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

[Rob Hephner]

Originally Posted by Watson

I Like this idea, because if the forum becomes very popular then I will just make it a public forum (unless its a private social group)

You figured out a way to make a private social group?

[Blackhat]

How can I get the last x threads to appear and where ?

[redlabour]

Problem:

If the Founder of the Group is deleted the Group will be deleted by vBulletin. But the Forum and the link to the Group is still there.

[Julie]

I've also noticed that, if I manually connect a social group to an already existing forum (via PHPmyAdmin), the permissions changes so that to be able to post in that forum, you HAVE to be a member of the social group, even though it's a public group...

And this is something I want to be able to turn off... As I might create groups on existing forums, but I don't want the permissions to change to only members of the groups can post in the forums...

[fly]

Okay, so I read the first couple pages and the last couple. As an administrator, I cannot make a forum out of a group. The permissions are obviously correct for the admin group, the group has enough members. I turned off restricted mode as a test. No matter what I do, 'Create Forum' does not show up for the group.

Does it not work for groups that were created prior to installing the hack?

edit: n/m got it

[sross]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Check if your usergroup is allowed to create a forum.

This is really doing my head in. Where exactly is this setting? I see no option to create a forum, as far as i can see everything is set. I see no option in my usergroups for "can create forums" or some such setting. I see social group setting and all mine are set to yes. How do I set my usergroup to be allowed to create a forum then? Thanks! :up:

[mokonzi]

I'd think it'd be in the usergroup permissions

[sross]

yeah i don't see it there, what does it say exactly? thanks

[mokonzi]

As I've not yet got this installed (working on doing so far my test site soon) I'm guessing it will be in the:

Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Choose Usergroup > Edit Usergroup

Most products set the permissions in that section somewhere, where on the Edit Usergroup page, I'm not sure.

Should be easy enough to find I'd think.

[crkgb]

Guys, I just updated to 1.4.2 version and see there's this Display Options module below social group forum. How do I change its defaults? There seems to be nothing about it in SocialForums options.