NNTP Gateway (Usenet/Newsgroups)

This hack provides a gateway to any NNTP newsgroup such as those from Usenet and other newsgroup servers. Selected newsgroups are imported from your news server and post on the forum are sent out to the newsgroup. This hack was greatly inspired by fastforward's usenet gateway hack. This one is a complete rewrite of that hack written in PHP and works with vB 2.2.2.

Installation:
Installation is pretty simple. No modifications to the vB php files are needed and it simply consists of dropping in the files to your forums directory, running the SQL modifications, and modifying the newsgroup settings for your desired newsgroups. For the complete installation details, read the readme.txt file.

Here are some of the features:

• Real cool vbcode to text conversion!
• All posts are inserted, even if parent thread cannot be found for replies
• Guests posts also get sent to the newsgroup.
• Importing of attachments from the newsgroup
• Poll info sent to newsgroup
• Attachment link sent to newsgroup
• Supports unlimited newsgroups and servers.
• email notification of new replies, just like regular forum posts
• Can import HTML messages and convert to limited vb code.

For control panel integration, please check out GameCrash's Graphical Interface addition.

What's not in it that was in fastforward's usenet gateway hack:

• No control panel integration at the moment. (Available separately)
• Does not support separate footers
• Does not allow custom email address to be used via the users option
• No spam control or string replacement support.
• No purging or autoexpire.

There is still lots that I'd like to add to it, but this is competely functional for basic newsgroup gateway support. It is most likely not free of bugs. If you have questions, suggestions or annoyances, please post in this thread.

vb3 support
lierduh modified this to provide support for the beta versions of vb3. When the release candidates of vb3 come out, I plan to add support for vb3 and add other features to this hack. If you have suggestions for new features, let me know.

E-mail gateway support
New in this version, you can now gateway with an email list. This will fetch emails from a POP email account and send via php's mail function to the mailing list's email address. To set up the list, in the newsgroup field, enter in the email address to send outgoing posts to. In the server field, enter in the pop3 server, and in the username and password fields enter in, you guessed it, the username and password to your pop account. Note: the email gateway capabilities has not been fully tested, so it might not work with your POP server. Also, it does not work in combo with a news<->forum gateway in the same forum (you can use either kind though in differnet forums within your forums).

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by himerus

I can't seem to get a post made in the forum update to the newsgroup... the post works on the site, but it seems to never have been sent back to the NNTP server...

Any Ideas?

What is on your screen if you run it manually. If you use IE and it tries to download instead of displaying it on the screen. Please fix the Windows registry following the instruction here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=ie600

[himerus]

When I run the script, this is the output... it's getting threads, but I haven't seen any sent.

4 group(s) gatewayed.
Logging in to ***.******.com, group alt.internet.access
Logging in to ***.******.com, group alt.comp
Logging in to ***.******.com, group alt.comp.hardware
Getting message number 240543: Thread found; 'Re: New Hard Drive...best way to transfer info ???' from ~misfit~
Getting message number 240545: Thread found; 'Re: New Hard Drive...best way to transfer info ???' from Shep?
Getting message number 240546: Thread found; 'Re: Setting CPU Speed (Asus A7V133)' from ~misfit~
Getting message number 240547: Thread found; 'Re: Beware of Directron.com' from J. Codling
Getting message number 240548: Thread found; 'Re: Loud fan follow-up' from Greg Logging in to free.teranews.com, group alt.windows-xp
Getting message number 43365: New thread; 'Software restriction policy' from brenden
Getting message number 43366: Thread found; 'Re: XP firewall' from Tom McCune

I've logged into the groups online, but my post isn't showing up in the group, and there have been other posts since mine that posted to the newsgroup.

I am working on the gateway.php file, and have set it up in the admincp as a Scheduled Task.... only downside is it either has to run every minute (way too much) or every hour (maybe a little slow to update) I was having a hell of a time with the cron job working properly on my server.

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by himerus

When I run the script, this is the output... it's getting threads, but I haven't seen any sent.



I've logged into the groups online, but my post isn't showing up in the group, and there have been other posts since mine that posted to the newsgroup.

I am working on the gateway.php file, and have set it up in the admincp as a Scheduled Task.... only downside is it either has to run every minute (way too much) or every hour (maybe a little slow to update) I was having a hell of a time with the cron job working properly on my server.

Not sure how to use the schedule in Admin control panel. I use Linux cron. What is your entry in your /var/spool/cron/ ?

Check the post your member made for usenet in the database to see if "isusenetpost =1", if it is "1", that means the post has been successfully sent to usenet.

[himerus]

Well, it shows then that is has been sent... I just haven't seen it posted...

I'll have to set up a newsreader tonight, and try it out.

[himerus]

It says it is being posted:

Posting Message from himerus: 240 - Article posted

However, I've made several posts, and can locate none of them from other newsgroup sources.

[jcrash]

Originally Posted by himerus

I've got it working on vB3 Gold at http://www.myispforum.com/ if anyone is looking for an example... I have two newsgroups currently running:

alt.internet.access
alt.comp

I replied to one newsgroup post, but I'm not sure if that part is working yet, and I have yet to see any new posts come in, but I love the way it looks... Great way to syndicate lots of data for the search engines.

I just want to point out I went to his site and found a usenet ppost, then searched on a word from its title...NO MATCHES

The search portion of this hack is broken, please log it as a bug. :ermm:

[himerus]

You are right...

The similar threads are being updated properly, because if you browse the newsgroup posts, the similar threads show up, but sure enough, the search index isn't being updated properly, even though the function (build_post_index($postid,$foruminfo);) is being called in gateway.php

Also, the update is not working for me at all... I have tested it on several posts, and they are not being sent back to the newsgroup. (see prior posts)

I love the functionality, and would like to see the original author come back around with a new version for vB 3 Gold...

I'm fine with any PHP, but I'm not sure about the interaction with the NNTP server, and how all that works well enough to really re-write this...

I would also enjoy seeing a control panel section for this hack... with lots of options!

[Gilby]

Originally Posted by leeherron

So no one knows about the changed subject threading bug?

It's not a bug, it was programmed that way. Since vb 2 is not a threaded forum, it doesn't make it that easy to use a changed subject from the newsgroup as it's hard to know what post a reply is to when done on the forums. So, the script assumes that if the subject is change significantly, that the discussion in the thread has drifted off and warrents a new thread in the forums. It also makes the posts from the forum appear as a reply to the correct post.

[Gilby]

I do still plan to upgrade the scripts for vb 3, but haven't had a chance to do so yet. I'll be out of town over the next week, but I hope to work on it within the next few weeks.

For those that just can't wait to upgrade to vb3, lierduh's hack of this script should hold you over until I get an official one made for vb3.

If you have any suggestions about new features to add or any bugs or problems you've encountered, now is the time to let me know (you can post here or email me through the forums here).

[himerus]

Originally Posted by Gilby

If you have any suggestions about new features to add or any bugs or problems you've encountered, now is the time to let me know (you can post here or email me through the forums here).

Just the fact that for some reason my post aren't being sent back to the newsgroup...

That's the main problem I'm having right now.... (see previous posts)