The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

vB News Ticker · **Released**: 08-04-2006

What does this do? It allows you to take your news from your news forums (up to 9 news forums) and display them. You have a choice on how many you can pull from each forum, how fast you want the ticker to scroll, the length of the title of each news item, etc.

This works on 3.5.4, 3.5.5, and should work on pretty much any of the 3.5.x. I've not tested this for 3.6, but I have been told that it does work for 3.6.

Install/Upgrade Instructions

Step 1: Go to your admin Control Panel => Styles & Templates => Style Manager
Find your Master/Parent style or the style you wish to add this to and drop down the All Style Options menu dropdown and choose Edit Templates
Click Go if it does not redirect you
Open up your Forum Home Templates subdirectory and choose your FORUMHOME template

Find

PHP Code:


			
<!-- main -->

Add above

PHP Code:


			
$vbnews_ticker

Click Save & Reload

Step 2: Go to your admin Control Panel => Plugin System => Manage Products => [Add/Import Product];
Click Browse and find product-christianb_vbnews_ticker.xml
Remove contents of second line ./includes/xml/product.xml
Click the button next to Yes in Allow Overwrite
Click Import

Step 3: Go to your admin Control Panel => vBulletin Options => vBulletin Options => vB News Ticker => [Edit Settings]
Alter Settings as appropriate
*** IMPORTANT *** Make sure that if you do not enter an item in the forumIDs after the first one, the rest must be set to 0
- if it is not set to 0 or a forumid number, it will result in a database error.
Click Save

I've included the readme and the .xml Product/Plugin in the zip file.

If there are features you'd like to see for a future release, please let me know.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the forumid?
The forumid is the id of the forum you have created. Each forum has its own unique number assigned to it. When you click on a forum link you can see a number that is assigned to it. This will show up in the URL of the page you are browsing. Another way of seeing the forumid is to go to your admin control panel => Forums & Moderators => Forum Manager => Click on [Expand All] and then move your mouse over (hover) any of the forums you've created. Your status bar (bottom of screen) should display your forumid (number at the end of the link/url).

How do I add the news ticker to the IBProArcade or Photoplog?
Thanks to Mark.B for his add - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=144

Changes

1.0.4 Added security

1.0.3 Changed the hook location from forumhome_complete to global_start giving admin ability to put the news ticker most places rather than in forum home.
Updated the query to remove a JOIN that may have been causing delays.

1.0.2 Added instructions to comment out unneccessary query pulls in the array to reduce wait times.
Optimized the query by removing non-essential SELECTs.
Added option for user to separate news items in admincp.
Fixed IE whitespace issue for ticker height as seen here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....3&postcount=28

1.0.1 Fixed a width issue as seen here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....3&postcount=12

Known Bugs/Issues:
From my testing on the new updates, when I (or a user on my site) clicks on any of the links that has the news ticker, it works fine, but when I or a user hits the refresh button, it can hang. I'm unsure why this is happening.

Temporary demo location:
http://www.christianboards.org/forum.php

bhxtyrant · #52 08-07-2006, 07:40 PM

thanks christian,Is there any hope of getting this to work with the header template?I found another hack here called "Latest Threads IN Marquee" which does work in the header but it doesnt have nearly as many features as yours does such as the ability to pull news from only a single forum id.

davidw · #53 08-07-2006, 07:46 PM

@Eagle Creek, just out of curiousity, how long does it take to start the forums here: http://www.christianboards.org/forum.php

@bhyxtyrant, I can see what I can do but I'm not sure. It might possibly work but changing the plugin (in the plugin manager) from forumhome_complete to global_start and then trying the $vbnews_ticker where you want it - try that. I've not tested it, so I'm not sure if that will work or not.

Eagle Creek · #54 08-07-2006, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christianb

@Eagle Creek, just out of curiousity, how long does it take to start the forums here: http://www.christianboards.org/forum.php

@bhyxtyrant, I can see what I can do but I'm not sure. It might possibly work but changing the plugin (in the plugin manager) from forumhome_complete to global_start and then trying the $vbnews_ticker where you want it - try that. I've not tested it, so I'm not sure if that will work or not.

FORUMHOME:
First time load, it kept loading and loading and after 400 (!) seconds I stopped it.
Second try: 3.156 seconds.
After a refresh of the page: 6.453

FORUMDISPLAY:
1.954 seconds

davidw · #55 08-07-2006, 08:47 PM

My average load time (for me) is about 1.7 seconds. I have done a refresh and connected as quick as 1.117. I think distance may play a part in it though.

