Geek AutoLinker 4.02

HowdA All,

Welcome to Geek Autolinker 4.0 from the makers of Geek Autolinker 2.0 and Tang - the stuff the people in space drink.

posts for version 4.0 start here

What it does:
It allows you to specify key words to replace in posts with ANY FREAKING URL YOU COULD THINK OF. Thats right, you to can now have key words automatically url'ed to other areas of the world wide web.

Now in 4.0 you can create popups, track impressions and click-thrus, get statistics on them and specify more attributes of the links. The popups can now also use bbcode to create virtually any kind of popup you could imagine. You can limit categories of links to certain forums and also enable specific usergroups to toggle GALs on or off (by category).


This is a perfect gift for sponsors, click throughs, referal programs, definitions, instructions, birthdays and other celebrations.

Example:
If I define Bob as a keyword that I would like to automatically come up hyperlinked to bob.com all I have to do is say so (well, you put it into the admincp). Presto! As quick as that, everytime a user sees the word bob, bobs, bob! Bob bOb? etc... it comes up linked to bob.com

How much will bob love you?

If the url you want it to jump to is actually a thread on your site, you can use the nifty ignorethreadid option. Heres how that works:

If I have a thread entitled Reputation and how to use it, I can put the word reputation into the Geek AutoLinker with the URL pointing to the thread about reputation. Then everytime the word reputation appears in someones post, anyone can click on it to learn more. Since it would be stupid to have the thread Reputation and how to use it autolink to itself, I put the threadid in the ignorethreadid box. That way all matches for reputation are linked to that thread except for the reputation matches in the thread Reputation and how to use it.

Safe mode and dangerous mode.

There are now two modes of operation. Safe mode will autolink any match AS LONG AS IT HAS A SPACE BEFORE IT. That means that <br />bob or .Bob are not valid matches and wont be highlighted. The reason for this is to prevent the autolinker messing up URLs with matches in them (like www.bob.com). Safe mode will most likely end up with fewer matches, but no messed up URLS.
Dangerous mode however could care less about your cute little spaces. It will link them regardless. That means more matches, but a slight increase that an existing url might break in a post.

Here are some examples in action.
Keyword: freak

Safe mode.
Freak out whenever freaks freak about on www.freak.com
Dangerous mode:
Freak out whenever freaks freak about on www.<a href="www.freak.com">freak</a>.com

Other stuff:

• Category management - allows you to override global settings
• Limit - limit the number of replacements per link per post
• Ordinal - organise the order replacments are made
• Customize your own replacment code on a global, catergory, or individual level.
• The installer is a prototype GISH installer that does the file edits for you. Please check the readme for details on how it works - its pretty cool).

Upgrading

• Download, replace all existing files with new ones.
• Run the gal4_install.php file (in your admincp)
• Follow the upgrade path.
• The system will ahve you manullay chage any files it can not find to update.

DEMO: http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthread.php?t=11011 (note the words MMA and PREP. If you follow to MMA you will notice that MMA isnt linked in the final article thanks to ignorethreadid)

Difficulty: Easy
File mods: 4 simple ones
Added queries: 0 or greater depending on your settings

Updated 10.5.05 - Major
Massive update in functionality

Updated 13.4.05 - Major
Massive update in functionality

Update 25.03.05 - oops!
Changed readme addition to functions_showthread.php Things look good now

Updates 25.05.05 to v.204 - sneaky bug
Thanks to Razz - I found 2 minor typos that end up causing people working in safemode to actually be working in danger mode! To upgrade, simply check out this post

Updated 12.2.05 to v. 2.03 - ultra minor
Fixed a typo in readme. To upgrade, al you need to do is edit admincp/index,
do a search for
construct_nav_option($vbphrase['GAL_add_new'], 'GAL_admin.php?do=create');
and replace with
construct_nav_option($vbphrase['GAL_add_new'], 'GAL_admin.php?do=add');

Updated 11.2.05 - ultra minor
Fixed a typo in README (dont worry, it wasnt in the instructions)
Stopped phrase text spitting out during install. Some of the phrase is html so it looked confusing to new installers.
Removed reference to GAS3 settings in the install. This is because its the same installer. Just forgot to remove that line.
All in all, this was just a typo fix. There is no upgrade because there are no problems with the code.

Updated 10.2.05 - minor
Found a couple typos that affect safe mode.
Nothing major - just replace the GAL_admin.php file

Updated 10.2.05 - Major
Completely re-written.
See README for upgrade instructions.

