Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums 1.4

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.7
Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.7 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.6.x due to non existent feature of "social groups".

Support will be only given for people who clicked Mark as INSTALLED.

Description
Not satisfied with vBulletin social groups messaging function? With SocialForums your social group leaders can create a standard forum for their group.
A group leader can only create a forum if the group has at least 5 members - this can be changed via settings. Optionally the group leader can be a moderator of such a social forum.

Permissions
Since 1.3 there are advanced permissions active (Forum and Archive). This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.

Demo
None, see screenshots

Installation
This product is fully phrased and uses template hooks. No file changes or manual template edits needed.
1. Upload bitfield_socialforums.xml to existing folder /includes/xml/
2. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
3. Fresh Installation: Just import the product. Upgrade: Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
4. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

Troubleshooting
Q: I don't see a link to create a forum. Why?
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, espacially if the user is allowed to create forum.
A: Check if the usergroup meet min users requirement, see AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums.

Q: My users see the forums, but they shouldn't!
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, if the users usergroup is set to "can see".
A: Did you disabled the restriction mode? Enable it.

Todo
- By deleting a group the forum should also be deleted/archived. Currently this has to be done manually.

Known Issues
- On big boards with hundreds of social groups this mod can really impact the performance because of the mass of new created forums. If you still want to use this mod use the "Minimum Members" feature with a higher value. Using the permission check there are additional two queries on every page.

History
1.4.6, 6th October 2008
- Permissions are now also active in Archive

1.4.2, 27th May 2008
- Added: If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).
- Added: Recent threads in linked forum on group home
- Added: Private groups: Link to forum only shown to members of group
- Changed: Enabled permissions for unregistered usergroup. Unregistered Users are not more explicit denied without a check of it's usergroup

1.3.1, 23th May 2008
- Fixed: Not existing array

1.3.0, 23th May 2008
- Added: Permissions are now active. This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. Please check permissions for every usergroup! As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.
- Added: Checks for permission before the creation link will be displayed
- Changed: Default View Age set to "Show all Threads"

1.2.1 8th April 2008:
- Added: Group messaging can be disabled via options (previously: always disabled)

1.2.0 4th April 2008:
- Added: Groupleader can now be moderator of group forum
- Added: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Added: Group messaging will be automatically hide for group that has own forum
- Added: Forums are created with more allowances
- Added: By deleting a forum the linked socialgroup get's updated
- Added: Forum's description contains link back to social group
- Added: By changing group's name it synchronize it with the forum's name

1.0/1.1 1st April 2008:
- Initial releases

[Amit86]

Originally Posted by Varsh

Are there enough members in the SG? The default is set to 5 members in the ACP. Check the vBulletin Options.

if u were talking to me, there was more than 5 members in the group
is said NO ACCESS
not tha i need more members

[AWMGolfer]

Not sure if this has been asked but when I disable group messages so that the forum can be used, will those messages be lost or still viewable? Many of my groups currently have lengthy discussions going and I'd hate to lose those if possible. Thanks!!

[Varsh]

Originally Posted by Amit86

if u were talking to me, there was more than 5 members in the group
is said NO ACCESS
not tha i need more members

Which category are your SG forums pointed to? If they're pointing to "1" and you don't have a category/forum with an ID of "1" then you will get that error, same if you have a category with permissions for a set usergroup.

[Yours Truly]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Here are the settings from 1.2:

$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'active', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowposting', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'cancontainthreads', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'moderatenewpost', '0');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'moderatenewthread', '0');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'moderateattach', '0');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowbbcode', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowimages', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowhtml', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowsmilies', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowicons', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'allowratings', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'countposts', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'canhavepassword', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'indexposts', '1');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'styleoverride', '0');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'showonforumjump', '0');
	$forumdm->set_bitfield('options', 'prefixrequired', '0');

They can be hide, but for everyone. Direct access only for members of the group. But if someone knows the exact URL of the forum he gain's access.


Please PM me login details as Admin to your site. I need also query permission.



