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

[BigDog56]

Really starting to like this hack, Thank You very much! Just wanted to double check something When a forum is created, those posts will also appear in the social group, but if someone posts in the social group and not the forum, it will only appear in the social group, correct?

[BigDog56]

Originally Posted by Captain Tycoon

Strange, I keep getting this error now...(I uninstalled and installed it again)Any idea why this is coming up?

Note: The parent forum does exist...

Make sure in your vb options you have the correct parent forum selected. What I did was create a new forum, put the settings to 'Act as a forum' to no, in other words it's a category, then used that forum id in the vb options under social forums of where the forums were to be created.

[Captain Tycoon]

thanks!

[punchbowl]

Great mod.

[tanujdude91]

Originally Posted by Rickeo

This should be made like MySpace where it doesn't create a forum on the actual board but creates a posting area in the group section.

Rick

I agree...It should be like orkut where you make threads on the group but it doesn't really shows the forum on the board.....
Just an advice

[Sakai Ray]

Looks like a good mod

I was wondering does it matter where you post at and does it show like a normal post or like a visitor message?

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by Sakai Ray

I was wondering does it matter where you post at and does it show like a normal post or like a visitor message?

That mod creates standard forums. A group has it's own assigned forum.

[Animecraving]

hm... i found a little bug maybe
after you enter social group message the message appear in forum activity instead of Social Group Messages
but after refresh the browser is fine
hoep that this will be fixed next version release

[Phalynx]

Already reported a few posts above you, anyway thanks. Yes, it will be addressed in next version.

[Captain Tycoon]

I dont know if this has been reported already or not but when someone makes a post in the social forum, it does not show who has made the "last post" in group.php. It only shows the time the last post was made.