Update 10.2.05 - minor
Updated include/geek_autolink.php as it was missing a table_prefix
To upgrade, download latest package and replace your geek_autolink file.


nJoy

[Kihon Kata]

nah this did not work that well....still messed up the links

Originally Posted by The Geek

KTBleedings right-> you need to run GAL in safemode to prevent messing up the link.

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by TonysDesigns

nah this did not work that well....still messed up the links

What version are you running?

[Kihon Kata]

2.03

Just installed this a week ago

Originally Posted by The Geek

What version are you running?

[venomx]

I dont see why this cant be used like the ban word optiion in the admin area...

[slix]

Originally Posted by The Geek

Hey Slix,

Glad it helps.
1. To change the look of the links - try changing the DEFS CSS markup that came with the file. Otherwise, you will need to edit your GAL_admin.php file as that is where links are made

2. It wont randomize (think that would drive users ape poop ). The replacement is a first come first server basis.

3. Works with whatever phrase you want, no matter how many spaces it contains (Though there is a limit on the phrase character length but that escapes me right now!)

I like your suggestion. Ill look into it when I revisit this hack (when I am done with GAS3)

Toodles

Re: 1. DEFS css that came with what file? Am I missing a file? irate:

Re: 3. Cool, very cool - has the max character length come back to you yet?

Hey this is a great hack. I first saw keyword links like this in an asp forum on a financial site, and I loved the idea, and hoped someone would bring it to vB3, and you have!

There is one major problem I am having with it at the moment though, and that is that all my forum goers hate it! Some think that they must have picked up some spyware which is inserting feyword links in every thing they read or write, and some think that our site has been hacked into by some marketing crazed cracker!

That financial site where I first saw this keyword advertising in forums, had a little javascript mouseover window, that pops up when you put your pointer over the link, and it explains that it's a sponsored link. How would I do that? Or where in the code would I insert the mouseover?

I have to give this hack 10/10, 'cos it's exactly what I have been wanting ever since I first saw the concept. Oh, and it's sooo quick and easy to install, and it works great on a busy forum. Just gotta make my members like it too. :cheeky:

[The Geek]

Thanks for the kind words!

Re: Re:1. Damn. I am busted. I think I left the definition out of the 2.0 package and no one noticed! Here it is until I get a chance to get to the readme:

put this in your 'additional CSS properties' box of your style:

/* defs */
a.DEF:link	{ text-decoration: none;border-bottom: 1px dotted #016798; color : #016798; padding-bottom: 0px }
a.DEF:visited { text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 1px dotted #016798; color : #016798; padding-bottom: 0px }
a.DEF:hover { text-decoration: underline ;border-bottom: 0px dotted #F8BF24; color : #016798; padding-bottom: 0px }

Customize it to whatever you want.

re:re 2: 25 characters. If you want more, just edit the geek_autolink table

Glad you like the hack. When I am done with my current project, I will start to look into doing the mouseover popups too.

Think the secret to getting your users to like it is to make it as unobtrusive as possible and dont autolink every other word

nJoy

[TCB]

Wow! This hack is wonderfull! It's soooo easy to install and work with. Thank you so much

Is it possible to exclude (ignore) a whole forum, instead of filling in all forumthread ID's?

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by TCB

Wow! This hack is wonderfull! It's soooo easy to install and work with. Thank you so much

Is it possible to exclude (ignore) a whole forum, instead of filling in all forumthread ID's?

nope, just threadid's. Mostl likely wouldnt be too hard of a modification though.

[rrr]

sounds like a cool hack that I may be installing. Could you show an example of this in action where you don't have to login? Your example seems to link to a Premium area of your site.

Feature Suggestion:

A cool feature/option for this hack would be if when you typed in bob, the script used a redirect link, like: yoursite.com/forum/autolink.php?l=1

So if you wanted bob to link to bob.com, you would enter that in the AdminCP, and it would create the redirect link that would actually be used in the forum.

Where this would be useful, would be to track how many people are actually clicking on the link (useful to let advertisers know how many clicks they are getting).

It would also be useful to hide or shorten long affiliate links. Sometimes, people are less likely to click a link if they think it is an affiliate link, and the redirect would make it so that if you had a really long link or one with special characters, it would still turn out to just be a simple autolink.php?l=1 link in the forum.

Not all users of the hack would want this feature activated, so maybe it could be something optional?

Either way, great hack!

[venomx]

rrr I agree but then also I am using it to link to my other sites, if they are they way you want then Google and the other engines might not register that its a link to my site...