Import Unread News from a Forum

This hack will allow you to specify one or more forum IDs in your Admin CP as "news forums". Every time a thread is created in these forums, all users will see an "Unread news" notification at the top of every page of the forum until they view the unread news thread. If many news threads are unread, they will all be shown in the notification and removed one by one as each thread is viewed.

This hack both serves to make sure all users are aware of posted news and to give users who return after a long absence a quick rundown of what has been going on in the forums since they last were there.

As of version 2.0, it is possible to specify:

- Time cutoff: all news older than x days will count as read
- Only check for read status on latest x threads: only the latest x news will be shown if unread; all older news will always be treated as read
- Maximum number of news to display at one time: if a user has more unread news (after the time cutoff and latest x filter) than the number specfied, only that number will actually be displayed on the page
- Whether to make users see news created before they joined as unread
- Whether to show the date and time when each news thread was made or just the date

Please note that you must have Paul_M's Display who has read a thread hack installed for this to function correctly! You don't need to actually have the people who have read the thread shown for anybody at all (heck, if you're completely uninterested in what that hack does, you don't even need to make the template edit for it), but as long as it's installed, this hack will work.

Version 3.0 adds the ability to have more than one news forum and to set a PHP condition for each forum which must be met in order for news from that forum to be imported.

Installation

Simply download the product attached to this post and import it via the Admin CP Product Manager. Then make one template edit: add

$unreadnews

to the bottom of the header template.

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If using PHP version 4.x (or if you are getting an error message that looks something like Fatal error: Call to undefined function: array_combine() in /public_html/global.php(359) : eval()'d code on line 139), you additionally need to find this line in the Import News plugin on the hook global_start:

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array_combine($newsids, $newsinfo); 


Replace it with

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array();
foreach ($newsids AS $key => $id)
{
   $newsarray["$id"] = $newsinfo["$key"];
} 


If using PHP 5 or later (which is the case if you don't get that error message), you will not need to make this edit.

------------------------------------

Afterwards, go to your vBulletin options, find the News Import System setting group, specify your news forum(s), set the other settings if you want, and turn the system on.

Don't forget to click Install if it's working for you. Enjoy!

Version 3.0: Added ability to have multiple news forums and use conditionals.
Version 2.23: Important bugfix from version 2.22
Version 2.22: Bugfixes
Version 2.21: Cutting off on the user's join date has been made an optional feature specified in the admin CP, and some unnecessary code has been removed. Also added alternative templates for no particular reason.
Version 2.2: Fixed uncached template, added "More..." link that links to the news forum when unread news are cut off by "Maximum number of news to display at one time" option, and all news created before the user registered will now count as read for that user. (Imagine registering and having twenty "unread news" notifications you have to plough through...)
Version 2.01: Added template edit information (I'm an official idiot for forgetting that) and fixed table prefixes.
Version 2.0: Added functionality (see above)

----------------------------

EXTRA: Alternative templates

If you don't like the way the current unread news box looks, I've got some more standard-looking templates you can use instead if you want. This also allows you to collapse the unread news, which might be useful. Just replace the templates, see how it looks, and revert the templates again if you liked the other look better.

Alternative custom_unreadnews template:

<if condition="$show['unreadnews']">
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
   <thead>
      <tr>
         <td class="tcat"><a href="#top" style="float:$stylevar[right]" onclick="return toggle_collapse('unreadnews')"><img id="collapseimg_unreadnews" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_unreadnews].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> Unread News</td>
      </tr>
   </thead>
   <tbody id="collapseobj_unreadnews" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_unreadnews]">
      $newsitems
      <if condition="$show['importnewscutoff']">
      <tr>
         <td class="alt1"><a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f={$vbulletin->options['importnewsforum']}" class="smallfont">More...</a></td>
      </tr>
      </if>
   </tbody>
</table>
</if>

Alternative custom_newsbit template:

      <tr>
         <td class="alt1">$timestamp: <strong><a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$id">$info[title]</a></strong></td>
      </tr>

[antialiasis]

If you wish to only show it to certain usergroups, the condition should be

is_member_of($vbulletin->userinfo, 5,6,7)

Replace the 5,6,7 with a comma-separated list of the usergroup IDs which can view that forum.

But yes, that would be a fairly necessary functionality which I should get around to adding soon.

[kushtiUK]

The unread news link does not work from the vBadvanced default page or photopost which are both integrated into VB - all works fine from VB bulletin - Does anyone have this working with VBadvanced and Photopost and if so how can I make mine work? I am assuming a relative path will need to be added to the code - but I don't know where?

[kushtiUK]

Originally Posted by kushtiUK

The unread news link does not work from the vBadvanced default page or photopost which are both integrated into VB - all works fine from VB bulletin - Does anyone have this working with VBadvanced and Photopost and if so how can I make mine work? I am assuming a relative path will need to be added to the code - but I don't know where?

I worked it out - I located the templates and updated with the full URL etc. :alien:

[RedeemedWarrior]

this works fantastic on 3.8

[WordKeeper]

Originally Posted by RedeemedWarrior

this works fantastic on 3.8

it works well for you, but when I installed it, no luck.