AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site!

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

1. An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.
   
   
   
   
   
   The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
   
2. A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.
   
   The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.
   
   
   
   
   So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
   • Hockey
     • Professional
     • College
     • High School
   • Football
     • American Football
     • The Rest of the World (Soccer)
   • Baseball
   
   with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

[dacho]

Originally Posted by westpointer

I'm going to need more info than that. When do you see that? What's your url? What version of vbulletin?

vbulletin 3.5.4
I just do the Installation part
all the files in my server
import the product from the CPadmin
That's it !!!!

After that i return to the forum and i get :
the style (in Home Page) become form right style to left style
and in forumdisplay i get the error :
Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: D:\XXX\XXX\forums.dacho.co.il\includes\class_core. php
Line: 2984

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by Stanesq

can you tell me how i would add rss feeds from this:

http://sportsline.com/xml/rss

Simply scroll down the page and click on one of the "xml" buttons after the feed you want. It will open a page that has xml info. Add that URL into AboutToday.

Originally Posted by Stanesq

I would like to have specific ones update on my site, for example the fantasy baseball and fantasy football. Can I direct both into one forum folder called FANTASY SPORTS?

Sure, just add both feeds and tell them what forum to post to. You will also need to tell AboutToday the userid of the auto-poster.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by dacho

vbulletin 3.5.4
I just do the Installation part
all the files in my server
import the product from the CPadmin
That's it !!!!

I never seen anything like that from this product. I'd recommend uninstalling it and deleting the files. If all is well, load the files again from a fresh download of the product and try importing again.

If you still need help, PM me with your forum URL and an admin user/password.

[stodan]

Got some questions concerning displaying the feeds on the page. I am trying to get the feeds to line up in two rows of 3 in todays events. I have read this entire thread from beginning to end, and I am still not sure why it is not working for me.

In admincp>abouttoday>settings> How many rows across for $myfeeds variable? I put 2 in that field.

Include this Feed in $myfeeds variable? Each feed I have added yes to.

Yet they still appear in today events forum home as one column.

Also how do I get "todays events" box to appear on top of "currently active users" Its to far down on the page at the moment would like it further up.

Sorry for these beginner questions, but everyone was a beginner at one point.

[Creasey]

Originally Posted by westpointer

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I display the RSS Feeds on a sidebar?

If set "How many rows across for $myfeeds variable?" to a value greater than zero, a variable called $myfeeds will become available. Place this where you want the feeds to appear. Check out the attached example of the feeds displayed in the left sidebar.

How do you customize the output of the $myfeeds variable. Your attached image for the side block that contains rss feed is formatted nicely. How do you get the output to look like that versus just plain text?? What do I need to change.

[libertylounge]

I've installed this mod, but for some reason, when I click on 'categories' or 'rss feeds', I get my 404 page.

Do I need chmod the files after uploading them in order to access them? Not sure why it's doing that.

edit: fixed with chmod, nevermind.

[joh]

is there a way for me to import an rss feed from accross the net for specific topics?

[libertylounge]

This is probably what you want, joh: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=121201

[libertylounge]

I'm having an issue with this hack:

RSS feeds are not being posted every 60 minutes like it is set in the options.. Is there something I need to do to have this done automatically so I don't continually have to change something in the options, and hit 'edit' for a new flurry of posts to be made?

I'm currently using http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/politics as my RSS feed

[GrendelKhan{TSU]

upgraded now I'm getting this error:

Database error in vBulletin 3.5.4:

Invalid SQL:
UPDATE histtd_rss 
								SET `desc`='',
								    `todaytitles`=''
								WHERE `enabled`='1';

MySQL Error  : Unknown column 'desc' in 'field list'
Error Number : 1054
Date         : Sunday, July 23rd 2006 @ 04:00:08 AM
Script       : http://www.clantsu.org/forums/abouttoday.php?do=rss&id=3
Referrer     : http://www.clantsu.org/forums/abouttoday.php?
IP Address   : 
Username     : GrendelKhan{TSU}
Classname    : vb_database

EDIT: Nevermind. stupid n00b mistake on upgrade on my part. doh! (forgot one file on upload)