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

[BrandiDup]

Very nice. Not sure if I will install or not but very nice mod!

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by joakandr

When a social group is deleted, the forum isn't.

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

[trackpads]

Very nice!! Excellent work!!!

[hichew]

i tried this mod on my forum last night but can't find the "create forum" altough i set the minimum member to create forum is 1

any comment on performance issue with 450.000 members on board?

[Varsh]

Enter the social group and at the bottom bar where it has edit/delete group, pending members, etc., the link to create the forum is in there.

[therogueforums]

Installed! Thank you! Until this mod was released, I had no intention of using the Social Groups option.

[trackpads]

I think a good interim solution would be making the forum not viewable on the Vb index. That way it is still slightly private because you would have to atleast entire the club to get the link to the forum.

This is a freaking awesome idea for a hack!!!

[Tigur]

I've been wanting a hack like this for a long time - only one who came close was vBClubs and even then it wasn't truly what I wanted. I can't wait till the private forum part becomes available. Especially if it hid it from other user groups automatically.

[Mum]

In the meantime is there anyway to manually hide this except for members of the group? I am trying to work out how, but can't cos there isn't any 'permissions' for the group - is there any wya around this shortterm?

[aggiefan]

Originally Posted by Mum

In the meantime is there anyway to manually hide this except for members of the group? I am trying to work out how, but can't cos there isn't any 'permissions' for the group - is there any wya around this shortterm?

i dont think there is a way but the next version would support that.... and yes its the only real problem with this script. this really needs to make it in and im hoping it will because this is an outstanding hack.

also one other little thing i would like to see added maybe.... have a similar section to "recent posts" showing on the group page in vbulletin. much like vbadvanced where we can get an idea of the forum w/o having to visit it.