mYvBindex v3.1

mYvBindex 3.2.2 released! (5/22/03)

mYvBindex 3.2 will allow you to include different options from your vBulletin message board on your website's index page. Everything is completely template based so it is very easy to customize and change everything through your Admin CP.

Features:

• Login box for members to log in to your site on the homepage.
• Post News in a forum you specify and have it appear on your homepage.
• Show the latest threads started in your forum on your homepage.
• Show a poll and allow users to vote and see the results on your homepage.
• Shows users avatar, new private messages, and buddy list for members who are logged in.
• Shows a list of active users.
• Shows statistics such as total members, threads, posts, top poster, newest member, and today's birthday's.
• Shows a mini calendar with links to days with scheduled events, and a box with today's scheduled events.
• Search box to allow users to quickly search your forums.
• Current weather and updates on your homepage.
• Set and change all options via the Admin CP.
• Ability to easily switch on/off the polls, users avatar, buddy list, online users, search box, calendar, weather, custom templates, news icons, news comments, smilies, set the maximum number of news posts, and many other options via the Admin CP.
• Everything is completely template based so it is very easy to customize.
• Install file that will make all database queries and templates for you in seconds.
• Uninstalls in seconds.
• Tested and stable with vBulletin v2.6+

Screen Shots:
Guest Homepage
Admin Homepage
User Homepage
Admin CP


Queries:
A nice feature of mYvBindex is that it performs only 11 queries with all the options turned off, no matter how many news articles or latest threads you choose to display. Some options will cause the script to perform extra queries, but even with all the options turned on it still performs only 29 queries at max.

Here is a list of each extra function that will cause extra queries:

• Poll - 2 queries
• User's Avatar - 1 query
• Private Messages - 1 query
• Buddy List - 1 query
• Online Users - 3 queries
• Mini Calendar - 1 query
• Weather - 2 queries
• Poll and/or News Smilies - 1 query
• Stats - 5 queries

*Mini Hacks:*
Adding More Custom Templates
To add more custom templates to your mYvBindex, please see this post.

Stylin' Buddy List - by MartynJ
This will add your the users avatar and usertitle to the buddy list (Similar to and inspired by velocd's Stylin' Buddy List hack), and adds no extra queries to your homepage.
Download (Screen shot included in zip)

Shoutbox Integration - by MartynJ
This hack integrates the ever popular Shoutbox hack with your mYvBindex.
Download (Screen shot included in zip)

TWCommish's vB Shoutbox Integration - by Brahm
This is a slightly different shout box made by TWCommish. His hack is required and can be found here. After downloading his hack, use Brahm's instructions here to integrate it with mYvBindex.

Attachments in News Posts - by Tigga
This hack allows attachments posted in news posts to be viewed in the news section on your homepage.
Download

Allow users to set homepage options - by Tigga
This mini-hack will allow your users to set which options they would like displayed on the homepage. They will be able to turn on/off avatars, weather, custom templates, and etc on a per user basis.
Download *Note* It may be necessary to open this file in a text editor (other than notepad) to get it to display properly.

Multiple News forums from different links - by Tigga
This hack allows allows you to have a link to a "different index file" which will pull news posts from a different forum.
Instructions can be found here


Credits:
mYvBindex uses modified versions of the following hacks:
Mini Calendar from vbPortal - by wajones
vB Weather Mk. 2- by JJR512


Copyright:
This hack is NOT to be re-distributed or placed on website for download without permission. All copyright notes in the script itself must remain unchanged.

Please don't forget to hit the Install Button


Updates from version 3.2.1
After the release of v3.2.1 a couple of small bugs were found. They affected the ability to edit a news post from the link on the homepage, pulling the wrong post from a thread for the news section, and updating your most users ever online if a new record is set. The changes from v3.2 to 3.2.1 were minimal, so those should be the only bugs found. Upgrading once again is very easy. Just download the new files, change the path in the myvbindex.php file, and upload it over your existing one.

