Add-On Releases - CES Site News

CES Site News
Version: 1.6.3
vBulletin 3.7.x, 3.8.x supported

*** NEWS ***
5/15/2008 - v1.6.3 released
5/5/2008 - v1.6.2 released
5/2/2008 - v1.6.1 released
4/17/2008 - v1.6.0 released
11/7/2007 - v1.5.1 released
9/9/2007 - v1.5.0 released
4/12/2007 - v1.4.1 released
4/5/2007 - v1.4.0 released
4/1/2007 - 4/2/2007 - v1.3.1 through v1.3.2 released
3/30/2007 - v1.3.0 released
3/23/2007 - 3/26/2007 - v1.2.0 through v1.2.4 released
3/14/2007 - v1.1.1 released
3/12/2007 - v1.1.0 released
2/9/2007 - v1.0.8 released
1/29/2007 - v1.0.7 released
1/23/2007 - 1/27/2007 - v1.0.0 through v1.0.6 released

Known Issues:
- none

What It Does:
This allows you to turn one of your forums into a news blog.

Live Installation: http://www.crackedeggstudios.com/news.php
This site is usually an update or two ahead of what's available in this thread, because that's where we do all our testing.

Products to Install: 1
Plugins Included: 14
Files to Upload: 7
Files to Edit: 0
New Templates: 8
Template Edits: 0

Mod Features:
- adds options to the Forum Manager
- uses forum permissions
- threads in the given forum become articles
- pull articles from other forums
- full-text articles are displayed in a customized forumdisplay
- post replies are added as comments
- set number of articles and comments per page
- turn on/off announcements in news display
- turn on/off attachments in news display
- turn on/off last comment in news display
- ajax quick edit in news display (basically, quick edit in forum display)
- display articles on every comments page
- limit size of article preview
- additional BB-Code tags for articles

BB-Code Tags:
[previewlength]value[/previewlength]
Placing this anywhere in an article overrides the preview limit for that article only. Multiple [previewlength] tags are cumulative. A "Read More..." link will appear if this tag is used.

[preview]value[/preview]
Placing this anywhere in an article defines text that will only show on Newsdisplay. Text contained in this tag completely replaces the post text on Newsdisplay. Multiple [preview] tags are cumulative. A "Read More..." link will appear if this tag is used.

[more]value[/more]
Placing this anywhere in an article defines text that will only show on Shownews. Text contained in this tag does not replace the post text on Shownews. It only hides text from Newsdisplay.

*** Changelog ***
As of Version 1.6.3:
- bug fix: preview functions do nothing since alias support added
- bug fix: preview functions never worked on editpost or newthread
- bug fix: inconsistent postbit after quick edit
- updated files: news.php, shownews.php, ces_news_bbcode.php,
ces_news_quick_edit.js

As of Version 1.6.2:
- bug fix: more database errors in vB 3.6.x
- bug fix: post controls hide on news display in IE7
- bug fix: threadbit and postbit widths inconsistent
- updated templates: ces_news_postbit, ces_news_threadbit
- updated files: shownews.php

*** Screenshots ***
1. New Forum Manager Option
2. Site News Settings
3. News Articles (forumdisplay)
4. Comments (showthread)

[TheMilkCarton]

Is this still not working well? I go to the demo site and get database errors.

[thincom2000]

Yes, this hack is working flawlessly as much as I can tell. The database error you saw was a conflict created by a plugin I had written for another page that isn't part of this hack. There's a workaround, so no worries if you manage to install the same plugin I haven't released yet.

[TheMilkCarton]

Well, installed (again) on my forum and I get a database error. This is maybe my 3rd or 4th attempt at using this.

Uninstalled (again)

[thincom2000]

It really doesn't help if you don't tell me what the database error is.

[TheMilkCarton]

Invalid SQL:

               SELECT post.*, thread.*, post.iconid AS miconid, post.attach,
                       icon.title as icontitle, icon.iconpath,
                       attach.dateline AS attachdate, attach.thumbnail_dateline, attach.filename, attach.filesize, attach.visible AS attachvisible,
                       attach.attachmentid, attach.counter,
                       IF(attach.thumbnail_filesize > 0, 1, 0) AS hasthumbnail, attach.thumbnail_filesize,
                       attachmenttype.thumbnail AS build_thumbnail, attachmenttype.newwindow,
                       user.lastactivity, user.lastvisit, user.options, user.usertitle, user.homepage,
                       IF(displaygroupid=0, user.usergroupid, displaygroupid) AS displaygroupid, user.usergroupid,
                       user.membergroupids
               FROM tmc_thread AS thread
               LEFT JOIN tmc_post AS post ON (post.postid = thread.firstpostid)
               LEFT JOIN tmc_icon AS icon ON (post.iconid = icon.iconid)
               LEFT JOIN tmc_attachment AS attach ON(attach.postid = post.postid)
               LEFT JOIN tmc_attachmenttype AS attachmenttype USING (extension)
               LEFT JOIN tmc_user AS user ON (post.userid = user.userid)
               WHERE thread.forumid = 35
                        AND visible IN (0,1,2)
               ORDER BY thread.dateline DESC
               LIMIT 0,10;

