Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums 1.4

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.7
Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.7 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.6.x due to non existent feature of "social groups".

Support will be only given for people who clicked Mark as INSTALLED.

Description
Not satisfied with vBulletin social groups messaging function? With SocialForums your social group leaders can create a standard forum for their group.
A group leader can only create a forum if the group has at least 5 members - this can be changed via settings. Optionally the group leader can be a moderator of such a social forum.

Permissions
Since 1.3 there are advanced permissions active (Forum and Archive). This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.

Demo
None, see screenshots

Installation
This product is fully phrased and uses template hooks. No file changes or manual template edits needed.
1. Upload bitfield_socialforums.xml to existing folder /includes/xml/
2. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
3. Fresh Installation: Just import the product. Upgrade: Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
4. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

Troubleshooting
Q: I don't see a link to create a forum. Why?
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, espacially if the user is allowed to create forum.
A: Check if the usergroup meet min users requirement, see AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums.

Q: My users see the forums, but they shouldn't!
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, if the users usergroup is set to "can see".
A: Did you disabled the restriction mode? Enable it.

Todo
- By deleting a group the forum should also be deleted/archived. Currently this has to be done manually.

Known Issues
- On big boards with hundreds of social groups this mod can really impact the performance because of the mass of new created forums. If you still want to use this mod use the "Minimum Members" feature with a higher value. Using the permission check there are additional two queries on every page.

History
1.4.6, 6th October 2008
- Permissions are now also active in Archive

1.4.2, 27th May 2008
- Added: If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).
- Added: Recent threads in linked forum on group home
- Added: Private groups: Link to forum only shown to members of group
- Changed: Enabled permissions for unregistered usergroup. Unregistered Users are not more explicit denied without a check of it's usergroup

1.3.1, 23th May 2008
- Fixed: Not existing array

1.3.0, 23th May 2008
- Added: Permissions are now active. This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. Please check permissions for every usergroup! As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.
- Added: Checks for permission before the creation link will be displayed
- Changed: Default View Age set to "Show all Threads"

1.2.1 8th April 2008:
- Added: Group messaging can be disabled via options (previously: always disabled)

1.2.0 4th April 2008:
- Added: Groupleader can now be moderator of group forum
- Added: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Added: Group messaging will be automatically hide for group that has own forum
- Added: Forums are created with more allowances
- Added: By deleting a forum the linked socialgroup get's updated
- Added: Forum's description contains link back to social group
- Added: By changing group's name it synchronize it with the forum's name

1.0/1.1 1st April 2008:
- Initial releases

[KURTZ]

Marius (i've installe this hack) it runs, but i saw that the admin/supermod can't post in a UG's Forum ...

[KURTZ]

i'm back, maybe i've found an issue:

1) i 'build' a fresh new UG
2) i create a forum for my UG (i'm the moderator) so that's OK
3) if someone join my (just) created UG i can't edit anything onto my UG (i mean forum, UG etc)

also about the Admin permissions: i also checked into 'forum permissions' and i saw that i got all the box checked to 'yes' but when i try to post into that forum i haven't the correct permissions ...

[Phalynx]

That's right, noone beside the members of a SG can post in such a social forum.

What do you mean you can't edit exactly? Forum is only editable via AdminCP. Name of forum is beeing synced with the name of the SG.

[DieselTruck]

I've read where you will make the forums accessable to just the members in the group? Correct?

Great mod, Thanks!

[Phalynx]

Yes, a future version will have a permission check for viewing and posting. Currently only posting is disallowed when the user ist not a member of the group.

[KURTZ]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

That's right, noone beside the members of a SG can post in such a social forum.

What do you mean you can't edit exactly? Forum is only editable via AdminCP. Name of forum is beeing synced with the name of the SG.

i mean which when someone joins my 'fresh new' SG i can't edit anything into my social group (i mean: name of the SG, etc etc)

[Phalynx]

Does this happen also if you uninstall SocialForums? This modification does not change permissions for editing.

[Varsh]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Yes, a future version will have a permission check for viewing and posting. Currently only posting is disallowed when the user ist not a member of the group.

Once this eventually gets implemented I'll be a very happy bunny.

Originally Posted by KURTZ

i mean which when someone joins my 'fresh new' SG i can't edit anything into my social group (i mean: name of the SG, etc etc)

You can't rename your SG, it has nothing to do with SF. If you want this feature you'll have to wait for someone else to make a hack for it or ask the vB team to implement it. If you renamed the SG name then I presume that the SF will get out of sync unless the rename of the SG also renames the SF at the same time.

I think renaming is a bad idea anyway.

[jilly]

I've installed the update, by overwriting the old .xml with the new one, and checked my admincp, and disable group messages is set to 'no', but the group messages still do not appear..

[Phalynx]

By renaming a SG the SF get's renamed also. Sync is done via ForumID, not Name.