If you get a "Invalid Forum Specified" you should check parent forum setting in AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums


With 1.2 this is not needed anymore. SocialForums 1.2 will be released today.

Thank you

[hrk]

clicking social group messages(moderated and deleted ) output this error :

Database error in vBulletin 3.7.0 Beta 4:

Invalid SQL:

			SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS
				groupmessage.*, user.*, groupmessage.ipaddress AS messageipaddress, socialgroup.name
				
				,avatar.avatarpath, NOT ISNULL(customavatar.userid) AS hascustomavatar, customavatar.dateline AS avatardateline,customavatar.width AS avwidth,customavatar.height AS avheight
				
			
			FROM moderation AS moderation
			INNER JOIN groupmessage AS groupmessage ON (moderation.primaryid = groupmessage.gmid AND type = 'groupmessage')
		
			LEFT JOIN user AS user ON (groupmessage.postuserid = user.userid)
			LEFt JOIN socialgroup AS socialgroup ON (groupmessage.groupid = socialgroup.groupid)
			LEFT JOIN avatar AS avatar ON(avatar.avatarid = user.avatarid) LEFT JOIN customavatar AS customavatar ON(customavatar.userid = user.userid)
			
			
			WHERE 1=1
				AND moderation.dateline >= 1204893707
				
			ORDER BY groupmessage.dateline DESC
			LIMIT 0, 10;

MySQL Error   : Column 'type' in on clause is ambiguous
Error Number  : 1052

Classname     : vb_database
MySQL Version : 4.1.22-standard

UNINstalled for now.

[nerofix]

I wonder that nobody else did post it yet, but when a member try to create a group forum, then he or she get the message:

XXX, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

What could be the reason?

Edit: By the way, it would looks great if the group forum would appears within the group itself.

And why the group message wall goes away?

[jilly]

Originally Posted by nerofix

I wonder that nobody else did post it yet, but when a member try to create a group forum, then he or she get the message:

XXX, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
And why the group message wall goes away?

My regular users are getting that too - only admins can make forums in groups right now - and yes, I am also confused as to why the group message wall goes away..

[jilly]

Originally Posted by Xhaiden

Not sure if this has been asked but when I disable group messages so that the forum can be used, will those messages be lost or still viewable? Many of my groups currently have lengthy discussions going and I'd hate to lose those if possible. Thanks!!

Mine disappeared, and I don't know if we will be able to get them back or not - so at this point I would not make the forum unless you don't mind losing the messages..

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by Xhaiden

Not sure if this has been asked but when I disable group messages so that the forum can be used, will those messages be lost or still viewable? Many of my groups currently have lengthy discussions going and I'd hate to lose those if possible. Thanks!!

Originally Posted by jilly

Mine disappeared, and I don't know if we will be able to get them back or not - so at this point I would not make the forum unless you don't mind losing the messages..

Originally Posted by nerofix

And why the group message wall goes away?

To avoid double-messaging it has been just disabled, they are simply not shown.
To make one thing clear: This mod does not delete group messages. It disables only the view of them. I will do in the next version a setting if they should be hide.

Originally Posted by hrk

clicking social group messages(moderated and deleted ) output this error :

Please be more specific, as I cannot confirm this. SocialForums does not touch messages.

Originally Posted by nerofix

I wonder that nobody else did post it yet, but when a member try to create a group forum, then he or she get the message:

XXX, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

What could be the reason?

Originally Posted by jilly

My regular users are getting that too - only admins can make forums in groups right now - and yes, I am also confused as to why the group message wall goes away..

Only Groupleaders can create forum. The link will be hide in next version for non-leaders.

Originally Posted by nerofix

Edit: By the way, it would looks great if the group forum would appears within the group itself.

Nice idea, yes. Had that idea also, but it's very difficult to accomplish this.

[jilly]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Only Groupleaders can create forum. The link will be hide in next version for non-leaders.

It is my Groupleaders who are getting the 'no permission to access' message.