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NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists · **Released**: 05-14-2004

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15

Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
Handles UUEncoded messages.
Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
Automated installation.
Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
Multiple attachments importing.
Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
Thumbnail created while importing image files.
Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
Light on system resources.
Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

Provided option of not importing attachments
Provided option of pause between messages
Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
Provided "Default Footer" option
Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
(written originally by KevinM)
Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
(use prefix)
Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
as vB3.0.3
Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
each group.
Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
Scheduled task log is now working
Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

DaveLogic · #**122** 05-25-2004, 10:08 PM

Just upgraded from the previous version (which worked fine) and installed perfectly so many thanks....What would be a great improvement would be be this IMO...

1 - A random default avatar for guest NNTP posts - Would tie in with forum based posts better and look better.

2 - Use the same quotation code as in the forum...i.e the tidy box that surrounds quotes normally within forum posts...I don't know how this would transfer back to the newsgroups however....??? Anyway, the Admin cp section really helps...really nice stuff...

Odoin · #**123** 05-25-2004, 10:09 PM

Now keep in mind not every servers handles the same newsgroups... but here is a list I go by...

http://205.215.62.111/groups-list.txt (2mb in size).

Odoin · #**124** 05-25-2004, 10:10 PM

I like the avatar idea... The quotes might be sorda hard because of the different ways the news clients quote messages... maybe a default for the standard ones could be built in?

Mark

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveLogic

Just upgraded from the previous version (which worked fine) and installed perfectly so many thanks....What would be a great improvement would be be this IMO...

1 - A random default avatar for guest NNTP posts - Would tie in with forum based posts better and look better.

2 - Use the same quotation code as in the forum...i.e the tidy box that surrounds quotes normally within forum posts...I don't know how this would transfer back to the newsgroups however....??? Anyway, the Admin cp section really helps...really nice stuff...

DaveLogic · #**125** 05-25-2004, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odoin

I like the avatar idea... The quotes might be sorda hard because of the different ways the news clients quote messages... maybe a default for the standard ones could be built in?

Mark

My Newsgroup stuff gets a tad ignored because all of the NNTP guest post members don't/can't have an avatar which sort of gives the game away...I would imagine that this would better be placed as a "generic" hack as even it it were a static guest avatar it woud be a plausable idea being that boards could use a site logo as default...???

lierduh · #**126** 05-26-2004, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveLogic

Just upgraded from the previous version (which worked fine) and installed perfectly so many thanks....What would be a great improvement would be be this IMO...

1 - A random default avatar for guest NNTP posts - Would tie in with forum based posts better and look better.

2 - Use the same quotation code as in the forum...i.e the tidy box that surrounds quotes normally within forum posts...I don't know how this would transfer back to the newsgroups however....??? Anyway, the Admin cp section really helps...really nice stuff...

1. I am not sure it will work, but if someone wants to try it out. Add a user with the user ID of 0. And add avatars etc for the user 0.

2. What really matters is what contents is ended up on Usenet. If the normal usenet users see BB tags etc, they will start to hate your forums. So a text based message will be more acceptable. Even the script gets rid of the BB tags before sending them, there are always users who miss one "[" or "]" and stuff up the formating.

Princeton · #**127** 05-26-2004, 08:49 PM

thanks for the list

SUGGESTION on next update
Create a script (ala cron job) to remove certain post(s) (by subject) that contains "porn", "$", "buy", etc, etc...

KevinM · #**128** 05-28-2004, 05:07 PM

I've been playing with getting the email notifications to work with this script. If you find

PHP Code:


			
// send out email notices

in gateway.php and after it put:

PHP Code:


			
exec_send_notification($threadid, $userid, $postid);

It seems to work (well, it did the few times I tested it :speechless: )
Let me know if it works for you.

Imhotep · #**129** 05-29-2004, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by princeton

thanks for the list

SUGGESTION on next update
Create a script (ala cron job) to remove certain post(s) (by subject) that contains "porn", "$", "buy", etc, etc...

