Dynamic Announcements: Programmable Forum Home Announcement/Message with conditionals

This hack allows you to post powerful dynamic announcements (changing according to different conditions) on forum home page. It differs from vbulletin's default announcements in 2 ways:

• The announcement is displayed in forum home page (or other board pages), not inside thread view. So visitors will read them without clicking on them.
• The Hack's announcements are not static: ie. they can be powerfully programmed to change themselves according to many conditions.

Basic Usage : You can set a text in your Admin CP and it's displayed in forum home to all users.

Advanced Usage : With conditionals you can set different texts/notifications/messages/announcements and they will be displayed if your pre-configured condition applies. This allows you to create powerful announcements/private messages/texts which address their receipt only if a certain condition is met. Some examples:

You can set to show an announcement in forum home IF:

2. user is X
3. user's usergroup is Y
4. his profile field Z is X
5. user has X posts or has more than Y posts but less than Z posts
6. his last visit time was X days ago
7. today is X, hour is between Y and Z, day is wednesday, month is Y, week is month's 2nd week, today is user's birthday
8. User is invisible/visible
9. user is using style A
10. his cookies are on
11. his timeset is set to A
12. etc..

The conditionals even allows you to design "Board Tips" ever changing according to user's seniority or post number. See how-to document for conditional usage and more info..

It's tested in both v.2.2.6 and v.2.2.7 but it should work with any versions > 2.0.3. (v.2.2.8 or later Users READ HERE!) I'm using it in my own board and a friend's board for more than a month and found it quite stable and released it. Although not likely, if you found any bugs, holler and I'll fix it..

Here is a Screenshot from a "general announcement".
Here is a Screenshot of announcement which is addressed to a certain user.

Some Features:

• It's Admin CP integrated (Screenshot)
• Smiley and BBCode in announcements are parsed
• You can address your users with their usernames inside announcements (Use $bbuserinfo[username] variable)
• Announcements are displayed directly in Forum Home so users are forced to read them.
• The Conditionals help you to design powerful and ever changing announcements/private messages/forum home notifications.

If you have problems displaying HTML/smilie/bbcode in your announcements, make this tiny change in hack code

If you install the hack, click INSTALL, thank you..

Logician \\=^))

[Logician]

Originally posted by SpeedStreet
GREAT Hack! Only problem I am having, is that if I try entering in HTML code, it will not parse it. I only see my code on the page.

This should work:

In the hack code, find:

PHP Code:

$matches14[2]=bbcodeparse($matches14[2]); 


Replace it as:

PHP Code:

$matches14[2]=bbcodeparse2($matches14[2],1,1,1,1); 


Enjoy..

[Boofo]

Sinan, if we choose to put the code in the global.php, do we need to use the code for 2,2,8 and above like we did in the index.php (before it was removed) or the code you have in that section (which is the code for 2.2.7 and below)? I am running 2.2.9.

And is it ok to use this AND the Dynamic templates hack together, ir is it redundant to do that? I have them both installed now.

[Boofo]

Originally posted by Buddha
hey, thanks a lot... works like a charm... makes it a lot easier to pop to that section and make constant announcements.

thank you.

Where did you add that at and how does the line of code look for that?

Also, you said you made it bigger. How?

[mehungie2]

is there a way to have these just show up on individual forums to all users?

[Logician]

Originally posted by Boofo
Sinan, if we choose to put the code in the global.php, do we need to use the code for 2,2,8 and above like we did in the index.php (before it was removed) or the code you have in that section (which is the code for 2.2.7 and below)? I am running 2.2.9.

good point.. Yes you have to use the code for 2.2.8 above if you are using vb 2.2.8 or later..

And is it ok to use this AND the Dynamic templates hack together, ir is it redundant to do that? I have them both installed now.

they can work together, I have them both installed too...

[Boofo]

Thank you, sir. I use the Dynamic templates hack for EVERYTHING now. I'm looking forward to making good use of the one, too.

By the way, is there a way to be able to use the announcements on any page AND the index.php? I know we have to put it in one or the other, but it would be great to be able to use them both places. Do you know what I mean?

One last thing...is there a way to make a link in the left panel that will take you to the bottom of the vbulletin options where the announcement box is straight from that link?

[Logician]

Originally posted by Boofo


Where did you add that at and how does the line of code look for that?

right under:

PHP Code:

makenavoption("vBulletin Options","options.php?t=0","<br>"); 


in admin/index.php and don't forget to edit "#settinggroup34" part..

As for making it bigger, check the thread's old posts plz.. I gave the code somewhere in the thread, I can't remember where

[Logician]

uh you are replying me faster than I'm replying you lol

Originally posted by Boofo
Thank you, sir. I use the Dynamic templates hack for EVERYTHING now. I'm looking forward to making good use of the one, too.

yeah I like the hack much too..

By the way, is there a way to be able to use the announcements on any page AND the index.php? I know we have to put it in one or the other, but it would be great to be able to use them both places. Do you know what I mean?

adding the code in global.php should let you use in main page too. In other words adding there means using in any vb page..

One last thing...is there a way to make a link in the left panel that will take you to the bottom of the vbulletin options where the announcement box is straight from that link?

replied above..

[Boofo]

Originally posted by Logician
uh you are replying me faster than I'm replying you lol

Great minds think alike. LOL

adding the code in global.php should let you use in main page too. In other words adding there means using in any vb page..

Ok, but you said the global is called before the index.php. I was referring to the $allpm example you gave above. I would like to be able to do that sort of thing on the index page and still be able to use it elsewhere in the forum.

And I tried adding that code under the vb options link on the left but it takes me to the top of the vb options listing instead of to bottom of it. And idea how to make it go to the bottom? I did the settinggroup ID but it didn't change it.

[Logician]

Originally posted by mehungie2
is there a way to have these just show up on individual forums to all users?

You can use this hack for this