Administrative and Maintenance Tools - SSGTI - Auto Ban Under Age Users

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!.............. Brought to you by (www.solidsnakegti.com) ..............!
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Please remember to click Mark as Installed if you use this modification.
Support questions from members who have not marked this as installed will be considered low priority.

Note: This product has been requested by Alfa1 as a custom work HERE. It has been completed few weeks ago. Since all of my custom work is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0, I publish it now for the public use, I hope this product will be useful for all of you.


Name: SSGTI - Ban Under Age Users - Version: 3.8.110

Description: This product will auto ban all users underage that admin staff determines, this ban will be left automatically after they reach that age.


Compatible with: All 3.6.x/3.7.x/3.8.x vBulletin versions.


Requirements:

• vBulletin version 3.8.0+ Or later.

Features:

• General Features:-
  • Fully Phrased.
  • Fully Automated.
  • Fully Supported.
  • Accurate Processing.
  • Professionally Coded.
  • Don't require any manual edits.
  • Doing all default vBulletin checks & Fully vBulletin Compatible.
  • Board Load Zero Queries, queries only when the scheduled task run.
  • Permissions for both "Doing Ban Staff Member" & "To Be Banned User" are checked. A moderator/super moderator/administrator can't be banned, they're all excluded by default from auto ban proccess. -New in v3.8.110-
  • If the "Doing Ban Staff Member" isn't found or is invalid, then nothing will be done (Make sure to configure product's settings right). -New in v3.8.110-
  • If you run the cron job manually from AdminCP, then you'll get a simple report about users have been banned with links to their profiles & a link to view all banned users. -New in v3.8.110-
  • Staff member that do the ban is checked for validity as soon as you enter his/her name within product's settings (It will be saved only if it's valid).
  • If the underage user -to be banned- is already banned before, then his/her account will be checked, if the ban will be left before he goes to the permitted age, then his ban record will be updated to reflect the new "left ban date" which will corespond to his legal/permited age date. The ban reason will be updated also.
• Specific Features:-
  • Enable/Disable the whole product any time.
  • Set the prohibited age (Ban users under X years old, enter that age in years).
  • Staff member that do the ban (Please enter the username of the staff member you need him to appear as the banning person. Please note that you've to enter a valid administrator username here that has permissions to ban users, if not then banning process will not work).
  • Excluded Usergroups (If you've many user groups, then you may need to exclude some of them from being processed by this product; So you can protect their underage users from being auto banned [moderators/super moderators/administrators are excluded by default]. Please enter excluded user group IDs separated with spaces). -New in v3.8.110-
  • Banned User Group (This selection menu displays all banned user groups, please select the banned user group you need to ban these users. Please note that this product uses the default vBulletin "Banned Users" user group with the ID: 8, but you can change it if you've multiple banned user groups).
  • Email banned underage users (Do you need to send email notifications to those auto banned underage users? If so, please choose "Yes"). -New in v3.8.110-
  • Edit Banning Reason (You can edit the banning reason that will appear for banned underage users. Please note that you can enter the symbol {1} to be replaced by the actual age you've specified above).
  • Banning Message (You can edit the banning email message that will be sent for banned underage users (If you've activated this feature). Please note that you can enter any of the following variables in the message: $username: Replaced by username / $userage: Replaced by the actual age you've specified above). -New in v3.8.110-

Installation Procedure:

1. Upload the "ssgti_banunderage.php" file to "/includes/cron/".
2. Import product's XML file from AdminCP.
3. Activate the product (it's disabled by default) & set your preferred configurations.
4. Done .

Upgrade Procedure:

1. Upload the "ssgti_banunderage.php" file to "/includes/cron/" (Allow Overwrite).
2. Import product's XML file from AdminCP (Allow Overwrite).
3. Done .

