Integration with vBulletin - vbulletin-xml-rpc-server for instant Desktop Notification

Let's take a look at following screen-shots first.









Yeah.. these look like Gmail Notifer application which is actually vbulletin-desktop-notifier application. As a forum admin, you might want to offer such application to your members.



== Video tutorials ==
Editing
Uploading
Installation

You can use vBulletin Desktop Notifier as dekstop client or free to build your own following API-DOC .



== Demo watch video ==
I'm offering demo in my forum. Here're the steps.

Download vbulletin-desktop-notifier and install in your machine.

Run vbulletin-desktop-notifier and login using
username: priti
password: 123456

Create a new thread at Demo vbulletin-xml-rpc-server threads or reply to existing thread.

You'll see notification in your desktop within few seconds.

Request: Please do not change password for user Priti. If somehow the login does not work you can try by creating a temporary user.



== Coming up next ?.. ==
Based on feedback I'm listing few of the enhancements that will be part of upcoming releases.

• [S]Server Compatibility check script[/S]
• [S]Options to select forum ids in User CP[/S]
• Display avatar of the person who made post in the notification window
• [S]Unread private message notification[/S]
• [S]Support for PHP4[/S]

Alfa1 came up with these ideas which hopefully will be integrated sooner or later in future releases:

- friends coming online

Which of the following events does this notifier alert to:
Member notifications:
- profile messages awaiting approval
- requests to join your social groups
- invitations to join social groups
- unread picture comments
- picture comments awaiting approval
- group messages awaiting approval

Moderator notifications:
- post awaiting approval
- threads awaiting approval
- events awaiting approval
- attachments awaiting approval
- members awaiting approval
- blogs awaiting approval
- blog comments awaiting approval
- profile comments awaiting approval
- group comments awaiting approval
- pictures awaiting approval
- picture comments awaiting approval

== Ongoing Discussions ?.. ==
discussions on release-02 starts here

== HOT FIX [release 2.0]?.. ==
Rename all files in system/application/models directory into lowercases. i.e:
Forum.php => forum.php
Settings.php => settings.php
Token.php => token.php
User.php => user.php

[yotsume]

Well I followed the below instructions and I get file not found when going to the test.

I try to login with the app and get an error.

I have vbadvanced installed and my index.php file is renamed to forum.php. I set the config to:
$config['index_page'] = "forum.php";

No variations I make work in either the config.php or cd.php file...

So whats next???

Originally Posted by flup

I got it working Here's what to do (thanks to Benstillman aswel!):

FILE MODIFICATION / UPLOADS

Step 1) Download this attachment, it has all changes in filenames etc set already, extract the contents to a folder

Step 2) Open 'upload\vbulletin-xml-rpc-server\cd.php', you need to make a change here, I made it a little bit easier for most users, change this part:

$forum_folder = ''; // WITH ending slash, example: forums/

To fit your forums, if your forum is in the root of your hosting, leave it blank, otherwise it will be forum/ or forums/

Step 3) Open 'upload\vbulletin-xml-rpc-server\system\application\models\config.php' and change this:

$config['base_url']    = "http://www.yourlinkto.com/vbulletin-xml-rpc-server/";

To the full URL of the vbulletin-xml-rpc-server url, including the ending slash.

Step 4) Upload all files from the upload directory to your forumroot.


Product Import

Step 1) Go to your admin panel and scroll down to Plugins & Products, choose 'Manage Products' and on the bottom of that page click [Add/Import Product]

Step 2) Select the 'product-vbxrs.xml' file which was extracted from the zipfile and import the product.

Forum Settings

Step 1) In your browser go to the 'vbxrs_preference.php' file (example: http://www.yourforum.com/vbxrs_preference.php)

Step 2) Select the forums you want to receive updates from.

The Client

Step 1) Download the client over at code.google.com: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletin-d...downloads/list

Step 2) Install the client to your PC, if you are using another system than Vista, go to step 6. Vista users also follow Step 3, 4 and 5!

