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

[trackpads]

Aws, any luck? Thanks!

-jason

[AWS]

I haven't tested it yet and probably will not now. I decided that I wasn't going to upgrade to vbulletin 4 on the site I use this on and instead have started on an IPB usenet plugin for when I convert the site.

[offline]

Originally Posted by HappyAndyK

Hello,

I am trying to implement this under a b installation, running 3.7.1.

How ever I am stuck at the place where I am suppose to edit the admincp/index.php file as I am unable to locate the side piece of code,

construct_nav_option($vbphrase['vbulletin_options'], 'options.php?null=0', '<br />');

can any one shade some light

thank you.

3.8.5.....

                                        construct_nav_option($navoption['text'], $navoption['link']);
                                }
                        }

                        // have all the options, so do the group
                        construct_nav_group($navgroup_holder['group']['text'], $navgroup_holder['group']['nav_file']);

                        if ($navgroup_holder['group']['hr'] == 'true')
                        {
                                construct_nav_spacer();
                        }
                }
        }
   construct_nav_option('NNTP Gateway Settings', 'nntp_settings.php', '<br />');
   construct_nav_option('NNTP Gateway Newsgroups', 'nntp_groups.php', '<br />');

[toibs]

Originally Posted by AWS

I haven't tested it yet and probably will not now. I decided that I wasn't going to upgrade to vbulletin 4 on the site I use this on and instead have started on an IPB usenet plugin for when I convert the site.

I may well be interested in this, since i'm seriously contemplating moving the whole thing lock stock to IPB - i would miss a couple of mods i have, however it is far outweighed by the costs and improvements i would get rather than Vb's new pricing structures...

Ta
Paul

[tms1791]

TMM-TT, you are my HERO.

I'm simply looking to archive some mailing lists, and thanks to your efforts, I was able to get this going (so far) with a minimum of bashing-head-on-desk.

I haven't given it an extensive testing yet, but I did notice a couple of issues (vb4).

1. If "show similar threads" (or whatever the option name in vb is) is turned on, gateway.php gronks. Apparently, the function being called to find that list (fetch_similar_threads()) doesn't exist in vb4.

2. There's a couple of TABLE_PREFIX's missing, in the query that starts on line 342.

Other than that, so far, so good. #2 was an easy fix, but I don't know about #1. I'd really like that feature, but can live without it if need be.

Thanks again!

[shempsall2009]

Hi all I have installed this on vb4... also patched it and followed the quick instructions above..

I have ran setlastmsg.php and deleted it but nothing seems to be happening... Please could someone point me in the right direction... Thanks

[AtomicAcidbath]

Fix for 'Show Similar Threads' problem in 4.x

File: gateway.php

At line 586, Find:

if ($vbulletin->options['similarthreadsearch'])
{
     require_once(MY_DIR . '/includes/functions_search.php');
     $similarthreads = fetch_similar_threads($subject);
}

Replace with:

if ($vbulletin->options['similarthreadsearch'])
{
     require_once('./global.php');
     require_once(DIR . '/vb/search/core.php');
     $searchcontroller = vB_Search_Core::get_instance()->get_search_controller();
     $stl = $searchcontroller->get_similar_threads($subject);
     $similarthreads = implode(',', $stl);
}

Rename all occurrences of variable $foruminfo something else like $forum_info. It's in there 6 times.

[scottct1]

I just moved to vb4 and this mod is working but I am having a strange issue...

When it imports email it adds a ? to the first line of a post.

I can't figure out where this ? is coming from....

[Aylwin]

First of all, big thanks to TMM-TT for updating this plug-in for vB4! I'm a long time user but only just recently upgraded to version 4.

I thought I'd contributed a modification I've made that checks if the email sender is also a forum user. If yes, then the post is added as that user. The reason I've done this is because I want our mailing lists to be fully integrated with our forums. Anyway, it's implemented as an option so you can choose whether or not to enable it.

I've also fixed the TABLE_PREFIX issue pointed out by tms1791 and added the 'Show Similar Threads' fix shared by AtomicAcidbath.

Additionally, the admincp files (nntp_groups.php and nntp_settings.php) were giving me SQL errors so I had to change "TYPE=MyISAM" to "ENGINE=MyISAM".

By the way, I think someone should create a new thread for this plugin in the 4.0 forum. That way, we can focus on 4.0 discussions and perhaps further development over there.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not really a proper coder so I can't guarantee that my version works. All I know is that it seems to work on my site.

[CRDeveloper]

I didn't know this was possible, one of my members suggested yesterday haha.

I will try ASAP, running 4.1.0 Beta!