Dynamic Announcements: Programmable Forum Home Announcement/Message with conditionals

(This hacks works with both 3.5.x and 3.6.x)

This hack allows you to post powerful dynamic announcements (changing according to different conditions) on forum home page. It differs from vbulletin's default announcements in 2 ways:

• The announcement is displayed in forum home page, not inside thread view. So visitors will read them on home page without clicking any links.
• The Hack's announcements are not static: ie. they can be powerfully programmed to display different texts according to different conditions.

For instance you can tell "why they should register" if visitor is a guest, but if he is a member with 0 posts, you can tell him why he should start posting etc.! All in one announcement! Everybody will see the relevant text according to his status. (This is the hack everybody keeps asking in the TheAdminZone.com whose using the hack for members with 0 and 1 posts.)


This version of the hack is for vbulletin 3.5.x and 3.6.x (vb 3.0.x version is here and vb 2.x version is here. 3.5 version is coded as a plugin so you can install it WITHOUT modifying vb PHP files. It is easily installed in 2 steps through your admin cp.

Basic Usage of This Hack: You can set a text in your Admin CP and it's displayed in forum home to all users. Alternatively if you want, you can set another text as a popup announcement and it is displayed to all as a pop up announcement (it can't be killed with popup killers software!)

Advanced Usage : With conditionals you can set different texts/notifications/messages/announcements and they will be displayed if your pre-configured condition applies. This allows you to create powerful announcements/private messages/texts which address their receipt only if a certain condition is met. Some examples:

You can set to show an announcement in forum home IF:

1. user is X
2. user's usergroup is Y
3. user has X posts or has more than Y posts but less than Z posts
4. his last visit time was X days ago
5. today is X, hour is between Y and Z, day is wednesday, month is Y, week is month's 2nd week, today is user's birthday
6. etc.

Here is a Screenshot from a general table announcement.
Here is a Screenshot from a popup announcement.

Some Features:

• Coded as a vbulletin pluggin. Can be installed easily without hacking PHP files.
• It's Admin CP integrated
• Smiley, BBCode, HTML, IMG tags are supported in announcements.
• You can address your users with their usernames inside announcements (Use $bbuserinfo[username] variable)
• Announcements are displayed directly in Forum Home so users are forced to read them.
• The Conditionals help you to design powerful and ever changing announcements/private messages/forum home notifications.
• Poupup announcement can not be killed by popup killer software

Hacks of Hack:
* For CMPS Integration see here
* French Translation by Allan : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=143
* Nested Conditionals by dc3dreamer : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=175
* Hack Annoucement appears in all vb pages:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...498#post911498



IMPORTANT FOR 3.x USERS:
If you were already using this hack in 3.0.x, remember to do 2 things:
BEFORE YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Follow this instructions to remove the remnants of 3.0.x hack.
AFTER YOU INSTALL THIS HACK : Go to your admin cp / styles, find these 3 styles:
dfh_announcement
dfh_announcement_headercode
dfh_announcement_popup
and REVERT THEM so that your new templates that comes with 3.5 version will apply.

About vb4.x version:

I didn't consider porting this hack to vb4 because vbulletin has now a VERY SIMILAR feature in vb4 called "NOTICES". You can find it under your admin cp/Notices submenu/Notice Manager. It is not as powerful as this hack as this hack allows you to use any kind of conditional to produce your announcement but it is more user friendly because you don't need to deal with conditional syntax, you simply build your announcement (notice) with menus
If you install the hack, click INSTALL, thank you..

Logician \\=^))

[Logician]

Originally Posted by BlackRanger3d

I have 3.5.1

I have followed all the instructions but

I don't see it in the VBoption setup section.
And when I look in the plugin manager it is not listed so I can not change any of the hooks.

TIA

Something is wrong with installation instructions step 3. Make sure you did it correctly.

Could you please post some samples for me to use,

Second post of this thread has some examples.

[BlackRanger3d]

Thanks dude, I am no fairly certian it is a vb issue.
I have istalled many hacks and products..so i am very certain that I followed your instructions..oh well off to vb forums.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by BlackRanger3d

Thanks dude, I am no fairly certian it is a vb issue.
I have istalled many hacks and products..so i am very certain that I followed your instructions..oh well off to vb forums.

It might be clashing with another hack. Try to disable other products/pluggins and try again. Also make sure you use regular vb product manager not anyother hack that extends it.

[bashy]

hi m8

could you please take a gander at the image ive attached as i cannot for the lif of me get rid of the black section, I can addjust all the rest just not the left and right?

[BlackRanger3d]

Logician is there anything else you can think of. I have gone step by step throught your instructions.

I have tried other peoples hacks, and I get the same result I am not able to get the hack to show up in vb options.

Heck can I hire you to fix my vb.

[noreturn]

What happens if 4 different guests visit within the 1 hour setting I have set? Does only the first guest see the guest message if others visit within that 1 hour? If so, how can I make it always pop up for a guest, but only at 1 hour intervals for all others? And....
Thank you.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by noreturn

What happens if 4 different guests visit within the 1 hour setting I have set? Does only the first guest see the guest message if others visit within that 1 hour? If so, how can I make it always pop up for a guest, but only at 1 hour intervals for all others? And....
Thank you.

This setting only works for members. It depends on the db value "last activity date" and vb keeps this for members only. So guests get the popup everytime.

I have tried other peoples hacks, and I get the same result I am not able to get the hack to show up in vb options.

I can suggest you to disable all pluggins and products and upload original vb files (if you hacked them) and then try again. If you still have the problem, vb.com staff should help you with this (since your board will be hackless but problematic in this scenario) if you create a support ticket.

[Logician]

Originally Posted by bashy

hi m8

could you please take a gander at the image ive attached as i cannot for the lif of me get rid of the black section, I can addjust all the rest just not the left and right?

Sounds like a HTML clashing with your skin. I see you have a left/right column in your forum home page. As far as I can see your forum main page also has a javascript syntax error when loads. My hack HTML code is designed for default vb3 look so you need to arrange it to fit to your skin. If you get it designed, I'm sure the webdesigner who did it, can fix this easily.

[bashy]

I am the one who put mine together...
So it looks like imn stuck with this wee issue

Thanks anyway

Originally Posted by Logician

Sounds like a HTML clashing with your skin. I see you have a left/right column in your forum home page. As far as I can see your forum main page also has a javascript syntax error when loads. My hack HTML code is designed for default vb3 look so you need to arrange it to fit to your skin. If you get it designed, I'm sure the webdesigner who did it, can fix this easily.

[noreturn]

Originally Posted by Logician

This setting only works for members. It depends on the db value "last activity date" and vb keeps this for members only. So guests get the popup everytime.

Thank you for fast reply