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

[mikeylikesitz]

you can take care of this by changing the settings in General Settings > Enable Forum Leaders to "Yes, but disable moderators", that will leave them as moderators of the group forums and not show them on the Forum Leaders page.

[DieselTruck]

Originally Posted by mikeylikesitz

you can take care of this by changing the settings in General Settings > Enable Forum Leaders to "Yes, but disable moderators", that will leave them as moderators of the group forums and not show them on the Forum Leaders page.

Yes, But, Personally I like the idea of a moderator's list on the showgroup.php page. Helps members locate staff if needing help, etc.

[mikeylikesitz]

it wont disable the moderators group listing on the forums, just the individual moderators per forum listed

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by pkallberg21

Why are group starters with forums appearing in my showgroups.php page as moderators? This feels pretty weird, having normal users there.

There is no other way giving the leader moderation abilities. Disable this behaviour via settings, remove existing moderators from the forums.

Originally Posted by pkallberg21

Also, since I use vBSEO to rewrite all my URL's, when one "url" is the same as another "url", it redirects to the first page available with that name. For example, if a user were to start a group called "Cats" with a forum, its URL would become http://www.x.com/forum/cats. If I someday would like to start a forum regarding cats on my board, it would receive the same URL from the rewrite. Is there any way of distinguishing group forum URL's, so that they do not interfere with ones of the "normal" forums?

That's not a problem with this hack. Same thing would be if you would have multiple troubleshooting forums for different topics, e.g. mobiles.

[edenx]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

There is no other way giving the leader moderation abilities. Disable this behaviour via settings, remove existing moderators from the forums.


That's not a problem with this hack. Same thing would be if you would have multiple troubleshooting forums for different topics, e.g. mobiles.

Phalynx, maybe this hack should check group name v/s forum existing names, as an admin configurable option. (allow or not allow group names with same name as forum OR add created forum a prefix: Group-CAT)

I also use vBSEO, like many big-boards and this could be a potential problem.
Thanks

[MrEyes]

Another vote the the vbSeo compatibility, not an issue right now but it could become one in the future.

Also a quick question relating to Restriction mode...

If I set this to "no" does it remove the additional 2 SQL calls? And if set to "no" what permissions are assumed?

[Phalynx]

No means there is no check for permissions. The forums permissions are untouched. You can pre-define the permission on the parent forum, all subforums inherite that permissions.

[pkallberg21]

Originally Posted by Mark.B

Check in your forum manager and see if they are actually set as moderators. If so, remove them. And change the setting in the social forums options so that group owners do not become moderators of forums they create.

I disabled it despite the fact that I would like group owners to become moderators of their forums. This is however the best solution as I do not want my showgroups.php filled with random users.

Regarding the vBSEO problem though, is there any solution to this? The quicker we can find a solution to this the better, imho.

Thanks.

[VargTimmen]

Hi,

I upgraded to the new Version (1.4.2) and it works well.
But, and this is, in my opinion, an important function:
Could you build in, that Admins and Supermods always can see the groupforumlink (and the forum of course) and keep their rights.

Kind regards
Benny

[abrecher]

The "Visit the forum of this group." should be MUCH more noticeable.