Dynamic Announcements: Programmable Forum Home Announcement/Message with conditionals

(This hacks works with both 3.5.x and 3.6.x)

This hack allows you to post powerful dynamic announcements (changing according to different conditions) on forum home page. It differs from vbulletin's default announcements in 2 ways:

• The announcement is displayed in forum home page, not inside thread view. So visitors will read them on home page without clicking any links.
• The Hack's announcements are not static: ie. they can be powerfully programmed to display different texts according to different conditions.

For instance you can tell "why they should register" if visitor is a guest, but if he is a member with 0 posts, you can tell him why he should start posting etc.! All in one announcement! Everybody will see the relevant text according to his status. (This is the hack everybody keeps asking in the TheAdminZone.com whose using the hack for members with 0 and 1 posts.)


This version of the hack is for vbulletin 3.5.x and 3.6.x (vb 3.0.x version is here and vb 2.x version is here. 3.5 version is coded as a plugin so you can install it WITHOUT modifying vb PHP files. It is easily installed in 2 steps through your admin cp.

Basic Usage of This Hack: You can set a text in your Admin CP and it's displayed in forum home to all users. Alternatively if you want, you can set another text as a popup announcement and it is displayed to all as a pop up announcement (it can't be killed with popup killers software!)

Advanced Usage : With conditionals you can set different texts/notifications/messages/announcements and they will be displayed if your pre-configured condition applies. This allows you to create powerful announcements/private messages/texts which address their receipt only if a certain condition is met. Some examples:

You can set to show an announcement in forum home IF:

1. user is X
2. user's usergroup is Y
3. user has X posts or has more than Y posts but less than Z posts
4. his last visit time was X days ago
5. today is X, hour is between Y and Z, day is wednesday, month is Y, week is month's 2nd week, today is user's birthday
6. etc.

Here is a Screenshot from a general table announcement.
Here is a Screenshot from a popup announcement.

Some Features:

• Coded as a vbulletin pluggin. Can be installed easily without hacking PHP files.
• It's Admin CP integrated
• Smiley, BBCode, HTML, IMG tags are supported in announcements.
• You can address your users with their usernames inside announcements (Use $bbuserinfo[username] variable)
• Announcements are displayed directly in Forum Home so users are forced to read them.
• The Conditionals help you to design powerful and ever changing announcements/private messages/forum home notifications.
• Poupup announcement can not be killed by popup killer software

Hacks of Hack:
* For CMPS Integration see here
* French Translation by Allan : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=143
* Nested Conditionals by dc3dreamer : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=175
* Hack Annoucement appears in all vb pages:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...498#post911498



IMPORTANT FOR 3.x USERS:
If you were already using this hack in 3.0.x, remember to do 2 things:
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Follow this instructions to remove the remnants of 3.0.x hack.
AFTER YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Go to your admin cp / styles, find these 3 styles:
dfh_announcement
dfh_announcement_headercode
dfh_announcement_popup
and REVERT THEM so that your new templates that comes with 3.5 version will apply.

About vb4.x version:

I didn't consider porting this hack to vb4 because vbulletin has now a VERY SIMILAR feature in vb4 called "NOTICES". You can find it under your admin cp/Notices submenu/Notice Manager. It is not as powerful as this hack as this hack allows you to use any kind of conditional to produce your announcement but it is more user friendly because you don't need to deal with conditional syntax, you simply build your announcement (notice) with menus
If you install the hack, click INSTALL, thank you..

Logician \\=^))

[noreturn]

Originally Posted by noreturn

What happens if 4 different guests visit within the 1 hour setting I have set? Does only the first guest see the guest message if others visit within that 1 hour? If so, how can I make it always pop up for a guest, but only at 1 hour intervals for all others? And....
Thank you.

I have tested what you said by logging out and then visiting board without loggin in. I then click on "Forums" menu option and the guest pop-up does not appear...unless I keep it set to 0 (zero) in the admin PC option. It seems that once a guest (non-registered visitor) comes to board and clicks on Fourm link on navbar, the pop up with text only for GUEST does not show up unless no guests have visted in that hour. Or, better yet, what the heck am I doing wrong? (stargazerschat.com)

Thanks for you time.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by noreturn

I have tested what you said by logging out and then visiting board without loggin in. I then click on "Forums" menu option and the guest pop-up does not appear...unless I keep it set to 0 (zero) in the admin PC option. It seems that once a guest (non-registered visitor) comes to board and clicks on Fourm link on navbar, the pop up with text only for GUEST does not show up unless no guests have visted in that hour. Or, better yet, what the heck am I doing wrong? (stargazerschat.com)

Thanks for you time.

I think vb is reading your last visit time from your cookie even if we log out. So try with a different browser (without logging in) or after your popup expiration time you set is up.

[noreturn]

Hi - I cleared all cookies, cleared cache, went to web site and was not logged in. I click on forums but the guest pop up does not come up. I am using firefox if that means any thing.
I did the same thing and used IE and it works properly. Just not firefox for some reason.

[htscpl]

Just installed and I have a strange problem. Pop up and announcement box both work, however, any text in these are coved by a smilie !

I checked everthing I could think of but still no luck. Any ideas as to what would cause this and how to fix it?

I used your hack on 3.0.x and it worked fine. I followed the instructions to remove the old version and install this one so I am at a lost to figure out the problem.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by htscpl

Just installed and I have a strange problem. Pop up and announcement box both work, however, any text in these are coved by a smilie !

I checked everthing I could think of but still no luck. Any ideas as to what would cause this and how to fix it?

I used your hack on 3.0.x and it worked fine. I followed the instructions to remove the old version and install this one so I am at a lost to figure out the problem.

Maybe that smilie's code exist in the hack templates or the announcement somehow if it is a too general code?

[htscpl]

Originally Posted by Logician

Maybe that smilie's code exist in the hack templates or the announcement somehow if it is a too general code?

Figured it out. Several of my smilies didn't have a replacement code. Each of them showed up on top of the announcement or popup... kinda strange but when I added a code to the smilies they went away.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

H

[topanet]

Thanks for great hack anyway...
but, i just want to know.. can i use your annoucement into specified thread/posting??
i mean, if user enter some thread, your annoucement will show up...

thanks... topz.

[nailerpa]

Is there a way to make the text in the annoucement block blink? I tried the <blink> and </blink> tags but they didn't work. Thanks!

[Logician]

Originally Posted by nailerpa

Is there a way to make the text in the annoucement block blink? I tried the <blink> and </blink> tags but they didn't work. Thanks!

<blink> tag does not work with IE.

Not tested but this should work:

Put this javascript into your headinclude template:

PHP Code:

<script language="JavaScript">
var on_color = "#FF0000";
var off_color = "#000000";
var blink_onoff = 1;
var blinkspeed= 500;
function blink()
{
    if( blink_onoff == 1) {
           document.all.blink.style.color = on_color;
       blink_onoff = 0;
    }
    else {
       document.all.blink.style.color = off_color;
       blink_onoff = 1;
    }
}
</script> 


Then use this in your announcement:

PHP Code:

<font id=blink>My announcement</font><script>document.all.blink.style.color = off_color;setInterval('blink()',blinkspeed);</script> 


You can google for "blink + IE" for more info about blinking effect in IE.

[Kinneas]

Coooool!

*installs*