vbArticles v0.4 -- For your repository of Articles/Tutorials/FAQs etc.

UPDATES
version 0.4 is out

- Now allows for basic VBCODE input.
- Fixed somemore bugs.


Background
Required a section on my site to display articles/tutorials
No such hack in the Hacks Database
Decided to try my hand at it

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This hack uses a lot of code from Arunan Sridharan's vB Links Directory v2.0
I use that hack too and was inspired to code something around that
A big thank-you must go out to him for coding the Links Directory in the first place (I merely modified much of the code to suit my needs for this hack)

Appreciation also goes out to Kars10 for aiding me in this hack
He coded the portion in version 0.3 on number of articles count as well as article hits count
He also suggested several template changes which have been incoporated into version 0.3
A great big special shout out to TheComputerGuy, 97cobracpe, dontpanic for stamping out the bugs with your fixes. Thanks guys


WHATS IT DO ?
This hack allows you to have a database of articles/tutorials etc on your site/forums.

FEATURES

AdminCP
Installer script

Admin options

View Categories
Edit Categories
Add Categories ( category name, category icon, category order, category description )
Delete Categories
Add new article ( title, description, author, date, content )
Edit article
Delete article
View ALL articles in database
Option in vB options to turn validation of articles on/off
Fully template based as to how you wish to display the articles,categories and main article home page.
Addition of articles accepts basic VBcodes

Member options

View Categories
Browse Categories
View articles
Submit new article
Submission of articles accepts basic VBcodes


INSTALLATION & UPGRADING
This Hack should work on ALL 2.2.x versions and v2.3.0
Please read the install_readme.txt file in the package for fresh installation instructions
IMPT: If you installed a previous version pls read the upgrade_readme.txt file carefully for upgrade instructions

HACK DOWNLOAD

Version 0.4 of this hack can be downloaded here

ADD-ONS
i) Add-on for vbHome
ii) Add-on for ForumHome
iii) Add-on to enable only registered members to be able to view the article section


DEMO SITES
http://www.runaked.com/forums/articles.php ( running v0.4 ) - TheComputerGuy's site

http://www.mcseworld.com/forums/infocenter.php ( running v0.3 ) - dontpanic's site


Feel free to submit your sites if u installed this hack so it can be listed as another live demo site

SUPPORT
I cannot promise any support on this as i am pretty new to this but I will try my best.
If you are using this hack , pls click the INSTALL button
to be kept in the loop of any bug reports, add-ons and hack version updates.

Thanks everyone

[Russ_T]

I found a new problem

When a user submits from the website and it needs to be validated everything goes fine until the admin validates, when this is done Title and Author get overwritten with the data from Date. I believe it's to do with the line

$DB_site->query("UPDATE vbArticles_content SET valid='$val',title='".addslashes(htmlspecialchars( $name[$key]))."',byline='".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($desc[$key]))."',author='".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($name[$key]))."',date='".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($name[$key]))."',content='".addslashes(htmlspecialchars($des c[$key]))."' WHERE artid='$key'");

from line 190 vbArticlesAdmin.php where a lot of things have author=...$name, date=...$name, title=...$name. There seems to be a mix up with $name[$key] holding the date and being used in too many places.

I could be wrong as I haven't looked into it much.

Thanks

[PurpleCow]

I have a suggestion for the coming up version :

Right now the hack has an option of making the articles viewable only for registered members.

How about giving an option to admin....using which...individual permission can be given for viewable by registered members only.

What i mean, it should be possible to make certain articles viewable by all ( members/guests and other ), while certain articles will be viewable by only Registered members after logging in.

Within a category, few articles can be viewable by all, while others will be viewable by only registered members.
The articles which are viewable by only registered members will be marked with a small icon indicating the same.

Would u like to introduce this feature cinq ??

Thanks much

[cleck673]

Is there a way to intergrate this with vbportal where you can include a left column.

[cleck673]

Refering to the previous question, Does anyone else want to know how to? I am close to getting mine setup right. I figured, rather than being lazy - it is something I was, so I am trying to figure it out on my own. Thanks.

[PixelFx]

to add to this hack, would it be possible to make it so that articles are only viewable by style, and then by group?

[dontpanic]

07-12-03 at 02:16 PM Russ_T said this in Post #141
I found a new problem

When a user submits from the website and it needs to be validated everything goes fine until the admin validates, when this is done Title and Author get overwritten with the data from Date. I believe it's to do with the line



from line 190 vbArticlesAdmin.php where a lot of things have author=...$name, date=...$name, title=...$name. There seems to be a mix up with $name[$key] holding the date and being used in too many places.

I could be wrong as I haven't looked into it much.

Thanks

Russ_T, make sure you perform the code fixes I posted in these locations:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...989#post416989
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...000#post417000
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...031#post417031
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...093#post417093

I've gotten this hack tweaked out and running great with some additional custom mods of my own over at http://www.mcseworld.com/forums/infocenter.php

Best wishes! :smoke:

[cnczone]

Looks GREAT can you share!!??

[dontpanic]

Just make sure you download the updated version of the hack from the first page of this thread. Check the date...it should include all of the fixes identified in posts 126 and on...the only other thing I did was to integrate an HTML editor, but that's a commerical app. Lemme know if you have any other questions. :rambo:

[morpheusXIIX]

I did a very simple template edit to make it easier for registered users who no nothing about HTML. The mod tells the user how to use the br, p, i, b, and u tags.
Although you could easily modify the hack itself so that BB code would print out html. What I did was.

Open template vbArticles_addnewarticle
find:

PHP Code:

<smallfont>Full content of the article</smallfont> 


add below it:

PHP Code:

 <P>
<smallfont>
- Use &LT;br&GT; for line breaks<br>
- Use &LT;p&GT; for double line breaks<br>
- To make text bold, encase it in &LT;b&GT;text&LT;/b&GT; <br>
- To make text italic, encase it in &LT;i&GT;text&LT;/i&GT; <br>
- To make text underlined, encase it in &LT;u&GT;text&LT;/u&GT; <br>
</smallfont> 


Do with it what you will.

[Falkware]

Firstly, thanks for a great hack! Working with this beta to hopefully fill a big void on our site. Thanks for taking the time to supply such a nice and needed addon for vbulletin!

Now, I've been keeping tabs with this thread, applying 'fixes' as they come in. I have all the nice updates provided by dontpanic. Thanks mate.

One problem that keeps persisting is the MySQL error on edit bug. Not been able to find a fix for it, and seems there's no fix to the very problem stated by more than me in this thread

The Infamous Error:
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /path/to/forums/admin/vbArticlesadmin.php on line 236

I get this error when I click "View all articles" then click "Edit" on and article in the list.

When I hope the link I notice it has "&artid=" at the end, but no representation of the article id.

I don't know if this is the problem, but if anyone can solve this MySQL error for me I'd be most grateful.

Thanks again for a great hack! Keep up the good work... (Here's the scary part... I got lots of ideas for this awesome system!! omg!) :bunny: :bunny: :bunny: