Add-On Releases - CinVin vB Forum Feed Listing

[ Older version can be found here ]

This nifty little utility will present a list of all of your forums RSS feeds on one page! Your users can then easily pick & choose which forums they want to subscribe to via RSS, Google, Yahoo, or Bloglines.

Ever go to a big site like CNN and view their page of RSS feeds that you can subscribe to? This is the same thing but for your vBulletin forums!

In addition to your users, the search engine spiders will love this!

We went out of our way to make sure that this CinVin vBulletin add-on was quick & easy to both install and modify!

• Automatically adds an RSS button to your footer template.
• Automatically adds an RSS Feeds link to your navbar template in the Quick Links drop-down menu.
• Correctly shows where your visitors are when viewing the Who's Online page.
• Forums can be specifically excluded from being listed.
• Ability to specify which usergroup to use for permissions when viewing the list of forums.
• "Link" forums can be turned off from showing.
• All options are configured through the vBulletin ACP.
• All descriptions and names are completely phrased so you can quickly add alternate lanquages or change the existing wording.
• All display output is handled through vBulletin templates so you can quickly change the output appearance.
• All templates and phrase are installed as a vBulletin product through your ACP which means there are no file edits!
• Compatible with vBSEO.
• Easy integration with vBadvanced CMPS.
• Debug mode to help you with any problems you may be having.

Installation only take a few moments...

• Unzip the .zip file that you downloaded.
• Upload the single PHP file and single folder in the upload_to_your_forum_folder folder from the download to your forums folder.
• Go into your ACP and select Plugins & Products => Manage Products => Add/Import Product => {Select the CinVin_vB_Forum_Feed_Listing.xml file from the download} => Import

You're all done! Just point your browser to http://www.yoursite.com/forums/cv_rss_feeds.php to view your new RSS feed listings.

DEMO #1: CinVin RSS Feeds (this is the 'stock' version)

DEMO #2: Cool Sci-Fi RSS Feeds (this one has been integrated with vBa CMPS)


FAQ's
- What vB versions? This should work with all versions of vB 3.6.x and above. It should also work with vB 3.5.x but I have not tested it on that version.

- Can I remove the "CinVin" text at the very bottom? NO! Believe it or not that little text is what allows us to work on hacks like this for free and, more importantly, to continue to support them. You are free to move the notice to your footer template, for example, if you would like to keep your notices all together but for removing it entirely a Branding Free license is available through CinVin.


Revisions
2.4.3
- Fixed issue if "Show Private Forums" is turned on in your ACP then private forums would have also been listed. As of 2.4.3 private forums will not be listed regardless of the ACP option.

2.4.2
- Fixed the "Excluded Forums" option for when multiple forums are selected.

2.4.1
- Fixed an uncached template (cv_ffl_rss_link_in_quicklinks).

2.4.0
- A new feature has been added to automatically add an "RSS Feeds" link to your navbar template in the Quick Links drop-down menu.
- All prior reported issue fixes are included.
- Version jump to 2.4.0

2.3.0
- A new feature has been added to automatically add an RSS button to your footer template as can be seen here at CinVin. The option is turned on by default and can be turned on or off in the ACP.
- Session ID variables have been removed from the cv_ffl_forum_link template as some older styles that were converted to the vB 3.6.x were having some issues.
- The method of including the vBadvanced CMPS file for CMPS 2.x & older has been changed. If you are using CMPS but not integrating the CinVin Forum Feed Listing with it then you may have seen an error at the top of the page.
- For those interested in removing the "CinVin" branding from the footer, the Branding Free License cost has been reduced.

2.2.1
- Private release

2.2.0
- Added new feature to show forums based upon a usergroup ID. The default value is now usergroup ID 1.
- Fixed 'Excluded Forums' option; was not working in all circumstances.
- Fixed display issue introduced in 2.1.1 for vBSEO users.
- Code cleanup.
2.1.1
- Fix for vBSEO users that were having an issue with no forums being listed.

1.x.x - 2.1.0
- Several new features, check your ACP.

1.0.2
- Strip HTML from forum descriptions
- Fixed forum link to go to forum display instead of external.php
- Added additional template (cf_ffl_forum_link) for forum links versus feed links
- Removed logic that would not show a forum if the forum was not listed on the forum jump menu

1.0.1
- Added WOL plugins

[AyeCapn]

I have a lot of forums and subforums, so the page gets a bit unwieldy. Is it possible to have alternating row colors to better identify which button goes with which forum?

http://www.blackbus.org/forum/cv_rss_feeds.php

Also - did your research into FeedBurner get anywhere?

