Major Additions - vbRides ? Garage

vbRides is a vBulletin Garage plugin for vBulletin Suite 4 forum software. Members of your website can showcase their rides with the community. This is not a port or copy of another garage but a unique mod designed by a car guy for the car community. My intentions with vbrides is avoid the bloat of unnecessary extensions an keep a simple 'showcase' style garage.

I have wanted to build a 'garage' add-on since I first started with vbulletin an worked on something with Magnus ten years ago. It was Christeris new add-ons that had the style an layout that inspired me to create this new add-on. He has since abandon his work an given ozzy47 his code who has given me permission to use Christeris code to build a new garage add-on called "vbRides".

Due to starting with code from another project this add-on will remain free an not offered as a pro or lite edition. However there was extensive work writing vbrides an would appreciate your support.


Key Features

• User management of rides through the User Control Panel
  
• Forty fields of specifications to fill out for a detailed ride profile.
  
• Support for an audio clip embedded with the HTML5 audio player.
  
• Ride owners can add a single YouTube video.
  
• RSS feed for new rides with photo, title, an description.
  
• Searchable fields include owner, VIN, and keywords.
  
• Unlimited categories an subcategories.
  
• Lightbox presentation of ride images
  
• Create new ride thread in a specified forum showing the ride year, make, model, an it's main image with a short description.
  
• Up to 5 ride listings can be automatically generated an added to owners forum signature.
  
• Social Media block can either use AddThis account or choose Twitter, Google, Pin It, an Facebook like buttons.
  
• Owners ride listings tab can be shown on their user profile.
  
• Vehicle of the day within it's category added with cron.
  
• Extra fields can be added under the user stats block.

Under Construction

• SEO Friendly URLs has not been tested an should be considered under development.
  
• Custom Facebook Open Graph isn't working as intended.
  
• Signature hook is only showing ride for first post. To Fix Plugin Manager > Edit Plugin vbRides: Postbit, Signatures and PM's, Remove the "_once" from require_once. :erm:
  
• Missing side padding for text in side blocks with last update.

Future Plans / Wishlist

• Drag Strip stats, an extension to add drag racing information with timeslip images.
  
• Modification system, an extension to add searchable database based on the parts. So a Holley carb install would be linked to other rides who have done the same install.
  
• Add activity stream support

Installation

• Download and unzip the file 'product-vbRides_x.x.x.zip'
  
• Upload the content of upload folder to your existing vBulletin directory. If your admincp folder is renamed from default manually move vbrides_admin.php to it.
  
• CMOD 777 the directories:
  
  • vbrides/photos
    
  • vbrides/audio
    
• Goto Admincp, Plugins & Products > Manage Products > Add/Import Product and import product-vbrides.xml
  
• Set the various settings in vbRides
  
• Set Usergroup permissions See Post

YouTube Channel
vbRides Instructional & Demo Videos

Demo:
http://www.action-network.com/vbrides.php

Demo Account:

vbrides:W5K9VK

More Screenshots

Translations
Phrases are included in the install xml, the file in downloads is extra for use in translating or rephrase for different uses.

Change Log

• Version 1.0.1
  
  • Updated functions_vbrides.php to correct missing deleteDir() function
    
  • Fixed template bugs in 'vbrides_view_ride', 'vbrides_my_comments_bit'
    
  • Added post new ride button to front page in 'vbrides_rightside' template
    
  • Product xml should now install on forums without cms although template is still added
    
• Version 1.0.2
  
  • Updated vbrides.php, vbrides_modcp.php, vbrides_usercp.php to fix bugs with comments
    
  • Updated add_rides_forumhome.php to hide block if no rides to show
    
  • Changed the moderate.png from site_icon folder to a filled in comment bubble
    
• Version 1.0.3
  
  • Added hard coded avatar width in comments to avoid breaking the layout
    
  • Redesigned how thumbnail images are made, now set a fixed height an width
    
  • Reworked RSS feed, now 100% validates so should work as intended
    
  • Fixed various bugs, so reupload all files
    
• Version 1.0.4
  
  • Inserted link to "AddThis" in AddThis profile ID description
    
  • Fixed Show Empty Categories to work as intended
    
  • Removed removeslash function as it didn't work on all servers causing fatal error
    
  • Removed bbc table structure in new ride forum post template to work with TapaTalk
    
  • Added min/max character info to small description input description so users are aware
    
  • Added style variables for adjusting the rating text in view ride page
    
  • Reworked pm and new thread code an phrase template
    
  • Edited moderate.png, moderated.png, and stars.gif
    
  • Fixed broken style in member ride tab caused by last update
    
  • Rewrote vbrides_stats.php to correctly count photos and main images as total images
    
  • Fixed various bugs, reupload all files
    
• Version 1.0.5
  
  • Ride report permission should be fixed to hide from Guests
    
  • Removed dependancy on cms an blog css tags
    
  • New setting Show Create Rides Button as graphic button, link, or hide
  • Fixed bug if overwriting main photo would add to the photo count
  • Performed a spellcheck on the phrases to fix misspelling an grammar
  • Added new style variables for list header to make up for removing blog.css
    
  • Fixed various bugs, reupload all files
    
• Version 1.0.6 Thanks to Keyser Soze for his contributions regarding this version.
  
