vB Easy Auction v1.1

vB Easy Auction v1.1
by yoyoyoyo

Don't let the length of this post fool you... this is actually very simple to setup... I just tend to get long-winded at times...

WHAT YOU NEED:

* vBulletin Software (for vBulletin integration - the perl files will work fine without vBulletin)
* Web server account that has CGI capabilities, and will allow you to run executable cgi files.
* Perl 5.6 or better installed on that web server. Contact your server administrator if you are unsure (most servers are running version 5.8.X, so this should not be a problem). If you do not have perl installed then read a little further below about perlsp.
* Access to either Sendmail, BLAT, or Sockets mail. No mail can be sent without at least ONE of the above. If you are using either BLAT or Sockets mail (NT users usually), you will also need access to an SMTP mail server. Contact your server administrator to find out if you do. Note: the SMTP mail server needs to allow the user to send mail without requiring them to log into the server.

OVERVIEW

This will add auctions to your site quickly and easily. Simply edit the auction.pl file and admin.pl files to reflect your server's filepaths, etc., and then upload the files to your server. Create a template and make a couple edits to your vbulletin files to allow navigation to your auctions and that is it! The core of the auction is based on a HEAVILY modified version of EveryAuction Release Version 1.53, and can be further edited or modified to suit your needs, as long as you follow the GNU public license.

SEE POST #1 OF THIS THREAD FOR INSTALL INFO, ETC.

If members of your site are interested in participating in the auctions then they need to register for them also, since this is not integrated with the vBulletin database for security reasons (since people put actual contact info, etc. in their auction registrations).

FEATURES

• a comprehensive, professional user interface that makes navigation simple
• auction classifieds or traditional auction settings
• configuration takes only a few minutes if perl is installed on your system
• colors and tables can be easily changed to match the look and feel of your system
• supports HTML front-ends
• unlimited categories and items
• category listing lists number of open items per category
• item listings list items, closing time, and current bid
• automated e-mail validation registration system keeps non-legitimate users out of your database
• system generated easy-to-remember (and user changeable) passwords sent to users via e-mail
• users must "sign" an agreement upon registration.
• optional non-registration mode allows fast posting or bidding by anyone
• users may update their contact information, password or Registration E-Mail.
• any registered user can post an item using the easy-to-use submission system
• images can be posted along with an item description and starting bid
• supports reserve prices which allow a seller to set a minimum sell price above the minimum bid
• seller determines minimum bid increment and length of the auction
• item preview before an item is actually posted
• each item is given a unique ID number and URL, so sellers can advertise their auctions in newsgroups or via a link
• item display lists bidding history and product information
• displays Closed items in a table with Radio Buttons for Selection
• bidding is easy with the minimum bid price displayed on the item page along with a quick bid form
• sellers can choose the ending time of an auction
• amount of time left in each auction is displayed in the listing
• outbid e-mails automatically sent by the system with a link back to the auction item
• sniper protection: auctions can close a configurable time after the last bid and the designated closing time, or the admin can choose to disable the sniper protection
• integrated search engine allows search by username or keyword
• users can view closed auction history and contact information depending on whether he/she is the buyer, seller, or losing bidder
• auction items may be deleted or updated by the system administrator using a password
• e-mail sent to both high-bidder and seller on auction close
• fast re-posting of items that were not sold
• data file construction allows experienced administrators to add, remove, or edit items or users by simply editing a plain text file
• everything is compressed into a single lightning-fast perl script
• advanced file locking system eliminates the risk of data corruption even during heavy bidding
• separate secure Admin Console
• pagebreaks in listings
• automatically updates the bids on the item display page
• seller can edit an auction if there are no bids.
• auto-prune of old inactive user data (admin specified length of time)
• prevents email registration from the same address more then once
• users must enter valid e-mail addresses when signing up for the auctions.
• enter e-mail addresses twice
• "e-mail auction to friend" option
• view all auctions option

LEGAL NOTICE

Version: vB Easy Auction 1.0
Last update: 07/20/2005

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.

modifications and integration with vbulletin
released at vbulletin.org by yoyoyoyo
No additional rights reserved by the author

Matt Hahnfeld DBA EverySoft expressly emphasizes that
this program is *NOT* an official release version of
EveryAuction, and that this program is *NOT* sanctioned
or distributed by Matt Hahnfeld DBA EverySoft.

Dieter Werner expressly emphasizes that
this program is *NOT* an official release version of
eAuction, and that this program is *NOT* sanctioned
or distributed by Dieter Werner.

vB Easy Auction for vBulletin is not affiliated with eBay or jelsoft or any affiliated companies.

The author of this release agrees to these statements absolutely.

VERSION 1.1: Added the optional ability to allow users to create their own auction sites using the easy-auction ezauctgn.zip script.

PLEASE CLICK INSTALL IF YOU FIND THIS USEFUL!

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Isn't

PHP Code:

construct_nav_option('Auction Admin', "../cgi-bin/auction/admin.pl", '<br />');
        construct_nav_option('Contact Auction Members', "$vboptions[bburauction.pl?action=contact, '<br />');
        construct_nav_option('Registration Report', "../cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?action=readreg", '<br />');
        construct_nav_option('Auction Category Listing', "../cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl", '<br />');
        construct_nav_option('Closed Auctions', "../cgi-bin/auction.pl?action=closed", '<br />');
        construct_nav_option('System Info', "../cgi-bin/auction/info.pl", '<br />');
        construct_nav_group('Auctions'); 


supposed to have " " instead of ' ' ????

