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

[Mark.B]

Phalynx this is one of the best modifications of recent times so very well done.

It adds a functionality to Social groups which really, really needed to be available by default. I know the reasons the developers gave for not including it but they are wrong. It should have bee there as an option, that is certain.

Social Groups are totally pointless without the ability to add a forum. Nobody reads or uses them otherwise.

[Varsh]

Well I've installed the update as of yesterday, given it a full on testing permissions wise and all I can say is now that you've done a fantastic job on that one and I can finally use it on my forums.

[Nadiar]

This was working fine on my test server with 1.2, but I installed 1.3.1 on live after it came out, and I'm not seeing the link to create a forum. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling to make sure all of the options were defaulted (except the forum ID), but it doesn't seem to have fixed it.

[Phalynx]

Check permissions if your usergroup is allowed to create forum.

[ahmadatom]

thanks a lot, i'm click install

[Nadiar]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Check permissions if your usergroup is allowed to create forum.

I feel retarded now, thanks.

I forgot I'm in my own usergroup (other than Administrators) and forgot to fix permissions for that group.

[AWS]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Unregistered users are currently disabled to view because of the bug that appeared after the release of 1.3.0


I will check this on monday.

Are you planning on adding the feature to allow unregistered to view the forums? I would like unregistered to see these forums because the topics vary from the site theme and some visitors that wouldn't normally register might if one of the member forums peaks their interest.

[Mum]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Please PN me with details of a temporary admin account to your forum.

I have Pmd you

[DieselTruck]

Anyway to add a link into the postbit_legacy saying the social group that the user is a part of?

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by Mum

Ok, there appears to be an issue.

Under the social group it is set as Group Type: Public, and i've got it ticked that you must be a member to view.

Then under usergroup permissions it's got Can read messages in public socialforum NO Can write messages in public socialforum NO.

Yet they can still see the forum, and see the messages inside it. Why?

Issue fixed. Some usergroups were defined to have read access to socialforums.

Originally Posted by AWS

Are you planning on adding the feature to allow unregistered to view the forums? I would like unregistered to see these forums because the topics vary from the site theme and some visitors that wouldn't normally register might if one of the member forums peaks their interest.

Already included in 1.4 (will be released today)

Originally Posted by DieselTruck

Anyway to add a link into the postbit_legacy saying the social group that the user is a part of?

This hack creates only forums and checks for permissions to that forums. It does not extend social group feature on whole forum.