Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums 1.4

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.7
Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.7 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.6.x due to non existent feature of "social groups".

Support will be only given for people who clicked Mark as INSTALLED.

Description
Not satisfied with vBulletin social groups messaging function? With SocialForums your social group leaders can create a standard forum for their group.
A group leader can only create a forum if the group has at least 5 members - this can be changed via settings. Optionally the group leader can be a moderator of such a social forum.

Permissions
Since 1.3 there are advanced permissions active (Forum and Archive). This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.

Demo
None, see screenshots

Installation
This product is fully phrased and uses template hooks. No file changes or manual template edits needed.
1. Upload bitfield_socialforums.xml to existing folder /includes/xml/
2. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
3. Fresh Installation: Just import the product. Upgrade: Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
4. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

Troubleshooting
Q: I don't see a link to create a forum. Why?
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, espacially if the user is allowed to create forum.
A: Check if the usergroup meet min users requirement, see AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums.

Q: My users see the forums, but they shouldn't!
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, if the users usergroup is set to "can see".
A: Did you disabled the restriction mode? Enable it.

Todo
- By deleting a group the forum should also be deleted/archived. Currently this has to be done manually.

Known Issues
- On big boards with hundreds of social groups this mod can really impact the performance because of the mass of new created forums. If you still want to use this mod use the "Minimum Members" feature with a higher value. Using the permission check there are additional two queries on every page.

History
1.4.6, 6th October 2008
- Permissions are now also active in Archive

1.4.2, 27th May 2008
- Added: If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).
- Added: Recent threads in linked forum on group home
- Added: Private groups: Link to forum only shown to members of group
- Changed: Enabled permissions for unregistered usergroup. Unregistered Users are not more explicit denied without a check of it's usergroup

1.3.1, 23th May 2008
- Fixed: Not existing array

1.3.0, 23th May 2008
- Added: Permissions are now active. This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. Please check permissions for every usergroup! As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.
- Added: Checks for permission before the creation link will be displayed
- Changed: Default View Age set to "Show all Threads"

1.2.1 8th April 2008:
- Added: Group messaging can be disabled via options (previously: always disabled)

1.2.0 4th April 2008:
- Added: Groupleader can now be moderator of group forum
- Added: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Added: Group messaging will be automatically hide for group that has own forum
- Added: Forums are created with more allowances
- Added: By deleting a forum the linked socialgroup get's updated
- Added: Forum's description contains link back to social group
- Added: By changing group's name it synchronize it with the forum's name

1.0/1.1 1st April 2008:
- Initial releases

[flOid]

Finally the answer that I was looking for from the beginning. Thank you very much.

Still, you should consider to include this option into your great mod and apply it for forum contents, it would make it almost perfect! And I guess I'm not the only one who is thinking that...

in any case you should explain that in the mod manual, as I already said, this is very confusing for both admins and users.

[MrEyes]

Well I have been running and fiddling with this mod for a few days now, and I can say with absolute certainty that my members love it. The social group members get their own "off topic domain" to play in, and those who have no interest in the social groups subject can no longer whinge about seeing threads they have no interest in.

Anyway, enough praise

A couple of suggestions, feel free to ignore these:

1) I currently have set the "Minimum Members" option set to 10, which is a good amount for the size of the site. However the site is growing and as it grows I intend to increase this limit. It would be great if I good set a percentage of active users. This would effectively allow the mod to auto manage which from an admin point of view is useful.

2) My "social forum" structure is as follows:

- Category : Off Topic & Social Forums
- - Forum : Off Topic 1
- - Forum : Off Topic 2
- - Forum : Social Forums (closed to new threads)
- - - Forum : Social Group 1 Forum
- - - Forum : Social Group 2 Forum
- - - .....
- - - Forum : Social Group X Forum

This all works great, however if a user is in one of the "Social Group X Forum" areas the Forum Jump drop down is sort of broken. By broken I mean that normally the current forum is the selected item, however as the "Social Group X Forum" is too deep in the hierarchy so the jump menu defaults to the first item in the list (typically the User Control Panel). It would be great if the default could be set to the Parent forum id defined in configuration.

Its no great hassle, just as I said be nice for quick navigation.

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by MrEyes

1) I currently have set the "Minimum Members" option set to 10, which is a good amount for the size of the site. However the site is growing and as it grows I intend to increase this limit. It would be great if I good set a percentage of active users. This would effectively allow the mod to auto manage which from an admin point of view is useful.

Uhm, would be difficult to get the percentage of active users in a specific forum. You can try to get this with a query.

Originally Posted by MrEyes

Its no great hassle, just as I said be nice for quick navigation.

showonforumjump is set to 0, that means social forums are never shown on forum jump menue. You can change this for existing forums via AdminCP.

[lovevn]

Hello
Can we have an option to choose any forum to set it as "SCG forum"?
Thanks

[Alfa1]

^I thought that was possible. How do I select an existing forum as the group forum?

[Phalynx]

Currently only via SQL query:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...84#post1487284

[tei727]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

Count in weeks, not days. I have currently a lot to do.


You will have to put a query and assign the existing Forum ID to the Group.

UPDATE socialgroup SET forumid=YOURFORUMID WHERE groupid=YOURSOCIALGROUPID

Don't forget your DB-prefix.

when i added the DB prefix it didn't work. when i didn't it worked. the prefix was being added automatically for me...fyi

[jilly]

I agree with a previous poster on the need for supermods and admins to be able to see link and be able to read content of the private forums by default. Yes, I can go in and edit permissions individually, but whenever a staff memebr changes I'd have to remember to change their permissions, and also as the site grows bigger and the amount of groups grow bigger it gets more time consuming. It could at least be an option from the admincp for admins/supers view to be turned on or off with a switch. With mine, even though we allow private groups, I still need my admins and supers to be able to randomly monitor the groups for overall content appropriateness, or easy access in case abuse is reported.

[Julie]

If anyone has asked/said something about this before, I'm sorry... (Long thread to go through!)

About the

If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).

option...

Would it be possible to make this optional? I would prefer the message count and last post to stick to the social group messages and postdates


Also noticed that, if I post a message in a group, it appears under the Activity in forum, and not under the Showing Social Group Messages. It doesn't add anything in the forum though. As soon as I hit refresh, it moves the posted message to the right place...

Thanks

[Watson]

Originally Posted by jilly

I agree with a previous poster on the need for supermods and admins to be able to see link and be able to read content of the private forums by default. Yes, I can go in and edit permissions individually, but whenever a staff memebr changes I'd have to remember to change their permissions, and also as the site grows bigger and the amount of groups grow bigger it gets more time consuming. It could at least be an option from the admincp for admins/supers view to be turned on or off with a switch. With mine, even though we allow private groups, I still need my admins and supers to be able to randomly monitor the groups for overall content appropriateness, or easy access in case abuse is reported.

I Like this idea, because if the forum becomes very popular then I will just make it a public forum (unless its a private social group)