Add-On Releases - CinVin vB Forum Feed Listing

[ BY REQUEST ]

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.
• 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.

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by KW802

Just to clarify... this mod gives you a nicely formatted list of your available RSS feeds. When you click on the RSS button you are taken to the stock vBulletin external.php script. For what you are describing you would need the stock external.php script to be modified (likely could be done with a plugin).

Thanks for the feedback ...

I guess I was confused with the Which vBulletin usergroup should be used when displaying the forums? option. I thought it somehow controlled what usergroup could access the forums remotely using RSS feeds, as opposed to it being simply what forums on the list they could see.

I'm a little green on this RSS stuff. I'm still stuck in the 60's with Fortran programming background.

I assume that the reason any of the remote RSS feed agents only see posts that are available to Un-Registered Guests, is for the same reason? These agents can't read any post that is requires the user to be registered?

Thanks...

Regards,
Badger

Edit: BTW, do you do custom paid contract work, such as modifying the External.php to do what we need?

[KW802]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I guess I was confused with the Which vBulletin usergroup should be used when displaying the forums? option. I thought it somehow controlled what usergroup could access the forums remotely using RSS feeds, as opposed to it being simply what forums on the list they could see.

In hindsight... yeah, I could see how that description could be interpreted a few different ways. That option was added as a result of some confusion surrounding forums that guests aren't allowed to see. For example, if you had a forum named "Staff Only" and is only available to your moderators then when your moderators went to the cv_rss_feeds.php page they would see that forum listed. The concern and confusion was that that the forum isn't supposed to be shown to everybody. In reality, though, when a non-moderator went to cv_rss_feeds.php then the "Staff Only" forum would not be listed since they didn't have access to the forum. To make life a bit easier the option was added so that by using a usergroup 'model' for the listing then everybody would see the exact same forums listed regardless of what their permissions really were.

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I'm a little green on this RSS stuff. I'm still stuck in the 60's with Fortran programming background.

I missed fortran; I started with COBOL on a UniSys mainframe back in the 80's. Ah, disc packs, tape reels, greenbar bursters... those were the days.

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I assume that the reason any of the remote RSS feed agents only see posts that are available to Un-Registered Guests, is for the same reason? These agents can't read any post that is requires the user to be registered?

I'll give a hesitant 'yes' to that one. The script 'external.php' that comes with vBulletin (and is what actually generates the RSS feed) will use the user's permission if they are logged in else 'guest' permissions will be used. That means if your moderator goes to http://www.yoursite.com/forums/external.php then they will see posts from all forums that they have access to, including the "Staff Only" forum, but if a non-moderator or somebody who is not logged in goes to the same URL then they won't see the "Staff Only" posts.

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

Edit: BTW, do you do custom paid contract work, such as modifying the External.php to do what we need?

I do some odd jobs but not a lot these days (the day job takes precedence). But, if I'm understanding your other post correctly, a think a plugin might handle what you're looking for. If I am interpreting it correctly you have a forum that might be named "Special Forum" that several usergroup are allowed to post into but when the RSS feed is generated for that forum then only threads from usergroup X should be shown. Is that what you're after?

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by KW802

In hindsight... yeah, I could see how that description could be interpreted a few different ways. That option was added as a result of some confusion surrounding forums that guests aren't allowed to see. For example, if you had a forum named "Staff Only" and is only available to your moderators then when your moderators went to the cv_rss_feeds.php page they would see that forum listed. The concern and confusion was that that the forum isn't supposed to be shown to everybody. In reality, though, when a non-moderator went to cv_rss_feeds.php then the "Staff Only" forum would not be listed since they didn't have access to the forum. To make life a bit easier the option was added so that by using a usergroup 'model' for the listing then everybody would see the exact same forums listed regardless of what their permissions really were.

I've set it to "blank" on my system. When I view it as a Usergroup 2 (Registered Member) the display of the mod's RSS pae looks exactly the same as when I view it as a Usergroup 1 (Un-registered Guest), yet their should be forums that the "guest" does not see at all? Am I still missunderstanding this function. Blank (or 0) should pick up the more restricted "Guest" privileges and not display those forums?

Originally Posted by KW802

I'll give a hesitant 'yes' to that one. The script 'external.php' that comes with vBulletin (and is what actually generates the RSS feed) will use the user's permission if they are logged in else 'guest' permissions will be used. That means if your moderator goes to http://www.yoursite.com/forums/external.php then they will see posts from all forums that they have access to, including the "Staff Only" forum, but if a non-moderator or somebody who is not logged in goes to the same URL then they won't see the "Staff Only" posts.

I couldn't make it work that way directly out of the box using either the Tristana reader or Yahoo. I searched around here and found this:

External Data Provider Usergroup/Cookie Setting 2.2

Once I installed that mod along side yours, I was able to read forums the way you describe, that previously gave me the error above with Tristana that require Registered(Usergroup 2) access. I still get the same error using Yahoo though. Tristana permits someone using their client to put in a username and password for each feed if required, but that function didn't I(and still doesn't) seem to make any difference in controlling whether it can open up and get access to any feed. This additional mod seems to do that through the "cookie" thing.

Originally Posted by KW802

In I do some odd jobs but not a lot these days (the day job takes precedence). But, if I'm understanding your other post correctly, a think a plugin might handle what you're looking for. If I am interpreting it correctly you have a forum that might be named "Special Forum" that several usergroup are allowed to post into but when the RSS feed is generated for that forum then only threads from usergroup X should be shown. Is that what you're after?

Close...

I know I'm explaining my needs badly, but in simple terms....

I would like our various members to have the convenience of using RSS, Yahoo, or the other agents you supported, to stay remotely in contact with new posts made on our site, BUT without having to go there in log in. I assume that's what RSS feeds are designed to do... a "push" kind of approach to data?

Now, here's the catch ... I'd like them to have EXACTLY the same access permissions to view forums and posts remotely using whatever agent they choose, as they would have if they had logged on directly.

Is that even possible?

Thanks again for your support and feedback ... much appreciated. :up:

Regards,
Badger

[DestekForumu]

Thank you Kevin : )

[callumbush]

Originally Posted by KW802

- The vBSEO function name was changed with the newer releases (I think 3.0.0 Gold). The manual edit will take care of it and a future update (actually already code, just not packaged) will handle it automatically.

When will this be released?

[callumbush]

I have made the VBSEO edit.

I have an issue though: some of the RSS feeds work, but most of them don't?

http://www.phonedevil.com/cv_rss_feeds.php

Also, now that I have made the VBSEO edit, is that all I need to do for it to be compatible with vBulletin?

p.s. a very good mod !! ...just make it work 100% for me please

[Alfa1]

Will you release this hack in the 3.7 modifications forum as well?

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Will you release this hack in the 3.7 modifications forum as well?

I can but this version works perfectly fine under 3.7.x as well (I have not had to make any modifications to it on any of 3.7.x sites).

[Sunsetdriver]

I've renamed cv_rss_feeds.php and also changed it in hack's control panel. However RSS button in footer still links to cv_rss_feeds.php and not the new one.

EDIT:
Already solved here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=328

Thanks

[KW802]

Looks like I need to update the copy here. I'll post the current version over the weekend.