Integration with vBulletin - YAFB - Yay! Another Facebook Bridge

This is not just a "port" for vBulletin 4 of this modification, this is the next version of the modification which support both vBulletin 4 and vBulletin 3 family

IMPORTANT: FILE ISSUES HERE: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletinfacebook/issues/list (require a Google Account)

Yay! Another Facebook Bridge 3.3.2
Tested to work with vBulletin 3.7.x and 3.8.x (3.6.x requires some manual edit, contact me for detail instruction)
Tested to work with vBulletin 4.0 (use different .xml import file)
Please note: this product requires PHP5. If you get weird error messages, please check if you PHP version is still 4 (which is very old and you should change to PHP5 as soon as possible). Also, MySQL 5 is strongly recommended

[WHAT IS IT?]
There are many vBulletin - Facebook bridge out there but installing is always the problem for most of forum owner. So I decided to build this product from scratch and provide you the ability to install this Facebook Bridge into your forum in 10 minutes. The detail install instruction can be found below (under the Feature section). A few technical notes: This product uses Facebook Connect to maintance connection between vBulletin forums and complicated (and awesome) Facebook servers. All most everything is automatically done by the script, even the Administrators don't need to do any manual editing (yeah, I'm talking about manual templates editing, you WON'T need to edit templates each time you implement a new style). Once again, most of everything is options which can be enabled/disabled via AdminCP or UserCP interface. All possible type of caching is use to improve performance and reduce heavy PHP load on server side or javascript load on client side. Well, it's quite a long paragraph for introducing. Let's make it work!

[SEE IT IN ACTION]
Screencast:
1. Installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ComjeipReE4
2. Connecting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7m85O_iX70
3. Posting and Notifications: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBwwiffLvJ8
Demo board:
vBulletin 3.8: http://daohoangson.com/vb38
vBulletin 4: http://daohoangson.com/vb40
Authentication Username: demo. Password: demo.

[MAIN FEATURE]
*** Damn easy to install!
1. Loaded with long list of actions/notifications: posting thread, posting reply, rating thread, sending pm, sending visitor message, uploading image (avatar/profile picture), uploading pictures, comment on pictures. This list are designed to be expandable easily later by me or other people who loves to develope this product (well, if you do, contact me right now!)
2. Ability to quick register with Facebook credential but Administrator can disable this function via AdminCP. Facebook proxied email addresses are handled completely and vBulletin can send email without any problems (of course, the member must grant the Email extend permission). There is a setting in AdminCP to disallow Facebook proxied email addresses also for boards that need email explicitly
3. Ability to auto login with Facebook session (Administrator can turn this on or off in AdminCP and members can enable or disable this feature on their accounts either)
4. Other abilities: Display a profile block on vBulletin member page. Display a wall tab/box on Facebook profile page. Synchronize avatar from Facebook.
5. [AdminCP] Administrator can "edit" template bundle easily. Actually the old template will be deactivated, the new template will be registered and then all action associated with the old template with be updated with the new template bundle id. Oops, why you need to care about all of it? I did it for you already! Just go the the editing page and click Edit. Yay! All done
6. [AdminCP] Staffs can manage connected users and see basic information about them (including granted permissions)
7. [AdminCP] Administrator can decide to: migrate connected users from other products to YAFB, restrict private forums from being posted to Facebook, view detail log of YAFB in action, send notifications to connected users
*. [Experimental] I have added a fun feature that generate the Fans List, the photo will be posted to new thread with friend tagged (if available). The main purpose of this bonus feature is to demostrate the ability of the bridge. If you have an idea, contact me and I will implement it if I can
*. [Experimental] Friend Inviting functionality is added. Access from UserCP > Facebook Bridge > Invite Friends

[CHANGE LOG]
Version 3.3.2 (released on Jun 10, 2010): Register On-the-fly issue with vBulletin 3.8.4 fixed
Version 3.3.1 (released on Jun 08, 2010): Bug fixes and Migration for vBulletin 4.0.3
Version 3.3 (released on Apr 06, 2010): Auto login related features added. User experience reached a new higher level!

[NEW INSTALLATION]
*. Upload all files/folders in folder "upload" into your forum root (Please upload before importing product)
1. Import Product:
1.1. Go to AdminCP
1.2. Plugins & Products ~> Manage Products ~> Add/Import Product:
1.2.1. Browse to the .xml file (use product-yafb.xml for vBulletin 3 and product-yafb_vb4.xml for vBulletin 4)
1.2.2. Click Import

2. Fill the settings:
2.1. Go to AdminCP
2.2. vBulletin Options ~> vBulletin Options ~> Yay! Another Facebook Bridge
2.2. Create a Facebook Application if you haven't had one for your forum. Refer to the Creating Facebook Application below if you don't know how to do it
2.3. Fill the API key and Secret into the approriate fields. You can leave the Template fields untouch (the will be filled automatically). If you want to use the Account Reclamation feature, please place http://domain.com/forums/register.php?do=fbb_reclaim into Account Reclamation URL field. With other fields, it's your decision to made
2.4. Click Save and you are done!

2.* Creating Facebook Application:
2.*.1. Go to Facebook Developer > Create Application page http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php (login if you didn't)
2.*.2. Enter the Application Name. Suggestion: Put your forum name here. Don't forget to tick the Agree radiobox and then click Save Changes
2.*.3. Now you can get your API Key and Secret (that are needed in step 2.3)
2.*.4. And go to the Connect tab, fill your forum url into Connect URL, fill your domain into Base Domain.
2.*.5. You are done with required information. But you can go through other tab and enter more detail about your forum, your application. I suggest putting a nice icon, banner into it. Happy customizing!

