vBaCMPS Featured/Random Geek Articles

Hack: vBadvanced CMPS Featured/Random Geek Articles
Version: 1.2
Author: Me

Instructions:
upload modules/featuredgeekarticles.php into modules folder
upload admincp/featuredgeekarticles_install.php into admincp folder
run above fileFollow the file modification in the README

File modifications: 1
Template modifications: 0
Installer: Yup. A very cool one.
Phrased: Yup

In a nutshell, this module is based upon the vBa news module, but is instead set up to pull a pre specified 'Featured Article' or even a 'Random Article'. This is really designed for those using The Geek Article System. If you don't have The Geek Article System, you are most likely very lonely anyway.

version 1.2 uploaded 02/02/05
Updated Readme to work with latest vBaCMPS

version 1.2 uploaded 07/01/05
Fixed 'Excluded Forums' bug that appeared to have been bitten by Zombie.
It came back to haunt one user so I had to take drastic action and update it.
It now WORKS with your 'excluded forums' setting. That is to say, you can exclude your acticle forums from 'Latest topics' but they will still happily appear as a featured article.
Please note that this means there is now a file edit. Please read the README.

Check out the Readme that comes in the package.

note:if you dig this module, you may be interested in the Latest articles one too.

PS: Your template will be a tad different from my screen shot as this is for my style.

nJoy

[tormodg]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

Hey guys... those of you having problems... can you post the first 2 settings of your...um, settings (i.e. Featured or Random Article? and Featured thread id) and I will get it sorted for you

I use the geek article system. Ie, lots of gas, lots of friends!

Love it, geek.

[hockyfan]

For some reason, it seems to only be pulling certain articles over and over, while I listed about 4 forums with many articles each, I keep seeing the same ones being "randomly" featured. Is it possible I did something wrong? I have it set to random, and I have a list of the forums like this "1,2,3" - should there be spaces in the commas? Is there a setting I've overlooked?

Is there some kind of restriction on which articles it pulls? I know for certain I have many more articles than it has shown, even though I've refreshed my page many times and checked on multiple days, yet have only seen at most 5 different articles.


h

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by hockyfan

For some reason, it seems to only be pulling certain articles over and over, while I listed about 4 forums with many articles each, I keep seeing the same ones being "randomly" featured. Is it possible I did something wrong? I have it set to random, and I have a list of the forums like this "1,2,3" - should there be spaces in the commas? Is there a setting I've overlooked?

Is there some kind of restriction on which articles it pulls? I know for certain I have many more articles than it has shown, even though I've refreshed my page many times and checked on multiple days, yet have only seen at most 5 different articles.


h

Have you made any adjustments? The reason I ask is because the title box says 'Featured Article' instead of 'Random Article'. That tells me that Featured or Random Article is set to yes.
Let me know if that is the case. otherwise Ill need the SQL statement.

[hockyfan]

Not sure what you mean by the "SQL Statement," but the only adjustment I made was I changed the phrase "Random Article" to say "Featured Lesson," just based on my personal preferance on wording, no other changes were made and I am, indeed, using the "Random Article" option.

h

[The Geek]

Yea, after I posted my response I started refreshing. out of about 12 refreshes, I came up with 2 or 3 duplicates... but I guess that depends on the amount of articles you have.
'standard notation according to tab' or whatever was the one that seemed to want to appear more than others, however I was still getting pretty random results (just went back on and the one I just mentioned popped up a couple times... but still not overly disportionate). Do you still feel like its not 'random' enough?

[hockyfan]

I feel like some of the forums' articles aren't being pulled, while other forums are constantly being pulled; not sure why.

h

[memobug]

It might be perception, might be based on the proportion of articles in each forum. Try omitting the "constant" forums and seeing if you actually get output from the "never" forums.

Regards,

Matt

[hockyfan]

Is there any way to make it so it doesn't rely on how many articles there are per forum?

h

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by hockyfan

Is there any way to make it so it doesn't rely on how many articles there are per forum?


h

Hey H.

I am not sure what you are asking here. What mySQL does is select a random listing from one of the forums in your coma seperated field. It doesnt weigh the pull or anything. The randomness is occuring at mySQL level, not in the code.

Sorry if that doesnt help.

[hockyfan]

No, that's what I had thought, memobug's post led me to believe otherwise, but no worries.

So is there any reason though I keep getting one thread many times, while other ones I have yet to see at all?


h