Automatic Birthday Thread

This hack is inspired by the Birthday Hack for vB2 by Logician. It will automatically create a Happy Birthday thread in a specified forum, listing the people with birthdays for that day. Then other members can post their happy birthday wishes in the thread.

I had the original hack installed on my VB2 board and when I upgraded to VB3 my members missed it. Luckily, it's really easy to implement.

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Files to modify: /includes/cron/birthday.php
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Instructions are in the attached text file. The mod should take about 5 minutes.

Be sure to change the variables that say // CHANGE ME

You can customize the message in the $birthday_greeting_thread variable. You could also ad IMG tags with an image of some kind, like in my screenshot.

Note that you MUST turn on BB CODE in you birthday forum in order for this to work properly.
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Enjoy (and thanks for the inspiration, Logician!)
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New in Version 2.0:

Bug fixes:
> More accurate age calculation. Sometimes it was a year off.
> The correct thread shows up in the last thread post on the forum home page.
> HTML is not required to be turned on in the birthday forum.
> Most of the code is completely rewritten to vB3 standards.

New features:
> Improved look
> Birthday line now says: (User) was born on (date), (AGE: xx)
> If the year is not given, it says "Not telling! " for age.
> The admin is emailed a list of the birthdays with links to their profiles and a link to the happy birthday thread.
> If you use the uShop/uCash hack, you can give birthday points to the users

Upgrading:

Since the code has changed so drastically, I suggest starting with a fresh copy of birthday.php and following the instructions for a new install.

[bishop93]

Originally Posted by TwinsForMe

It doesn't seem to be working.

When I installed, I ran it manually and it worked. It's been a few days and no birthday threads or emails have been sent and I know there have been birthdays. I tried to run it manually and nothing happens.

I'm seeing the same behavior now. Was there ever an explanation or fix for this?

[bishop93]

Not sure how I fixed it, but works like a charm for us now.

[Rhoads]

I get an empty field when the thread is posted.
I only see the title "Happy Birthday to on January 22, 2005"

I think it is not working on 3.0.6 :devious:

[ChurchMedia]

It's working on 3.0.5...

[Rhoads]

I get everyday on 07.30 a birthday thread, but there are no birthday's :ermm:
How can I stop this, the titel is the same as : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=133

[Rhoads]

Originally Posted by drl2005

I get everyday on 07.30 a birthday thread, but there are no birthday's :ermm:
How can I stop this, the titel is the same as : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=133

Is there still support :disappointed:

[Onkel_Tom]

This hack works fine also for vb3.0.6 !
you have to check the installation instruction and redo all. there must be a wrong insert in the php files from you

[Rhoads]

Originally Posted by Onkel_Tom

This hack works fine also for vb3.0.6 !
you have to check the installation instruction and redo all. there must be a wrong insert in the php files from you

It's a clean install on vb3.0.6, I think my cronjob is wrong.

[Onkel_Tom]

Looks like mine cronjob
You have a problem with you code when you get empty threads.
did you use table prefixes?

[Rhoads]

Originally Posted by Onkel_Tom

Looks like mine cronjob
You have a problem with you code when you get empty threads.
did you use table prefixes?

No, I have no table prefix, but I get each day a empty thread when there is no birthday, When there is a birthday, than de message is oke.