Import Unread News from a Forum

This hack will allow you to specify one or more forum IDs in your Admin CP as "news forums". Every time a thread is created in these forums, all users will see an "Unread news" notification at the top of every page of the forum until they view the unread news thread. If many news threads are unread, they will all be shown in the notification and removed one by one as each thread is viewed.

This hack both serves to make sure all users are aware of posted news and to give users who return after a long absence a quick rundown of what has been going on in the forums since they last were there.

As of version 2.0, it is possible to specify:

- Time cutoff: all news older than x days will count as read
- Only check for read status on latest x threads: only the latest x news will be shown if unread; all older news will always be treated as read
- Maximum number of news to display at one time: if a user has more unread news (after the time cutoff and latest x filter) than the number specfied, only that number will actually be displayed on the page
- Whether to make users see news created before they joined as unread
- Whether to show the date and time when each news thread was made or just the date

Please note that you must have Paul_M's Display who has read a thread hack installed for this to function correctly! You don't need to actually have the people who have read the thread shown for anybody at all (heck, if you're completely uninterested in what that hack does, you don't even need to make the template edit for it), but as long as it's installed, this hack will work.

Version 3.0 adds the ability to have more than one news forum and to set a PHP condition for each forum which must be met in order for news from that forum to be imported.

Installation

Simply download the product attached to this post and import it via the Admin CP Product Manager. Then make one template edit: add

$unreadnews

to the bottom of the header template.

------------------------------------

If using PHP version 4.x (or if you are getting an error message that looks something like Fatal error: Call to undefined function: array_combine() in /public_html/global.php(359) : eval()'d code on line 139), you additionally need to find this line in the Import News plugin on the hook global_start:

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array_combine($newsids, $newsinfo); 


Replace it with

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array();
foreach ($newsids AS $key => $id)
{
   $newsarray["$id"] = $newsinfo["$key"];
} 


If using PHP 5 or later (which is the case if you don't get that error message), you will not need to make this edit.

------------------------------------

Afterwards, go to your vBulletin options, find the News Import System setting group, specify your news forum(s), set the other settings if you want, and turn the system on.

Don't forget to click Install if it's working for you. Enjoy!

Version 3.0: Added ability to have multiple news forums and use conditionals.
Version 2.23: Important bugfix from version 2.22
Version 2.22: Bugfixes
Version 2.21: Cutting off on the user's join date has been made an optional feature specified in the admin CP, and some unnecessary code has been removed. Also added alternative templates for no particular reason.
Version 2.2: Fixed uncached template, added "More..." link that links to the news forum when unread news are cut off by "Maximum number of news to display at one time" option, and all news created before the user registered will now count as read for that user. (Imagine registering and having twenty "unread news" notifications you have to plough through...)
Version 2.01: Added template edit information (I'm an official idiot for forgetting that) and fixed table prefixes.
Version 2.0: Added functionality (see above)

----------------------------

EXTRA: Alternative templates

If you don't like the way the current unread news box looks, I've got some more standard-looking templates you can use instead if you want. This also allows you to collapse the unread news, which might be useful. Just replace the templates, see how it looks, and revert the templates again if you liked the other look better.

Alternative custom_unreadnews template:

<if condition="$show['unreadnews']">
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
   <thead>
      <tr>
         <td class="tcat"><a href="#top" style="float:$stylevar[right]" onclick="return toggle_collapse('unreadnews')"><img id="collapseimg_unreadnews" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_unreadnews].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> Unread News</td>
      </tr>
   </thead>
   <tbody id="collapseobj_unreadnews" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_unreadnews]">
      $newsitems
      <if condition="$show['importnewscutoff']">
      <tr>
         <td class="alt1"><a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f={$vbulletin->options['importnewsforum']}" class="smallfont">More...</a></td>
      </tr>
      </if>
   </tbody>
</table>
</if>

Alternative custom_newsbit template:

      <tr>
         <td class="alt1">$timestamp: <strong><a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$id">$info[title]</a></strong></td>
      </tr>

[antialiasis]

Hmm, I could make that feature an option in the Admin CP so you can choose. =/ You don't really need that, anyway, if you have the time cutoff or number cutoff...

EDIT: Version 2.21, with that option and some alternative templates you can use if you feel like it.

[rmxs]

i dont wont to make you sad byt i cannot fint the option in ACP

Also the NEW custom_unreadnews template edits doesnt work for me i get pag error and dont collapsed...

Bad day...

EDIT: More... Link goes to url http://www.sitename.com/forumdisplay.php?f=

I thing something wronk with the code...

[antialiasis]

Both of those should be fixed now. I really don't get why the option didn't show up the first time (I didn't do anything with it, and it did get imported into the XML file now), but the alternative templates DO work, and the collapsing too (I tested it). Did you edit both the templates?

[rmxs]

Yeap i edit both ( edit one)

I try many times...

Let me try with new version


IT WORKS PERFECT

[reteep]

Dude I really like your hack, just one thing, please collect several updates and deploy them as one, don't do 5 Updates in 2h, thanks

[antialiasis]

Well, when I'm making important bugfixes, I'd rather not leave you for two hours with a non-functional hack. =P

But I'll be slowing down anyway. Now it's working and has all the features I was originally planning, so all I'd be doing would be implementing some user-requested features.

[KubisForce]

At first: Great hack - I ever was in search for that.
But I have also one feature request. I would like that the news forum changes according to the forum languages. Imagine you have a multilanguage board and you have therefore also not only one news forum. So the best would be that you can specify (if you want) for every language a different news forum.

[antialiasis]

Okay, that took a lot of pondering over how I could do that in a practical way, and I ended up just allowing a PHP conditional to be set for every news forum and then allow multiple news forums. I used the language thing as an example, so you should be good to go. Enjoy version 3.0.

[bashy]

Hi

I have only just found this and i do like it very much
I have 1 wee question though, The box that the news appears in has no Title cell of its own like the rest of the boxes on my forum... or see image below
An example would be the box below yours is the Latest Forum Threads and you
will see that the title has its own cell, please can you do this for me, or let me know what and where to do the edit please?

Much appreciated

[antialiasis]

That is exactly what the alternate templates provided in the first post do.