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

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by akonze

Problem: I can't see the "create forum" link in the group.

I installed it like the readme file says. The group has 8 members, 5 are needed to create forums. The usergroup "registered users" has permission to create forums. Did I forget something???

And YOUR group is registered users?

Originally Posted by maidos

can the group the member who joined, displayed on postbit?

Don't understand this.

[punchbowl]

This is going to be standard in 3.8/4?! Hopefully vb don't ruin the great work done here by Phalynx and the upgrading works.

[Phalynx]

Read here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=538

[Fraik]

Originally Posted by punchbowl

This is going to be standard in 3.8/4?! Hopefully vb don't ruin the great work done here by Phalynx and the upgrading works.

Not really, the feature in vB 3.8 is the ability to create topics within the groups messaging system, as opposed to a groups forums with all the features it comes with (moderation options, tagging, stickies etc.)

[Kaelon]

Originally Posted by Fraik

Not really, the feature in vB 3.8 is the ability to create topics within the groups messaging system, as opposed to a groups forums with all the features it comes with (moderation options, tagging, stickies etc.)

Not according to Jelsoft:

Originally Posted by Kier

This is probably the most-requested feature since the introduction of social groups in vBulletin 3.7. While the current 'social group messages' system allows messages to be posted to a social group, unlike forums it does not allow messages to be divided up into discussions. vBulletin 3.8 rectifies this, and social groups in 3.8 now have the ability to contain individual topics, each with reporting, inline moderation and many of the other tools one would expect from vBulletin.

Note my emphasis in bold. It sounds like they are going to essentially port the entire forum functionality right into the Social Groups functionality, making this addon moot.

[fly]

Originally Posted by Fraik

I just found a SERIOUS bug in the mod.

Private forums are viewable trough the archives, along with all the topics and posts in that forum. I double-checked my permissions just to be sure, and they were all good. Forum isn't visible in the normal listing, but it is in the archives.

Has this been addressed?

[akonze]

Originally Posted by Phalynx

And YOUR group is registered users?

Yes, sure. I think I found the problem. Today the 10th group member joined the group and now I can create the forum, althought I entered '4' as minimum in the settings.

Could you please check the code if the setting is properly integrated? Thanks.

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by Kaelon

Not according to Jelsoft:



Note my emphasis in bold. It sounds like they are going to essentially port the entire forum functionality right into the Social Groups functionality, making this addon moot.

NO, I disagree.

Unless there is going to be some sort of integration with "Today's Posts" and "New Posts" then the new Social Group Threads is going to be useless, at least on my site, as almost everyone navigates with getdaily and getnew.

Thus this mod will still be needed.

[RvG2]

better see and check it out which one is more usable.

[JKatz]

Originally Posted by flypaper

Has this been addressed?

Same question here.