Miscellaneous Hacks - Donation Goal Thermometer Forum Block addon for Donation Manager

**This is an addon for the Donation Manager addon if installed as below.**

I've been waiting for something that will be an all-in-one donation system such as the Cyb Paypal Donate for vBulletin 4 but can't wait any longer. I really needed a donation goal monitor as it encourages people to donate who otherwise do not.

I like the features of the Donation Manager addon and decided I would search for some sort of script that would enable me to display donation progress. I found this free script: http://www.arkie.net/~scripts/thermometer/

I have implemented a basic method to display donation progress through both of these scripts. It is a manual process to update donation progress but the Cyb Donate plugin was as well.

DEMO: You can see my implementation in action at http://www.puritanboard.com/forum.php

Instructions
1. Download thermometer.php and upload that into your forum root.
2. Create a new Forum Block

a. AdminCP -> Forums & Moderators -> Forum Blocks Manager
b. Click Add Block
c. Block Title: Donate (or Support Us)
d. Active: Yes
e. Content Type: HTML
f. Content

PHP Code:

<img hspace="10" align="left" border="0" src="thermometer.php?Current=0&Goal=250&Width=100&Height=100&Font=2">
<br><br>
<form action="donate.php" method="post"> 
<input type="submit" value="Donate" class="newcontent_textcontrol"> <br /> <br> 
</form> 


g. BEFORE YOU SAVE, you must configure the thermometer in the Content block. All the settings are within the img attributes and you don't need to touch the thermometer.php file. Notice that img has the following src value:

thermometer.php?Current=0&Goal=100&Width=50&Height=100&Font=2

(1) Current=current donations received
(2) Goal=donation goal
(3) Width=width of the thermometer
(4) Height=height of thermometer
(5) Font=size of font from 1...whatever
(You can experiment with these settings but I found a width of 50 and Height of 100 with a font size of 2 makes my thermometer about right)

Once you save the Forum Block you can position it in your Block order. When you receive donations you simply edit the forum block and update the Current= value. It's not perfect but it's better than having no goal meter. When the user clicks on the Support Us link he is taken to the Donation System which allows him to donate.

ALTERNATIVE IMPLEMENTATION

You can set up the forum block to allow the user to select pulldown dollar amounts. I don't know how to pass the variables that the donation system uses or I would use them in my block. This block requires a bit more editing to get it working for your site.

Follow the same instructions as above but in the Content Block replace all with:

PHP Code:

<img hspace="10" align="left" border="0" src="thermometer.php?Current=6&Goal=400&Width=50&Height=100&Font=2">
<br>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> 
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_xclick"> 
<input type="hidden" name="business" value="email@doman.com">
<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD"> 
<select name="amount"> 
<option value="10">$10</option> 
<option value="20">$20</option> 
<option value="50">$50</option> 
<option value="100">$100</option> 
<option value="500">$500</option> 
</select> 
<input type="hidden" name="no_shipping" value="1"> 
<input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="1"> 
<input type="hidden" name="lc" value="US"> 
<input type="hidden" name="bn" value="PP-BuyNowBF"> 
<input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="Forum Donation"> 
<input type="hidden" name="cancel_return" value="http://www.forumdomain.com/donate.php?do=fail"> 
<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.forumdomain.com/donate.php?do=success"> 
<input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2"> <br /><br /> 
<input type="submit" value="Donate" class="newcontent_textcontrol"> <br /> <br> 
</form> 


Set:
- Thermometer values as before
- email@domain.com to your paypal e-mail address
- value="USD" to a different currency if you want to accept by another currency
- option values to the amounts you want to donate and set the values between the option tags to the currency you want
- value="US" to your country
- value="Forum Donation" to what you want displayed in the paypal cart when the user donates
- forumdomain.com to your forum domain (there are two and they are the success and fail pages of the Donation System plugin)

[meissenation]

So every time someone donates we have to update the "Current" value, correct?

[SemperFideles]

Originally Posted by meissenation

So every time someone donates we have to update the "Current" value, correct?

That is correct. If the current donations is $5 and you receive a $10 donation then you edit the block and change the Current from 5 to 15.

I'm not a sophisticated programmer. I would love to be able to have the ability to have the value automatically updated but this is better than nothing and it's really not that hard to update.

[Edrondol]

Semper Fi, young man. That's all I came to say.

I'll definitely try this out during my annual fund drive.

[steve1966]

thanks

[Corky91]

Nice, but can't you create something similar to CYB-Donation bar? at the top under the navbar?

[SemperFideles]

Originally Posted by Corky91

Nice, but can't you create something similar to CYB-Donation bar? at the top under the navbar?

Can't I do so? I suppose I could but this works for my use and I'm sharing what I implemented. The benefit of this implementation is that it requires no Template Modifications.

[Cableguy69]

What a great little add on. I had to change the colour of my Thermometer background, to suit my forum.

PHP Code:

 // create the image
 $image = ImageCreate($width, $height);
 $bg    = ImageColorAllocate($image,0, 0, 0 );
 $fg    = ImageColorAllocate($image,255,0,0);
 $tx    = ImageColorAllocate($image,255, 255, 255); 


Which gives me.

[lazydesis]

Everywhere Sidebar addon: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=233871

thanks a bunch

[Marv]

Originally Posted by SemperFideles

I'm not a sophisticated programmer. I would love to be able to have the ability to have the value automatically updated but this is better than nothing and it's really not that hard to update.

Thanks for the mod, Rich. True, it?s not matching my forums style but life is imperfect. Even the light fifty isn?t a beauty and for sure not a lightweighted one but it?s pretty darn effective, so who cares ?

Does anyone have CYB?s old plugin ? Would love to see the code he was using in it. Guess it shouldn?t be to hard to rewrite this one for the 4.x series. Has anyone get in contact with CYB already ?

[movslow]

Obvious easy mod for the forum block, but I can't get anything to load there.

It only shows where an image should be, w/nothing other than Support us underneath it.

I uploaded the thermometer.php to the forum root, and still nothing.

?

Please advise.

Thanks
:up:


/edit

I tried the 2nd code, and it shows a donate button, and the drop down box, but NO image.

??