vbArticles v0.4 -- For your repository of Articles/Tutorials/FAQs etc.

UPDATES
version 0.4 is out

- Now allows for basic VBCODE input.
- Fixed somemore bugs.


Background
Required a section on my site to display articles/tutorials
No such hack in the Hacks Database
Decided to try my hand at it

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This hack uses a lot of code from Arunan Sridharan's vB Links Directory v2.0
I use that hack too and was inspired to code something around that
A big thank-you must go out to him for coding the Links Directory in the first place (I merely modified much of the code to suit my needs for this hack)

Appreciation also goes out to Kars10 for aiding me in this hack
He coded the portion in version 0.3 on number of articles count as well as article hits count
He also suggested several template changes which have been incoporated into version 0.3
A great big special shout out to TheComputerGuy, 97cobracpe, dontpanic for stamping out the bugs with your fixes. Thanks guys


WHATS IT DO ?
This hack allows you to have a database of articles/tutorials etc on your site/forums.

FEATURES

AdminCP
Installer script

Admin options

View Categories
Edit Categories
Add Categories ( category name, category icon, category order, category description )
Delete Categories
Add new article ( title, description, author, date, content )
Edit article
Delete article
View ALL articles in database
Option in vB options to turn validation of articles on/off
Fully template based as to how you wish to display the articles,categories and main article home page.
Addition of articles accepts basic VBcodes

Member options

View Categories
Browse Categories
View articles
Submit new article
Submission of articles accepts basic VBcodes


INSTALLATION & UPGRADING
This Hack should work on ALL 2.2.x versions and v2.3.0
Please read the install_readme.txt file in the package for fresh installation instructions
IMPT: If you installed a previous version pls read the upgrade_readme.txt file carefully for upgrade instructions

HACK DOWNLOAD

Version 0.4 of this hack can be downloaded here

ADD-ONS
i) Add-on for vbHome
ii) Add-on for ForumHome
iii) Add-on to enable only registered members to be able to view the article section


DEMO SITES
http://www.runaked.com/forums/articles.php ( running v0.4 ) - TheComputerGuy's site

http://www.mcseworld.com/forums/infocenter.php ( running v0.3 ) - dontpanic's site


Feel free to submit your sites if u installed this hack so it can be listed as another live demo site

SUPPORT
I cannot promise any support on this as i am pretty new to this but I will try my best.
If you are using this hack , pls click the INSTALL button
to be kept in the loop of any bug reports, add-ons and hack version updates.

Thanks everyone

[dontpanic]

Hey cing...feature request here! :chinese:

Would it be possible for you to add to the code during the validation process that wrote data to one more row in the vBarticles_content table?

Specially, I have added a field called "url" that is used by my search engine that contains the URL of the article. In my case, that would be something like http://www.mcseworld.com/forums/info...ticle&artid=19 for example.

Obviously the script knows the article number...or least the DB helps it by autoentering this value, so I am asking would it be possible to have the correct URL for the article written into the table during the validation process?

Make sense?

:beard:

[Dolby]

Ok figured out how to make it use vbulletins vbcode. Also added a field authorid (so i can add an edit feature). author, authorid and date are all automaticly entered.

I'll post the changes I made for myself here after I'm done and its ok with the orignal author.

[memobug]

This looks very interesting. I've reviewed the screencaps and have a few questions. I am currently using another content management system with my forum that is not integrated in any way into vB other than appearing on my homepage. Here are some of the features I use there and a couple others that I would want to see in something that was vB friendly:

1) Is it possible to move an article from one category to another?
2) When a user performs a search, will it search the articles?
3) How about designating, or attaching a thumbnail image to serve as the article lead-in on the homepage
4) Order articles for display (arbitrary, chronologically or reverse chrono)
5) Designate whether an article or an entire category is visible (5a and perhaps even by user group)
6) Copy an entire article or category (this is very helpful for using articles or cats as templates for future articles, or perhaps archiving old ones.
7) Is it possible to select that a lead-in will link to an off-site article directly (by URL)
8) email article to a friend links
9) article stats (views, mostly)
10 XML RSS Feed output (well we can dream, can't we)

Summary

2, 5a would make it a nice integration to vB. Something I can't do now with stand alone software

1,3,4,5,6,7 are very typical and mostly essential features for publishing environments. If it did not have these features it would be of limited use to me, but I can expect it might serve others well.

8,9, 10 are nice-to-haves

Thanks,

Matt

[ITPMenace]

Maybe I missed it somewhere, but has anyone found a limit to the number of characters that can be submitted in an article? I have an article in one of my forums that I'm trying to move into the "Articles" section as a test and it won't even show up in "Validate" unless I cut it down to less than 1/4 of it's original size???

[FleaBag]

Am I the only one who's articles go missing if you use an apostraphe in them?

[lasto]

LOL no u aint

also try doing one with cut and paste - it dont add em

is some weird stuff in this program

[ITPMenace]

Today at 03:07 PM lasto said this in Post #216
LOL no u aint

also try doing one with cut and paste - it dont add em

is some weird stuff in this program

Maybe this is my problem. When I copy/paste a large article, it never shows up. If I cut the length down, and then copy/paste it, it shows up. All of the tests I've done where I actually typed the content showed up as well...but none as long as the one I want to copy?????

I hope there's a fix for this...I really don't want to have to retype this article!

Dennis

[lasto]

yeah is pain aint it

I suzzed this out straight away as im very lazy u see and i love my cut and paste so away i went pasted it all in and nothing showed so i did a simple one and it appeared straight away.

[ITPMenace]

I'm nowhere near capable enough to figure this one out...hopefully someone will have an idea???

[ITPMenace]

How hard would it be to make the "Submit New Article" link appear to ONLY the Administrator or Moderators?