Automatic Birthday Thread

This hack is inspired by the Birthday Hack for vB2 by Logician. It will automatically create a Happy Birthday thread in a specified forum, listing the people with birthdays for that day. Then other members can post their happy birthday wishes in the thread.

I had the original hack installed on my VB2 board and when I upgraded to VB3 my members missed it. Luckily, it's really easy to implement.

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Files to modify: /includes/cron/birthday.php
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Instructions are in the attached text file. The mod should take about 5 minutes.

Be sure to change the variables that say // CHANGE ME

You can customize the message in the $birthday_greeting_thread variable. You could also ad IMG tags with an image of some kind, like in my screenshot.

Note that you MUST turn on BB CODE in you birthday forum in order for this to work properly.
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Enjoy (and thanks for the inspiration, Logician!)
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New in Version 2.0:

Bug fixes:
> More accurate age calculation. Sometimes it was a year off.
> The correct thread shows up in the last thread post on the forum home page.
> HTML is not required to be turned on in the birthday forum.
> Most of the code is completely rewritten to vB3 standards.

New features:
> Improved look
> Birthday line now says: (User) was born on (date), (AGE: xx)
> If the year is not given, it says "Not telling! " for age.
> The admin is emailed a list of the birthdays with links to their profiles and a link to the happy birthday thread.
> If you use the uShop/uCash hack, you can give birthday points to the users

Upgrading:

Since the code has changed so drastically, I suggest starting with a fresh copy of birthday.php and following the instructions for a new install.

[CallieJo]

Originally Posted by Lionel

Fixed! Some usergroup id were excluded in the array....

The array in birthday.php right?
Like this?

PHP Code:

    if ($usergroup['genericoptions'] & SHOWBIRTHDAY AND !in_array($usergroup['usergroupid'], array(2, 3, 7, 9))) 


I added mine there but I'm still missing peopes in the birthday threads being posted. I have 4 b-days today and only 2 are posted :surprised:

Any ideas?
I added the groups to the array and went into the task manager and ran birthday task again and nada!

Thanks...

[cdoyle]

anyone have any idea, why the users names aren't showing up, and it always says November 30th?

I keep looking over the directions, and I think I did everything the way I was suppose too.

[CallieJo]

Originally Posted by Lionel

ok, works for me now. I was placing code before {

You mean like this?

PHP Code:

    $emails .= $userinfo['username'];
NEW CODE HERE
} 


That is how I have it. It works all except the fact that it only post 1-3 birthdays out of 1-10 birthdays for that day :disappointed:

Should I have it below the }

Thanks

[Morgalis]

Originally Posted by atrljoe

Warning: main(./global.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home2/MYACCOUNT/public_html/forums/includes/cron/birthday.php on line 15

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './global.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home2/MYACCOUNT/public_html/forums/includes/cron/birthday.php on line 15

Any Ideas?

I have this issue as well.

Anyone know how to fix it?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Try removing the require_once line for global.php.

I really don't see why that line should be in a cronjob.

[Morgalis]

Originally Posted by MarcoH64

Try removing the require_once line for global.php.

I really don't see why that line should be in a cronjob.

When I commented it out, it ran into trouble finding
./includes/functions_misc.php
./includes/functions_newpost.php

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If i have time and don't forget, i will try to have a look at this hack tomorrow.

[Morgalis]

Originally Posted by MarcoH64

If i have time and don't forget, i will try to have a look at this hack tomorrow.

much obliged sir

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by CallieJo2

That is how I have it. It works all except the fact that it only post 1-3 birthdays out of 1-10 birthdays for that day :disappointed:

You do realise that the way it's been written means that only people who allow e-mails from administrators will be included. So maybe a lot of your users have this option set to no.

[cpz]

Does this hack always say i'm not telling for age even when members have full date of birth registered with site the boards birthday list says user id and age but when this hack posts on my board all i get is (i'm bot telling )