Updates from version 3.2
v3.2.1 is again just a small maintenance release. The main change in this version is the way the forum permissions are done. Before, the forum permissions would cause the latest threads query to take much longer than it should (mostly on larger forums). Now with the new permissions system in place, the query to pull the latest threads should take less than 0.01 seconds. Other than the permissions section, the only other changes were a few optimizations to the code syntax. Upgrading from v3.2 is simple - Just upload the new myvbindex.php file over your existing one and you're done.

Updates from version 3.1
v3.2 is mostly another maintenance release, and will hopefully be the last release for vBulletin 2.X (unless any bugs are found). Here are a list of all the changes.
Fixed a bug where setting the "Show Latest Threads Icon?" option to "No" could disable the latest threads section.
Fixed a bug where signatures with vBcode were not displayed properly in the news section.
Fixed a bug where the icons in the news and latest thread parts weren't displaying the right icon for some users.
Added an option to completely disable signatures in news posts.
Added an option to select a random poll from any forum for the poll part of the hack.
Further optimized parts of the code and slightly changed part of the structure.
Now shows "No Buddies Online" in the buddy list if no buddies are online.
Changed so it will no longer show a default icon for the news and latest threads unless your options are also set to show a default icon on the forumdisplay page.
Now shows the last poster and last post time when you hold your mouse over the title of a thread in the Latest Threads part.
The install script has been re-written so you can install, upgrade, uninstall, update your news posts (useful for first time installations where a news forum already exists), or install just the templates (useful after upgrading vBulletin to a new version) all from one file.
Significantly reduced the size of the weather_install.php file (from 3.0 MB to 1.25 MB) so it will not take so long to upload to your server.
Fixed a couple of small spacing issues in the poll templates.
Fixed a problem with JJR512's weather hack not pulling the weather forcast.
Added a FAQ section to the readme file to help common problems.

Upgrading should take no longer than 2 minutes and instructions can be found at the bottom of the readme file.


Updates from version 3.0
v3.1 is mostly a maintenance release to help cut down on first time installation problems. Other than that, the biggest difference you will notice is the template "style" has changed to mesh better with vBulletin (see screenshots above). You do not have to install the new templates as you will have the option to install the new templates or to skip that step in the install file. Other than the templates, here is a list of the other changes:
A few more "error checking" features have been added to ensure you won't get a nasty sql error if you leave your News or Poll Forum ID, or any of the other fields blank.
The problem some users were experiencing with the temperature for the weather part of the hack should be fixed for good.
The "Show Poll" option in the Admin CP is removed as this can now be disabled simply by leaving the "Poll Fourm ID" filed blank.
Fixed a small typo and optimized parts of the code a little further.
Slightly changed the position of the days and numbers in the calendar part.
Fixes a bug where the Today's Birthday part wouldn't point to the correct url.

Upgrading should take no longer than 2 minutes and instructions can be found at the bottom of the readme file.


Updates from version 2.0
Removed the option from the Admin CP to allow smilies in News posts as this can now be set per post just as you would when making a regular post.
Added a stats section with info such as total members, threads, posts, newest member, top poster, and today's birthdays.
Added a "Today's Events" section under the calendar that will display any events that are scheduled for the current day, and will only be visible if there are events listed for the current day.
Added an option to show the poster's avatar with the news post.
You can now have your signature displayed with the news post. This is controlled when posting the message just as you would with a regular post.
Added an option to display the news post's rating with the news.
Added options to show small icons to allow users to show a printable version of the news post and an option to allow users to email their friends a link to the news post.
Added an option to allow/disable HTML in news posts.
Added an option to allow/disable the [img] tag in news posts.
Shows the number of times a news post has been viewed.
Shows the number of new posts since the users last visit.
Shows the number of replies to the poll if poll discussions are allowed.
Fixed a bug where the search box would take you to the search page rather than displaying the results.
Fixed a bug where setting the News Posts Maximum to 0 would disable the news rather than giving it no limit.
Optimized the code a little more to increase performance.


