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NNTP Gateway for Usenet ( Newsgroups ), Mailing Lists · **Released**: 05-14-2004

The latest version: V2.3.2 (31 Oct 2004)

What is it?

This hack provides a gateway from vBulletin forums to the USENET. It allows forum members to read newsgroup messages as well as to send posts to the newsgroups. In a nutshell, it turns vBulletin forums into a basic function news reader.

For an added bonus, this package also supports mailing list archive and forum to mailing list gateway. The software retrieves messages from a pop3 account and import them into the forums threaded. It also allows a forums user to send messages to the mailing list by the forum posting interface.

Why?

The gateway will be appreciated by forum members who do not know how to set up a news reader, or people who do not have port 119 open in their network. A forum interface to read and post news are often considered to be better than a news reader.

The gateway adds more contents to your forums and allows the members to interact with wider audience. It is common to see new users signing up to use this feature.

History

This hack is basically a hacked vB2 NNTP gateway written by Gilby to work with vB3. The original hack can be found here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...7&page=1&pp=15

Features

Some of the features and improvement include:

Handles both newsgroup posts and mailing lists.
Handles MIME encoded messages and attachment.
Handles UUEncoded messages.
Two Admin Control Panels for all settings.
Automated installation.
Correct thread implementation. All imported messages and posts sent to newsgroups will be threaded correctly according to References and Message-ID headers.
Optional setting to thread by subject for mailing lists that strip references header.
Supports TABLE_PREFIX.
Imported messages will be searchable just like normal forum posts.
Similar threads are built when the messages are imported if the system setting is on.
Multiple attachments importing.
Save attachment to database or file according to vB setting.
Thumbnail created while importing image files.
Multiple attachment post to newsgroup is also supported.
Selectable X-No-Archive header honouring system.
Light on system resources.
Global Killfile to filter out unwanted messages. Killfiles can have OR and AND effectiveness.
Strip footer by setting for incoming messages. Strips out repeated message footers.
Built options to disable signatures and footers for out going messages.

Future development

AdminCP interfaces. (completed)
Installation/upgrade script. (completed, coded into AdminCP)
Traditional "> " lead posting interface.

What do you need and do not need?

You do not need to edit vB php files if you use two bookmarks
You need to edit one vB php file to insert two lines of code if you want direct click links within AdminCP.
No need to run SQL.

Installation

Basically the AdminCP interfaces take care of installation as well as upgrade in the background. Back up your database first. The scripts can modify your database without alerting you!

Please follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for more details.

Support

Please post your support questions to this thread. Please check the FAQ in the third post within this thread first.

================== UPDATES ======================
Jul 31 2004 (release version 2.2.0)

Provided option of not importing attachments
Provided option of pause between messages
Provided option of not sending messages to USENET
Provided mechanism to skip importing a message if it was crashed on it
Provided "Default Footer" option
Provided strip_footer function for mailing lists
(written originally by KevinM)
Provided Killfile functions with Header/Body/AND/OR settings
Provided ability to thread messages by subject for mailing lists
Provided ability to use a single POP3 account for different mailing lists
(use prefix)
Merged KevinM's attachment routine, save thumbnail to hard drive
as vB3.0.3
Official support to have the script run by Scheduled Tasks
Many bug fixes

Please note, when you manually run the script, you must turn on the debug mode. Otherwise nothing will be displayed on the screen.

To run as debug mode: http://forums.yourdomain.com/gateway.php?debug=1

25 Oct 2004

Provided the option of sending posts using the real email address
Provided the option of sending posts using a fixed email address for
each group.
Posts are now held back if they are in the moderating queue
Scheduled task log is now working
Provided the option of sending the debug messages to the vB3 cron log
Bug fixes

31 Oct 2004

Fixed bugs running the gateway by the vB3 Scheduled Tasks

1 March 2004

Uploaded the new zip file. It contains one or two bug fixes.