Eagle Creek · #56 08-07-2006, 10:55 PM

I guess so.. Cause when you say my forumhome takes 6 seconds, I say you are slow

.

But anyway: The script is slowing down my index.

Any change you will re-write the script? (I saw you already added some functions).

davidw · #57 08-07-2006, 11:13 PM

I will look at optimizing the script to make it go faster. I don't like hangups on code and will work on this moreso this week. I have 2-3 ideas I am working on. I have also thought possibly that the location (forumhome_complete) may be part of the issue there.

davidw · #58 08-08-2006, 11:24 AM

Ok, I believe I've figured out the problem

This works for the forumids you are not using.
(I will update the readme later today for this.)
Go to your plugin (admincp => Plugin System => Plugin Manager)
Find vB News Ticker under forumhome_complete, click [Edit]

Find (near the top)

PHP Code:


			
            $tickarray    =    array(
                $vbulletin->options['fid1'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid2'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid3'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid4'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid5'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid6'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid7'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid8'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid9']
            );

### EXAMPLE ###
If you are only pulling news from 2 forumids, comment out fid3 - fid9 (like below) and remove the comma after the fid2 (as shown)
Remove the comma from fid2 if you are commenting out fid3

PHP Code:


			
            $tickarray    =    array(
                $vbulletin->options['fid1'],
                $vbulletin->options['fid2']       // remove the comma here
                //$vbulletin->options['fid3'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid4'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid5'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid6'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid7'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid8'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid9']
            );

Why should this work? I thought about this - this morning. There is an array of 9 variables being passed through 1 query and a subquery REGARDLESS of whether or not it is being used. Commenting out the ones not being used - it will not be passed through the query, nor will it be passed through the subquery. I did a test on my website to try it out. My forumhome load went from 1.787s to 0.897 when I commented out those above.

For now, this is a manual fix, until I can figure out how to fix this so that it doesn't have to be edited through the plugin.

Eagle Creek · #59 08-08-2006, 12:11 PM

I'm using

PHP Code:


			
    $tickarray    =    array(
                $vbulletin->options['fid1']
                //$vbulletin->options['fid2'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid3'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid4'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid5'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid6'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid7'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid8'],
                //$vbulletin->options['fid9']
            );

now because I only use one forum to pull the news out.

Whieeeeeeeeeee! It's working!
I can still see there is a delay in loading, but it isn't big (<1 seconds).

EDIT:

no...
When I open the page, it takes about 1.5 second. After a refresh also.
When I go to a forumdisplay, and at the top I click at the hompage link it takes about 6 seconds

.

EDIT2: Even when I'm direct opening the homepage, is slow again. Strange.

Eagle Creek · #60 08-08-2006, 02:21 PM

Ok People,

with the help from Christian (another modification) it's working fine now!
It's slowing down a little bit, but that's normal because there's more to load. You almost don't know you have the hack installed

.

Thx again David

.

davidw · #61 08-08-2006, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmxs

now about the color i mean the letter...no boarder on option in admin control panel that user can set 2 different collors EXAPLE 1-3-5-7 topics BLUE 2-4-6-8 topics RED

Ok, I believe I have got this figured out

You need to edit the plugin to make this work.

Find:

PHP Code:


			
while($ticker = $db->fetch_array($gettickers))

Add above:

PHP Code:


			
$color1 = "#0000FF"; //blue

            $color2 = "#FF0000"; //red

            $color = 1;

Find:

PHP Code:


			
$ticker_titles             .= '<a href="showthread.php?t='. $ticker['threadid'] .'" title="'. $ticker['title'] .'" target="blank">'. $ticker['title'] .'</a> '. $ticksep.'';

Replace with:

PHP Code:


			
$tick_color                = ($color % 2) ? $color1 : $color2;

                $ticker_titles             .= '<a href="showthread.php?t='. $ticker['threadid'] .'" title="'. $ticker['title'] .'" target="blank"><font color="'. $tick_color .'">'. $ticker['title'] .'</font></a> '. $ticksep .'';

                $color++;

The screenshot is what it does:

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.05136 seconds Memory Usage 2,353KB 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 (9)bbcode_php (2)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 (1)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
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