Control:

• vBulletin AdminCP -> vBulletin Options -> vBulletin Options -> SSGTI - Ban Under Age Users
• vBulletin AdminCP -> Scheduled Tasks -> Scheduled Task Manager -> SSGTI - Ban Under Age Users

License:
--------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------
Creative Commons - Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
--------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------

• You are free:
  • To Share ? to copy, distribute and transmit the work.
  • To Remix ? to adapt the work.
  
  
• Under the following conditions:
  • [Attribution]: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  • [Noncommercial]: You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
  • [Share Alike]: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
  
  
• For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the original author's copyrights AND you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
• Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder (The original product's author).
• Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

--------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------
Your fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.../3.0/legalcode
--------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------


Help with:

• Suggestions to develop this product.
• Contributing any updates, upgrades and/or any new features.
• Translations to benefit more users (translation credits goes to their owners).
• Spreading this product. Yes, you're free to re-distribute this product as it is (See license details).

Known Isues:

• Nothing till now.

Future TO-DO-LIST:

• TO-BE-LISTED!

History:

• v3.8.100 21/07/2009 05:00 PM UTC: First initial public release.
• v3.8.110 29/09/2009 01:00 AM UTC: Second public release (Fixes/Optimizations/New Features).
  • Changes:
    • Many code optimizations.
    • Fixing "mktime" issues.
    • Exclude staff members (moderators/super moderators/administrators) by default from being auto banned.
    • The product will stop if the staff member responsible for banning is invalid.
  • New Features:
    • If you run the cron job manually from AdminCP, you will get a simple report of banned users.
    • Now you can exclude some user groups from being auto banned by this product.
    • Now you can auto send emails as notifications to all auto banned users.

Screen Shots:

• Available down there.

Notes:

• English version only supported & supplied here Currently, further localized versions will be available later.
• Upgrade to latest version highly recommended.

Technical Notes:

• New Plugins: 1
• New Phrases: 25
• New Templates: 0
• Manual Template changes: 0
• Auto Template changes: 0
• New Files: 1
• Manual File Changes: 0
• New vBulletin Settings: 6
• New Usergroup Permissions: 0
• New Moderator Permissions: 0
• New Administrator Permissions: 0
• New Forum Options: 0
• New DB Tables: 0
• DB Alterations: 0
• New Cron Jops: 1
  --------------------------------
• Installation Level: V.Easy
• Installation Time: 5~9 seconds
  

Donation?:

• No, sorry. I appreciate your kindness. But if you need to help/support, then you can ask me for custom work. I'm ready for any custom work .

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• SSGTI - Prevent Duplicate Posts
• SSGTI - Subscription Certain Payment APIs
• SSGTI - Paypal 2 Payment Module [ API ]
• SSGTI - Hide AdminCP vB News table if all news are dismissed
• SSGTI - Admin Control Panel Session Timeout Exceptions

[Omranic]

Originally Posted by esperone

wow. nice work.

Thanks. :up:

Originally Posted by Med

Very nice Thx

You Are Welcome .

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Thank you for publicly releasing it.

My Pleasure .

Originally Posted by Konstantinos

good idea, but can u aslo add a function that when the ban occurs a thread to be created to forum for the reported posts ? so the admins can know fast who is the underaged person

edit

i run the task mannually after install and got

Ban Under Age Users


Warning: mktime() expects parameter 6 to be long, string given in [path]/includes/cron/ssgti_banunderage.php on line 42

Warning: mktime() expects parameter 4 to be long, string given in [path]/includes/cron/ssgti_banunderage.php on line 42

Warning: mktime() expects parameter 4 to be long, string given in [path]/includes/cron/ssgti_banunderage.php on line 42

Hmmmmmm, really I didn't understand your idea or may be vise-versa!
The product's main functionality is to ban under age users automatically, so what do you mean by:

aslo add a function that when the ban occurs a thread to be created to forum for the reported posts

Any way, regarding to the error that you've got: I can't re-produce it neither on my local machine nor on any of my testing servers. But it's under investigation currently. A fix will be available soon.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

My errors are similar. Does anyone have this working?

