Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums 1.4

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.7
Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.7 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.6.x due to non existent feature of "social groups".

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.

Permissions
Since 1.3 there are advanced permissions active (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.

History
1.4.6, 6th October 2008
- Permissions are now also active in Archive

1.4.2, 27th May 2008
- Added: If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).
- Added: Recent threads in linked forum on group home
- Added: Private groups: Link to forum only shown to members of group
- Changed: Enabled permissions for unregistered usergroup. Unregistered Users are not more explicit denied without a check of it's usergroup

1.3.1, 23th May 2008
- Fixed: Not existing array

1.3.0, 23th May 2008
- Added: Permissions are now active. This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. Please check permissions for every usergroup! As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.
- Added: Checks for permission before the creation link will be displayed
- Changed: Default View Age set to "Show all Threads"

1.2.1 8th April 2008:
- Added: Group messaging can be disabled via options (previously: always disabled)

1.2.0 4th April 2008:
- Added: Groupleader can now be moderator of group forum
- Added: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Added: Group messaging will be automatically hide for group that has own forum
- Added: Forums are created with more allowances
- Added: By deleting a forum the linked socialgroup get's updated
- Added: Forum's description contains link back to social group
- Added: By changing group's name it synchronize it with the forum's name

1.0/1.1 1st April 2008:
- Initial releases

[Phalynx]

Maybe. A usergroup should be enough in most cases to handle this.

[dotJoel]

This is an excellent modification, i'm VERY impressed. I'll be watching to see how this develops.

Regards,

Joel

[Nikke]

I tried installing this but nothing came up in the social groups. There is no link to create a new forum..

This is what I did:

Imported product
Set the SocialForums settings

What else should I have done and where?

[Phalynx]

Does the group has at least 2 members? Are you the creator of the group?

[Nikke]

Ok, my bad. I though 1 was enough. Working now

[wtrk]

very cool. why jelsoft skipped this feature is beyond me, it seems so obvious that this is a must have feature to go with social groups. im going to keep an eye on this for sure. good work.

[KURTZ]

Originally Posted by Nikke

Ok, my bad. I though 1 was enough. Working now

ehehheh just read my previous posts ...

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by wtrk

why jelsoft skipped this feature is beyond me, it seems so obvious that this is a must have feature to go with social groups. im going to keep an eye on this for sure.

They did not implement this as on very large boards with hundreds of social groups there could be a problem when there are additional 100 forums.

Because of this the next version 1.2 will have some features to limit forums. Only groups with at least X members can have a forum, also there will be a new usergroup permission.

Changes so far:
- Groupleader is now also moderator of group forum
- Added new setting: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Group messaging will be automatically disabled for group that has own forum
- More options for forum allowances

Tell me what you need else...

Maybe 1.2 will be released on friday. Beta testers for this version are welcome, please PM me.

[MJFox]

Hi!

Great Plugin! :up:

I have one feature request though: it would be great if one could open more than one forum per group

looking forward for the next version, keep up the good work!

greetings

MJFox

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by MJFox

it would be great if one could open more than one forum per group

Maybe I don't understand this, but why should a group have more than one forum?