Major Additions - DTO Garage - free garage features for all your members (vB 3.8.X)

Drive Thru Online ? Garage

Overview

DTO Garage is a free product allowing all members of a site to show off their car, truck, motorcycle or other powersports toy. Site owners can easily adapt the section and subsection titles to suit the attributes to the site's focus. Images are stored locally preventing broken links and over limit displays common with images linked offsite. Drive Thru Online has made upgrading to the paid version of DTO Garage Plus easy, all user data stored in DTO Garage is retained for a seamless transition.

For users, management of their vBulletin garage is conveniently handled through their user control panel. The intuitive user interface encourages even the most challenged to create a compelling Garage. Images are added via a wizard from either the users own computer or a specified URL. Thumbnails are dynamically created with high-resolution images displayed in a navigable Lytebox. Users can designate whether a garage is visible to the rest of the site members or hidden until they have time to polish the information and give it the debut it deserves. Other users can view garages using interactive pop-up menus embedded in each post or through the Garage owner's profile.

Key Features

• vBulletin Options-based customization of information collected and presented in garages
• User management of garages via User Control Panel
• Simple-to-use image uploads per garage
• Lytebox presentation of high resolution garage images
• bbCode supported in information areas
• Additional image placement in information area supported
• Dynamic presentation of garages in postbit and user profile
• Embedded full featured searchable and indexed Help
• Fully documented
• Fully supported

Language Translation
As of version 1.1.3 DTO Garage has not been fully phrased and only supports English. With a future release it is our intent to offer a fully phrased version to support language translation of the product. When the fully phrased version is available we will provide documentation and tools to speed translations of the product for use on your site. We will also encourage those who have performed a translation to contribute it for distribution to other members. Any contributed languages will be included with this thread and credit given to the author. Site owners are free to translate the product either in its current state or future releases as they see fit given that the note found in the following Upgrade section is followed when upgrading. While Drive Thru Online will provide information to translators regarding the context of wording we can not provide support to facilitate the actual translation itself.

Compatibility

• Fully compatible with vBulletin 3.6.8 through vBulletin 3.8.x
• PHP 5.X or later (compiled with GD support) and MySQL 5.X or later is required.

Upgrading from a previous version of DTO Garage

1. Prior to installation/upgrade we recommend that you perform a back up of your site's database and files.
2. After unzipping the attached package open readme.html in your browser.
3. Click on the ?Documentation & installation instructions? to view the complete documentation for Garage.
4. Note: If you have customized the DTO Garage templates in a previous release it is recommended that you make a copy of your changes, revert to the version of templates included with the new release and migrate your changes into the new version's templates. Failure to do this may cause the product to operate improperly and/or support new features that may have been added to the product.
5. If you use a custom style for your site you may have to modify the garage templates. For more information refer to this how-to written to address the most common modifications required.

Installation & Configuration for vB 3.6.x through vb 3.8.x

1. Prior to installation/upgrade we recommend that you perform a back up of your site's database and files.
2. After unzipping the attached package open readme.html in your browser.
3. Click on the ?Documentation & installation instructions? to view the complete documentation for Garage.
   
   Alternatively, you can also access documentation by visiting our web site under the Support tab.

Copyright & Licensing

• DTO Garage is copyright protected by Drive Thru Online, Inc.
• You are free to download and install this plugin on any vBulletin forum for which you hold a valid vB license.
• Unauthorized distribution of any code and/or documentation, whole or in part, included here is strictly prohibited.
• In addition, the supplied copyright notice must be maintained.

Other Drive Thru Online Products

• DTO Garage and Garage Plus vBadvanced Modules ? free vBadvanced modules for Garage and Garage Plus
• DTO Garage Plus ? paid version with vBSEO sitemap generator add-ons, usergroup permissions, and advanced search features. Click here for a comparison of Garage and Garage Plus.
• DTO Clubs, ShowCase, and Vendor Tools - paid products designed to grow your membership and create revenue from your site

Support

We will provide support in this thread on an as-needed basis to members that have marked this modification as Installed. Additional support resources can be found on our site under the Support tab.

Release and Version History
1.1.3 - October 7, 2009
New feature and bug fix release

New Features

• Changed orientation of images in garage display from vertical to horizontal orientation for cleaner display.
• Modified index page to provide paged display of most recently added garages.
• Added error handling for upload of unsupported image formats when adding a picture to a garage.

Fixes

• Added caching of garage-related templates for use in private message postbit display.

1.1.2 - August 21, 2009
New feature and bug fix release

Note: This release did not include updated documentation to reflect the new features below. As this is an interim release we will be updating documentation with the next 1.2.0 release of Garage and Garage Plus.

New Features

• Garage index page - index page accessible from breadcrumb when viewing a members garage. Displays a random selection of up to 25 member garages.
• Navbar menu - Added "My Garage" link when user is logged in
• Navbar menu - Added "Garages" to take user to garage index page
• With a garage index page member garages are no longer display in a new browser window (the only exception is if you preview your own garage when managing it).

Fixes

• Users currently not logged in are prevented from managing or adding a garage.
• When using quick reply the Garage link is shown in the user's postbit given that the user has a visible garage configured.

1.1.1 - July 6, 2009
Fix release

• Correct alignment of Garage/Garage Plus navbar pop-up menu.
• SQL error when rendering Garage postbit links for guest users - no longer attempts to render a link for Guest users.
• Corrected issue for sites using database table prefixes where a SQL error was generated when attempting to insert an image into a garage.

1.1.0 - June 19, 2009
Initial release

[adambloch]

Originally Posted by mferguson

Currently there isn't a capability for an admin (or a person with rights to manage Garage) to edit or delete member garages. That said it is something that will have in our planning for an upcoming release of Garage Plus.

Thanks!

