Forum Home Enhancements - User's Social Groups on Forum Home (like forumlist, fully templated)

Available for vB4:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=221581

What does it do?

• Shows all social groups the actual user is a member of or is subscribed to, just below the forumlist (or anywhere else on forumhome). If there are new messages, the corresponding forum statusicon is highlighted - just like in forumlist.
• If there are no groups to show, you can choose to show a teaser message.

Things to set in AdminCP/Options:

• show member of / subscribed to /nothing
• sort by name or last message date
• limit max number of groups shown, then link to appropriate page (grouplist for members, usercp for subscribers)
• restrict use by usergroup
• show a teaser message if there are no groups to show
• show buttons to open new discussion etc.
• apply custom css to grouptitle
• trim group description to max length or disable
• parse bbcode in group descriptions
• use a different set of statusicons for groups than for forums
• use .png for statusicons instead of .gif (global in AdminCP, per style in groupsbit template)
• show groupicon instead of statusicon

Looks

• Out of the box: I tried to copy the standard look of the forumlist on forumhome.
• As requested, it is now fully templated (following the forumbit-scheme) for easy adjustment to custom styles.
  See the screenshot of a modified example in this post.

Install/upgrade

1. Upload folder "images" to your forum root (can be omitted if you do not want to use the buttons).
2. Import the product file.
3. Check settings in AdminCP->Options->Social Groups on Forumhome.

Template edit
Will be automatically inserted below your forums list if you are using TMS, which I highly recommend to do. If not:

Find:

<!-- /main -->

Above add:

$cel_social_groups

If you don't like it there, you can insert $cel_social_groups anywhere you like on forumhome.


Technical stuff
1 product file that adds
+ 3 templates (following the forumbit-scheme)
+ 3 plugins
+ adds 2 queries to forumhome (only if groups are shown, of course).
+ a bunch of phrases (prefix: cel_sgfh_).
+ 4 png-buttons, taken from the silk icon set.


Limitations

• Marking of new messages only works with database, not with cookie based marking of read threads (-> AdminCP setting)
  Explanation: This mod relys on the information in the database when a discussion was last read by the actual user. If you rely on cookies for this, you can use this mod anyway, but there will be no marking if there are unread messages by changed statusicons.
• 3.7 Discussion groups will show up as "no messages yet" as long as there was no message written under 3.8
  Explanation: When converting the old 3.7 message board into a discussion, Jelsoft was a little bit slack. While normally all the information about the last updated discussion is stored in the socialgroups table, this information is not entered for the auto-created discussion. For example: The discussion ID for the last updated discussion simply is 0 instead of the actual id of the auto created discussion. Therefore, this mod can not retrieve the information it needs since the discussion is not linked to the social group. This only changes when the first message under 3.8 is written.
• Not a bug note: In vB 3.8 there was an issue where the last discussion title was not correctly updated by vB in the socialgroup table. This would lead this mod to show a wrong last discussion title under some circumstances. This was resolved in 3.8.1.
  See Bugtracker: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/proje...?issueid=27176

Version history

v 1.4
+ some bugfixes
+ option to turn teaser message off
+ option to show several buttons: to start a new discussion - see the group's members list - see the group' photos (only shown if there are any attached pictures) - unsubscribe (only if subscribed groups are shown) (Thanks to glorify)
1.4.1: Template/Style error in Google Chrome fixed

v 1.3
+ now fully templated. New templates: forumhome_cel_social_groups_groupsbit and forumhome_cel_social_groups_lastmsgby.
1.3.1: Link to user profile error fixed

v 1.2
+ added option to sort groups by date of last message
+ added missing phrase

v 1.1
+ improved database query
+ limitations somewhat lessened
+ added settings page to AdminCP
+ choose whether to show groups the user is a member of or subscribed to
+ limit number of groups shown, then link to appropriate page
+ restrict use by usergroup
+ some minor bugfixes