In fact it's working 100% on my local machine & all of my testing servers. I don't know why that happens with you, but don't worry. It's under investigation currently. A fix will be available soon.

[Omranic]

The problem has been solved & all issues has been fixed in a new version. It will be published soon (tomorrow).
The new version includes a number of optimizations & some new features such as "email banned users" & "excluding some user groups" from being auto banned.

You will like that new version, I'm sure .

[Omranic]

Upgrade: Highly Recommended.

• v3.8.110 29/09/2009 01:00 AM UTC: Second public release (Fixes/Optimizations/New Features).
  • Changes:
    • Many code optimizations.
    • Fixing "mktime" issues.
    • Exclude staff members (moderators/super moderators/administrators) by default from being auto banned.
    • The product will stop if the staff member responsible for banning is invalid.
  • New Features:
    • If you run the cron job manually from AdminCP, you will get a simple report of banned users.
    • Now you can exclude some user groups from being auto banned by this product.
    • Now you can auto send emails as notifications to all auto banned users.

[Alfa1]

With the new version, I get this:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 45 bytes) in /forum/includes/class_core.php on line 3259

I currently have 435 underage members, and about 80.000 userid's.

[Omranic]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

With the new version, I get this:

I currently have 435 underage members, and about 80.000 userid's.

Oh, that's because of your large number of banned users. The processing cycle multiplied by that number of banned users seems to be heavy. Try this solution currently ...
Please put the following line of code at the begin of your cronjob file "includes/cron/ssgti_banunderage.php":

PHP Code:

ini_set("memory_limit", "128M"); 


Then run the scheduled task again & tell me what happens.

[Alfa1]

Almost the same error:

SSGTI - Ban Under Age Users
ini_set("memory_limit", "128M");
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 43 bytes) in /forum/includes/class_core.php on line 3257

I assume this is because I have set the memory_limit to 64mb in .htaccess, so that this is not reverted with server upgrades. I have temporarily set my memory limit to 128MB, then ran the cron without errors and then lowered it back to 64MB.

But the 435 underage members are not banned by the cron.

[Omranic]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Almost the same error:I assume this is because I have set the memory_limit to 64mb in .htaccess, so that this is not reverted with server upgrades. I have temporarily set my memory limit to 128MB, then ran the cron without errors and then lowered it back to 64MB.

Sounds Good, that means it works fine with this solution.
A better solution may be available if possible, since the processing cycle already requires the same amount of overhead & it's approximately the same as default vBulletin ban process. The difference is the loop in which multiple users are to be processed respectively.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

But the 435 underage members are not banned by the cron.

What do you mean exactly!? Since the cron has been executed successfully, then it should do it's work!
Can you answer please on the following questions:

1. When you run the cronjob manually from AdminCP, what did you get? Did you get a report with banned users, or may be you get only a phrase saying "Done" without any listed users?
2. Do you've already underage users that aren't already banned before?
3. The "already banned" users, when there ban will be lifted?

[Alfa1]

1. I do not get a report. Just a note that the process is done, without any list of banned members.
2. I have 435 underage members that the system still needs to ban.
3. I have 210 banned members that are underage. These have been banned manually and the time span within which their ban will be lifted ranges from 1 month to 2 years or never.

[Omranic]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

1. I do not get a report. Just a note that the process is done, without any list of banned members.
2. I have 435 underage members that the system still needs to ban.
3. I have 210 banned members that are underage. These have been banned manually and the time span within which their ban will be lifted ranges from 1 month to 2 years or never.

This is absolutely strange & unexpected behavior.
The product supposed to do it's work without any problems at this point.
I'm sure it isn't something related to the product's code itself, may be some settings configured wrong.
If you wish me to investigate that problem, please send me (via PM) a temp forum admin that has permissions to control settings & scheduled tasks. If you can demonstrate/reproduce the same problem on a demo board, it's OK; you can supply access to that demo board not the live one.

[Konstantinos]

new ver doesnt work either, it doest ban and settings are correct