vBGlossary

I must pay homage to user/moderator wluke for this idea. I must also thank him for allowing me to run with it, and release it publicly. Thanks Wayne!

What's it do?
Simple: creates a glossary of terms. They're sorted alphabetically much in the same way the Memberlist is. I find this is extremely useful for most forums, which surely have a lot of their own lingo. For my site, it's a few acronyms and goofy phrases. My members get a kick out of referring newbies to the glossary to learn about the phrases. It's really helped the whole place seem less like a clique...because others can catch up easily with a reference like this.

Here's a live demo


What's it take?
This hack involves a MySQL command, the uploading of two files, the modification of one, and the creation of five templates. It also requires the modification of a second file, and of two templates, if you want to display a random glossary term on the New Reply/New Thread pages. It'll require a bit more still if you want to add the Glossary to your forum jump menu.

First off, run the following query in MySQL. This is the table that will store the glossary data.

CREATE TABLE `glossary` (
  `glossaryid` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `text` text NOT NULL,
  `description` text NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`glossaryid`)
) TYPE=MyISAM;

Attched to the post right after this one is an archive: files.zip. This archive contains two files: glossary.php and admin_glossary.php. The first goes in your main forums directory. The second should be uploaded into your /admin/ directory.

Next, you'll need to create five templates. I've attached a text file containing all five to this post. Should be pretty straightforward. Mess with the formatting as you see fit, of course.

After that, you'll probably want to open (back it up!!!) your /admin/index.php file. Find the code below (around line 340):

makenavselect("Templates");
// ***

Right after that, add this:

makenavoption("Add", "admin_glossary.php?action=add", "|");
makenavoption("Edit", "admin_glossary.php?action=edit", "|");
makenavoption("Delete", "admin_glossary.php?action=delete");
makenavselect("Glossary", "<hr><br>");

There, it should work now! Now, on to the extras (well worth installing, in my opinion):

Display a random glossary term on new thread/new reply pages
Open newreply.php and find the following code (around line 468...it should be right near the end of the file):

getforumrules($foruminfo,$permissions);

Right after it, add this:

  $rand_term = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT text AS term_text, description AS term_description FROM glossary ORDER BY RAND()");
  extract($rand_term);
  $term_description = str_replace("'", "\\'", htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($term_description)));

Yeah, that last line is a little messy -- I like saving space, though.

Save and upload. Next, open newthread.php and find the same bit of code (duplicated below) around line 368 or so:

getforumrules($foruminfo,$permissions);

After that, add the same bit of code above.

Next: the templates. Find the below in both templates...

$vbcode_smilies</td>

...and in both templates, replace it with this:

	$vbcode_smilies<br><center><smallfont><b>Random Term: <a href="#" onclick="alert('$term_description'); return false;">$term_text</a></b></smallfont><br>

	<smallfont><a href="$bburl/glossary.php" target="_blank">More Glossary Terms!</a></smallfont><br></td>

There, you're done!


Add vBGlossary to the forum jump menu
Open forumdisplay.php in your main forums directory. Find this, near the top of the file (line 13 or so):

	case 'cp': $goto = 'usercp'; break;

Right after it, add this:

	case 'gl': $goto = 'glossary'; break;

Next (and last) step: open the forumjump template and add this bit of code somewhere amongst the other options...where you put it depends on where you want it in the menu.

		<option value="gl" $frmjmpsel[glossary]>The Glossary</option>

That's it! All done. Enjoy.

I hope you all enjoy this hack. It didn't take nearly as much time/effort as I thought it would...I really love it, though.

[TWTCommish]

Yes, that looks right. Did you give your first/second alt colors the SAME value, though?

[xug]

Haha, yep they are they same and I do not what to change any about that, so what can I do to solve this in your code or do you know a trick that I can put a line between each and every entry.

[TWTCommish]

Well, I'd recommend changing one of your post alt colors -- it's better that way anyway. If you really don't want to do that, then you'll want to open glossary.php and replace {firstaltcolor} and {secondaltcolor} with the RGB values of the colors you want...like #FFFFFF for white and #E9E9E9 for light gray.

[xug]

Cool, I got it !

Again many thanks.

[Lucky]

That is what your glossarybit should look like.

Have you altered anything in the original file?

[TWTCommish]

Don't worry, Lucky: he says he's got it now. Thanks anyway, though.

[squawell]

i got this error

Warning: extract() expects first argument to be an array in squawell/forums/vbb220/newthread.php on line 441

what's wrong??

[TWTCommish]

I think that means you don't have any glossary terms entered. It expects at least one. If anyone's interested, I can make a small modification to error-check the sucka'.

[squawell]

Originally posted by TWTCommish
I think that means you don't have any glossary terms entered. It expects at least one. If anyone's interested, I can make a small modification to error-check the sucka'.

ok~~now it just like u say!!

i don't add any item so i got that error!!

now it works

if u did a error-check template that will be great!!

[TWTCommish]

Ok, simple:

in newthread.php AND newreply.php. replace this...

PHP Code:

  $rand_term = $DB_site->query_first("SELECT text AS term_text, description AS term_description FROM glossary ORDER BY RAND()");
  extract($rand_term);
  $term_description = str_replace("'", "\\'", htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($term_description))); 


...with this...

PHP Code:

  $rand_term = $DB_site->query("SELECT text AS term_text, description AS term_description FROM glossary ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
    if ($DB_site->num_rows($rand_term)) { 
      extract($DB_site->fetch_array($rand_term));
      $term_description = str_replace("'", "\\'", htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($term_description)));
    }