it to go to that section (like an anchored link). it's not working though... keeping in mind that i'm not a coder.

PHP Code:

makenavoption("Dynamic Announcements","options.php?#settinggroup42"); 


i tried adding the session hash to that statement, but it still won't jump to that section of the page, it just goes to the top of the page.

any thoughts?

also, will it interfere with the hack if i add comments to add names in between the statements, so i know who they pertain to?

thanks.

[Logician]

i'm trying to add a nav link under the announcements that will go to the options page, and i'd like it to go to that section

Try adding this:

PHP Code:

$options .= "<a href=\"options.php?t=0&s=$session[sessionhash]#settinggroup34\">Dynamic Announcements</a><br>"; 


will it interfere with the hack if i add comments to add names in between the statements

Yep it will..

[Buddha]

hey, thanks a lot... works like a charm... makes it a lot easier to pop to that section and make constant announcements.

thank you.

[Bison]

Thsi is one of the finest hacks available!

[SpeedStreet]

Logician,

GREAT Hack! Only problem I am having, is that if I try entering in HTML code, it will not parse it. I only see my code on the page.

Is there a workaround for this?