AboutToday - Bring RSS Feeds and Daily Events to Your Site!

What is AboutToday?

AboutToday provides a central place to bring daily items of interest to your forum visitors. It includes two main components: an RSS Reader System and Local Events database System.

Please NOTE: This mod has been modified for vb ver 3.6.4. It should work on vb ver 3.5.4 and 3.6.x.

1. An RSS Reader system where the admin can enter RSS feeds that will then be displayed on the page. RSS feeds can be set to AUTOMATICALLY create threads or be set so that users can easily create a thread from a feed.. Feeds can be read via fopen or cURL.
   
   
   
   
   
   The RSS Feeds are fully intergrated with vbAdvanced and could actually be placed anywhere you want!!
   
2. A database system that can hold unlimited categories of "AboutToday" events. For example, you could have a history category (like a Today in History) with sub-categories for different eras in history. Or, you could have a daily joke or software tip of the day, etc.
   
   The "Add Event" feature is intended to help you if you want for example - Sports: Today in History. With the vb calendar, you cannot have categories and you are restricted with how far back the dates can go.
   
   
   
   
   So with the "Add Event" feature, you could have a category tree like:
   • Hockey
     • Professional
     • College
     • High School
   • Football
     • American Football
     • The Rest of the World (Soccer)
   • Baseball
   
   with the normal calendar feature, you cannot have categories. And with "Add Event" you can have any date. So, if you want an event like "Jan 1, 132 B.C. - the first ball was invented", you can do that. But, that isn't possible in the normal calendar. Also, the events in "Add Event" are fully searchable.

Installation

Copy the following files to your server in the forums directory:

abouttoday.php
includes/class.csv.php
includes/class_abouttoday.php
includes/cron/cron_abouttoday.php
includes/xml/bitfield_abouttoday.xml
includes/xml/cpnav_abouttoday.xml
admincp/abouttodayadmin.php

From the admincp, import the product file product-abouttoday.xml (Manage Products - Add/Import Product).

REFRESH your admincp window. You should now see a listing in the left column of the admincp for "AboutToday".

Getting Started

NOTE - if this is a new install, a Yahoo RSS Feed and CNN Entertainment Feed have been automatically added to give you a feel for how the product looks.

If you plan to use the RSS Feeds:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - RSS Feeds. Add an RSS Feed.
2. From the admincp, select Usergroups - Usergroup Manager. Add permissions so the Administrator group can use the product.
3. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php.
4. If you want the feeds to AUTOMATICALLY create threads, go to admincp - abouttoday - settings. There you must set the userid of the account to use to create the thread. Then, edit the RSS Feed with the forumid of where the threads for that feed should be created!

If you plan to create your own "today in history" type of database:

1. From the admincp, select AboutToday - Categories. Add a category.
2. From your forum directory, bring up the file abouttoday.php. "Add" your first event to the category you have created!

Version Status
I've tested this product extensively but ... use this totally at your own risk!

Credits
I learned a lot about how to code this and used a lot of the code from what Ron1n did with ecDownloads. What I've learned from his code while helping to support ecDownloads has been invaluable.

Sites Using this Product
Visit www.armchairgeneral.com to see this product in action.

Click Install!
Please Click Install if you are using this product. Thanks!

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by yonglvnv

Great mod and is working well except for one issue. When I click Talk About It button to create one thread, it creates multiple threads of all headlines, sometimes up to 30 threads. Checked all settings, but I must have missed something. What did I miss?

I haven't seen that. What version of VB are you running? Can you PM me you site URL along with an admin login and password so I can check it out?

[OrangeFlea]

Originally Posted by CyberRanger

What are you setting to two columns and where are you expecting to see it??

Forumhome.

It's all set under one vertical line as of now, as opposed to being set as two colums, with 3 feeds on each. I want to set it up like this:

feed 1 feed 2
feed 3 feed 4
feed 5 feed 6

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by OrangeFlea

Forumhome.

It's all set under one vertical line as of now, as opposed to being set as two colums, with 3 feeds on each. I want to set it up like this:

feed 1 feed 2
feed 3 feed 4
feed 5 feed 6

The feeds that appear under "Today's Events" are not controlled via the myfeeds variables. (I plan to update that so that you can control the layout there better.) The myfeeds variables are designed to be placed where ever you want them on your website. See: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ds#post1116275

Note in the example I use

<if condition="$forumid == 2">
$myfeeds
</if>

that should be

<if condition="$foruminfo[forumid]==2">
$myfeeds
</if>

[cashpath]

Anyone know if this works with 3.6.4?

[OrangeFlea]

Originally Posted by CyberRanger

The feeds that appear under "Today's Events" are not controlled via the myfeeds variables. (I plan to update that so that you can control the layout there better.) The myfeeds variables are designed to be placed where ever you want them on your website. See: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ds#post1116275

Note in the example I use

<if condition="$forumid == 2">
$myfeeds
</if>

that should be

<if condition="$foruminfo[forumid]==2">
$myfeeds
</if>

So you're saying it's possible to get it the way I mentioned in my previous post? All I have to do is make that change?

[Shazz]

Originally Posted by cashpath

Anyone know if this works with 3.6.4?

Works fine.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by OrangeFlea

So you're saying it's possible to get it the way I mentioned in my previous post? All I have to do is make that change?

Are you trying to get it to appear as more than one column in the "Today's Events" section of forumhome?

[wolf32]

Great hack! Is it compatible w/ 3.6.4?

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by wolf32

Great hack!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by wolf32

Is it compatible w/ 3.6.4?

Yes!

[Shazz]

Alot of the stuff is already in 3.6.4 on the RSS part :|