Refer Friends!

First off, I need to thank c-pr0mpt's template driven pages hack for helping me with the online bit and template help.

Second, I must add a disclaimer. I am NOT fluent in PHP and this is my first publicly released hack. This may not be perfectly coded or the most efficient, but I have tested this numerous times on fresh vB's as well as hacked vB's and installation went smoothly every time, so I hope it works for you. I tried my best to make this hack as compatible as possible but I am sure I could have messed up somewhere. This is mostly an addon but optional integration is also supplied in the hack. If installation gets messed up it's not hard to revert, but it never hurts to backup your database first.

Now onto the details of the hack. This hack creates a new page for members that will send out emails to people of their choice with their referral links in them. It's a great way to get your members to promote your site. You could also start a referral contest and grant special prizes, like a custom title or avatar, to whomever gets the most referrals. You do not have to have referrals on, but it would help if you wanted to keep track of who has referred the most members.

Features:

1) Only registered members can use the referral page, guests will get an error page.
2) An error will also occur if a required field is left blank
3) Users can refer 3 friends at a time
4) Users can edit the title and message of their outgoing referral email
5) The user's referral link is in the email message by default (index.php?s=&referrerid=xxx)
6) Default title and message can be edited in the refer.php page
7) "Referring Friends" link appears in the who's online page when a member is referring people

Only 1 file edit (optional)
Only 1 template edit (optional)
3 new templates
1 new PHP file

4 screenshots in my next posts.

Support will be given, but as I said before, I am not fluent in PHP or MySQL, so I can't guarantee that I can make every addon or fix every error.

UPDATE: If you get a bug that sends you straight to the error page, install version 2.0. If the hack is already working for you, do not install version 2.0. This is just a bug fix, a patch, and is only needed if you can't get the original hack to work properly.

Enjoy.

-Marcus

[Unknown553]

No problem. I am aware that support comes along with releasing hacks. Just glad it finally works 100% for you.

[snoopy2]

works great, thx!

[esawdust]

Great Hack!

One Question.. how would I go about adding the # of referals to part of a users stats within their posts?

For instance

adding "Referrals: "

under the registered date, location, and posts?

I think this would make it a bit more "competitive" and enitice people to refer more.

Thanks

Greg

[NuclioN]

huh? Can't open firefly's referrallist page.

[Visionray]

this is a great hack! I hope to get some new members this way by offering a prize to the first person to refer 10 members. Thanks!

[Red Blaze]

Excellent, very nice hack, without flaw.

[Marulatree]

06-29-02 at 07:35 PM Mr H said this in Post #15
I just installed this. Now where do I find the "refer friends" link on my page? I can't see it anywhere....

I think you have to create your own link in the navbar. e.g. www.yoursite.com/refer.php.

clicks install! nice one M8!

[wolfe]

its not sending emails

[The Piper]

Is there any way to allow non members to also refer friends?

Thanks a lot!

[Marulatree]

All of my members still get the error page when clicking on refer a friend link. Any ideas. I have installed version 2.0

08-04-02 at 08:19 PM Unknown553 said this in Post #39
Ok, try installing this new version 2.0. Erwin found out the problem and this should fix it. Upload the two new files (overwrite refer.php if you still have it uploaded) and copy/paste the new "refer" template. The other two templates are unchanged. Hope it works!