Mark

Thanks for the information. I think we're likely to upgrade, more so when this functionality included. Also is the feature there now in the plus version (or planned for the near future if not) to apply different levels of access to users based on additional usergroups? I'd like to specifiy a level of access for all registered users, but apply different settings (perhaps extra/customisable fields, image quota (number and max size) etc. to registered users who are also in one of a number of additional usergroups.

Also, I'm not sure whether this is a problem with my install, or a general glitch/bug; but if when viewing a garage/spot, you click 'Garage' in the link tree at the top of the page (link points to <forumhome>/dto_garage.php?do=viewgarage) I just get a blank page.

And finally - - Not that I'm considering uninstalling any time soon(!) - but does the uninstall code remove any template-edits that happened when I imported the product .xml ? It did it all lightning fast and I wasn't prepared for quick changes!

Thanks again for a great Mod...

Adam

EDIT: No, I did think of something else - would it be easy enough for me to make links to garage open in the same window?

[TheLastSuperman]

I like the mod but just wanted to point out I think the credit in the footer that embeds itself throughout every page including your vBa CMPS is a bit excessive, I think with it being offered free here it should only be on pages that show the garage etc. It just makes the footer look sloppy and no one even knows what it is until they go into the garage regardless.

Just my 2 cents but uninstalling due to that, I have no problem giving credit where it's due, check my mods and you'll see that but modifying the code to go site wide again imo is too much. (And yes I completely understand why you did this but again that was just IMO)

-1

S-MAN

[adambloch]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

I like the mod but just wanted to point out I think the credit in the footer that embeds itself throughout every page including your vBa CMPS is a bit excessive, I think with it being offered free here it should only be on pages that show the garage etc.

+1 - I hadn't noticed it was added in the footer everywhere :s

[mferguson]

Originally Posted by adambloch

Thanks for the information. I think we're likely to upgrade, more so when this functionality included.

This will be coming in Garage Plus 1.2 that we have slated for release in mid-late September. We're finalizing requirements this week but this is on the list.

Originally Posted by adambloch;

Also is the feature there now in the plus version (or planned for the near future if not) to apply different levels of access to users based on additional usergroups? I'd like to specifiy a level of access for all registered users, but apply different settings (perhaps extra/customisable fields, image quota (number and max size) etc. to registered users who are also in one of a number of additional usergroups.

This is not something that we have planned since our ShowCase product offers these types of features already.

Originally Posted by adambloch

Also, I'm not sure whether this is a problem with my install, or a general glitch/bug; but if when viewing a garage/spot, you click 'Garage' in the link tree at the top of the page (link points to <forumhome>/dto_garage.php?do=viewgarage) I just get a blank page.

This was a side effect of using the breadcrumb path and not having a "index" page for Garage/Garage Plus. In the release we'll be doing today of Garage we'll be including a index page showing random garages. With this the garage link in the breadcrumb will take you to the "index" page and also has allowed us to get rid of the need to open windows to show the garages.

Originally Posted by adambloch

And finally - - Not that I'm considering uninstalling any time soon(!) - but does the uninstall code remove any template-edits that happened when I imported the product .xml ? It did it all lightning fast and I wasn't prepared for quick changes!

It should not. When you upgrade to a new version though you should check to insure that template updates we've made are being used. I know with the release coming this afternoon there are a few template changes. To check for template changes after you upgrade:

1) AdminCP >> Styles & Templates
2) Find Updated Templates

Originally Posted by adambloch;

EDIT: No, I did think of something else - would it be easy enough for me to make links to garage open in the same window?

As mentioned above this will be resolved with the release later today.

Thanks!

Mark

[adambloch]

Again, thanks for your reply. I look forward to the update...

Thanks,

Adam

[mferguson]

I just released Garage 1.1.2. Please let me know if you have any issues or questions when upgrading/installing this version.

Be sure to view the topmost post on this page for the version history as it includes information on the new features and fixes included in the 1.1.2 release.

Thanks!

Mark

[MikesSite]

Thanks. Going to try it out now

[Itchy Nips]

Originally Posted by mferguson

I just released Garage 1.1.2. Please let me know if you have any issues or questions when upgrading/installing this version.

Be sure to view the topmost post on this page for the version history as it includes information on the new features and fixes included in the 1.1.2 release.

Thanks!

Mark

i'll upgrade now. The README file is not updated. it still only contains instructions about how to upgrade to 1.1.1, not 1.1.2.

I'm assuming we dont have to upload the files again, just import the XML?

[mferguson]

Originally Posted by Itchy Nips

i'll upgrade now. The README file is not updated. it still only contains instructions about how to upgrade to 1.1.1, not 1.1.2.

If you look at the version history I have a note regarding the online documentation. Since this is an interim release prior to the 1.2 release scheduled for later in September help has not been updated to reflect the upgrade process or new features included in this version.

Because of a couple of bugs members have found in the last couple of days I wanted to put out this build, add a couple of features to gain additional feedback, and then focus on development of 1.2.0.

Originally Posted by Itchy Nips;

I'm assuming we dont have to upload the files again, just import the XML?

I would upload files as well. There is at least one file-based fix that is in this release.

Thanks!

Mark

[mferguson]

In the event you missed the version history here is a list of the changes in this release (1.1.2):

New Features

• Garage index page - index page accessible from breadcrumb when viewing a members garage. Displays a random selection of up to 25 member garages.
• Navbar menu - Added "My Garage" link when user is logged in
• Navbar menu - Added "Garages" to take user to garage index page
• With a garage index page member garages are no longer display in a new browser window (the only exception is if you preview your own garage when managing it).

Fixes

• Users currently not logged in are prevented from managing or adding a garage.
• When using quick reply the Garage link is shown in the user's postbit given that the user has a visible garage configured.