NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V3.5.0Alpha 1 (21 Jul 2005)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack was originally coded by Gilby for vB2. I modified the hack to work with vB3 and have been maintaining and improving the hack. I have now done the modification for this to work with vB3.5.

The very original hack by Gilby can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15

The vB3 version can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65152

Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files.
No need to manually run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

It is not a must to click "INSTALL" for this hack if you use it, I do try better answering the questions from people who do.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the second post within this thread first. It may be surprising, but it is possible your question is answered in the adminCP NNTP settings.

Please always provide more details about your problem. Examples and debug messages will certainly help. Well, if you don't even try to have some effort to compose your question, the answer you get may also not include much effort.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 21 2005 (release version 3.5.0 Alpha 1)

AdminCP xml file is written by Kadence.

• Ported to work with vB3.5.
• Existing bug fixes.
• Debug message can be sent by email or logged in vB Tast Scheduler.
• Known problem: image attachment thumb nail creation still needs work.
• Needs to be done: Documentation.

Quick installation instruction:
1) Upload files to their correct directory
2) Enter AdminCP, click on NNTP Settings once to install/upgrade. Change settings to your like.
3) Click on NNTP Groups once to install/upgrade.
3a) For new install. Run once
http://www.yourdomain.com/setlastmsg.php

Delete this file afterwards.
If you are upgrading from an older version. There is no need to upload this file. Actually this file should not be there except brand new install.

4)
Manually run in debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

[toibs]

to be fair i'd go to $50 (Was thinking of others that might not be willing to pay as much.

So there ya go SecondV, thats at least $110 before even thinking about it!! if that isnt enticement, i dont know what is

Paul

[TMM-TT]

It actually works for vb4. I've tested it yesterday. I haven't tested postfunctions yet, but at least importing new posts/threads worked just fine.

Adding the code below to gateway.php (with your own HTTP_HOST-setting) and the script will pass the evil "bug" found in v4.0 (that I'm unable to describe right now, but this bug was about parsing urls). I added the code just after the "headers-sent" rows...

PHP Code:

// for vb4.0
if (!$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]) {$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = "forum.tornevall.net";} 


[TMM-TT]

Here's a patchfile (in the bottom of the post) with all changes I've done, diffed with the current attached zip in this thread!

It supports vb 4.0 (and there's some functions to run from console, like debug and "release the script from a earlier lock). It also looks for duplicate posts. This means if the post has already been posted from usenet into the forum, the post will not get duplicated in case of changes in the xref-header (also know as last message in admincp). If I don't remember wrong, the patch also fixes the last-post-link in the threadlist. The old file-attachment-issue is included, etc etc.

And of course: The handshake part has been fixed. I've also been playing with the signatures in this patch by the way, since I did'nt like the footer...

You may want to take a look. If someone have more handy functions in their plugin, feel free to contact me. Collecting everything in the same place would be nice.

http://tmm.tornevall.net/php/nntp_tornevall_100312.diff

Maybe I should write a readme or something?

[toibs]

TMM-TT,

Many thanks - What do you use to apply the Patchfile??

Would love to apply this and see if i can get it fully functional!!

Paul

[d8tabyte]

is there any way to get the users from the newsgroup posts to count as registered users and have the forums generate a new account for each user with a null password value or something? just so i can keep track of the newsgroup users?

[toibs]

Originally Posted by toibs

TMM-TT,

Many thanks - What do you use to apply the Patchfile??

Would love to apply this and see if i can get it fully functional!!

Paul

Right. Have tried with both "patch" and "tortoiseSVN" and cant get it to patch!!!

Any pointers would be good!!

Paul

[TMM-TT]

It usually is patch -p0 or something like that you use (the patch is recursive, so it's not just gateway.php that gets patched), but if that's not working, I will put up a complete archive too.

[toibs]

Originally Posted by TMM-TT

It usually is patch -p0 or something like that you use (the patch is recursive, so it's not just gateway.php that gets patched), but if that's not working, I will put up a complete archive too.

Hiya,

Nope tried on the server and it just sits there and does nothing. Checked and double checked path in the .diff file, and it doesnt want to play

if you could post the archive that would be great.

Just wanted to add, Many thanks for breathing new life into this Mod. There is nothing out there which will allow the same functionality, so thanks

Paul

[TMM-TT]

I tried to post this yesterday but the posting function was totally down...

But here it is, as promised:

http://tmm.tornevall.net/blog/2010/03/17/nntpgw_100312/

The source is on top of the blog, then there's a small changelog.
Questions and wishes will be answered if possible!

[jarosciak]

This is working nicely for USENET groups, but is there any way to import Google Groups?