  • Changed breadcrumb nav to better use vbulletins breadcrumb-navbits
    
  • Removed dependency on cms an blog css tags
    
  • Changed how YouTube videos are added, can now enter full urls
    
  • Fixed bug with comment counter
    

[I.G.O.T.A.]

Just updated now, and the issue I see is the comments. Can't see them that well. Any ideas?

[Action-N]

Fasted way would be edit the style variable, however I don't see where else it'd be used on your site to know what it'd look like there.

Go to Style Variable Editor > Comments > postbitlite_header_color an change it to the white font for your black background theme an black for the two white themes. Might even get away with saving them with no color an see if they inherit the main font color.

Alternative would be edit the css for each theme, find:

.commentbit_head {color: {vb:stylevar postbitlite_header_color}; text-align:{vb:stylevar left};margin-left: 90px;}

and change '{vb:stylevar postbitlite_header_color}' to the color you need.

[I.G.O.T.A.]

Changed that at the CSS level.

We have 3 themes. Hate it, lol. On the more details what is the text color for that in the css? We can see it on the dark theme, but not the light themes we have.

[Action-N]

I'll make a demo video on how to find out the css tag an where to change them. In your case it looks like your ride in question on your website. Looks to me you added a font color when you wrote the description. Edit your ride an take out the font color code an you'll be fine.

Did you upload any files with this latest version? The image count is wrong so if you haven't you should upload the 'vbrides_stats.php' to the cron directory. Other than that file maybe just the vbrides an vbrides_usercp files where updated. Was trying to keep track of what I worked on in the files but forgot which ones I worked in. Also the stars.gif has a transparent background to take out the white edge on the blue stars then darkened the grey area so they show better in white themes.

Was gonna ask if there is anyone else creating a ride on the site cause I don't see but just the two. Thought I should make sure you know that new rides are moderated an need approved before there live. Then I saw it'd cost me $45 to make a ride so maybe not many can.

[I.G.O.T.A.]

We have changed that to all premium members for just right now. Our memberships get t-shirts, hoodies and so on with them. There is a lot in involved with our memberships and we have over 150,000 plus members. We want to figure out the program before we open it to everyone.

I don't remember putting that code in there for the color. Duh on my part sorry, lol.

What do you mean image count? I also uploaded the vbrides_stats.php' to the cron directory. What did that do?

Also the social media icon box you can't see the number in it.

[Action-N]

Well I figured out why I could still see the report ride icon on your site. I did a export plugin from my dev site an put that in the upload, an apparently it wasn't totally updated. I'm doing a file compare now to see what I need between the install script I manually edit. Both files had the code to change the stats to update every ten minutes. Your stats say 1 image, but you have one extra photo an the two main images. The new counter should have counted to three. Is there anyway you can view the file on the server to see what is there? This time I changed the version number in the top description.

Holy crap that's a lot of members to manage. I've been online almost three years now an think the only real member I got was the my friend from high school I begged to signup out of pity. This garage was the last part I needed before I got serious about promotion.

[I.G.O.T.A.]

Where is that stat at?

[I.G.O.T.A.]

Also went to upload to another site we own and it crashed. Seems the files are messed up.

Can you check that out?

[Action-N]

Was it like something was missing error or like a file had a coding error? Was it when using the install xml? That one in the 1.0.4 was the one I got from exporting from the product page an might not right. I usually just re-upload the new files onto my online server. I'll try deleting it first an see if I'm not putting something in the zip.

I was working on another version to fix the report icon code not getting updated. I'm also going through the widget code since that didn't seem to work right. I even spell checked the phrases for this one an it did need it. Give me a little more time on the widget stuff an to make sure the instal script is write this time. What you could try is using the install xml from 1.0.3 to see if it works.

[I.G.O.T.A.]

I tried both ways and it crashed. The program was just crashing out. Nothing worked, but when I looked at some of the files some were new and others were old so I'm lost on this one.

The one working on igotasti.com works great, but when we tried to add one to igotacummins.com it bombed.