Geek Article System 3 - RC1

HowdA All.

The GAS3 system is a comprehensive article system that completely integrates into vB3.

History

Originally, I looked into other article systems to integrate with my forums but just got irritated over and over again as I found the other offering out there very limiting for my needs. I wanted to use my members usergroup permissions, the search facility (so when someone did a search for bob both articles AND threads appeared on one page), I also wanted wysiwyg editing and vBs attachment system. Well, I accomplished 99% of my needs with the Geek Article System 2.0
Why 3.0? While the 2.0 was fine for my needs, many users began asking for a far more complex system that took the beauty of 2.0 and added popular features in the other article systems.

Here are the features in a nutshell:

• Integrates 100% into vB. No importing forums or creating special groups. Simply mark forum as an 'Article' forum and instantly all threads become articles. Dont like it anymore? Simply remove the ID and the therads and forums go back to normal.
• Whatever you can do in a thread or post, you can do with the GAS3 system (uploading attachments, smiles, BBcode, various editors, yadayadayada)
• Create multiple pages in your post by simply putting [BREAK] anywhere in your post.
• The first thumbnail in an article substitutes the posters avatar (switchable via admincp)
• Integrated article byline.
• Article sidebar that shows the article rating, your rating, the rating form, article tools, and article attachments (all toggable via admincp)

Special thanks goes to rlamego and to peterska2 for private Beta testing this for me. Couldnt of happened without them!

Planned work:

• I have integrated an attachment description modification, but so far I dont have an interface for the newattachment.php yet. I will do this as an add on (though the backend work is already in place)

Known issues:

• none that I am currently aware of.

Demos: (note that I have a custom skin, so your results will be ever so slightly different)
http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthread.php?t=11287
http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthread.php?t=8801 - pages of comments


Difficulty - Medium
Time - about 15 minutes
File modifications? a few

Instructions

Click install. Especially as a beta, the package could get important updates that you need to be aware of. Also, as soon as it goes live, I may do the gold release outside of this thread as I dont want to bog down the gold release thread with any beta issues (if there are any). You will need to be aware of when that happens (so click install darnit!)
Download the package and unzip.
Follow the GAS3_README file to the letter!
There is an install script that does most of the work for you. There are several file edits that you will have to do yourself though.
When done, go into your admncp, open vBulletin settings, open Geek Articles 3 settings (in the big list where you turn your VB on and off).

Troubleshooting:

• No phrases after install? This happens a lot with many installers for some bizzare reason. All you have to do is do a phrase search for GAS_ , edit the phrase (dont change it), then save it. Bingo - all your phrases appear.
• Settings not taking? Your settings need to be saved in your adminco in order to take effect.

Also:

For the love of Pete - this is a BETA hack. I would therefore backup your DB, your styles, and any of the files the README asks you to change.

nJoy

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by xmitchx

Hi,

First off I'd like to tip my hat off to such a great hack Second, I found a typo

Step 8.6:


The bold part should be $template

Nice one! Thanks for that.

I updated the package to 2-06 with this typo fixed.

rlamego -> Forgot that option is not wired up all the way yet. I really only put it in for hockeyfan. I'll wire it up most likely tomorrow. What it should do is toggle x amount of comments on all pages OR just the last page (if you remember everyone wanted them on last page only and he wanted the option).

Thanks again.

[rlamego]

Oh, ok. That's what I recall from the early dev stages but wasn't sure you changed it.

[hockyfan]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

rlamego -> Forgot that option is not wiredupallthe way yet. I really only put it in for hockeyfan. I'll wire itupmostlikely tomorrow. What it should do is toggle x amount ofcommentson allpages OR just the last page (if you remember everyonewantedthem on lastpage only and he wanted the option).

Thanks again.

Ahh, you didn't have to do all that just for me! I do appreciate it though.

I'm not a very talented coder, so I'm just waiting until this is donewith the beta testing to install. A big thank you to all those who aredoing such a great job with that as well! Can't wait to install this,muchthanks! :up:


h

[xmitchx]

Another bug. The article byline is not grabbed for editpost.

Fix:

Find in editpost.php:

PHP Code:

    if ($edit['title'] != '')
    {
        $title = htmlspecialchars_uni($edit['title']);
    }
    else
    {
        $title = $postinfo['title'];
    } 


Add BELOW:

PHP Code:

    // === GEEK ARTICLES START ===
    if ($edit['articlebyline'] != '')
    {
        $articlebyline = htmlspecialchars_uni($edit['articlebyline']);
    }
    else
    {
        $articleinfo = getArticleInfo($postinfo['threadid']);
        $articlebyline = $articleinfo['byline'];
        unset($articleinfo);
    }
    // === GEEK ARTICLES END === 


[xmitchx]

Another problem, this time with templates. In the GAS_article_pb template, the message/title section of the article is not vertical aligned to the top, so if the article is smaller than the sidebar, it is centered, which is not very article-like. To fix, open up GAS_article_pb and find:

    	<td class="alt1">
	    <!-- message, attachments, sig -->

Replace with:

    	<td class="alt1" valign="top">
	    <!-- message, attachments, sig -->

[xmitchx]

Bug on installation step 8.7/8.8. Find should either include the "}" in the end, or step 8.8 should get rid of the "}" in the end so it should look like this:

PHP Code:

    // === GEEK ARTICLES step 8.6 ===
    // WAS:
    //eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template('printthreadbit') . '";');
    // NOW:
    eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template($template) . '";');
    // === /GEEK ARTICLES === 


I think the latter is a better choice.

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by xmitchx

Another problem, this time with templates. In the GAS_article_pb template, the message/title section of the article is not vertical aligned to the top, so if the article is smaller than the sidebar, it is centered, which is not very article-like. To fix, open up GAS_article_pb and find:

    	<td class="alt1">
	    <!-- message, attachments, sig -->

Replace with:

    	<td class="alt1" valign="top">
	    <!-- message, attachments, sig -->

Yea, just noticed the valign problem.

Odd about the editpost. Thought I did that. Ill fold in your changes tomorrow into a new release.

Thanks a lot! (Keep em coming!)

[The Geek]

xmitchx : Can you verify the editpost problem again? Mines is working fine here. Anyone else? I may have missed something in the install... Ill go back over it.

[xmitchx]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

xmitchx vbmenu_register("postmenu_608280", true); : Can you verify the editpost problem again? Mines is working fine here. Anyone else? I may have missed something in the install... Ill go back over it.

I already verified it by posting a few articles and reading over the editpost.php section of the install. I believe you may have forgotten it there

[winky6]

The directions for the printhread edits are off a bit -

Find :
eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template($template) . '";');

8.8 REPLACE with:	// === GEEK ARTICLES step 8.6 ===
// === GEEK ARTICLES step 8.6 ===
    // WAS:
    //eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template('printthreadbit') . '";');
    // NOW:
	eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template($template) . '";');
    }
	// === /GEEK ARTICLES ===

It should be -

Find :
eval('$postbits .= "' . fetch_template('printthreadbit') . '";');