THose were the old instructions.. they must have gotten in the zip somehow. I will update it.

As far as your error goes- I got the same error when I tried installing it myself and did not set all of the config area settings that I needed to set, but when I fixed them I did not get that error. The problem is in your config area of auction.pl : READ IT THOROUGHLY

Also make sure that all files are CHMOD'ED as mentioned in the instructions.

Also- please note that keeping the info.cgi file in your cgi-bin allows anyone to read that info if they know that the file is there, so you may want to rename it to something else.

Zip updated- sorry for all of that old stuff in that folder. Didn't mean to confuse anyone. It should be a much smaller download now

[Corriewf]

Ok so does this integrate the vb styles or that has to be done manually?

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by corriewf

Ok so does this integrate the vb styles or that has to be done manually?

The actual style sheet CSS part of the styles needs to be edited manually between the <style> tags in the auction script. There is only one <head> section, so if you open it up in a text editor and search you will find it, and you will see that it is basic html. As I mentioned in the install info, you can edit the html side of the script any way you want, so if you are a wizard with html, then this will be no problem for you to make it look totally unique, yet keep the same functionality.

If you want you can also edit the <head> area <style> tags to point to an external style sheet - it is all basic html as I said. Originally I had an external stlye sheet involved in this hack, but I trimmed it down to avoid confusion and less CHMOD'ing, etc., but it can point to any style sheet on your server, just like any other html.

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by icecube0045

Has anyone installed and tried this yet?

If anyone wants to be added to this thread as an auction demo site please let me know (PM me)! It would be a great way to increase traffic to your auctions and forum

[RichieBoy67]

I would love that as soon as we get it going

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

I would love that as soon as we get it going

I checked your server and got it working (knock wood) PM'ed you the problems it seems you were having. They should be server-specific problems, so there is no need in going in to it here. I hope that it helps.

here's a tip for other folks: you may not need to run the auction.pl script in the cgi-bin folder if that is what is causing problems (some servers are strange about what you can/can't put in the cgi-bin folder as far as permissions). Some servers will also let you run a .pl or a .cgi script from any folder, so if you are STILL getting errors then try uploading the folder named 'auction' to your forum root directory, and then change your config area of the auction script accordingly. If that works better then change the file path in the template to point to that directory instead of your cgi-bin directory. In fact, that is how I originally wrote the instructions, but realized that some people who can't run perl scripts from any directory other than the cgi-bin and would be out of luck, so by default I decided to tell everyone to put it in the cgi-bin directory, but as I said that is not necessary in many cases.

[RichieBoy67]

Thanks,

I did just what you reccomended and I created an "auction" directory in the forum root... I just had to create the directory folders.... I am thinking that my server might be in safemode....

Anyhow, I am working on the style right now and I would love to have my site as a demo for this once I am done. I would also like to make a small donation towards this hack. This is great and I am sure it will make me money!!! PM me your paypal please and thank you for your level of service!!

[yoyoyoyo]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Thanks,

I did just what you reccomended and I created an "auction" directory in the forum root... I just had to create the directory folders.... I am thinking that my server might be in safemode....

Anyhow, I am working on the style right now and I would love to have my site as a demo for this once I am done. I would also like to make a small donation towards this hack. This is great and I am sure it will make me money!!! PM me your paypal please and thank you for your level of service!!

I am glad you got it worked out! Your help with debugging the install problems that people are bound to encounter was very helpful, and I appreciate your help as well.

If you feel like donating then donate to your favorite charity, and thanks for the offer. I hope that the auction is a big bonus to your site, but there is no need for a contribution. I spent a lot of time on modifying the script because I like the script, I like what the author has done with releasing it to the GNU. I had a lot of revisions before I was happy with it - I guess it is always a work in progress), and in looking at it there are still some areas I would like to fix (mainly html issues, such as ugly <table border=1> issues), and I will update the file later when I have done that, but the functionality seems to be stable. ALso, as I said earlier if anyone else prettys it up html-wise then please feel free to post the auction.pl file to this thread. Playing with that script actually taught me alot about perl, so the time invested was my education, and I am happy to share the results.

[yoyoyoyo]

Some of the best things come out of happy accidents. RichieBoy67 came up with a good answer to the iframe issue mentioned in the post: One way to avoid this issue is to add the same header and footer to your auction.pl (in the areas that they provide for that- just read the html) and style your <style> tags to be the same as your forum, and then just simply link people to your auction.pl file instead of your auction.php file. This way your header and fiiter will dynamically resize with your auction listings, and then your header can simply link them back to their forums! With that method you can avoid adding a new template and the auction.php file as well. You can even rename the auction.pl file to auction.cgi if you want, and it should still work, since they both refer to perl files. Or you can keep the template and the php file but make sure you do not add the header and footer info to both the template AND the auction.pl file, or you will have double headers and double footers!

[RichieBoy67]

I wish I could say that it was an idea I had and take credit but it was purely accidental.....lol It does take some serious editing though to do it this way but it's pretty easy.....

Great Hack.. One of the best I think..