Planned features (no promises made!)

none atm

[s]option to use a set of different statusicons for the groups [/s]
[s]option to use the social group's icon instead of the statusicon[/s]
[s]and to go with that, for additional/substitunional unread marking, possibility to add css markup to the social group's title[/s]


Translations

• Polish (thanks to RadioErewan)
• German (thanks to redlabour)

Screenshots:

• AdminCP
• Forumhome (with groupicon and css formatted groupname, bbcode in description parsed)
• Forumhome (with forum statusicons and trimmed description -> bbcode not parsed)

### Don't forget to click install! ###
(No support if you don't)

[sensimilla]

Great job, thanks.

[nick_ramsay]

I think this is a great mod. It's completely changed how social groups are perceived by my users. I do have one request though. There's a plugin I'm using that enables BBCode in Social Group descriptions, but unfortunately that BBCode doesn't get converted in the descriptions shown on the homepage. It would be great if a future version of this mod could accommodate BBCode, even if it's not yet standard in vB social groups.

[wacodep]

Originally Posted by cellarius

Hey, what's the problem? I develop this mod along the lines that suit my needs. If someone suggests a idea I like, I pick it up. If I don't like it or do not see the need, I don't. See: I'm not getting exactly paid for this

You made a suggestion and I declined, telling you how to achieve what you want. How am I to know what you did or did not already do? No need to get tetchy.

I'm fairly certain that I said, "Forget it. Thanks."

Generally, that means there is no need to continue defending your decision, as I have accepted it.

Again, thanks for your work on this.

[starman?]

I've just updated this to include the icons. Thanks again cellarius.

I was wondering if you could tell me how to adjust the width of the columns in your plug-in, as it doesn't align with my forums and I'm a fussy aesthetic type of a guy?

[cellarius]

No need to dive into the plugin. The columns are established in the template forumhome_cel_social_groups. That's just html, you can change column widths there fairly easily.

[starman?]

Cheers and appreciated.

[cellarius]

Originally Posted by nick_ramsay

I think this is a great mod. It's completely changed how social groups are perceived by my users. I do have one request though. There's a plugin I'm using that enables BBCode in Social Group descriptions, but unfortunately that BBCode doesn't get converted in the descriptions shown on the homepage. It would be great if a future version of this mod could accommodate BBCode, even if it's not yet standard in vB social groups.

I'll think about it, tho at the moment I'm inclined to wait until vB4 is out at least in beta before adding to this mod any features, sorry.

[Revan]

I've made the following changes to this mod in order to make it fit into my forums more cleanly, and it'd be nice if some of these changes made it into the final mod (maybe via options)?

Variable: Placement changed:

Under $forumbits in the FORUMHOME template.

Change/Reasoning:

• Changed placement to make it snap to the bottom of the forum list, in order to make it more in line with the rest of the forum lists.

Template forumhome_cel_social_groups:

<if condition="$show_cel_sgfh">
<if condition="($cel_groups_hasresults) OR ($vboptions[cel_sgfh_show_teaser])">
<tbody>
    <tr>
    <td class="tcat" colspan="5">
        <a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('new_social_disc');"><img id="collapseimg_new_social_disc" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_new_social_disc].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
        <a href="group.php$session[sessionurl_q]">$vbphrase[social_groups]</a>$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_forumhome_title]
    </td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
    <tbody id="collapseobj_new_social_disc" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_new_social_disc]">
        $cel_sgfh_output
    </tbody>
    <if condition="$cel_groups_limit">
<tbody>
    <tr>
    <td class="tfoot smallfont" colspan="5" align="center">
        <strong>
            <a href="$cel_groups_show_more_link_href">$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_show_more]</a>
        </strong>
    </td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
    </if>
</if>
</if>

Changes/Reasoning:

• Removed the custom header in order to make it respect the width of the forumbits.

