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AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site! · **Released**: 02-05-2006

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.

The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.

The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.

So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
- Hockey
  - Professional
  - College
  - High School
- Football
  - American Football
  - The Rest of the World (Soccer)
- Baseball
with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

CyberRanger · #**142** 03-20-2006, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MorrisMcD

I uploaded the entire folder.... It shouldnt hurt even if not NEEDED

Correct, but the only thing you need to do if upgrading from 1.3 is import the xml.

CyberRanger · #**143** 03-20-2006, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MorrisMcD

Upgraded without issues... Thanks

wp... Did you ever think of a way I could have it display it bullet style instead of in tables on the forumhome?

sorry, I've been busy with some other projects but I'll crank that out this week.:banana:

beansbaxter · #**144** 03-20-2006, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

Great Question! The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go. So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:

Hockey
- Professional
- College
- High School
Football
- American Football
- The Rest of the World (Soccer)
Baseball

with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Thanks for the explanation. While this particular feature does not benefit my forum's intended application simply only because my the standard calendar suffices (I just list the motorcycle races as they come up).

But I can see how this can be a useful feature now in the right forum. Thanks for shedding some light on that. I would recommend posting something similiar to that in your first post of this thread so that others know how this can benefit them and their forum.

I have way too many RSS feeds I have to manage now haha

CyberRanger · #**145** 03-20-2006, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beansbaxter

I would recommend posting something similiar to that in your first post of this thread so that others know how this can benefit them and their forum.

Done! Thanks for the idea. The irony is that this product originally was for just the "Add Event" feature. A friend suggested adding the RSS Feeds, which has become what I think almost everyone actually uses!

CyberRanger · #**146** 03-20-2006, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

The irony is that this product originally was for just the "Add Event" feature. A friend suggested adding the RSS Feeds, which has become what I think almost everyone actually uses!

Here is a good example of a site that uses both features: Armchair General

MorrisMcD · #**147** 03-20-2006, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

sorry, I've been busy with some other projects but I'll crank that out this week.:banana:

Not critical.. Take your time... Just wanted to make sure you read my last response about it..

Thanks

Dennis B · #**148** 03-26-2006, 03:37 PM

westpointer,

1.3.1 solved my problem with the sidebar as well, thanks again for the great support this hack has. :up:

klaush · #**149** 03-26-2006, 07:01 PM

Hello Westpointer,

thanks for this hack!

I noticed that even if a usergroup has no permission to add an event it is possible for this group to add one?

CyberRanger · #**150** 03-26-2006, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by klaush

Hello Westpointer,

thanks for this hack!

I noticed that even if a usergroup has no permission to add an event it is possible for this group to add one?

That shouldn't be true. Can you post what the AboutToday permissions are for the group? Maybe I left an opening somewhere??

klaush · #**151** 03-26-2006, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westpointer

That shouldn't be true. Can you post what the AboutToday permissions are for the group? Maybe I left an opening somewhere??

Usergroup-ID 2

Can View AboutToday? YES
Can Add Events to AboutToday? NO
Can Edit Own Entries? NO
Can Edit ALL Events? NO
Can View Disabled AboutToday? NO
Include link to image button on editor? NO
Can load events from a delimited file? (Use with CAUTION!) NO
Can View RSS Feeds? YES
Can force all RSS Feeds to update? YES

Thanks for your fast reply!

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