Profile Enhancements - Gender Bit: Show gender symbol next to username in postbits and many other places

My first public mod. Please be kind to me

Description:
Gender Bit shows gender symbol next to username in postbits. See "prerequisite" and "Installation guide" below.

Features:

• Fully uses plugins so there is no need to customize any templates
• Makes use of the built-in User Profile Field system
• Configurable through vBulletin Options
• Includes a number of male-or-female symbol sets to choose from
• Easily enable/disable the gender symbols in various places
  • Postbits, private messages, announcements etc
  • Memberlist
  • Profile pages
• No database changes, no extra queries (instead it utilizes existing queries to fetch the gender info), no template edits, in short, no mess.
• Version 1.0.2 and above: Now also takes care of default profile pictures and friends' avatars by showing default male/female avatar accordingly
• Version 1.0.2 and above: Exposes a globally-scoped function genderbit_getgender for other mods and plugins to make use (refer change logs below for details)
• New in 1.1.0: Support for the third gender type ...

Prerequisite:
A custom user profile field designated for members' gender must be manually created in user profile field manager. If your forum does not already have one and you have no idea how to create it, please read included README.txt for instructions.

Download guide:

• Download and install the latest version only. The older versions are there for record purpose only.
• The main product package file is Gender Bit x.x.x.zip. You would only need to install this to get the gender symbols in your postbits.
• Gender Bit Ext x.x.x (requires Gender Bit x.x.x).zip is an extension product that displays gender-aware default avatars for your users. Only install this if you want to have the default avatars showing sillhoutte of a man or a woman depending on your users' genders.

Installation guide:

1. Upload the includes and images folders (inside the zipped upload folder) to your vbulletin directory (usually /forum). The folders should merge with existing /forum/includes and /forum/images.
2. Import the product XML in AdminCP product manager. Then, head straight to the option page for Gender Bit under vBulletin Options.
3. Configure the "User profile field name" to be the name of the user profile field. Usually it is in the form of 'fieldX' where X is a number.
4. Also configure the "Field value: Male" and "Field value: Female" to be the value(s) of the profile field when a member selects "Male" or "Female" respectively. If there are multiple values that refer to male (or female), separate them using pipe characters, example: Boy|Gentleman
5. Lastly configure the other options to your likings.
6. Save and the gender symbol will appear in postbits for members who have set their gender profile field.

Upgrading guide:
Same as installation, with the only difference is to tick the "Overwrite" checkbox when importing the product xml). Also, you would need to check the options page (Admin CP > vBulletin Options > Gender Bit) for any new settings.

Uninstallation guide:
To uninstall simply uninstall the product from AdminCP product manager. Optionally delete the images and xml files:
/images/misc/gender_*.gif
/images/misc/unknown_*.gif
/includes/xml/bitfield_genderbit*.xml

Changelogs:

Version 1.0
- Initial version

Version 1.0.1
- Replaced align="absmiddle" with CSS to pass XHTML validation
- Extra image sets for male/female with a new option in vB Options to choose which set to use

Version 1.0.2
- Fixed php errors in private messages and a few other places
- New: Option to show gender symbol in memberlist
- New: Gender Bit can now take care of default profile pictures and friends' avatar to show default male/female avatar
- New: Exposes a globally-scoped function genderbit_getgender($registry, $userinfo, $unknown='') that returns 'male', 'female' or $unknown. The three parameters are:

• $registry: the vbulletin core object, usually $vbulletin but may be $this->registry in some vb classes
• $userinfo: the userinfo array, which usually holds 'userid' and 'username'
• $unknown: string to return if $userinfo does not contain gender information. default to empty string

Version 1.1.0
- Major revamps.
- Added: a lots more places where the gender symbols will appear, with options to turn each one of them on/off in vBulletin Options
- Added: the third gender for those who think two genders are not enough.
- Changed: Gender Bit will only look for the images in forumdir/images/misc by default unless overridden in vBulletin Options.
- Starting from this version, the handling of gender-aware default avatars and profile pictures have been separated into an extension product named "Gender Bit Extension". Gender Bit does NOT require Gender Bit Extension to operate but Gender Bit Extension REQUIRES Gender Bit.

Note: Should also work in vB 3.6.x, but I haven't done any testing in that vB version.

Troubleshooting (aka why aren't the symbols/images showing?)

