NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15


Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

• Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
• Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
• Handles UUEncoded messages.
• Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
• Automated installation.
• Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
• Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
• Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
• Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
• Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
• Multiple attachments importing.
• Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
• Thumbnail created while importing image files.
• Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
• Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
• Light on system resources.
• Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
• Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
• Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

• AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
• Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
• Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

• Provided option of not importing attachments
• Provided option of pause between messages
• Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
• Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
• Provided "Default Footer" option
• Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
  (written originally by KevinM)
• Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
• Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
• Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
  (use prefix)
• Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
  as vB3.0.3
• Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
• Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

• Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
• Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
  each group.
• Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
• Scheduled task log is now working
• Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
• Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by Marv

good morning, lierduh.

sorry - that?s what I should have done with the last post already.

Directly after submitting a new thread to the forums I manually run gateway.php without clicking anywhere else and it says:
nothing more...that?s it.
If someones posting now a new answer to that post gateway.php works as it should, but is only sending the answer to the newsserver - not the starting post. so it?s a bit confusing for the newsgroup when answers appear but the starting post is missing..
And of course - the post shows up in my forums but gateway.php just doesn?t seem to recognize that.

If it?s not to impudent, lierduh, would you mind to have a look in my forums by yourself? In that case I would send you the logins for .htaccess and the forum via PM. (erm...and before you ask - the problem remains with and without .htaccess enabled )
Guess it?s easier to make a troubleshooting when you?re on the deck and can see the script in action. Just a suggestion.

And by the way.. - I really appreciate the work you?ve done to this hack. Thanks for the given support - must be hard to handle all the little problems that endusers like me are coming up with..:nervous:

Can you access to your MySQL table directly, perhaps using something like phpmyadmin?

Find out which postid has the problem of not being sent. Check the "post" table, and see if the "isusenetpost" is 1. When someone posts a new message, isusenetpost is 0 as the default. The script changes it to 1 after posting it.

[trackpads]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Are you using the same Pop3 mail box? The current version requires a separate email for each mailing list.

Yup. same box. Dang :-)

[BustaCap]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Once they are subscribed, there is very little benefit for them to post through the forum instead of just shoot an email directly to the list.

Actually, just the opposite. By posting through the forum you are letting your posts be indexed and searchable by user name, otherwise the posts are by "guest". I use that feature quite often on the rest of my forum. Also, the biggest benefit in my opinion is that it's much easier to follow threads in a forum with threaded posts as compared to email lists where posts are received in your mailbox. If you don't read the list every day, it's a real pain trying to follow topics in your inbox vs. threaded posts on your forum.

However, for some reason I'll never understand, there will always be people who only want to participate via email. Thus the need for both the forum and email list and not just one or the other.

Originally Posted by lierduh

2)Closed list. There isn't a good clear solution. Even if you offer your master email address as the posting email address with other user's forum user name. It will not be a good picture to be honest. It is kind of cheating, and unrespectful to the list owner, since the list is a close list. I really need to think again about how to handle this. One thing a forum ower does not want to have is to have the list members hating your forums. The same goes for newsgroups.

It sounds like you are assuming that I'm not the list master. As it happens I'm not . But my point is that you are looking at this from only one point of view, which is putting the forum owner in a dishonest light. Of course, I would never do this without a discussion with the list owner as well as the list users. I mentioned before that only lists users would have posting privileges, making the "closed" list not an issue. It would only be done with everyone?s approval. However, when I suggest it I would like to be able to demonstrate how it would work, but I can't do that without a working system

I'm quite sure that if it worked like how I hope it will that everyone would be agreeable to it since it would benefit both the list and the forum; increased exposure for both groups and imo, a much better user interface with the forum.

[Marv]

Originally Posted by lierduh

Can you access to your MySQL table directly, perhaps using something like phpmyadmin?

hi lierduh, I can

Originally Posted by lierduh

Find out which postid has the problem of not being sent. Check the "post" table, and see if the "isusenetpost" is 1. When someone posts a new message, isusenetpost is 0 as the default. The script changes it to 1 after posting it.

It?s interesting - I had a look in the tables as you suggested and some of them still had the value isusenetpost is 0. But that was yesterday! I said it doesn?t post new threads - but after I had that little peek into the tables...and damn,..now it works like a charme aranoid: What the heck?s happening there.....?? May be my database is alive and made from flesh and blood ? But than it would be a female for sure

[high] * Marv takes full cover.. :knockedout:[/high]

Whatever, the problem seems to be solved. Thanks, lierduh.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by BustaCap

Actually, just the opposite. By posting through the forum you are letting your posts be indexed and searchable by user name, otherwise the posts are by "guest". I use that feature quite often on the rest of my forum. Also, the biggest benefit in my opinion is that it's much easier to follow threads in a forum with threaded posts as compared to email lists where posts are received in your mailbox. If you don't read the list every day, it's a real pain trying to follow topics in your inbox vs. threaded posts on your forum.

So the benefit only comes down to that particular user's username is used instead of a 'Guest post' in the forums? (oh, also the post count is boosted by one?). When a list member (who is also your forum member) posts to the list by sending an email, he or she will receive all the messages in the email. A filter would need to be activated in his/her email clients to get rid of all the messages coming from the mailing list. So that he/she can read the same messages in your forum with some of the reading benefits that a forum provides (may be)? An email client usually does threading too.

