Miscellaneous Hacks - Import Unread News from a Forum

This is a port of the hack for vBulletin 3.5. Upgrading the hack after upgrading the forum should not be necessary.

This hack will allow you to specify one or more forum IDs in your Admin CP as "news forums". Every time a thread is created in these forums, all users will see an "Unread news" notification at the top of every page of the forum until they view the unread news thread. If many news threads are unread, they will all be shown in the notification and removed one by one as each thread is viewed.

This hack both serves to make sure all users are aware of posted news and to give users who return after a long absence a quick rundown of what has been going on in the forums since they last were there.

As of version 2.0, it is possible to specify:

- Time cutoff: all news older than x days will count as read
- Only check for read status on latest x threads: only the latest x news will be shown if unread; all older news will always be treated as read
- Maximum number of news to display at one time: if a user has more unread news (after the time cutoff and latest x filter) than the number specfied, only that number will actually be displayed on the page
- Whether to make users see news created before they joined as unread
- Whether to show the date and time when each news thread was made or just the date

Please note that you must have Paul_M's Display who has read a thread hack installed for this to function correctly! You don't need to actually have the people who have read the thread shown for anybody at all (heck, if you're completely uninterested in what that hack does, you don't even need to make the template edit for it), but as long as it's installed, this hack will work.

Version 3.0 adds the ability to have more than one news forum and to set a PHP condition for each forum which must be met in order for news from that forum to be imported.

Installation

Simply download the product attached to this post and import it via the Admin CP Product Manager. Then make one template edit: add

$unreadnews

to the bottom of the header template.

------------------------------------

If using PHP version 4.x (or if you are getting an error message that looks something like Fatal error: Call to undefined function: array_combine() in /public_html/global.php(359) : eval()'d code on line 139), you additionally need to find this line in the Import News plugin on the hook global_start:

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array_combine($newsids, $newsinfo); 


Replace it with

PHP Code:

   $newsarray = array();
foreach ($newsids AS $key => $id)
{
   $newsarray["$id"] = $newsinfo["$key"];
} 


If using PHP 5 or later (which is the case if you don't get that error message), you will not need to make this edit.

------------------------------------

Afterwards, go to your vBulletin options, find the News Import System setting group, specify your news forum(s), set the other settings if you want, and turn the system on.

Don't forget to click Install if it's working for you. Enjoy!

Version 3.0: Added ability to have multiple news forums and use conditionals.
Version 2.23: Important bugfix from version 2.22
Version 2.22: Bugfixes
Version 2.21: Cutting off on the user's join date has been made an optional feature specified in the admin CP, and some unnecessary code has been removed. Also added alternative templates for no particular reason.
Version 2.2: Fixed uncached template, added "More..." link that links to the news forum when unread news are cut off by "Maximum number of news to display at one time" option, and all news created before the user registered will now count as read for that user. (Imagine registering and having twenty "unread news" notifications you have to plough through...)
Version 2.01: Added template edit information (I'm an official idiot for forgetting that) and fixed table prefixes.
Version 2.0: Added functionality (see above)

----------------------------

EXTRA: Alternative templates

If you don't like the way the current unread news box looks, I've got some more standard-looking templates you can use instead if you want. This also allows you to collapse the unread news, which might be useful. Just replace the templates, see how it looks, and revert the templates again if you liked the other look better.

Alternative custom_unreadnews template:

<if condition="$show['unreadnews']">
<br />
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
   <thead>
      <tr>
         <td class="tcat"><a href="#top" style="float:$stylevar[right]" onclick="return toggle_collapse('unreadnews')"><img id="collapseimg_unreadnews" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_tcat$vbcollapse[collapseimg_unreadnews].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a> Unread News</td>
      </tr>
   </thead>
   <tbody id="collapseobj_unreadnews" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_unreadnews]">
      $newsitems
      <if condition="$show['importnewscutoff']">
      <tr>
         <td class="alt1"><a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f={$vbulletin->options['importnewsforum']}" class="smallfont">More...</a></td>
      </tr>
      </if>
   </tbody>
</table>
</if>

Alternative custom_newsbit template:

      <tr>
         <td class="alt1">$timestamp: <strong><a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$id">$info[title]</a></strong></td>
      </tr>

[Barakat]

looks great ... will be tested soon on my board

[Staxed]

Question:

Will this display the message for all unread threads in a forum? (i.e...when a new member registers...this would force him to read all the rules...)

[antialiasis]

Yes, if you set it like that in the Admin CP - in fact I think the default settings will do that. If that is not happening by default, just make sure that "Cut off all news created before user's join date?" is set to no and that both the "Time cutoff for news" and "Only check latest X topics" fields are set to 0. Then all unread news since the beginning will be shown for all users.

Unless I misunderstood what you were asking about.

[Snake]

Wow I've been waiting for this...

[MentaL]

shit hot idea mate... but i get this error

Invalid SQL:

SELECT threadid
FROM +++++ad
WHERE userid = 1 AND threadid IN (155929,155814,155188,155185,151089,150188);

MySQL Error : Table 'xxxxx.+++++ad' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Date : Friday, August 4th 2006 @ 10:26:58 PM
Script : xxxx
Referrer : xxxxx
IP Address : xxxx
Username : MentaL
Classname : xxxx

[Mr. Brian]

Don't seem to be working though. :speechless:

Hmm.. Nothing shown up on the forumhome page :/

[Mr. Brian]

Nevermind, ignore my post. That isn't an issue anymore.

[BiReL41r]

Originally Posted by mentalrz

shit hot idea mate... but i get this error

Invalid SQL:

SELECT threadid
FROM +++++ad
WHERE userid = 1 AND threadid IN (155929,155814,155188,155185,151089,150188);

MySQL Error : Table 'xxxxx.+++++ad' doesn't exist
Error Number : 1146
Date : Friday, August 4th 2006 @ 10:26:58 PM
Script : xxxx
Referrer : xxxxx
IP Address : xxxx
Username : MentaL
Classname : xxxx

I hate the same problem.

[Eagle Creek]

Hi!

I have a few questions:

1. At what forums are that screenshot made? Cause I like the background (you can PB me if you want).
2. Example:
My news forum gets about 5-10 posts every day. Of course when a member isn't at my forums for three days, I don't want to show them 30 posts. So I make a limit of 5 posts.
My question is: when they have read those 5 posts (after 3 days of absense), will the other 25 posts show (per 5) again and again untill they have read them all?
3. How does it work for guests?
4. Is the default vBfunction "mark posts as read" affecting this hack? Cause you stay I need Paul's hack (I already have that one installed).

Thx!