Geek Article System 2.0 (lite)

This hack is a simple and effective (but lighter) version of the very popular Geek Article System 3.0 .
This is actually the first Geek Article System which I still support as it offers people who dont need all the whistles and bells of the larger version (multipage, sidebar, bylines) in a far simpler nutshell.

The key reason for me crating GAS was that I wanted my articles (I also use them as tutorials) to be searchable and reside within the Froums. So I made this simple hack. It may not be all singing and dancing, but I think it can moonwalk with the best of them.

Difficulty to install: A cinch
Time to install: ~5 minutes (if that)
Installer: yup

UPDATE v.2c (17/01/2004)
Fixed rouge phrase that didnt install right.

UPDATE v.2 (04/01/2004)
Removed some left over html in geek_postbit_article that was for my style. The extra HTML that was in there may wack out your layout a touch.
Added a missing phrase (geek_articles_rate_this_article)
Installs either English or French phrases (thanks to cclaerhout)

UPDATE V. 2 (03/01/2004)
Added 2 more templates: showthread and forumdisplay variants (though these are much more subtle... mostly phrase changes
Added a couple of buttons (comments and new article)
Grouped phrases into their own lot

UPDATE V. 1.5 (14/12/2004)
Creted a Zip file with installer and ReadMe
Phrased the postbit.
Thats about it.


nJoy

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by cinq

Hi nail geek, just wondering if this feature mentioned has been included in version 2 ?

Hey Cinq,

Its not included with version 2 as that is focused on phrasing and forumdisplay modifications.
I have sorted out the problems giving me woe and I really only have to finish the newthread modifications and create an install package to complete. There are some screenshots earlier in this thread if I remember rightly.
The next version will be seperate from this one as I still see a positive place for this hack even when the next version is released.

[Robert9]

Really hate it! After installation and cant use the admin options in admin menu (dont know the english word for that, mean the place to set all the values for the board itself.) Anyone else with this problem? Anyone with an idea how this could happen?

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Robert9

Really hate it! After installation and cant use the admin options in admin menu (dont know the english word for that, mean the place to set all the values for the board itself.) Anyone else with this problem? Anyone with an idea how this could happen?

Eh?
There are no admin options for this hack, nor does this hack even come anywhere near the admin settings.
Are you trying to say that you can't get into your admin control panel now?
I just dont know how that would be possible!

[TCB]

I'm having a hard time deciding which of the article mods to use. Yours, cinq's vbarticle, v3articles. Yours has the huge advantage that's extremely well integrated with the forum (permission, layout, etc.), while the others are not shown as an real part of the forums categories.

Things that I miss with yours:
* possibilty to add original writer (or source) (Cinq's vbarticles)
* a physical "you've rated this article" feature (like v3articles)
* the 'Media' display of the attachments. (v3articles)
* First attachment to be used as illustration image for the featured article (v3articles)
* option to feature an article (v3articles)
* option to add summary of article that will be used (along with the first attachment) as featured/random article on forumhome.

Are there any chances that features like this can be expected for your (good already) mod?

[memobug]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

Eh?
There are no admin options for this hack, nor does this hack even come anywhere near the admin settings.
Are you trying to say that you can't get into your admin control panel now?
I just dont know how that would be possible!

I think I know, Me! Me!

My bet is he messed up on the phpinclude template mod.

I had a similar problem unrelated to this articles hack when I switched servers. For some reason, even in the admincp mode, vbulletin executes that phpinclude_start template code. (I am getting the name wrong but I am away from my own PC ast the moment) If it doesn't compile, your script stops and you are hosed with no admin panel. Go into phpMyAdmin, find the attachments table that contains the modified phpinclude_start and remove that code from the your default template, so you can get back into admincp.

It's a little weird that admincp does this (execute the php_include) I have no idea why.

Regards,

Matt

[memobug]

Originally Posted by TCB

I'm having a hard time deciding which of the article mods to use. Yours, cinq's vbarticle, v3articles. Yours has the huge advantage that's extremely well integrated with the forum (permission, layout, etc.), while the others are not shown as an real part of the forums categories.

Things that I miss with yours:
1 possibilty to add original writer (or source) (Cinq's vbarticles)
2 a physical "you've rated this article" feature (like v3articles)
3 the 'Media' display of the attachments. (v3articles)
4 First attachment to be used as illustration image for the featured article (v3articles)
5 option to feature an article (v3articles)
6 option to add summary of article that will be used (along with the first attachment) as featured/random article on forumhome.

Are there any chances that features like this can be expected for your (good already) mod?

If you're using vbadvanced CMPS, I think a separate hack could take care of most of these. #5 already exists for vbadvanced/geekarticles for #6 I have a hack on my news forum that will clip the summary display at the word
-MORE- and give you a summary, so that is doable, and I have last image posted working, so it wouldn't be hard to do #4 at all to get the first. I don't know what #3 Media display is. #2 sounds like it could be doable with a template modification, maybe just a bit more. Looking forward to #1 myself.

Regards,

Matt

[The Geek]

Well, I guess that is cool to be considered as an option for other (significantly) larger hacks.

Ill try to address each point-
1- Next (major) release has this ability
2- Sounds kind of cool. I wont promise it for next release but I will promise to look into it as I dig it.
3- Are you saying that instead of how attachments are displayed now... you would like them displayed like the Media Boxes in vB articles?
4- Wouldnt think that would be too hard... Ill look into that
5- Does the Featured Geek Article hack take care of this?
6- I cant guarantee that there will be a 'summary' or 'intro' section for each article as this has proven to be a little challanging. And as Matt pointed out, the featured/random articles comes almost there with snipping text at a particular point.

The one thing that makes this hack so great (even as is) is because it leaves little to no footprint. There is minimum code changes which means easy upgrades and you get all the benefits of vB(security, searching, permissions). Because of that, there havent really been any real errors to speak of from this hack. It is important that I keep as much of that as possible with the next release (which so far I have done!). Sadly, I have been out of the country on business so I havent had any time to finish it yet.

Watch this space!

Hope this helps and good luck with your decision

Matt - Cheers for the heads up on the phpstart problem (and everything else). That was an odd one!

[hockyfan]

Slightly off-topic, but nail geek, how did you get your main forums list to look as it does (http://www.thenailgeek.com/forums.php) - the layout, I'm referring to. Is that a hack, or a custom skin/template design?


h

[agiacosa]

Help! Installed but it seems to have messed up my index.php. See here:

http://www.aquaticplantcentralc.om/forumapc/index.php The articles forum are at the bottom. As you can see, they don't obey the main forum/sub forum format and they throw the rest of the skin out of whack.

What did I do wrong?

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by agiacosa

Help! Installed but it seems to have messed up my index.php. See here:

http://www.aquaticplantcentralc.om/forumapc/index.php The articles forum are at the bottom. As you can see, they don't obey the main forum/sub forum format and they throw the rest of the skin out of whack.

What did I do wrong?

Hi agiacosa. I have looked at the link here-> http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/index.php and I cant see anything that you are making reference to. Can you give me a link to an article in question?

Hockeyfan- Its a specialty skin by DirectPixel

Thanks