[UPGRADING]
Just upload overwrite files/folders then reimport the xml file. Do not forget to check "Yes" under "Allow Overwrite" to upgrade

[CONFLICT]
Since this product interfere with the registration procedure, I have found some other plugins/products that conficts with this product. Below is the full list of known confict and action taken to resolve the issue
No Spam (Human Verification): Temporary disabled during Facebook registration
vMail (Email Verification): Temporary disabled during Facebook registration

[OTHER PLUGINS/PRODUCTS]
I have developed an easy to use options/permissions system that allow other plugins/products to add it's actions into this bridge and let the forum members experience a whole new era of connections. I did a small demostration with my kBank System (which is a money system with award/thank functionality and a useful hiding feature) and it runs pretty well. If you are interested in testing kBank in action with YAFB, contact me. If you are a developer who wants to integrate your plugins/products with this Bridge, contact me either! You are all welcome
*Also available: Publishing Blog (vBBlog) to Facebook [New! Updated on Jan 10th, 2010]


[KNOWN ISSUES]
FILE HERE: http://code.google.com/p/vbulletinfacebook/issues/list (require a Google Account)

[vexvegaz]

Can someone clerify something for me please.
What exactly are these options for

Display a Facebook Block in Member Info page - Off
Display posts from friends - Off

does it pull wall data and places it in a tab or box into the forum members profile page?
When turned on does it work for you guys?

[messengermatt]

I cant understand this mod i have it installed but i cant understand what your supposed to put into the facebook bridge options under the forum manager.

Can someone put this into simple easy to understand instructions?

[Zaiaku]

Originally Posted by messengermatt

I cant understand this mod i have it installed but i cant understand what your supposed to put into the facebook bridge options under the forum manager.

Can someone put this into simple easy to understand instructions?

Watch the videos they tell and show you exactly what. This is seriously a 2min install for the most part.

[messengermatt]

Originally Posted by Zaiaku

Watch the videos they tell and show you exactly what. This is seriously a 2min install for the most part.

i installed it ok, its just the options for it are made for complicated people as i dont understand them lol when your configuring it.

[messengermatt]

Allow to publish posts in this forum to Facebook?
Allow to publish Prevent publishing (turn off or disable, based on Global Setting) Turn off publishing options (if they are shown) Disable publishing completely
Page ID to publish feed when new thread posted
Normally, your page URL is in the form of "http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-page-name/1234567890", so the Page ID is the sequence of number "1234567890"

Page Owner Facebook UserID
This Facebook Profile must be connected with a forum Account with Offline Access permission granted!. If you wish to publish to Page using Page Account itself, ask the Page Owner to visit this page: http://acereptiles.co.uk/forums/prof...p?do=fbb_pages. To get the Facebook UserID of a user, you can visit his/her Profile, move your mouse over "Send [name] a Message" (under Profile Avatar), copy the link, it is in the form of "http://www.facebook.com/gigaboxx/dialog/MessageComposer.php?id=987654321", so the Facebook UserID is "987654321"

It's that i dont understand its not as easy as you may think especially as it comes across as double dutch to me :s

[Zaiaku]

Oh the options. Yeah the options could be alot better described.

Allow to publish posts in this forum to Facebook?
Basically allow ot denied people from being able to transmit their post to facebook in a certain forum

Page Owner Facebook UserID
OK this requires Account with Offline Access permission granted. Pretty much when connected through facebook the top 4 options need to be on for real usage of this mod.

Alot of my members are having trouble understand the options page. I just posted a thread to them to let them know which options to turn on and then which ones to choose which they want.

[ShadowTurk]

I've a problem, I've been having trouble with the avatar issue as well, but the thing is, I'm not getting a syntax error, but instead I get everything but the avatar section to show.

here's a screenshot to what I am talking about:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2dnbs4.png

Is there a way to fix that?

Edit: apparently everything seems to working now with Facebook avatar syncing turned off.

[BBR-APBT]

Originally Posted by ShadowTurk

I've a problem, I've been having trouble with the avatar issue as well, but the thing is, I'm not getting a syntax error, but instead I get everything but the avatar section to show.

here's a screenshot to what I am talking about:
http://i45.tinypic.com/2dnbs4.png

Is there a way to fix that?

Edit: apparently everything seems to working now with Facebook avatar syncing turned off.

You failed to read the first post of this thread.
[KNOWN ISSUES]

1. Editing Avatar in vBulletin 4 caused error. Temporary fix is available: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...79#post1963679



Come on people read.

[milsirhc]

This works great on vb 3.8.4, however now when a user register the manual way, it will display a white screen at the "addmember" page.

The verification email still got sent to the user though.. just that it displayed a white screen and not the usual notice message.

Anyone got the same problem?

[Kingdombuilder]

I'm running 4.0.1 on linux
i installed the 3.2 and i have finally followed this thread from the beginning to the end. I love the this mod concept and it has great potential for my site. i don't have the buttons showing either under my navbar.

My issue is that when i go to settings and hit the FB Bridge options link i get the big button. When i hit it a pop p window comes up asking me to connect. i hit connect and nothing happens. It is as if I did not hit it. I optimized and repaired all tables and waited a good hour as i read this thread and it still does the same thing. Does anyone else have this problem? Can anyone shed any light on this?


New development: 1/28/10 4:09am
I shared a post and then went back to the setting and the options link and i got this:



With no button to connect. I have no buttons on my forum at all. The only one that shows is the one in settings...

More info: 1/28/10 1:00pm

i notice that the buttons show up if you are a guess and not a registered member. Once I login then the buttons disappear... Even then when i logout and try to get connect i still have the same problem with the pop up windows asking to connect and when i push the button to conneect nothing happens. It just sits there as if i didn't push the buttons...