NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

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 is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

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


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.
• Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
• 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

• AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
• Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to 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.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

• Provided option of not importing attachments
• Provided option of pause between messages
• Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
• Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
• Provided "Default Footer" option
• Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
  (written originally by KevinM)
• Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
• Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
• Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
  (use prefix)
• Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
  as vB3.0.3
• Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
• Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

• Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
• Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
  each group.
• Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
• Scheduled task log is now working
• Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
• Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

[szy]

But... it is fresh forum, no changes at all, no modification... and files from Lierduh's zip file. Arggh. I'll go crazy :/

Thanks.

Szy.

[szy]

Is it really correct, to load all the functions.php to strip bb code only?

Lines 59-60 of gateway.php

// strip_bbcode
require_once('includes/functions.php');

I have no idea, what can duplicate functions :/

Szy.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by szy

But... it is fresh forum, no changes at all, no modification... and files from Lierduh's zip file. Arggh. I'll go crazy :/

Thanks.

Szy.

The construct_phrase function has been declared twice!

Do
#grep 'function construct_phrase' * -r
Under the console shell if possible. Otherwise, resend the files again.

[kevinrstruck]

Any idea why I would be able to get posts but not send?

[szy]

Originally Posted by lierduh

#grep 'function construct_phrase' * -r

It's present in two files:

./includes/functions.php
./clientscript/vbulletin_global.js

Right or wrong, if the second is javascript? (Un)fortunately, I'm not a coder

Szy.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Do another grep but now for 'includes/functions.php' Will give you a whole list, but only interested in lines with "require" or "include" (not require_once or include_once).

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by szy

It's present in two files:

./includes/functions.php
./clientscript/vbulletin_global.js

Right or wrong, if the second is javascript? (Un)fortunately, I'm not a coder

Szy.

Which php version are you running? If it is too old, consider upgrade. Also try out a non-edited php.ini if possible.

If all the files have not been edited and not corrupted, then your problem must be caused by the server/setup. In case you are running the latest php 5, it may have features to cause this. I am not running php 5, so the scripts may not work with php 5.

[szy]

I really appreciate your help.

PHP version is 4.3.10. Too old?

Szy.

[SEO Report]

lierduh,

Spam is becoming really annoying in my case, and while the kill file helps a lot, it isn't sufficient due the crazy number of rubbish posted msg

How about adding regular expression support to the killfile routine? (might not be an easy task, I don't know...). I'm not a php programmer, but after looking at the killfile_match() function, I figured that one can strip title and body text and test them against a configurable list of reg expressions, we would have a great antispam filter!

Perhaps something like :

PHP Code:

foreach ($RegExpSetting AS $eachRegExp)
  preg_match_all ($eachRegExp, $eachRegExp, $killfile_array); 


What do you think?

-k

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by SEO Report

lierduh,

Spam is becoming really annoying in my case, and while the kill file helps a lot, it isn't sufficient due the crazy number of rubbish posted msg

How about adding regular expression support to the killfile routine? (might not be an easy task, I don't know...). I'm not a php programmer, but after looking at the killfile_match() function, I figured that one can strip title and body text and test them against a configurable list of reg expressions, we would have a great antispam filter!

Perhaps something like :

PHP Code:

foreach ($RegExpSetting AS $eachRegExp)
  preg_match_all ($eachRegExp, $eachRegExp, $killfile_array); 


What do you think?

-k

That could cause a support nightmare. We have already had quite a few posts regarding how to use the existing simple killfile format.

I have allowed custom settings to be created via the Admin interface, so a killfile with Regular Expression can be entered through Admin interface. You can then add custom functions to the scripts...