Help & Support
Before asking for support Please read the F.A.Q in the readme.html file! Most common problems are answered there! If you have any problems or questions that are not covered in the F.A.Q. please please post them here. I will be more than happy to help in any way I can if the request for help is made here. Anyone trying to contact me via email, private message, my website, or any other means will be ignored.

[MartynJ]

Hello, this hack is working great so far (basically ironing out config probs on localhost before uploading to main site), one or two things I'd like to do/suggest. Would it be possible to have "Add news item" available in the Admin CP? Or perhaps a nice and simple link in the postbit that moves copies any thread to the (hidden) news forum (though I think I'd work on that one myself.)

The other thing I'd like to do is have the forumhome (below news items) as it is in default vB. If you look at the image, you'll see what I mean. Anyone know which parts of code and templates I should copy across to make that work?

EDIT: The clickable link in the postbit: I had this down:

PHP Code:

<a href="postings.php?action=move&forumid=14&method=copy&s=$session[sessionhash]&threadid=$post[threadid]">#</a> 


And as soon as I click it, I am prompted to select where I want to move it to (though my news forum is hidden and thus not selectable on the drop down). Is there any way to keep the news forum hidden (even from mods/admin) and yet allow the moving of threads this way?

[Iezugod]

Ok, I have some questions..

first, the link:

www.crystalchronicle.com/myvbindex.php

I want to move alot of the stuff on the left, to the right.

Second:

The site is based off of an RPG Game, and I need to have stuff like:

Walkthroughs
Strategy
Characters
Items
Weapons
Levels
Creatures

And so on, and then have them link to pages that have all that info.

Question is... How do I do that?

[Tigga]

Tony - Were you upgrading or doing a fresh install? Does it work when you post a new thread in your news forum? Here's the quckest, easiest way I can tell you to fix them for now. Just log into phpMyAdmin and run the following query:

UPDATE post SET isnews='Y' WHERE postid=XX;

XX would be the post id for your news post. You can find that easily by holding the mouse over the "edit" or "quote" buttons for that post and looking in your browsers status bar. At the end of the link you will see "postid=XX". Running that query for each news post will fix the problem for now.


Marty - Adding news through the Admin CP, adding the link to the postbit, and adding the forums homepage under the news would require a little hacking. I can most likely tell you what to change, but it might be a day or two since it's the holidays.

Iezugod - Things can be moved around in the index template. I'm guessing you figured that out though from looking at your site. I'm not sure I follow you about adding the links... Where do you want them added? Are you saying you want to create more templates?

[MartynJ]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
Marty - Adding news through the Admin CP, adding the link to the postbit, and adding the forums homepage under the news would require a little hacking. I can most likely tell you what to change, but it might be a day or two since it's the holidays.

If you want, I'll contine working on the news Via Postbit thing. I think it would actually be a good deal easier if it was possible to have it such that NEWS on the front page could be read from any thread in any forum, so long as "isnews" was set, thus no longer requiring the special forums. The problem I have at the moment is that with the news forum being hidden, if a user wants to add a comment, they can't since they aren't allowed to post in hidden forums. It would be far easier if the NEWS thread was in a normal forum but simply had a special property attached to it that set it apart from normal threads (such as a sticky).

[MartynJ]

Hmm, something very strange. Any thread I *start* in the news forum becomes news, but any thread I *move* to the news forum is not recognised as news. Anyone know what's causing this?

[Tony DiMera]

Originally posted by PlurPlanet
Tony - Were you upgrading or doing a fresh install? Does it work when you post a new thread in your news forum? Here's the quckest, easiest way I can tell you to fix them for now. Just log into phpMyAdmin and run the following query:

UPDATE post SET isnews='Y' WHERE postid=XX;

XX would be the post id for your news post. You can find that easily by holding the mouse over the "edit" or "quote" buttons for that post and looking in your browsers status bar. At the end of the link you will see "postid=XX". Running that query for each news post will fix the problem for now.

