Competitions

Description
Adds a competition module to your forums. You can create as many competitions and allow members to participate in them.

Features

• Ability to force participants to fill certain custom profile fields
• Send Private Message to members who participate in the competitions
• Ability to allow more than one entry from a participant
• Input field for answers can be either a textbox, a textarea, radio buttons or a drop-down menu
• If the input type is radio buttons or a drop-down menu, the system can filter out wrong answers and generate a list of winners by picking random participants
• Schedule competitions by setting the starting date (user contributed)
• Very customizable

Installation

1. Upload all necessary files to their respective directories.
2. Install the product XML file.
3. Edit the navbar template to add a link to competitions.php page. (see below)
4. Set necessary permissions for each usergroup to access and/or participate in competitions.
5. Edit the "hkc_nopermission_loggedin" and "hkc_winner_congratulate_message" phrase to customize to your taste.

Upgrade

1. Upload all necessary files to their respective directories.
2. Install the product XML file. Be sure to set "Allow Overwrite" to Yes.

Editing the navbar template

1. Open the navbar template

2. Find:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="calendar.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[calendar]</a></td>

3. Add after:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="competitions.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[hkc_competitions]</a></td>

4. Save template

Author Notes
This extension was developed specifically for my website but I am releasing the code since a few members here have have shown interest. I cannot state that it is totally free of bugs. I would appreciate your feedback in making this extension better.

Maybe in Future
At the moment, the question is only restricted to one per competition. I would like to have the ability to add more than one question per competition.

[3dsoft]

Is there a hook for ebux available?

So that the winners get points.

[criscokid]

Here's another suggestion for the the next version of this fantastic plugin:

The ability to capture personal details of the winner like name and address. I run competitions on my site with tangable items as prizes like DVDs theatre tickets, etc. The prizes need to be posted to the winners. WHen the site admin tells the plugin who the winners are it would be great if the plugin fired off an email to the winner congratulting them and asking them to reply to the email by filling in their name and address so ther prize can be sent out in the post.

[jellybaby]

I have a problem with this in that when the competition ends it puts me (Admin) as the winner. Dont seem to be showing the section for me to pick a winner, any ideas please?

[bada_bing]

Would love to see this hack progress as my site host many contests per year and this hack would be a better way to do them. I would like to see many of the brillant ideas suggested by other in the next version before I install

[D|ver]

Originally Posted by 3dsoft

Is there a hook for ebux available?

So that the winners get points.

yeah a vbbux integration would be so great

joining a competition should also cost eg. 100 bucks oder something, that would be really nice

[Oddjob]

Originally Posted by D|ver

yeah a vbbux integration would be so great

joining a competition should also cost eg. 100 bucks oder something, that would be really nice

Thats why i dont have this installed...no vbbux integration.

[criscokid]

Another idea to further enhance this great plugin:

Create a competitions block for the front page of a portal (like vbPortal) that lists the title of the current competitions. This would help draw people's attention so a site's competitions section.

[Tommm]

Hi!

This is a great plugin - I find it very useful!

I've just closed a competition which I set to have 3 winners. When I click Get Winners and enter the winning user IDs as: 789,16,81 or 79, 16, 81 I'm presented with the following message:

vBulletin Message


Please enter a custom message.

GO BACK

Any ideas how to get around this? Thanks!

[husain]

You get this error message if you have set not to send Private Messages to winners. This was a bug which I fixed in the original file. Here is how to fix it:

admincp/competitionmanager.php

Find:

	if ($vbulletin->options['hkc_send_pm_to_winners'])
	{
		print_textarea_row($vbphrase['hkc_custom_pm_message'], 'custom_message', $vbphrase['hkc_pm_custom_message'], 4, 40, false);
	}

Replace with:

	if ($vbulletin->options['hkc_send_pm_to_winners'])
	{
		print_textarea_row($vbphrase['hkc_custom_pm_message'], 'custom_message', $vbphrase['hkc_pm_custom_message'], 4, 40, false);
	}
	else
	{
		construct_hidden_code('custom_message', 'nothing');
	}

[Tommm]

Perfect - thank you!