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 JonV

Genius mod

However is there any way to make more $myfeeds $myfeeds1 $myfeeds2 $myfeeds3 $myfeeds4 $myfeeds5 and so on ?


So my forum is set up with difrent skin colors based on Categorys
I want seperate rss sidebars for every skin.

$myfeeds
$myfeeds1
$myfeeds2
$myfeeds3
..

That not currently possible. I could show you how to do it but you'd have to make a lot of modifications to the code (php and plugins) and create db tables for each extra myfeed you'd want to add.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by mccollin

Sure... what things will you need access to in the AdminCP... just trying to save a step.

I only need to be able to see the AboutToday section. Maybe your installed products too. I'm thinking you have another hack that deals with creating threads that sometimes causes a problem with this mod trying to create threads.

When I try to login to the admincp now, it accepts my login, looks like its going to go to the admincp, then comes back to the admincp login screen.

[sjcctan]

Originally Posted by CyberRanger

Yes, it will. :-)

I have installed your Add-on. But it didn't show up in my forum. Please take a look here. Why?

[jzewatsky]

CyberRanger,

Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

Back on page 42, it appears that you were able to help CodeRed trouble shoot the $myfeedsdetail variable not being displayed. Do you happen to remember the fix, I'm running into an identical trouble.

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by jzewatsky

CyberRanger,

Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

Back on page 42, it appears that you were able to help CodeRed trouble shoot the $myfeedsdetail variable not being displayed. Do you happen to remember the fix, I'm running into an identical trouble.

I think I remember (and it's an easy fix) but could you post your abouttoday_myfeeds plugin here? (or PM me your site url with an admin login and password)

[sjcctan]

Originally Posted by sjcctan

I have installed your Add-on. But it didn't show up in my forum. Please take a look here. Why?

I am sorry! The permissions for users weren't set. It is OK now.

Thank you so much!

[x YNWA x]

Hello, installed this and its working fine on forum itself, we have a portal on our homepage (www.pesforum.co.uk), its vBa CMPS . Im just wondering how I go about displaying the news on the forum portal too? Thanks

[CyberRanger]

Originally Posted by x YNWA x

Hello, installed this and its working fine on forum itself, we have a portal on our homepage (www.pesforum.co.uk), its vBa CMPS . Im just wondering how I go about displaying the news on the forum portal too? Thanks

add-on https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=108274 for vba cmps.

[Dave Hawley]

Thanks again CR, nice job.

Is there anyway to let the "Add Event" posting allow HTML?

[x YNWA x]

I have 1 problem with it on my forum page its www.pesforum.co.uk/forum

Basically at the bottom all the feeds are one big list, is there a way I can get them into columns side by side to each other, I know I can do this for the variable option but doesnt give the option for the default settings, thanks for the help