Xer · #**472** 08-16-2004, 08:24 AM

could anyone can tell me how to make gateway.php runs automatically

i did put the cronjob under VB admincp but it dont works i set [30 * * * * ./includes/cron/gateway.php] and i checked the cronjob log , cant see this job is running

if i put in [30 * * * * ./includes/cron/gateway.php?dubug=1] vb says

Quote:

Warning: main(./includes/cron/gateway.php?debug=1): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/myabz/domains/myabz.info/public_html/dream/forums/admincp/cronadmin.php on line 56

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './includes/cron/gateway.php?debug=1' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/myabz/domains/myabz.info/public_html/dream/forums/admincp/cronadmin.php on line 56

thanks :disappointed:

Marv · #**473** 08-16-2004, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xer

could anyone can tell me how to make gateway.php runs automatically

i did put the cronjob under VB admincp but it dont works i set [30 * * * * ./includes/cron/gateway.php] and i checked the cronjob log , cant see this job is running

if i put in [30 * * * * ./includes/cron/gateway.php?dubug=1] vb says

thanks :disappointed:

You pointed the cron to the wrong DIR. Gateway.php should be located in {forumsroot}/gateway.php . In the vb-cronjob field write: ./gateway.php .

That?s all.

allan grossman · #**474** 08-16-2004, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marv

Hi lierduh,

are you working an the next release of this hack yet ? if so I would really appreciate if you ( or someone else ) could make this hack producing correct email adresses in the header ( i.e. From: My Name <myemail@domain.com>) .
Many people in the newsgroups which we?re importing are asking for that.

Is there a simple way of including the email-adress from the db to the header information, so that others only have to hit the reply button to drop the author a line?

Regards,
Marv.

I'm gonna politely disagree here unless there's a way to disable the function. Zillions of spammers mine Usenet for email addresses - I'd prefer the addresses remain munged up.

Me? I use abuse@localhost as a return address. I don't know if it does any good but it makes me feel better

Marv · #**475** 08-16-2004, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allan grossman

I'm gonna politely disagree here unless there's a way to disable the function. Zillions of spammers mine Usenet for email addresses - I'd prefer the addresses remain munged up.

Hi Allan,

that?s the reason why I never release me email-adress to the usenet. I use a nospam@myhost.com adress, which spammers can reply to but their emails become deleted automaticly.

But I think - for me and my forums - it wouldn?t be a useful feature. In the past days more and more people which are using clients for posting/reading are flaming why the heck we dont obey the usenet rules which include that every post has to have a correct and replyable emailadress which belongs to the original poster. (For details have a look into RFC 2822) .
By now some of them say that in case we don?t change the behavior of this script they?ll drop abuse complaints to the network administration and our newsgroup-provider for closing our accounts. And as it looks so far they will obey the rules and disable our account. Even if the newsgroup-provider would reject their request - the network admins won?t.
So,..for us it?s not only a useful feature - it?s a needed one :ermm:

If this could be implemented into this hack I would really appreciate that. Otherwise we`ld have to disable "Sending postings to newsgroups" and would have a read-only forum that makes no sense for anyone.

john_rsd · #**476** 08-16-2004, 11:12 AM

I do not think cron jobs under vb are true crons.

I know the scheduled task manager within vb cannot execute by itself without users actually visiting the site, my assumption is no actual timer routines actually exist and the tasks rely on user hits to the site in order to trigger the code execution (psuedo scheduled) to check time and compare against tasks around same time or they do not execute.

The vb cron jobs may well be similar.

I tried both and they failed to execute, I had to set one going on the server itself.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108503

Marv · #**477** 08-16-2004, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_rsd

I do not think cron jobs under vb are true crons.

I know the scheduled task manager within vb cannot execute by itself without users actually visiting the site, my assumption is no actual timer routines actually exist and the tasks rely on user hits to the site in order to trigger the code execution (psuedo scheduled) to check time and compare against tasks around same time or they do not execute.

John, the vbcron isn?t a cronjob based on the server time. You?ll find $cronimage in several templates. Every time this template is called $cronimage triggers the vbcronjob. So you?re right - the vbcron is based on hits.

kmike · #**478** 08-17-2004, 07:05 PM

Observant Usenet user emailed me that some replies going to Usenet from our gateway didn't have "References" header and "Re: " in the subject. I investigated this, and it appears that current code is indeed buggy.

Current code first chooses new forum threads and then new posts to send to news server, but SQL query responsible for new threads gets it all wrong.
It gets not only new threads' posts themselves, but also posts to the same thread by the thread author, if the thread was started from the forum. It means that all subsequent forum posts to the thread by the thread author won't get "References" header and also "Re: " in the subject, and therefore won't be threaded in the newsgroups.

The fix is to use special "firstpostid" field in the thread table for determining the first post in the thread.