There are quite a few benefits by using email to participate in a mailing list instead of using a forum interface. eg.

1) No delay of sending the message
2) Alerted straight away when a reply is available
3) Knowing the format sent will be the format seen in the email
...

However, for some reason I'll never understand, there will always be people who only want to participate via email. Thus the need for both the forum and email list and not just one or the other.

I can fully understand someone who wants to use the proper way to participate in a mailing list. I can however understand people who do not trust a forum to send the message.

It sounds like you are assuming that I'm not the list master. As it happens I'm not . But my point is that you are looking at this from only one point of view, which is putting the forum owner in a dishonest light. Of course, I would never do this without a discussion with the list owner as well as the list users. I mentioned before that only lists users would have posting privileges, making the "closed" list not an issue. It would only be done with everyone?s approval. However, when I suggest it I would like to be able to demonstrate how it would work, but I can't do that without a working system

I'm quite sure that if it worked like how I hope it will that everyone would be agreeable to it since it would benefit both the list and the forum; increased exposure for both groups and imo, a much better user interface with the forum.

My point of view comes from providing the functionality that are logical to general users. Or providing options for different users to make them logical.

I guess what you want to set up is (let me know if it is not):

* Let only handful of forum members to post in the mailing list forum, perhaps by setting forum permission.
* They need to subscribe to the list using the same email address as the email address they use for the forums

I think finding the methodology is the hard part.

Looks like the mailing list part of the function has taken over the usenet part. It can only be:

1) The usenet part just works without the need to post a message
2) There are plenty demand for the mailing list function (should I say list archive function at this stage)

[BustaCap]

Originally Posted by lierduh

So the benefit only comes down to that particular user's username is used instead of a 'Guest post' in the forums? (oh, also the post count is boosted by one?).

Mainly it allows you to search by username. For example, show me all posts by Capt. Kirk with Klingon in the title. I use this type of search all the time when I remember who posted the thread and the subject, but I can't seem to find it by a general search. I also use the "find all posts by this user" quite often.

Originally Posted by lierduh

When a list member (who is also your forum member) posts to the list by sending an email, he or she will receive all the messages in the email. A filter would need to be activated in his/her email clients to get rid of all the messages coming from the mailing list.

Well, I would suspect that those who choose to participate via the forum would no long use the email list since it would be redundant.

When I originally was looking at forum software there was one product (I forget which one) that allowed users to particpate via the forum or via email. So, if someone posted a message on the forum they would receive an email that they could then respond to. That response would then show up back in the forum. Neither one would even be aware the other wasn't posting messages in the same way. This allows the best of both worlds, those who want to particpate via the forum can and those who choose to only particpate via the mailing list can also do so. The hard part is making it transparant to the user. When I think how it would work I guess that's what I'm shooting for Those who are happy to post via email could continue to do so and those who want to view and post messages on the forum could choose that option. The end result is that both groups are happy and both groups have increased exposure.

Originally Posted by lierduh

I guess what you want to set up is (let me know if it is not):

* Let only handful of forum members to post in the mailing list forum, perhaps by setting forum permission.

Yes. The way I would set it up would be to deny everyone posting privlages to that forum, and then I would create a usergroup with posting privlages, and anyone that was a member of the listgroup who requested it, I would move them to that usergroup.

Originally Posted by lierduh

* They need to subscribe to the list using the same email address as the email address they use for the forums

I think so although I'm not sure. My *guess* would be that for it to work, my email address would first be accepted, and then the listbot would look at the From field in the header (or maybe the reply to email address?) and then use that to show who the message is from.

I am likely the only one here who is interested in this function , so I don't want to take up too much of your time making something that I'm likely the only one to use. I was just hoping it might be somthing quick and simple, like unscrambling the outoing email address and perhaps inserting the posters name into the "From" field. Regardless, I am very happy with how it works now and I appreciate the work you have done on the hack

[fustanella]

Originally Posted by lierduh

What is it?

It's great, that's what is is.

I am delighted with this; thank you! It was painless to install, worked both inbound and out the first time without fiddling, and adds a handy new service for my members.

I would like to find a way to automate the gateway.php calls under WinNT 4, though. I understand the concept of 'cron' but don't see how this maps directly over, other than through "Scheduled Tasks" - specifically, how I can run the PHP script either in a browser window that closes when done, or without the need for a browser at all.

(Anyone who has insights on my related question of importing text files as vB3 messages is welcome to chime in as well, over at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=66250 - thanks.)

[jilly]

i can find the name, like alt.paranormal - how do i know what it's nntp is?

[fustanella]

Originally Posted by jilly

i can find the name, like alt.paranormal - how do i know what it's nntp is?

NNTP is the protocol, like HTTP is for web pages. You'll find newsgroups on your ISP's news-server, often news.(ispname).com. Check with your ISP for specifics.

If your ISP doesn't carry newsgroups or the specific one you want, there are subscription services available, and maybe even a free German news-server still available upon request.

[trackpads]

Is there a way to write a conditional in Postbit LEgact so that if it is a USENET or MList post that we can disable the entire postbit or just make it display something like "USENET"? That would make it a lot nicer when you have some really long names that are taken from the usenet.

Also, is there a way to disable the killfile for mlists only? The killfile is an AWEOME addition and has really, really helped me on my site.

Thanks again for all the work on this!!

-Jason