Step 3) Open your explorer and browse to the directory you installed the client in, by default this is: C:\Program Files\vbdn

Step 4) Right click the file: config.cfn and select properties, click the tab 'Security' and click the button Edit.

Step 5) Click on your username and after that click the checkbox 'Full Control' (all checkboxes will be checked). Now click OK, followed by Apply+Ok.

Step 6) Run the client and edit the settings, both the Forum URL and VBXRS Url must have the ending slashes!

Step 7) Apply changes and restart the client, now add your user information in the login box and your vB Notifier is working.

Credits
Credits of course go to sf.nsuers for this great idea, which hopefully will be expanded soon! and to benstillman who got to explain alot of it already in the previous post.

I just packed it all together and perhaps made it a little bit easier for everyone to get this thing up and running!

[yotsume]

Well I seem to have got this working by using the original forum.php file with the other files listed above. More testing to do! The other package seems to not have the db prefix coded right...

[softvnzla]

Installed and ready to walk the errors of the solutions given here are only a matter of searching

[yotsume]

UNINSTALLED!

The actual windows program that is used for desktop notifications is PATHETIC as an interface.

This make this whole mod a pure waste of time...

[Alfa1]

Originally Posted by yotsume

UNINSTALLED!

The actual windows program that is used for desktop notifications is PATHETIC as an interface.

This make this whole mod a pure waste of time...

Suggest code changes to improve this then.

[yotsume]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Suggest code changes to improve this then.

Agreed... I will come up with suggestion to make that program usable at all. As it stands its a huge waste of time to get this installed, working correctly, and then have such a limited program run on your desktop.

-List recent posts/threads
-List PMs inbox
-list anything would be good...

At some point Ill spend some time and make real details but I have wasted enough on this one already...

[squishi]

This mod looks great.
Unfortunately, I could not get this to work.
I get the message about problems on the server side.
I have edited all the config files and did all I could.
Very annoying...

[Negrosoo]

Good

But i use old methods xD


P.S: I install it , is very very beatifoul

[sixxkilur]

Took me maybe 5 mins to get this addon working, make sure you have PHP 5, and php_xmlrpc extension enabled the restart your web server. then #Editing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> open file `cd.php`
>> search: $vbulletin_path
>>> replace 'C:/wamp/www/vbulletin/' with path to your vBulletin installaion directory
>>>> save and close file.

> open file `system/application/config/config.php`
>> change value of $config['base_url']
##Uploading
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> upload files in `upload` directory
-

###Installation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> login as admin in your vBulletin forum
>> scroll down to `Plugins & Products` section and expand it
>>> click `Manage products`
>>>> click `[Add/Import Product]`
>>>>> on `Import Product` section click on `Browse` button.
>>>>>> point to `product-vbxrs.xml` file that comes with this package
>>>>>>> hit `Import` button

>>> search: config defined for package: vbulletin-xml-rpc-server
>>>> in this section set proper values to meet your needs

Rename all files in system/application/models directory into lowercases. i.e:
Forum.php => forum.php
Settings.php => settings.php
Token.php => token.php
User.php => user.php

if you are using a prefix for vbulletin in your sql database you need to make sure the forum.php in www/vbulletin-xml-rpc-server/system/application/models/forum.php
line 35: matches your prefix in your sql database example: FROM vb_thread t, vb_forum f, vb_post p, vb_user u if you are are not using prefix try this :FROM thread t, forum f, post p, user u save your edits and then configure your cnf speed dial file.

[sixxkilur]

now on to creating a custom notifier or modding this one for my forum, tried creating installer but not much luck there i get a main class error when executin launcher after install
install4j is new ground for me main class is not making since and help file sucks@$$ the box to input main class is blank and no item to search for so really could use some help on that if your not busy. other than that what it is it gets the job done.

using my launcher returns this error

ava.lang.ClassNotFoundException: 1.0
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at com.exe4j.runtime.LauncherEngine.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.exe4j.runtime.WinLauncher.main(Unknown Source)