It was a fresh installl. BTW I would put 17 inplace of the XX correct? If so, would i put anything inplace of where you have "Y"?

[WSB]

I got the following error. Please help me out:

Database error in vBulletin 2.2.9:

Invalid SQL: SELECT thread.threadid,thread.title,thread.replycount,thread.postusername,thread.postuserid,thread.dateline,thread.views,thread.iconid,thread.votenum,thread.votetotal,post.postid,post.pagetext,post.allowsmilie,post.showsignature,user.signature,avatar.avatarpath,NOT ISNULL(avatardata) AS hascustom,customavatar.dateline AS avatardateline  FROM thread LEFT JOIN post USING (threadid) LEFT JOIN user ON (user.userid=post.userid) LEFT JOIN avatar ON (avatar.avatarid=user.avatarid) LEFT JOIN customavatar ON (customavatar.userid=user.userid)  WHERE thread.forumid= AND isnews='Y' GROUP BY thread.threadid ORDER BY thread.threadid DESC 
mysql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'AND isnews='Y' GROUP BY thread.threadid ORDER BY thread.threadid DESC ' at line 1

mysql error number: 1064

Date: Thursday 26th of December 2002 01:32:26 PM
Script: http://www.worldsoccerboard.com/myvbindex.php
Referer:

[Tigga]

Marty - The reason that posts are not appearing as news if you move them is because only posts that are started in the news forum will have the 'isnews' column updated. I should have some time later this evening or tomorrow to play with it and tell you how to change it so that a post in any forum could become news.

The problem I have at the moment is that with the news forum being hidden, if a user wants to add a comment, they can't since they aren't allowed to post in hidden forums.

If you changed your news forum and set it so that it was not private and set "Is active?" to no, then your users would be able to reply to and read news posts, but the forum would not appear on your main forums index page.

Tony - Were the news posts made before you installed the hack? If so, then that's why the news wasn't working. It will only recognize news posts that have been posted after the hack has been installed. Either way running the query I gave you above will update the posts so they will appear on your homepage. Please re-read the instructions I gave. 17 is your fourmid, not the postid. You would need to find the postid for each news post and replace the XX in the query with that number. The 'Y' in that query should not be changed.

WSB - You have to set your News Forum ID in your admin options before it will work properly.

[jarvis]

How hard would this be to add additional boxes within the index file to accomodate:

- Links
- Afilliates
- etc.

Can I just embed the html code within the PHP file? Are the templates that are called a fixed width so that I could emulate the size with respect to what is being drawn by myvbindex?

Has anyone already added these types of fields already and not make me recreate the wheel?

I was also thinking how nice it might be to have multiple instances of myvbindex running that could link multiple news areas of a site while pulling the articles from multiple forums.

For example, main page would show general news from forum xx, but there would be a link box on the side that held different interest areas like PC Games, MAC, etc. These links would pull up another instance of myvbindex that pull articles from the related forum.

Am I just a dreamer? :surprised:

[Tigga]

Originally posted by jarvis
How hard would this be to add additional boxes within the index file to accomodate:

- Links
- Afilliates
- etc.

If you'll refer to posts 194 & 196 in this thread, there are 2 different explanations on how to do that. Either of those ways will work and should be pretty simple.

Can I just embed the html code within the PHP file? Are the templates that are called a fixed width so that I could emulate the size with respect to what is being drawn by myvbindex?

All the "boxes" are tables that have their width set to 100%, which are nested in a table cell with a with of 165. If you look in the index template for that table cell you can change the width there and that will affect all the boxes.

I was also thinking how nice it might be to have multiple instances of myvbindex running that could link multiple news areas of a site while pulling the articles from multiple forums.

For example, main page would show general news from forum xx, but there would be a link box on the side that held different interest areas like PC Games, MAC, etc. These links would pull up another instance of myvbindex that pull articles from the related forum.

Am I just a dreamer? :surprised: .

That wouldn't be too hard to do... Would you want to have a seperate section with all the options in the admin CP for each, or use the same admin options for all of them and just different news forum id's?