NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15


Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
• Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

• Provided option of not importing attachments
• Provided option of pause between messages
• Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
• Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
• Provided "Default Footer" option
• Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
  (written originally by KevinM)
• Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
• Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
• Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
  (use prefix)
• Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
  as vB3.0.3
• Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
• Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

• Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
• Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
  each group.
• Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
• Scheduled task log is now working
• Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
• Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

[chas_h]

FWIW, I am using EasyNews as a Usenet provider, seems to work pretty well.

[mcncyo]

have a couple of questions. I would like to disable all post from a couple of users that are in the usergroup. Is there away of deleting thread topics that start with certin users?

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by KevinM

Just got this up and running on a fresh install. Fantastic job. I've used the vb2 version for a year and this is a vast improvement. Particularly appreciated are the no-archive option and UU-encoded attachments (This now opens up all the binary groups which was too problematic with just mime encoded features). Control panel works great as well.

That is good. I have not actually tried a binary group (now I tell you.)

Is there a way of creating the thumbnails at the same time the the messages are downloaded? If you have the thumbnails option active, it shows the broken red x in the message. When you manually run the re-create thumbs option from the update counters menu it does create them, but it means re-creating the entire attachment table.

I will have a look at this.

I can't get the attachments to work when using the 'attachments as files' option (this would be my preferred option with a vast number of attachments). the files download, but when you click the link on the post it can't find the file. When you reverse the process (i.e. switch back from files to db storage) the images reappear.

Sorry for my ignorance, where is this option located? are we talking about outgoing or incoming. I can check it out, but I am feeling lazy after working on the AdminCP interfaces.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by chas_h

1) Lierduh, when you talk about adding a 'new usenet posts' to the navbar, is that as part of the 'quick links' menu or is it a whole new button on the navbar? I need to add it to quicklinks because I have removed the other 'new posts' thing.

2) when Allan was talking about commenting out the entire signature routine in gateway.php, could someone show exactly what I need to comment out? I would definitely like to remove that part for now.

Thanks Lierduh!

"New Usenet Posts" will be at the main navigation bar next to the "New Posts" link if you followed the readme file. If you have moved the original link to quick link, you should be able to do the same for the USENET link.

The next version will contain the signature option.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by cyo

have a couple of questions. I would like to disable all post from a couple of users that are in the usergroup. Is there away of deleting thread topics that start with certin users?

Can't you disable them posting in the usenet forums altogether?

[mcncyo]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Can't you disable them posting in the usenet forums altogether?

i am talking about newsgroup users that i don't want to display on my messageboard.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Erwin

To upgrade from the beta vB3 version in the vB2 hack thread to this new vB3 version, you need to upload the new files here, and then run these queries before running the new gateway to add the new nntp settings variables:

Otherwise, this new gateway.php won't work with the old settings.

Update: With the AdminCP interfaces becoming available, this is no longer a problem. The first time the panel is openned, the script will detect and carry out the upgrade.

[Erwin]

To disable the forum signature, find and remove this code in gateway.php:

PHP Code:

            if ($newthread['showsignature']){
                $get_userinfo=$DB_site->query("SELECT field1 AS signature,usertitle,customtitle ".
              "FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user AS user LEFT JOIN " . 
              TABLE_PREFIX . "userfield AS userfield ON user.userid=userfield.userid WHERE
              user.userid={$newthread['userid']} LIMIT 1");

              $userinfo=$DB_site->fetch_array($get_userinfo);

              $signature .= "\n\n";
              $signature .= format_text($userinfo['signature']);
            } 


The newsgroup signature (with links to your forum and the thread) will still be present. The large forum signatures will no longer be added.

[allan grossman]

Or - if you want to, just comment out the whole thing - change this

PHP Code:

        // get user's signature
        if ($newthread['userid']){
            $signature = "\n-- \n";
            $signature .= $newthread['username'];
            //if ($userinfo[customtitle]){ $signature .= " - $userinfo[usertitle]"; }
            //Only show signature if showsignature is true for this post
            if ($newthread['showsignature']){
                $get_userinfo=$DB_site->query("SELECT field1 AS signature,usertitle,customtitle ".
              "FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user AS user LEFT JOIN " . 
              TABLE_PREFIX . "userfield AS userfield ON user.userid=userfield.userid WHERE
              user.userid={$newthread['userid']} LIMIT 1");

              $userinfo=$DB_site->fetch_array($get_userinfo);

              $signature .= "\n\n";
              $signature .= format_text($userinfo['signature']);
            }

            $signature .= "\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n";
            $signature .= "{$newthread['username']}'s Profile: {$settings['profileurl']}{$newthread['userid']}\n";
            $signature .= "View this thread: {$settings['threadurl']}{$newthread['threadid']}\n";
        } else {
            $userinfo = false;
            $signature = "\n-- \n{$newthread['username']} - Unregistered User";
            $signature .= "\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n";
            $signature .= "View this thread: {$settings['threadurl']}{$newthread['threadid']}\n";
        } 


to this

PHP Code:

        // get user's signature
//        if ($newthread['userid']){
//            $signature = "\n-- \n";
//            $signature .= $newthread['username'];
            //if ($userinfo[customtitle]){ $signature .= " - $userinfo[usertitle]"; }
            //Only show signature if showsignature is true for this post
//            if ($newthread['showsignature']){
//                $get_userinfo=$DB_site->query("SELECT field1 AS signature,usertitle,customtitle ".
//              "FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user AS user LEFT JOIN " . 
//              TABLE_PREFIX . "userfield AS userfield ON user.userid=userfield.userid WHERE
//              user.userid={$newthread['userid']} LIMIT 1");
//
//              $userinfo=$DB_site->fetch_array($get_userinfo);
//
//              $signature .= "\n\n";
//              $signature .= format_text($userinfo['signature']);
//            }
//
//            $signature .= "\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n";
//            $signature .= "{$newthread['username']}'s Profile: {$settings['profileurl']}{$newthread['userid']}\n";
//            $signature .= "View this thread: {$settings['threadurl']}{$newthread['threadid']}\n";
//        } else {
//            $userinfo = false;
//            $signature = "\n-- \n{$newthread['username']} - Unregistered User";
//            $signature .= "\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n";
//            $signature .= "View this thread: {$settings['threadurl']}{$newthread['threadid']}\n";
//        } 


or - you can remove the entire routine. I choose to leave the code in place - which causes a tiny performance hit, but at least it's easy to remember what I did when a new release comes out

cheers,

allan

[mcncyo]

i am getting this error below

Fatal error</b>:  Maximum execution time of 1800 seconds exceeded in <b>/home/forum2/public_html/forum/includes/functions_databuild.php</b> on line <b>477</b><br />

[1]+  Done