vba CMPS: Smilie Creator

vBa CMPS: Smilie Creator v1.0.1

OVERVIEW: This is a conversion of an old VB2 hack (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=50450) by Kars10 to create new smilie faces on the fly. The original version acted as a pop-up box from within a BB code so that the new smilie would be inserted into your forum message posting. A BB code trick posted over at vbulletintemplates.com (http://www.vbulletintemplates.com/mo...ead.php?t=6671) really eliminates the need of having to do this hack anymore since you can accomplish nearly the same thing without having to do any code changes. I was still interested in this old hack though because there are times I'd like to be able to create a new smilie on the fly either for my own personal usage or for my site. So looking at it as a learning experience my goals were to change the hack to be a more generic approach and make it easy to integrate into a site so making it into a vBadvanced CMPS (http://www.vbadvanced.com) module seemed the obvious answer. The other added benefit of making it into a vBadvanced CMPS module is the fact that it could then be added to a web site without doing any code modifications at all but still being able to, for instance, block access to it from non-registered users. I emphasis.... the PHP code is by Kars10, my only change to it was to remove the file name from being hard-coded and instead I'm passing it in from the template in order to make it easier to add new smilies in the future.

REQUIREMENTS: Since the template and PHP are really generic you should be able to easily get it working with just about configuration. For my purposes thought it was intended for.....

• vBulletin 3.x.x
• vBadvanced CMPS
• A server that supports GD -- If you server is not running GD then it will not be able to create the new image.

INSTALLATION: Installation is really easy.....

1. Upload the fps_smilie_creator.php file to your /forums/modules directory (the folder where you keep your CMPS modules).
2. Upload the fps_smilie_creator folder to your /forums/images/smilies folder (the folder where you keep your VB smilies). The resulting path should then be /forums/images/smilies/fps_smilie_creator.
3. Copy & paste the contents of fps_smilie_creator_template.html into a new custom template named adv_portal_fps_smilie_creator (or whatever your prefer).
4. Create a new VBA CMPS page or module. This is really your choice. For my site I liked it better being a seperate page so when I created my page I used the Page Template option. If you add it as a module instead of a new page then do not include the PHP file in the new module, only include the template!

That's it, you're done! If you upload the PHP file to a folder other than your modules directory or if you upload the images to a folder other than ../images/smilies then you'll have to update the template path names.


UPDATES: Updates & changes....

• 2004-08-09: The problem with the right-mouse "Save Picture As..." in Microsoft Internet Explorer, where it would want to save it as a bitmap instead of a PNG, has been fixed. I also tweaked the template a little to no longer need the <div> tags.

TIPS & TRICKS: Some ways increase the functionality of your Smilie Creator....

• Encourage your visitors to register

REMINDER: To always be informed of updates & changes be sure to click the button. :classic:

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Blam Forumz

The thing is, file extensions are on o_O I hate them turned off

Did you try saving the file yet?

[Blam Forumz]

yeah, thanks, that worked fine, m just worried that people might end up saving .php files and not .png files and get confused

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Blam Forumz

yeah, thanks, that worked fine, m just worried that people might end up saving .php files and not .png files and get confused

I'll see what I can do. The curious part is why Firefox displays the ".php" part of it but IE doesn't.

[ashley53680]

Oops, doesn't work for me *yet*.... the only thing I can think of is I saved the php file in the WRONG place. LOL

http://www.simply-baby.net/forum/vba...=smiliecreator


Thank you ahead of time!

[ashley53680]

Nevermind... I fixed it... hehe

[KW802]

Originally Posted by ashley53680

Nevermind... I fixed it... hehe

Ashley53680, good to see you go it working.

[dieselpowered]

Hey that post at VBT not sure what that does?? Is it an addition to your hack? I would really like to use yours and allow people to click on the smilie created and have it place itself into the post? Forgive my ignorance!!

Mike

[venomx]

The one at VBT is for only in the post its used it.. If they want one to take away they need this hack here...

[dieselpowered]

Ok ya I am trying to get something that places the smilie in a post directly from the editor

I am sure our buddy here can do that!!

Mike

[KW802]

Originally Posted by xtremeoff-road

Hey that post at VBT not sure what that does?? Is it an addition to your hack? I would really like to use yours and allow people to click on the smilie created and have it place itself into the post? Forgive my ignorance!!

Mike

Mike,

The VBT trick is a BB code that creates the allusion of a smilie holding a sign. It does this by creating table that is 1 column by 2 rows; the first row has a border with a white background & contains the text that is typed in while the second row has no border & contains the smilie centered. The end result is a very nice looking table that gives the appearance of a smilie sign. It's a very simple & cool bb code trick. But, as others have pointed out, you can't save the image because it really isn't an image.

This hack creates an actual PNG file that the user can right-click save-as to their local PC. The problem appears to be that I was, to be candid, a bit short-sighted when I worked on it.

To clarify that last remark when I was working on this hack I knew about the VBT trick so in my head I thought that it eliminated the need of the original hack that this is based on because the same end results could be achieved, a smilie holding a sign inside of a post. That is why when I approached this hack as a learning experience I geared it more towards generic usage that could be used on just about any HTML page rather than just the VB forums. After all, I figured, why would anybody want to put additional overhead on their server to create the graphics inline, or to save all of the images on their server eating up drive space, if they didn't have to.

Well, based upon various feedback I was wrong. :ermm:

If you guys & gals can bear with me and give me a little bit of time I have a few ideas in floating around in my head on how to integrate this smilie maker with the VB3 editor. Priority wise I want to finish up some changes I'm doing to another hack, a modified version of external.php (search for FPS_EXTERNAL.PHP for that hack), and then my wedding is in a few weeks so my free time these days is very little but I would like to come back to this smilie creator and make the revisions to it so that it can be integrated into the VB3 editor. :nervous: