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

[YuOr]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Check usergroup permissions.

you mean this:
Can write messages in private socialforumShould Users that are not a Member of a invite only/moderated social group be allowed to write in its social forum? Valid only if "can read" is enabled.
I have it set to "no"

[Phalynx]

Restriction mode enabled?

[YuOr]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Restriction mode enabled?

where can i find it?

ps
sorry to be such a pain, it's all so new to me! Thank you for your help!
NEVER MIND FOUND IT! NOW IT WORKS! THANK U!

[RvG2]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

That is already on my todo list.

Thank you so much sir...

[RvG2]

and one more thing is that hope you can reduce the queries it adds to the group.php page. (more or less 70 queries)

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by RvG2

and one more thing is that hope you can reduce the queries it adds to the group.php page. (more or less 70 queries)

Uhm, this does not come from my mod... I have it running on different sites with around 20 queries. Disable the mod and check the queries again.

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Uhm, this does not come from my mod... I have it running on different sites with around 20 queries. Disable the mod and check the queries again.

Hmm...now you mention it Phalynx, it shows 58 on mine...which I hadn't noticed before. I've nothing else installed that could be causing that.

[Mark.B]

Ok it seems to be doing this for *every* social group that has a forum:

SELECT
			t.lastpost			
			FROM thread AS t
			WHERE forumid=xxx
			ORDER BY lastpost desc
			LIMIT 1

And also:

SELECT
			SUM(replycount) AS replies,
			COUNT(threadid) AS threads
			FROM thread AS t
			WHERE forumid=xxx
			GROUP BY forumid

So it adds two queries per social group forum.

[RvG2]

Before:

Page generated in 0.12401 seconds with 80 queries

After disabling:

Page generated in 0.05893 seconds with 12 queries

I have 17 groups created so far...

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by RvG2

Before:

Page generated in 0.12401 seconds with 80 queries

After disabling:

Page generated in 0.05893 seconds with 12 queries

I have 17 groups created so far...

Yes, this is definitely a problem. From my limited investigations, there are at least two queries added for each social group forum that is created. There may be more, it sounds like it from your figures. I have 58 queries out of 12 social group forums.

Although the queries are not taking long to run, this is probably because none of my social group forums have more than about 6 posts as yet.

On a really large site where the social group forums get loads of posts, this is likely to cause issues.

I may try and disable that aspect of the product for the time being until this can be fixed.