Replace this code:

PHP Code:


			
                $get_newthreads=$DB_site->query("SELECT post.*, thread.*,

                        post.dateline AS postdateline, post.msgid AS postmsgid,

                        thread.title AS threadtitle

                        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post as post LEFT JOIN " .

                        TABLE_PREFIX . "thread as thread ON (

                        thread.threadid = post.threadid

                        AND post.userid = thread.postuserid)

                        WHERE post.isusenetpost = 0 AND

                        post.postid > {$nntp_settings['last_postid']} AND

                        thread.forumid = {$group['forum']}");

with this:

PHP Code:


			
                $get_newthreads=$DB_site->query("SELECT post.*, thread.*,

                        post.dateline AS postdateline, post.msgid AS postmsgid,

                        thread.title AS threadtitle

                        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread as thread LEFT JOIN " .

                        TABLE_PREFIX . "post as post ON

                        thread.firstpostid = post.postid

                        WHERE post.isusenetpost = 0 AND

                        post.postid > {$nntp_settings['last_postid']} AND

                        thread.forumid = {$group['forum']}");

PokerFinder · #**479** 08-18-2004, 09:27 PM

Yes, I would like to know how to keep the posts to be at a certain amount. I want the total to be 20,000 so any new posts that come in, should be replaced with old posts....clean and add so i dont lose my isp account or website stops. thanks for your help in advance!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fonzerelli_79

is anyone pruning their usenetgroup forum

my group has pulled about 160,000 posts so far and it keeps increasing - im fairly pleased with this in one respect in that the search engines will have plenty of pages to keep them busy which should hopefully increase traffic

however, the more and more posts there are the larger my database will be which means that backing up will be a pain just now but if i leave it as it is for a few months id have to back up a forum of millions of posts - not good

whats everyone else doing about this?

PokerFinder · #**480** 08-18-2004, 09:30 PM

Hi,

I have made changes per your sugestions...thanks...now...I can't get my posts to show up on usenet. it simply stays on my forum but i can get new posts fine.

i did several tests sending and out of 9, only 1 post went through...my port 119 isnt blocked and i have used a nntp gateway before (mynewsgroups

but switched to this wonderful hack. please help!

ps. am i suppose to have the gateway or nntp/newsgroup settings in vbulletin option in admin cp area? i saw them when i installed it but then it disappeared :ermm:

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmike

Observant Usenet user emailed me that some replies going to Usenet from our gateway didn't have "References" header and "Re: " in the subject. I investigated this, and it appears that current code is indeed buggy.

Current code first chooses new forum threads and then new posts to send to news server, but SQL query responsible for new threads gets it all wrong.
It gets not only new threads' posts themselves, but also posts to the same thread by the thread author, if the thread was started from the forum. It means that all subsequent forum posts to the thread by the thread author won't get "References" header and also "Re: " in the subject, and therefore won't be threaded in the newsgroups.

The fix is to use special "firstpostid" field in the thread table for determining the first post in the thread.

Replace this code:

PHP Code:


			
                $get_newthreads=$DB_site->query("SELECT post.*, thread.*,

                        post.dateline AS postdateline, post.msgid AS postmsgid,

                        thread.title AS threadtitle

                        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post as post LEFT JOIN " .

                        TABLE_PREFIX . "thread as thread ON (

                        thread.threadid = post.threadid

                        AND post.userid = thread.postuserid)

                        WHERE post.isusenetpost = 0 AND

                        post.postid > {$nntp_settings['last_postid']} AND

                        thread.forumid = {$group['forum']}");

with this:

PHP Code:


			
                $get_newthreads=$DB_site->query("SELECT post.*, thread.*,

                        post.dateline AS postdateline, post.msgid AS postmsgid,

                        thread.title AS threadtitle

                        FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread as thread LEFT JOIN " .

                        TABLE_PREFIX . "post as post ON

                        thread.firstpostid = post.postid

                        WHERE post.isusenetpost = 0 AND

                        post.postid > {$nntp_settings['last_postid']} AND

                        thread.forumid = {$group['forum']}");

Blackbeard · #**481** 08-19-2004, 09:20 AM

iam using a hack of vb.org that shows

There have been # threads and # posts since your last visit!

is there anyway i can exclude my gatewayposts from this count

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.05588 seconds Memory Usage 2,369KB Queries Executed 25 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (4)bbcode_php (7)bbcode_quote (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (6)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (4)pagenav_pagelink (3)pagenav_pagelinkrel (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
Messages:

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