MySQL Error  : Column 'visible' in where clause is ambiguous
Error Number : 1052
Date         : Sunday, March 25th 2007 @ 08:13:25 PM
Script       : -----------------/forums/news.php?f=35
Referrer     : -----------------/forums/showthread.php?t=238&goto=nextnewest

I obscured the URL if you're wondering why there are crazy dashes.

[thincom2000]

Okay, I'm not sure why you don't want us visiting your site... but here goes:

I was unable to duplicate the error on my forum. We are probably running different MySQL server versions. That doesn't mean I haven't attempted to fix the error.

I have gone through news.php and specified any ambiguous fields. I have also added some hook locations and variables that I had previously removed; hopefully this will avoid possible ambiguities between thread counts and threads displayed in the future.

[TheMilkCarton]

Have you tested this hack out with forums that have been marked invisible? Not sure if it had anything to do with the error, but the forum I got the database error on was set to invisible.

And I'm not ready for any traffic yet, so sorry if that's a problem.

As for MySQL version:

MySQL Version 4.1.21-standard

copied from my AdminCP

I really wanted this hack to work.. I really like the idea of seeing the thread from forumdisplay. Maybe I'll have to break down and buy GARS.

[thincom2000]

I think the forum being invisible just prevents users from seeing it on the forum home or wherever, so this shouldn't be an issue. I'm pretty sure the changes I made should fix at least THAT database error you were having.

My MySQL version is 5.0.27 so I can sometimes overlook some things that may be problematic for older versions of MySQL if they don't give me errors.

[TheMilkCarton]

Yay. It works. Still have a glaring graphical error, but I'll just have to look through the templates. But I'm glad to see that whole Comments text thing was worked out.

One huge problem though.. It doesn't obey the default order I had set in the Forum Manager. I set all threads to sort by title, and this does it by date.

Will it be easy to add default sorting options back in? Thank you! This is looking very promising.

Make that two graphical errors. When viewing the articles in news.php there is a large gap between the tr with the post, and the tr with the "Edit" and "Quote" buttons. There's an extra

<tr> </tr>

and it's taking on my tborder properties I believe. The other error is in shownews.php, where it looks like the entire article is pushed 10px over to the right.. but the comments are fine though. Edit: The comments are in the correct place UNTIL you post in them, and then they move over 10px to the right with the news article.

Ok, make that 3 errors. When a comment is posted the cellspacing is way off from what it should look like in a regular thread.

-----------

Fix for one of your templates: In news_threadbit there was an extra set of

<tr> <td></td></tr>

that were empty. Also you have "<if condition="$show['attachments']">" inside of the <tr> tag, you should put the if condition on the outside, since the empty <tr> will show even when there's no attachment. This looked really ugly on my forum, since my tborder was very dark and my alt1 was very light.

And this also just might be personal opinion, but you don't need a "<tr> <td>" wrapped around the "edit note" because it just creates an empty box when there is no edit note. If you really want a box there, you should put it inside the if condition for $show "postedited" so that the box doesn't show up all the time.

EDIT: I get an error when I try limiting the words that show on Newsdisplay. I can't use the BBcode or the method in vB options, I get

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in ...snip.../forums/news.php on line 880

I also get a really messed up table (in Newsdisplay) when a forum that I've designated as a News forum has a description. The Forum name and Description will be stretched across the entire screen, cutting my table in half between the navbar and the first news article.

I've double checked this. I deleted the description from one of the "News" forums and the problem disappears. I thought it had something to do with enabling Announcements (as that's where announcements would show on the news display) but turning them off didn't do anything.

Geez.. Sorry to turn this into such a long post.... Just trying to help out. If you could at least figure out the source of the "Fatal Error" that would be great. I can probably figure out the rest on my own, it's probably just problems with the templates.

[thincom2000]

Most of the issues you are having with the templates are actually there on purpose to help with spacing problems some other forums were having. If you are having issues with your own style and CSS go ahead and change the templates to whatever works for you. Unfortunately if you are not posting your forum URL, I can't help you figure out some of those template issues or include any related fixes in the next update, since it would just be hit or miss otherwise. Too bad, the forum description explosion sounds really crazy.

Strange that the fatal error came back, this was fixed in the previous version. I will look into that.

EDIT: Found a few other buggeries in the process of fixing your fatal error. Included in today's fix, which I just uploaded.