New Thread on Calendar Event

New Thread on Calendar Event

What it does:
This rather small hack is easy: it starts a new thread in a specific forum for every Event that is posted in the calendar. On our forum it is used for discussion of partys (as it's a party calendar).

Is it complicated?
There is actually very little to change, but in that small part, there are a lot of variables to be edited which are forum specific. That might make it a bit hard for php newlings

Changes:
New files (0):
none

Changed files(1):
calendar.php

New database fields/tables(0):
none

New templates(0):
none

Changed templates(0):
none

New phrases(0):
none

Screenshots:
No visible changes

Instructions:

• Backup all your forum files as well as your database
• Copy the following code into your favorite PHP editing program (Dreamweaver, Wordpad, Notepad...) and edit it to fit your forums.
  
  PHP Code:

  $forumid = 1; // forumid in which to post
$botuserid = 1; //userid of poster
$botusername = "EventBot"; // username of poster

$dateformat = "m-d-y";
$threadtitle = "[".vbdate($dateformat, $dateline_from,false,true,false,true)."] ".$title;
$postmessage = "This is an automatically generated thread for the event [b]".$title."[/b].
More information on this event is available on [url=".$vboptions['bburl']."/calendar.php?".$session[sessionurl]."do=getinfo&e=".$eventid."&day=".vbdate("Y-n-j",TIMENOW,false,true,false,true)."&c=".$calendarid."]this page[/url].";
$iconid = 0;
            
$DB_site->query("INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread
(title, lastpost, forumid, open, replycount, postusername, postuserid, lastposter, dateline, iconid, visible)
VALUES ('" . addslashes($threadtitle) . "', " . TIMENOW . ", $forumid, 1, 0, '$botusername', $botuserid, '$botusername', " . TIMENOW . ", $iconid, 1)
");
$threadid = $DB_site->insert_id();
            
$DB_site->query("INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post
(threadid, parentid, title, username, userid, dateline, pagetext, allowsmilie, showsignature, ipaddress, iconid, visible)
VALUES ($threadid, 0, '" . addslashes($threadtitle) . "', '$botusername', $botuserid, " . TIMENOW . ", '" . addslashes($postmessage) . "', 1, 0, 0, $iconid, 1)
");
$firstpostid = $DB_site->insert_id();

$DB_site->query("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread
SET firstpostid = $firstpostid
WHERE threadid = $threadid
");
            
$DB_site->query("
UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum
SET replycount = replycount +  1,
threadcount = threadcount + 1,
lastpost = " . TIMENOW . ",
lastposter = $botusername,
lastthread = '" . addslashes($threadtitle) . "',
lastthreadid = $threadid,
lasticonid = $iconid
WHERE forumid = $forumid
"); 

  The variables to be edited (marked green) are:
  • forumid is the forumid of the forum in which the Bot will be posting the threads to the calendar events
  • botuserid is the userid of the user that will be shown as the author of the thread. I suggest making a special user and naming him something like EventBot
  • botusername is the username of the user that will be shown as the author of the thread. Should be the username to the userid indicated in botuserid. Make sure the username is enclosed in quotation marks ("").
• Open your calendar.php and look for
  PHP Code:

  if ($calendarinfo['neweventemail']) 

• Above that add the code you just edited.

[MrNase]

Could we make it so that we can select wether a new thread is started or not? Not every entry is worth a discussion

[Colin F]

Originally Posted by MrNase

Could we make it so that we can select wether a new thread is started or not? Not every entry is worth a discussion

Sure. Just add a checkbox in the template with value=1, and put this at the beginning of the code

PHP Code:

if ($_POST[checkboxname] == 1) { 


and a } at the end of the code.

[MrNase]

That's cool. Thank you


I will use it

[snyx]

Originally Posted by KirbyDE

Instead of $botuserid and $botusername use $bbuserinfo[userid] and $bbuserinfo[username].

And I wonder why this hack re-invents the wheel instead of just using build_new_post()?

PHP Code:

$forumid = 1; // forumid in which to post 

// Get forum info
$foruminfo = fetch_foruminfo($forumid, false);

// Prepare the thread ...
$post[title] = "[".date($dateformat, $dateline_from)."] ".$title; 
$post[poststarttime] = TIMENOW;
$post[posthash] = md5($post[poststarttime] . $bbuserinfo['userid'] . $bbuserinfo['salt']);
$post[message] = "This is an automatically generated thread for the event [b]".$title."[/b].
More information on this event is available on [url=".$vboptions['bburl']."/calendar.php?".$session[sessionurl]."do=getinfo&e=".$eventid."&day=".date("Y-n-j")."&c=".$calendarid."]this page[/url]."; 
$post[username] = $bbuserinfo[userid];
$post[iconid] = 0;
$post[emailupdate] = 9999;

// ... and create it
require_once('./includes/functions_newpost.php');
build_new_post('thread', $foruminfo, array(), 0, $post, $errors); 


If you want to be fully flexible, one could make the text as a phrase, forum ID and date format string as a setting

I don't like this automated message within the thread, is it possible it mimic the calendar post into the new thread?

[Colin F]

Theoretically yes.

Try making $post[message] = $message;

[DaveLogic]

Originally Posted by Colin F

Theoretically yes.

Try making $post[message] = $message;

This works with the main message content but would it be possible to say include a link (alike the original ) say Click here for full info which would rthen link back to the calendat???

[Colin F]

Do you want the message content as well as a link back, or just part of the message content and a link saying something like [...more]?

The first could be done with something like

PHP Code:

$post[message] = $message."
[url=".$vboptions['bburl']."/calendar.php?".$session[sessionurl]."do=getinfo&e=".$eventid."&day=".date("Y-n-j")."&c=".$calendarid."]Click here for full info[/url]"; 


[FleaBag]

Invalid SQL:  
UPDATE forum 
SET replycount = replycount +  1, 
threadcount = threadcount + 1, 
lastpost = 1089956923, 
lastposter = EventBot, 
lastthread = '[07-12-04] hkhkhk', 
lastthreadid = 12529, 
lasticonid = 0 
WHERE forumid = 47 

mysql error: Unknown column 'EventBot' in 'field list'

Any idea what went wrong?

[Colin F]

surround EventBot with 's
making it:

PHP Code:

$DB_site->query("
UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum
SET replycount = replycount +  1,
threadcount = threadcount + 1,
lastpost = " . TIMENOW . ",
lastposter = '$botusername',
lastthread = '" . addslashes($threadtitle) . "',
lastthreadid = $threadid,
lasticonid = $iconid
WHERE forumid = $forumid
"); 


[obsidian]

I tried this out using Colins original hack and it comes up with a thread title that is one day off of the event. The "posted by" on the thread view is also blank. I ended up trying Kirby's code as well and the username shows up but the date is 1 day off as well.

Edit: After digging through the calendar.php file I assume this is because I am using a single all day event. If I do the ranged event it comes up correctly. I guess when it gets the single all day event it starts the previous day plus how ever many hours. Anyways anyone have an idea on a simple fix for it