AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site!

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

1. An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.
   
   
   
   
   
   The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
   
2. A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.
   
   The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.
   
   
   
   
   So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
   • Hockey
     • Professional
     • College
     • High School
   • Football
     • American Football
     • The Rest of the World (Soccer)
   • Baseball
   
   with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

[solidlink]

can someone help?

[powerful_rogue]

Does anyone know what the below error message means? Ive had this working fine on my site however for some reason today my inbox has been full with the below error

Database error in vBulletin 3.7.2:

Invalid SQL:

INSERT INTO cronlog
(varname, dateline, description, type)
VALUES
('AboutToday',
1219878326,
'RSS Feeds Updated',
0);

MySQL Error : Lost connection to MySQL server during query
Error Number : 2013
Request Date : Thursday, August 28th 2008 @ 12:05:26 AM
Error Date : Thursday, August 28th 2008 @ 12:11:44 AM
Script : http://www.doverlocals.co.uk/cron.php?rand=760184
Referrer : http://www.doverlocals.co.uk/login.p...42dd4585724cbf
IP Address : 90.211.228.123
Username : Unregistered
Classname : vb_database
MySQL Version :

[thompson]

anybody using this in 3.7.3 ?

[schlottkej]

The event manager won't probably work, but the RSS feeds still pull fine and the "New Thread" creation does as well.

[dreamhost]

Originally Posted by CyberRanger

The $myfeeds variables let you place summary information from your RSS feeds on ANY page and ANY place you want if that page is vb powered (ie global.php is called). Here is a good example of what you can do: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=215

I really should have called that "columns" across. If you set it to two and you have two feeds assigned to $myfeeds, you'd get this:

feed1 feed2

If you had it set to 1, you'd get:

feed1
feed2

the $myfeeds vaariable does not seem to work in the 'notices' box for vbulletin.
I created a new notice that only applies to one specific forum category, and the 'notices' box shows up like it should. However instead of seeing the feeds I just see '$myfeeds'

What do I need to do in order to fix it so that I can use $myfeeds in vbulletin notices?


also:
If we can get this to work, I am going to need about 30 or so of the $myfeeds, $myfeeds2, etc.... how do I add them so I have more than 3 choices?

[emailapphost]

From the installation guide:
"3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php."

How do you do this?
I do not have a "forum directory", I have a "Forum Manager" - is that it?
If so; How do you "bring up a file" in the Forum Manager?
I wish people would not take so much knowledge for granted...
Thanks.

[KevinGupta]

Does it work on 3.8.x?? If yes, then have anyone faced any type of problems while installing and in using?

[basilrath]

Cant see why it shouldnt .... im going to try it this aftnoon

[basilrath]

Yes this works on 3.8 x

Using it now if anyone is wishing to try it

[chick]

Has anyone fixed the Fields marked in RED issue. This has to do with gars (if you have gars installed)???

I'd like to use this but the plugin needs fixing for gars allowance. Anyone?