Show Thread Enhancements - External Link Titles, retrieve descriptive titles for URLs

Keywords: SHOWTHREAD, external, link, titles, URLs, SEO

Description:
Retrieves descriptive titles for external posted links. Allows for better link recognition and, in theory, could help increase page SEO.

Details:
I recall this being requested somewhere, so I decided to take a stab at it. This is yet another feature offered in vBSEO.

For those unaware of what this actually does.. by default, when a URL is posted without a description it looks like:
http://www.vbulletin.com

With this modification enabled, it will now look like:
vBulletin.org Forum - The Official vBulletin Resource!

Nicer, eh?

[hr]-[/hr]
Installation:

1. Download and import product-linktitles.xml via the Product Manager.
2. Enable the modification via AdminCP > vBulletin Options > External Link Titles Options (it is disabled by default)
3. ???
4. Profit!

Notes:
There's really no magic here, it polls for titles using the cURL() function. If for some reason your host does not have cURL() enabled, you're out of luck.

From time to time you may notice the occasional link that does not get titled -- this is due to either the fact that the url is not active or it either timed out waiting for a response. By default, the system will wait for 5 seconds before timing out. If you wish to modify the timeout, you may do so via the AdminCP.

[hr]-[/hr]
Comments:
As with all my hacks, this modification is provided free of charge. However, if you find this product useful and have money burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to make a small donation, I won't mind.. really.

Version History:

• 1.0.0 - Initial release, here's to hoping...
• 1.1.0 - Added the ability to blacklist specific domains from having link titles retrieved (configurable via the AdminCP)
• 1.1.1 - Wrapped returned titles in html_entity_decode(); to return properly decoded HTML characters.

Currently Known Bugs:

• None

* Please note that this modification was developed on a forum with a userbase of 1 (myself). I've tested it for basic functionality but I cannot guarantee functionality or behavior on your forum. So, please -- make backups before installing this product!

[magnus]

Originally Posted by C_P

I get similar error and PHP safe mode is not on:
safe_modeOffOff
safe_mode_gidOffOff
Here is my error:
and after i resolves back to thread it was posted in, my http://www.vbulletin.org displays this as the hyperlink:
301 Moved Permanently link test
Now, this could be do the he anonym modification we have installed. If so, we cannot install this but a nice option none the less.

Well, according to the error:

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /includes/functions_newpost.php(360) : eval()'d code on line 30

It's either one of 2 things. You verified safe mode isn't enabled, so there must be an open_basedir set in functions_newpost.php. You'll need to check for plugins that hook into your the file, and see if there's a way to resolve the error.

The reason the link shows as "301 Moved Permanently" is because vBulletin.org has a redirect to the portal page. The CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION option tells the modification to follow all redirect tags until the end. Since you can't use that option, it stops on the first try.

You can still use the modification, you would simply have to disable CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION and occasionally be stuck with links such as "301 Moved Permanently" in such cases.

[C_P]

Thank you for the reply and update.

[Dave Hawley]

Would this work on 3.5.4? If not, is there one for that version?

[Quantnet]

Any update on the &amp and quotation issue ?

I have something like this The iPhone - Doesn't Slice, Doesn't Dice, but Will It Blend? | CrackBerry.com

[magnus]

Originally Posted by Dave Hawley

Would this work on 3.5.4? If not, is there one for that version?

It should work, but I haven't tested. It couldn't hurt to try.

[magnus]

Originally Posted by Quantnet.org

Any update on the &amp and quotation issue ?

I have something like this The iPhone - Doesn't Slice, Doesn't Dice, but Will It Blend? | CrackBerry.com

To be honest, I completely forgot about that issue. I'll go ahead and take a look at it right now. I'm sure it's an easy fix.

My apologies!

[Dave Hawley]

It shows this error on import into 3.5.4

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.4:

Invalid SQL:

### INSERT QUERY GENERATED BY fetch_query_sql() ###
INSERT INTO plugin
(`active`, `executionorder`, `title`, `hookname`, `phpcode`, `product`)
VALUES
('1', '5', 'Retreive link titles when editing a post', 'editpost_update_process', 'if ($vbulletin->options[\'linktitles_active\'])\r\n{\r\n preg_match_all(\'/\\[url\\](.*)\\[\\/url\\]/Ui\', $edit[\'message\'], $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);\r\n\r\n foreach($matches as $match)\r\n {\r\n $url = parse_url($match[1]);\r\n $url_host = $url[\'host\'];\r\n $blacklist = preg_split(\'#\\s#\', $vbulletin->options[\'linktitles_blacklist\'], -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);\r\n\r\n $host_is_blacklisted = false;\r\n foreach ($blacklist as $host)\r\n {\r\n if (preg_match(\'#\' . preg_quote($host, \'#\') . \'$#siU\', $url_host))\r\n {\r\n $host_is_blacklisted = true;\r\n break;\r\n }\r\n }\r\n unset($blacklist);\r\n\r\n if ($host_is_blacklisted == false)\r\n { \r\n if (function_exists(\'curl_init\') AND $ch = curl_init())\r\n {\r\n curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $match[1]);\r\n curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $vbulletin->options[\'linktitles_timeout\']);\r\n curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);\r\n curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);\r\n curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);\r\n\r\n $file_contents = curl_exec($ch);\r\n }\r\n\r\n preg_match(\'/<title>(.*)<\\/title>/i\', $file_contents, $title);\r\n\r\n if ($title[1] != \'\')\r\n {\r\n $edit[\'message\'] = str_replace($match[0], \' . \'\"]\' . $title[1] . \'\', $edit[\'message\']);\r\n }\r\n }\r\n }\r\n}', 'linktitles');

MySQL Error : Unknown column 'executionorder' in 'field list'
Error Number : 1054

[Quantnet]

Originally Posted by magnus

To be honest, I completely forgot about that issue. I'll go ahead and take a look at it right now. I'm sure it's an easy fix.

My apologies!

Any updates ?
This shouldn't take you this long right ?

[TheMilkCarton]

My blacklist just doesn't work. I tried blacklisting a .net if that makes any diff.

Everything else works, though.

[magnus]

Originally Posted by Quantnet.org

Any updates ?
This shouldn't take you this long right ?

No, it shouldn't.. and that's the funny part. Everytime I think I have it fixed, I find a character that for some reason won't translate over. It's as if certain html codes are exempt from being translated. I've gotten most simple characters such as &amp;, &copy;, etc. working fine, but other such as foreign lettering and fractions aren't working. It's the damndest thing..