Step 1:
In { AdminCP > vBulletin Options > Gendet Bit } check if you have configured "Field value: Male" and "Field value: Female" to match what your members would choose if they are male or female. If in your forum/language "Shalabadaba" means "male" and "Shubidubidu" means "female", enter Field value: Male = "Shalabadaba" and Field value: Female = "Shubidubidu". Just overwrite the default "Male" and "Female" in the textboxes.

Step 2 (version 1.1.0 and above):
Still in { AdminCP > vBulletin Options > Gendet Bit }. Try setting Gender symbols image set = "Text/Font" to see if the symbols appear. If it does then you forgot to upload the images into ALL /images/misc folders for ALL STYLES installed in your forum.

Step 3:
From your showthread pages, find the following part (page navigation):

Right-click on the down-pointing arrow and select "Properties" from the popup menu. Check the path to the file, usually in the form of "http://www.yoursite.net/forum/images/misc/menu_open.gif". The bolded part is the path of the misc images folder for your current style. If it says "http://www.yoursite.net/forum/images/yuppie/v4/misc/menu_open.gif" then upload the gender images into forum/images/yuppie/v4/misc/

[ReCom]

Originally Posted by cykelmyggen

I have a suspicion this doesn't work with the vBExperience mod. Havent been able to make it show anywhere in postbit or elsewhere... Checked all the image paths and settings with no luck so far.

I haven't installed vBExperience so I cannot say for sure how that mod changes the architecture and the look of a forum ... but a quick look at vBExperience features list and screenshots showed me that that mod latches onto the username display in postbits like Gender Bit does, so my theory is that vBExperience simply overwrites the changes that Gender Bit does on the username display.

Can you please try out these steps to confirm my theory:

1. in Gender Bit Options, set Image Set = "Text/Font" and enable the location "Who's Online" for gender symbols.

2. Now look into your Who's Online list (WOL) and see if the gender symbols are there (next to Last Activity). If they aren't there then you simply misconfigured the first three settings in Gender Bit Options. Post a screenshot of them here so that I can point out what's wrong.

3. If the gender symbols appear, change Image Set to something other than Text/Font and refresh WOL. If now the symbols disappear, that would mean you uploaded the images to wrong location (or if you changed Image folder Option to $stylevar['imgdir_misc'])

4. If gender symbols still appear in WOL, then it's 50% confirmed vBExperience has something in this. Go back to Gender Bit Options and set Gender Symbols Position In postbit_legacy = "Before the online/offline icon". Open a showthread page with postbits from members that already selected a gender, and see if gender symbols appear in that postbits before online/offline icon. If it appears, 100% confirmed vBExperience overwrites the gender symbols that Gender Bit injected into username displays.

5. Either stick to showing gender symbols before online/offline icon, or try and ask vBExperience to not overwrite other mods' changes

[cykelmyggen]

It's working now. I forgot that I changed the fieldnumber after having uninstalled/reinstalled your mod

[ReCom]

I'm glad you got it working

hmm .. all these "not working" posts kinda make me think that it would be good idea if I include a troubleshooter in the next version, so that I don't have to repeat the same troubleshooting steps over and over ...

[mystikdrmz]

Cool.. i really like the japanese Kanji.

[P.Jackson]

anychance of a "couple" option?

[ReCom]

Originally Posted by P.Jackson

anychance of a "couple" option?

Meaning?

Have you tried the "type 3" option? Like I wrote in the description of that option in Gender Bit Options page, it's up to your imagination what "type 3" is. A "couple", unisex, animal, God, an It, flying spaghetti monster, whatever you can think of ...

[lostguy]

Yeah i used all 3 of them ...If posible ya next version have 5 ! thanks

[compact123]

cool mod...

thanks

[john102774]

Excellent first public mod!

Thank you

[Nadeemjp]

Originally Posted by ReCom

Did you import the included product-genderbit.xml file in AdminCP > Plugins & Products > Manage Products ?

Did you create a custom user profile page for members' gender using AdminCP > User Profile Fields > Add New User Profile Field ?

Did you configure Gender Bit to use that custom user profile field in Admin CP > vBulletin Options > vBulletin Options > Gender Bit ?

yes isr I did all these steps and yet nothing is appearing in the profile or with the user name.
in the very first post of a thread, however, i can see a little "noVstats" written in the bottom left of the first post....i dont know why it is there.

is there any suggestion?