After a long battle with my host and finding a good NSP, I finally got this hack to work but only through port 23... which is fine with me as long as it works.

I would like to add to what Princeton has suggested. We absolutely need a filter system to screen out not only offensive headers but also attachments. One of my subscribed groups is a binary group. (alt.binaries.3d.lightwave) Lately, I have been deleting virii that come through and plant themselves as simple attachments. The main type has been the .scr variety. I would hate to see one of my members click on one of these attachments before I can find it and del it. Perhaps we can intergrate the attachment file extension permissions from VB into this hack, no?

www.cghaus.com

KevinM · #**130** 05-29-2004, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imhotep

The main type has been the .scr variety. I would hate to see one of my members click on one of these attachments before I can find it and del it. Perhaps we can intergrate the attachment file extension permissions from VB into this hack, no?

I have been writing that today (coincidence). I am just testing it, and will post the instructions tomorrow. It checks the extension type aginst what has been allowed in the vb control panel.

KevinM · #**131** 05-30-2004, 05:56 AM

These code changes use vb's attachment permissions (extensions only) before inserting attachments into the database - so no more .scr files :squareeyed:

If the file extension is not set up in the 'Attachment Manager' 'Extensions and Sizes' section of the control panel then the attachment is ignored.

I have tested it on version 2.1.0. All changes are to 'gateway.php'. There are 6 additions or changes to the script to be made to 'gateway.php'.

Find

PHP Code:


			
require_once("global.php");

CHANGE it to:

PHP Code:


			
$specialtemplates = array(

    'attachmentcache'

);

require_once("global.php");

$attachtypes = unserialize($datastore['attachmentcache']);

Find:

PHP Code:


			
function process_attachments ($date, $postid, $threadid) {

    global $message, $DB_site;

AFTER it put:

PHP Code:


			
global $attachtypes;

Find:

PHP Code:


			
$attachcount = 0;

AFTER it put:

PHP Code:


			
$attaches = 0;

Find:

PHP Code:


			
for ($i = 1; $i <= $message['attachments']; $i++) {

AFTER it put:

PHP Code:


			
// now we check the file extension against the vb settings to check that it exists, and if it does, check it is enabled.

        $attachment_name2 = strtolower($message['attachment' . $i]['headers']['filename']);

                $extension = file_extension($attachment_name2);

        

    if (!$attachtypes["$extension"] OR !$attachtypes["$extension"]['enabled'])

    {

        // invalid extension

        logging($extension . " extensions are not accepted, as currently set up in the control panel \n");

    }

    else {

Find:

PHP Code:


			
fclose($handle);

        unlink($tempfile);

CHANGE to:

PHP Code:


			
$attaches++;

        fclose($handle);

        unlink($tempfile);

        }

Find:

PHP Code:


			
$DB_site->query("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post 

    SET attach = attach + " . $attachcount . " WHERE postid = $postid");

    $DB_site->query("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread

    SET attach = attach + " . $attachcount . " WHERE threadid = $threadid");

    logging("Inserted " . $attachcount . " attachment(s).");

}

CHANGE to:

PHP Code:


			
$DB_site->query("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post 

    SET attach = attach + " . $attaches . " WHERE postid = $postid");

    $DB_site->query("UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread

    SET attach = attach + " . $attaches . " WHERE threadid = $threadid");

    logging("Inserted " . $attaches . " attachment(s).");

And that is it :nervous:

This script doesn't check against the maximum file size or image dimensions permissions, but it would be fairly easy to add on however I'm not sure of how useful this would be, as people posting to newsgroups would be unaware of your boards limits.

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.05342 seconds Memory Usage 2,361KB Queries Executed 25 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (14)bbcode_php (5)bbcode_quote (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (6)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (4)pagenav_pagelink (3)pagenav_pagelinkrel (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
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