Automatic Birthday Thread

This hack is inspired by the Birthday Hack for vB2 by Logician. It will automatically create a Happy Birthday thread in a specified forum, listing the people with birthdays for that day. Then other members can post their happy birthday wishes in the thread.

I had the original hack installed on my VB2 board and when I upgraded to VB3 my members missed it. Luckily, it's really easy to implement.

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Files to modify: /includes/cron/birthday.php
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Instructions are in the attached text file. The mod should take about 5 minutes.

Be sure to change the variables that say // CHANGE ME

You can customize the message in the $birthday_greeting_thread variable. You could also ad IMG tags with an image of some kind, like in my screenshot.

Note that you MUST turn on BB CODE in you birthday forum in order for this to work properly.
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Enjoy (and thanks for the inspiration, Logician!)
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New in Version 2.0:

Bug fixes:
> More accurate age calculation. Sometimes it was a year off.
> The correct thread shows up in the last thread post on the forum home page.
> HTML is not required to be turned on in the birthday forum.
> Most of the code is completely rewritten to vB3 standards.

New features:
> Improved look
> Birthday line now says: (User) was born on (date), (AGE: xx)
> If the year is not given, it says "Not telling! " for age.
> The admin is emailed a list of the birthdays with links to their profiles and a link to the happy birthday thread.
> If you use the uShop/uCash hack, you can give birthday points to the users

Upgrading:

Since the code has changed so drastically, I suggest starting with a fresh copy of birthday.php and following the instructions for a new install.

[jluerken]

$DB_site->query("INSERT INTO thread (threadid,title,lastpost,forumid,open,replycount,postusername,postuserid,lastpos    ter,dateline,iconid,visible,attach) VALUES (NULL,'".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($title3))."','".time()."','$greetings_forum','1','0','".addslashes($greeter_name)."','$greeter','".addslashes($greeter_name)."','".time()."','0','1','0')"); 
$log_threadid=$DB_site->insert_id(); 
// Creating Post 
$DB_site->query("INSERT INTO post (postid,threadid,title,username,userid,dateline,pagetext,allowsmilie,showsignatu    re,ipaddress,iconid,visible) VALUES (NULL,'$log_threadid','".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($title3))."','".addslashes($greeter_name)."','$greeter','".time()."','".addslashes($birthday_greeting_thread)."','1','0','127.0.0.1','0','1')"); 
// End Create Birthday Thread Hack 

BE careful with these line if you're using table prefixes

then you have to change this:

INSERT INTO thread to INSERT INTO yourprefix_thread

and this

INSERT INTO post to INSERT INTO yourprefix_post

Maybe the author of this hack can change these lines to reflect installations which are using table prefixes

[ChurchMedia]

Originally Posted by jluerken

Maybe the author of this hack can change these lines to reflect installations which are using table prefixes

Great idea! I added " . TABLE_PREFIX . " in the appropriate places. Thanks for the heads up.

[ryancooper]

Strange, i ran the Happy Birthday email and got no errors but I had a birthday and gor a email :

Database error in vBulletin 3.0.0 Release Candidate 4:

Invalid SQL: INSERT INTO thread (threadid,title,lastpost,forumid,open,replycount,p ostusername,postuserid,lastpos ter,dateline,iconid,visible,attach) VALUES (NULL,'Happy Birthday to on March 21, 2004','1079867961','6','1','0','Happy Birthday','11064','Happy Birthday','1079867961','0','1','0')
mysql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'ter,dateline,iconid,visible,attach) VALUES (NULL,'Happy Birthda

mysql error number: 1064

Any ideas what is wrong??

Thanks!

[ChurchMedia]

Be sure to change the user id,user name and forum id variables. If they don't exist you will get an error. Looks like you might have used example variables (from MK@spug.net). Let me know if you still have problems after changing these:

$greeter=1; //Your User ID
$greeter_name="Your User Name"; //Your User Name
$greetings_forum=1; //enter the forum id that you want the thread to go into

[ryancooper]

Originally Posted by ChurchMedia

Be sure to change the user id,user name and forum id variables. If they don't exist you will get an error. Looks like you might have used example variables (from MK@spug.net). Let me know if you still have problems after changing these:

$greeter=1; //Your User ID
$greeter_name="Your User Name"; //Your User Name
$greetings_forum=1; //enter the forum id that you want the thread to go into

AAHHh YEs I didn;t read that closely enough. . . :nervous: Thanks for the reply!

ryan\

[egyptsons]

Originally Posted by Vile

Very cool idea

nice work man

[EvilLS1]

To show the age (in years)...

In includes/cron/birthday.php find:

	$emails .= iif($emails, ', ');
	$emails .= $userinfo['username'];

Below it add:

// Generate Age
		
			if (!$year)
			{
				$year = vbdate('Y', TIMENOW, false, false);
				$month = vbdate('n', TIMENOW, false, false);
				$day = vbdate('j', TIMENOW, false, false);
			}
			if (empty($gotage["$userinfo[userid]"]))
			{
				$date = explode('-', $userinfo['birthday']);
				if ($year > $date[2] AND $date[2] != '0000')
				{
					$age = $year - $date[2];
					if ($month < $date[0] OR ($month == $date[0] AND $day < $date[1]))
					{
						$age--;
					}
					if ($age < 101)
					{
						$gotage["$userinfo[userid]"] = $age;
					}
					else
					{
						unset($age);
					}
				}
			}
			else
			{
				$age = $gotage["$age[userid]"];
			}
		
// end age

Find:

$bday_people .= "<a href=\"member.php?u=".$userinfo['userid']."\">".$username."</a>, born ".$userinfo['birthday']."\n";

Replace it with:

$bday_people .= "<a href=\"member.php?u=".$userinfo['userid']."\">".$username."</a>, Age: ".$age."\n";

[ChurchMedia]

Very cool! Thanks for that addition. Here's an addition to email the greeter when the thread is created (it will email the birthday greeting).


Find:

$greeter=1; //His User ID

The number (1) may be different.

Below that add:

$greetermail="youremail@yourdomain.com";

Change the email address to your own.

Find:

$DB_site->query("UPDATE user SET posts=posts+1 WHERE userid=$greeter");

Below that add:

// email the admin
$birthday_greeting_thread=strip_tags($birthday_greeting_thread);
vbmail_start();
vbmail($greetermail, $title3, $birthday_greeting_thread);
vbmail_end();

[ChurchMedia]

Here's an addition to give users store points for their birthday:

Find:

$bday_title .= $username.", ";

Below that add:

$DB_site->query("UPDATE user SET storep=storep+50 where userid='$userinfo[userid]'");

Be sure to change "storep" to the correct field for the store hack you are using. For the new uShop hack, look in your AdminCP to find out what to use there.

You can change the "50" to however many points you want to give for a birthday present. Be sure to mention the present in your birthday greeting.

[lasto]

church media one request if possible - can this be set to ignore zero posters ?