[doraj]

Hello KW,

How is possible change the title of RSS?

I would like "Forum title RSS Feeds"

Thank you

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Saviour

Update...

Never mind...threads are over a month old...that's why nothing is showing up.

Originally Posted by DJ29Joesph

I keep getting a blank page (external.php)..Help

Joesph, as Savior noted above, the output of "external.php" is really controlled through your vBulletin "External Feeds" settings (ACP => vBulletin Options => External Data Provider). Make sure that (a) RSS feeds are turned on and (b) that the forum you're trying to view a feed for has posts that meet the date criteria in your ACP. Also try turning the CinVin Forum Feed Listing "Debug" option on.

Originally Posted by AyeCapn

I have a lot of forums and subforums, so the page gets a bit unwieldy. Is it possible to have alternating row colors to better identify which button goes with which forum?

That's a good idea. I'll try to add it ot the "To Do" list.

Originally Posted by AyeCapn

Also - did your research into FeedBurner get anywhere?

No, sorry. The "Real World" has bitten into much of my time lately.

Originally Posted by doraj

How is possible change the title of RSS?

I would like "Forum title RSS Feeds"

Everything is phrased so you'll want to search in Phrase Manager (ACP => Languages & Phrase => Search Phrases) for "RSS Feeds" and enter your translations. The title is in there a few different times, for the time different places it appears, so be sure to edit all of them.

[PixelFx]

looks great, thanks for the work on this!

[DJ29Joesph]

Debug mode shows:
DEBUG: DEBUG MODE IS TURNED ON
DEBUG: vBSEO mode is turned OFF

External Data Provider:
Enable RSS Syndication----> Yes
Enable XML Syndication----> Yes
Thread Cutoff----------------> 30
Cache Lifespan--------------> 60

Still blank page on external.php

my forums are at www.spiralgaming.net/Forums/

Any help would be great!

[KW802]

Originally Posted by DJ29Joesph

....

I can not tell because you have no public forums that a guest can view so I can not check to see if any of the forums have recent threads or not. Which is likely a good thing since if a guest can not view the forums then they should not be able to view the RSS feeds for it.

[DJ29Joesph]

Originally Posted by KW802

I can not tell because you have no public forums that a guest can view so I can not check to see if any of the forums have recent threads or not. Which is likely a good thing since if a guest can not view the forums then they should not be able to view the RSS feeds for it.

Hold on you will have a PM with a login Shortly!

[EagleNick]

Check mine out: http://lineolatedparakeet.net/forums/cv_rss_feeds.php

When I click on one of the forum titles (e.g. General Lineolated Parakeet Talk) it attempts to take me to this: http://lineolatedparakeet.net/forums...m_link%20--%3E

Which obviously results in a 404 error. Why is it taking me to the wrong location?

[EagleNick]

Originally Posted by EagleNick

Check mine out: http://lineolatedparakeet.net/forums/cv_rss_feeds.php

When I click on one of the forum titles (e.g. General Lineolated Parakeet Talk) it attempts to take me to this: http://lineolatedparakeet.net/forums/%3C!--%20BEGIN%20TEMPLATE:%20cv_ffl_forum_link%20--%3Ehttp://lineolatedparakeet.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11%3C!--%20END%20TEMPLATE:%20cv_ffl_forum_link%20--%3E

Which obviously results in a 404 error. Why is it taking me to the wrong location?

Nevermind, I found the answer: http://www.cinvin.com/forums/showpos...21&postcount=7

I have a suggestion: It would be neat if users could tick a checkbox next to the forums they want to subscribe to (in the event that they want to subscribe to multiple forums in one feed) and then at the bottom (below the list of feeds) a feed URL is generated that they can access.
This is similar to MyBB's feed choices.

[dilbert]

This looks great. Thanks.
I set three forums to not show - 16,36,54.
When you visit the page here http://www.bloodbanktalk.com/forum/cv_rss_feeds.php, you'll see that 16 and 54 show. 36 is admin access only, so fortunately this one doesn't show.
I tried setting the Permissions Usergroup ID to 0 1 and 2 and it still shows up.
Did I miss a setting?