Selective Forum Filter

I no longer support my hacks. Please feel free to update them and release new versions elsewhere as long as I get the credit for the original modification.

/*================================================= =====================*\
|| Selective Forum Filter
||
|| Author : Anton Kanevsky
|| Co-Author(s) : Andreas
|| Works on : vBulletin 3.5.x - 3.8.x
|| Released : May 31, 2009
||
|| Time required to install: 30 seconds
|| Difficulty: easy
\*================================================ ======================*/

DESCRIPTION

Ever came across large boards with a huge number of sub forums? Couldn't find your info? Wanted to run away from that huge load of stupid threads? This hack is intended to save your users from having such a horrible experience. It provides them with an opportunity to exclude any number of forums from the forums list (as well as from "get new"/"get daily" searches), which still letting them to access those forums directly and search within them, too.

STATISTICS

Products to Install: 1


INTRODUCTION

To enable "can be excluded" in all forums, run this query:
UPDATE PFXforum SET excludable = 1
To disable "can be excluded" in all forums, run this query:
UPDATE PFXforum SET excludable = 0
In both cases, PFX must be replaced with the actual table prefix that you have defined in config.php.
If you have not defined a prefix, remove PFX from the queries.
After you run either one of these queries, you must then open and save any one forum for the forum cache to be updated.

VERSION HISTORY

1.1.0
[+] The hack is now compatible with vBulletin 3.5.x - 3.8.x.
[+] Eliminated all template edits.

1.0.2
[+] The hack is now compatible with vBulletin 3.6.
[+] Corrected a couple of mistakes in the installation manual.

1.0.1
[+] Added option to set forums as excludable. By default, excludability of all forums is disabled.

1.0.0
First Public Release

The installation manual is contained within the attached file.

IF YOU LIKE MY HACK, PLEASE CLICK INSTALL

[TosaInu]

Hello Psionic Vision,

One of the forums refuses to list.

It does list when search is allowed too, but that should be disabled since it's a huge off topic forum.

[SteveC]

Thanks. Very nice.

Has anyone posting simple instructions on how this works for end users?

[Razasharp]

Great work Psionic Vision

Is it possible you could create a very slight variation of this hack so I could use a url to exclude certain forums form the forum index? Eg:

http://vbulletin.com/forum/index.php?&exclude=10,28,12

Which would then exclude forums 10, 28, and 12 from showing on the forum home/index page.

That would be a HUGE help, please please please consider it

Edit: Meant to say so it's not permanent, just that those forum IDs will not show when that particular url/link is followed.

[rlharp5375]

Ok, help a newbie please. When running the query, I got this error:

An error occurred while attempting to execute your query. The following information was returned.
error number: 1054
error desc: Unknown column 'excludable' in 'field list'

Any idea how to fix it?

[TosaInu]

Hello rlharp5375,

You need to create that field first. Have you installed the hack already?

[TosaInu]

Originally Posted by TosaInu

Hello Psionic Vision,

One of the forums refuses to list.

It does list when search is allowed too, but that should be disabled since it's a huge off topic forum.

It appears a forum also needs to be searchable for a usergroup or it won't be added to the exclusion list. Does it use part of the advanced search code?

[jilly]

Is there a 3.7 working version of this hack yet? or coming?

[hjmaier]

It works already with 3.7

Best regards
hj

[Aquestor]

Originally Posted by zylstra

Originally Posted by WAR
I am also having difficulties getting this to work completely.

It will not let me exclude more than ~50 forums at a time. Is there anyway to bump this up to 2-300 as a maximum?
Or 100,000 for that matter.

Yep, I can't exclude more than ~70 at a time.

Have the same Problem need this hack absolutly! Is there anyone who can resolve this problem?

[Andy Rickard]

Just installed this. After the initial install, the list of forums wouldn't populate, but saving the display order as suggested fixed the issue.

Works great.... thanks for the hack!!