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

[wmlvb]

Originally Posted by Varsh

All this plugin does is add the ability to have SG forums with the exact same ability that other forums can have. Why Jelsoft have not done this I do not know, it makes a lot more sense than SG discussions.

This plugin does allow you to turn off SG discussions (a very good idea as you'll be using forums).

I understand that but what I am asking is, I have about 20 groups already created by members who were excited by this SG feature, what will happen to those groups if I install SG Forums? Will they become a part of SG forums? Or will the only be in SG Discussions. If they stay as Sg discussions can I as an admin move them to Social Group forums? I do not want to have two totally separate system because they are not integrated. I need all groups to be on one or the other group system. Thanks for your help!

[Varsh]

What happens is that the SG leaders will be given a link at the bottom of their SG allowinf them to create a forum, when they click that the forum will be created and they will have their own forums. The current discussions are not converted to the forums but they will still be in the SG. It's just an addon and doesn't effect anything else.

[wmlvb]

Originally Posted by Varsh

What happens is that the SG leaders will be given a link at the bottom of their SG allowinf them to create a forum, when they click that the forum will be created and they will have their own forums. The current discussions are not converted to the forums but they will still be in the SG. It's just an addon and doesn't effect anything else.

Thanks for the good explainaion! So if I disable SDdiscussion will I lose those social groups that were created through SG discussion? I would like to just have to SGforums so there is not counfusion about which to choose between creating a Forum or a discussion but I do not want to lose those groups. Thanks again for the help

I should add that I do not mind if I lose the discussion already created as there were not that many but I do not want to lose the groups that were created

[Varsh]

You won't lose any Social Groups whatsoever otherwise the plugin won't work.

[punchbowl]

Originally Posted by Varsh

Why Jelsoft have not done this I do not know, it makes a lot more sense than SG discussions.

Makes me want to scream. There's groups that can have a leader that moderates joins and then there's social groups that have a leader that can moderate who joins. But the two are completely unrelated in the jelsoft thinking. One has functions like is_member_of the other doesn't.

We can only hope the we get social forums by vb4.0 and that all our boarded aren't f*cked in transition.

How can we turn off social group discussions?

[Varsh]

In the plugin options, there's an option to turn SG Discussions on or off. If you lot are trying it out on 3.8 then don't bother as it's not working yet.

[lingstar]

Is there a forum online that has this enabled? I'd love to see it. Thanks!

Barb

[jilly]

I have a board I am intentionally NOT upgrading to 3.8 yet because of the popularity and useage of the Social Forums feature - my question is, if a converter or upgrade is never developed, and I do finally have to upgrade, is there a way to keep the forums people have created? Like will they still be there, just the access masks will have to be adjusted? Several of the forums have lots of posts, polls, attachements, etc, and I don't want the people to lose access to them once I have to upgrade eventually..

[akonze]

I have a problem with this addon: The original founder of a group is not active anymore. Another user took over the group now using the new function to switch the owner in 3.8 RC. Now the new group leader wants to create a group forum. But he does not see the link to create the forum.

The new leaders user group has the right to create group forums. And the group has the minimum amount of group members. Did I forget to check anything else? Or is it a bug in the addon in combination with vb 3.8?

Thanks for any help!

[jilly]

Originally Posted by jilly

I have a board I am intentionally NOT upgrading to 3.8 yet because of the popularity and useage of the Social Forums feature - my question is, if a converter or upgrade is never developed, and I do finally have to upgrade, is there a way to keep the forums people have created? Like will they still be there, just the access masks will have to be adjusted? Several of the forums have lots of posts, polls, attachements, etc, and I don't want the people to lose access to them once I have to upgrade eventually..

So has anyone upgraded yet, and if you did, what happened to the social forums your group created? Are they still there, just not connected to the groups anymore? Other than not being able to access them directly from the groups anymore, did any damage occur to the actual social forum?