CommBull (Community Bulletin)

vb3.5 Commbull
vb3.6 Commbull

Note:
The 3.6 version is a commercial product, any queries on it should be submitted to: vb3.6 Support Site

THIS THREAD IS FOR SUPPORT FOR 3.0 VERSIONS ONLY. PLEASE VISIT THE APPROPRIATE FORUMS (links above) FOR THEIR SUPPORT

[valid point]
it's been brought to my attention that not everyone knows what this is ... fair enough: This hack is considered a "weekly newsletter" by the fact that it will email members (only sent by an admin) who have opted to receive it new posts, hot threads, etc ... basically a summary of what has been going on since the last time the newsletter was sent out. However there is a vast number of options, and I won't go into detail of all of them ... you can view the the images that I've attached, but u will only get a full idea by installing it.
I would say that there is 0 risk of this installation doing any damage to your current install as these are the changes that it does (manually and automatically):
- change profile.php and admincp/index.php
- add a couple columns to user table (receivebulletin and receivebulletin_type)
- add some phrases to phrase table (receive_email_from_commbull, type_email_from_commbull, newsletterformat, commbul)
- add a row to datastore table (commbull)
- add some html to nav template for admin side
So, if you are unhappy with the install. you can just ignore that it's there and it'll never cause any problems ... your next upgrade will overwrite any changes to the index and profile pages and the extra columns in the DB won't be an issue

[mods that i've added from vB2 version]
- to change languages, comment/uncomment line 22 and 23 to switch from English to German
- save prefs (option)
- skip to page X in case of mailout freeze
- auto redirect to next page (option)
- adding personalized text to top of newsletter w/out searching through the two text & html fields ... u'll c what i mean :ermm:

[INSTALL]
drop the 3 files into the admincp directory and then go to admincp/commbull.php ... follow the instructions and you are good to go.
If you find that the option isn't showing up on the control panel after the install, then it's because you aren't using the default phrases. Go into phrase manager, search for 'commbull' and update the fields appropriately.

If something goes wrong, don't worry .. it checks for already completed updates to the database to avoid redundancy ... enjoy!!

[mfizzel]

I see no option for sending this automatically....it says that it sends weekly but I assume that means if I manually send it weekly?

[noppid]

Originally Posted by mfizzel

I see no option for sending this automatically....it says that it sends weekly but I assume that means if I manually send it weekly?

That is correct, it is not a cron job.

[apfparadise]

I dont know if anyone can help me, since this is now mostly a 3.5 website (as it should be, I will switch one day too). My Commbull worked absolutely fine for about 3-4 months, then today I get this error when clicking on "Send community bulletin" in Admincp:

Warning: Unknown(/home/aquatic/public_html/forum/admincp/commbull.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown(/home/aquatic/public_html/forum/admincp/commbull.php): failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0

Warning: (null)(): Failed opening '/home/aquatic/public_html/forum/admincp/commbull.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in Unknown on line 0

What's up with that? I have not updated my forum at all in a while, and it worked last week fine. Please help. The file is still on the server.

[noppid]

You are getting a permissions error, make sure commbull.php has execution and read rights (755) set.

[traderx]

Originally Posted by noppid

That is correct, it is not a cron job.

Is there not ANY way that this can be done with a cron job?

[Christie]

Went to send the Community Bulletin this week and found the drop down options for "Show info starting from this date" only go up to 31.12.2005.

Is there any way of extending the date into 2006 and beyond? If so how do I do it please. I inherited the board with this hack installed, but wouldn't like to be without it.

Thanks

[timelord726]

I get this after opening commbull.php:

Fatal error: Call to a member function query_first() on a non-object in C:\apachefriends\xampp\docs\jds\forums\admincp\com mbull.php on line 46

[apfparadise]

Originally Posted by traderx

Is there not ANY way that this can be done with a cron job?

Maybe we are using this for different reasons, but I dont think you'd want it a cron job. This is something of a newsletter, where you write the first part up, putting in important information (new articles, things going on on the site...) Interesting stuff, and then give them the dry "posts and birthdays"

I do it weekly, have done for over a year now, I think. If it's interesting nobody takes themselves off the list, if you just cron them the dry news you lose most of 'em.

[Christie]

Originally Posted by Christie

Went to send the Community Bulletin this week and found the drop down options for "Show info starting from this date" only go up to 31.12.2005.

Is there any way of extending the date into 2006 and beyond? If so how do I do it please. I inherited the board with this hack installed, but wouldn't like to be without it.

Thanks

Worked out how to do it - thanks

[b00k]

Originally Posted by Christie

Worked out how to do it - thanks

how? Please and thanks....err.. nm.. here you go..

open commbull.php from the admin cp..

search

<td><select name='fromyear'>".makedateselect(1999,2005,$datebi ts[2])."</select></td></tr></table></td></tr>";

and replace with

<td><select name='fromyear'>".makedateselect(1999,2009,$datebi ts[2])."</select></td></tr></table></td></tr>";

that should work. Added it upto 2009.

Hope this is correct in all areas.. Worked for me.