Forum News (News in a Forum)

This hack adds news headlines to the top of a forum. The headlines come from an XML source. The headlines are links to the articles. Through the admin cp, add or modify forums system, you can select from a list of sources (or select no news for that forum). There is also a master on/off switch for the entire feature, and you can also select how many headlines will appear.

Support for this hack will be provided only within the vbulletin.org forums.

This hack involves database modifications. Please make a backup copy of your database prior to installing this hack. The author of this hack assumes no responsibility for anything.

The XML feeds come from Moreover.com. This service is provided free-of-charge only to non-commercial, non-profit, educational, or personal/hobby sites, and may not be used on any for-profit site. If you operate a for-profit site, you must contact Moreover.com to discuss purchasing the rights to the service.







Changelog
v1.0: Original release
v1.1: Fixes problem of not being able to change a forum's newsfeed back to NONE after previously selecting one.
v1.1a: Error in instructions file corrected. If you have 1.1, you do not need to download this; absolutely no code has changed.
v1.1b: See Post #30 below. If you have v1.1a, you do not need to download again; just make the fix as instructed in Post #30.
v1.2: Changes the code added to forumdisplay.php so that only one query is used. If you have v1.1b, you only need to replace the code added to forumdisplay.php with the newer bit of code from the instructions.
v1.2a: Fixes a minor bug affecting only the appearance of the output. If you already have installed v1.2, you do not need to re-download and re-install; please see Post #34 below for the simple fix.
v1.2b: Current release. Corrects the URL shown in the registration required notice. The only change over v1.2a is the "forumnewsbit_accessreg" template.

OPTIONAL Add-in feature: Make this feature user-selectable
I have created some instructions you can use if you'd like to give your users the ability to not see the news in a forum. Read Post #44 below for more info.

[bill-t]

Yes, I completely undid everything... I think I had everything right except importing the .sql file... Had to do full uninstall cuz it trashed my forums... I couldn't created new forums, couldn't post... got db errors... The errors referenced the table I created... No surprise since I had never manually created one before and winged it... I know myphpadmin is supposed to be able to import the file, but couldn't make it happen... Will do full install again after i'm sure i understand how to do that and it's late enough none of my users will be on the board... any help appreciated... was looking for a script specifically like this for both my vb and for wallpaper I'm making for my wife's dtop...

[bill-t]

let me re-say that... I know for sure I had evrything correct... Uninstalling it was a breeze... Working backwards everything was exactly where it should be and didn't take long at all... (By the way, your notes with the line numbers and stuff are the best I've used...) I've had to rebuild my board from scratch over the last 3 days, and I've done at least a dozen hacks in the last couple days... Every one of them worked on the first attempt... Even so, yours was the clearest despite the fact I failed first time out, lol....

[JJR512]

So your problem was just with importing the database stuff?

[bill-t]

correct... what are the verbatim step for importing the .sql file via phpmyadmin when the table (newsforum or whatever it was called - sorry, don't have the documentation on the screen, but obviously you know the name, lol) doesn't exist to begin with... I tried the obvious, clicking on the choose button and navigating to the file on my hd and it would try and execute the file, but it couldn't load the info as there was no table to load it into...

[JJR512]

In the instructions, in this section: III. Database Modifications, you need to do all the stuff listed in there. The first thing is an ALTER TABLE statement. What you do is copy the entire line(s) and paste it into the Query textarea (window) in phpMyAdmin, then hit Go. Now since you say there was no table to load the stuff from the file into, you probably missed the next part, which starts with CREATE TABLE forumnews (. Copy that entire section, from that line through ) TYPE=MyISAM;, paste that into the Query window, and Go. Make sure you have done the three queries after that as well (if you're not sure if you did or didn't, you can check by going to your admin cp, vBulletin Options page, and look for a section called "Forum News"; it will probably be the last section). After you have done all that, then you should try to import the sources.sql file, by doing just what you said you did the first time.

[bill-t]

You're absolutly right... I went thru those directions at least a dozen times and somehow missed ever even reading that paragraph every single time.... Unbelievable... The one below... speechless... Thanks!

<CREATE TABLE forumnews (
forumnewsid smallint(5) NOT NULL auto_increment,
xmlsource char(100) NOT NULL default '0',
title char(250) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (forumnewsid)
) TYPE=MyISAM;>

[Erwin]

JJR512,

This is a great hack, as usual from yourself.

Just a question - is it possible to create my own keyword to search Moreover with so that I can have my own news category?

[bill-t]

Installed in minutes this time, thanks!

[TalkHardRandy]

I got a small problem & don't know how to fix:

I installed the hack with the add-on at the same time, however I go into my admin CP & I see a blank area under "Forum News". First thing I checked was the settinggroup queries... sure enough I put in the wrong number. Removed the three entries & tried them with the correct number - still nothing.

I've triple checked my PHP & everything looks the same. Any ideas?

[JJR512]

What is the settinggroupid number of the Forum News settinggroup? Did you put this same number in the appropriate spots for the two settings?