Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums for vB3.8

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.8

Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.8 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.7. Please use the version for vBulletin 3.7

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.

What about old discussions?
Via AdminCP, SocialForums, you can transfer all discussions and messages to a new forum. No post would be lost.

Permissions
There are advanced permissions (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.
- With activated option to add owner as a moderator the transfering leads to removing all moderators of the linked forum

History
2.1.0, 11th August 2009
- Social Groups without a forum are listed in AdminCP and can be automatically converted with few clicks.
- Fixed errors converting bigger discussions
- Minor changes and fixes

2.0.1, 05th March 2009
- Convert ignores now deleted discussions
- Threads on Groups equipped with mark on new

2.0.0
- First official release for vBulletin 3.8
- Possibility to transfer Social Group Discussion into a real Forum
- New layout for threadlisting, similar to a real threadlist in a forum
- Possibility of a notice in Forums associated with a Social Group
- Discussion/Message counter is showing Thread/Reply counts. Phrase "Discussion" and "Message" cannot be changed to "Thread"/"Reply".
- Transfering a Group to another user updates now also the moderator
- Minor changes and fixes

[rob01]

i love this addon.. witch is was able for vb4 also :S

any update news?

[Phalynx]

There will be no vB4 Version, as my time does not allow it.

[rainyleaves]

Thanks for your MOD.

I installed and setting for parent forum.
I get this error message when I created forum.

A required field called allowupdate is missing or has an invalid value.

How can I fix?
Thanks.

[rainyleaves]

Fixed!!

The problem caused by conflict with 'Send Update Pm/Mail' mod.

[blue6995]

I have now upgraded to the lastest version of vBulletin Publishing Suite. What I cannot do now is post in the actual Groups - I have to go to the appropriate group forum and post there. Can someone tell me:

the safest way to remove this mod. Is it safe for me to try and run the ACP uninstaller or will that crash the forum?

If I remove the mod what happens to the sub forum groups it created?

Thanks

Thanks

[l_amhed]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

There will be no vB4 Version, as my time does not allow it.

Hi there!

That's so damn sad you could not port this hack to VB4 really. This is one of the most usefull hack I know...

Even if I'm not a coder, could you write us some advices, guidelines to make it works with VB4 ?

[MoMan]

Some suggestions for this mod (don't require big changes, but would improve performance and cohesion):

(1) add social group id & category to forumdata (bitfield) during social forum creation*
(2) honor the forum's thread icon settings within the social group thread display
(3) change navbits within social forums so that they match those of the regular discussions, allowing for easy navigation

*(1) would eliminate the need to query the database in the forumdisplay_start hook and would also let you do (3) without additional queries

If I find some extra time to implement these features, I'm willing to post them here. However, I can't exactly use my live board as a sandbox, and don't have a test environment handy at the moment, so hopefully you can get to them before I do

[c0der]

thx bro for sharing with us

[jdougher]

When I try to use this on vB 3.8.4, the forum is moved (although there's a "can't move forum" message), but no discussions are moved. Why is that?

[Keesa]

Eeep, I did this and it made a forum, but ALL the messages and disccussons are gone...

Hilfe@