Template forumhome_cel_social_groups_groupsbit:

<if condition="($cel_groups_hasresults)">
<tr>
<td class="alt2Active">
    <img src="$stylevar[imgdir_statusicon]/$forum[imageprefix]$statusimg.gif" alt="" border="0" />
</td>
<td class="alt1">
    <if condition="$vboptions[cel_sgfh_showbuttons]">
        <div style="float: right; padding: 3px;">
            <a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=message&amp;groupid=$cel_groups[groupid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/cel_sgfh_new_discussion.png" alt="$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_new_discussion]" border="0" /></a>
            <a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=viewmembers&amp;groupid=$cel_groups[groupid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/cel_sgfh_members.png" alt="$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_members_button]" border="0" /></a>
            <if condition="$cel_groups_pictures"><a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=grouppictures&amp;groupid=$cel_groups[groupid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/cel_sgfh_picture.png" alt="$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_picture]" border="0" /></a></if>
            <if condition="$vboptions[cel_sgfh_show]==subscribed"><a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=unsubscribe&amp;groupid=$cel_groups[groupid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/cel_sgfh_unsubscribe.png" alt="$vbphrase[cel_sgfh_unsubscribe]" border="0" /></a></if>
        </div>
    </if>
    <a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]groupid=$cel_groups[groupid]">$cel_groups[name]</a><br /><span class="smallfont">$cel_groups[description]</span>
</td>
<td class="alt2 smallfont">
    <div style="white-space: nowrap">
        $cel_sgfh_output_lastmsg
    </div>
</td>
<td class="alt1" align="center">
    $cel_groups[discussions]
</td>
<td class="alt2" align="center">
    $cel_groups[visible]
</td>
</tr>

<else />
    <tr>
        <td class="alt1" colspan="5">$cel_groups_no_result_phrase</td>
    </tr>
</if>

Changes/Reasoning:

• Removed hard-coded .gif extension from the plugin in order to support skins using transparent PNGs as their forum_on and forum_off images.
• Changed members to discussions (equivalent of threads).

Template forumhome_cel_social_groups_lastmsgby:

<div class="smallfont" align="$stylevar[left]">
    <div>
        <span style="white-space:nowrap">
        <a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=discuss&amp;gmid=$cel_groups[lastgmid]" style="white-space:nowrap" title="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]"><strong>$cel_groups[trimmed_lastdiscussion]</strong></a></span>
    </div>
    <div style="white-space:nowrap<if condition="is_browser('ie', 6)">; float:$stylevar[left]</if>">
        <phrase 1="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$cel_groups[lastposterid]" 2="$cel_groups[lastposter]">$vbphrase[by_x]</phrase>
    </div>
    <div align="$stylevar[right]" style="white-space:nowrap">
        $cel_groups[lastmsgdate] <if condition="!$show['detailedtime']"><span class="time">$cel_groups[lastmsgtime]</span></if>
        <a href="group.php?$session[sessionurl]do=discuss&amp;gmid=$cel_groups[lastgmid]#gmessage$cel_groups[lastgmid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0" /></a>
    </div>
</div>

Changes/Reasoning:

• Fixed &gmid to &gmid, because of XHTML validity.

Plugin forumhome code:

                if ($cel_groups['readtime'] AND $cel_groups['lastpost'] > $cel_groups['readtime'])
                {
                    $statusimg = "forum_new";
                }
                else
                {
                    $statusimg = "forum_old";
                }

Changes/Reasoning:

• Removed hard-coded .gif extension from the plugin in order to support skins using transparent PNGs as their forum_on and forum_off images.

I believe these changes, especially if added as options, will be beneficial for those like me, who prefer to have the Social Groups list exactly the same way as any other forum category

[BigDog56]

Installed, works great! thank you!

[BigDog56]

Had to uninstall it. Seems no one's posts were showing up in any of the forums. On forum home you would see them, but when you went to the forum itself, no posts showed up from the time the mod was installed.