vBulletin Blog - How to get blogs in new posts search

Many people are concerned over the lack of integration of the blog system with the main forum software. I see many posts asking "how do I get my blogs to show up in new posts?"

Basically you need to utilise the blog RSS feed and get it to post a blog as a post.

This is how to do it.

From your admincp - RSS Feed Manager
Add a new RSS Feed
Feed enabled: Yes
URL of feed: http://www.yoursite.com/blogs/feed.rss
Check every: 30 mins
Feeds to fetch: 0
Username: choose or make a new one - blog bot or something
Forum: chose an existing one or make a new forum and select options as you see fit, or see below.
Allow Smilies: yes
Display Signature: no
convert html to bb code: yes


Title template: {rss:title}
Body template:

PHP Code:

{rss:content:encoded}
[url={rss:link}]Click here to be taken to the Blog...[/url]
[url="http://www.yourwebsite.com"]Name of your forum [/url] 


In the next sections, pick what you want but also make sure you do the following
Thread action delay 1
Close thread after delay: yes

Making a new forum
When making a new forum for your blog posts, chose the setting your want for other users, but make sure of the following:

Act as forum: yes
Index New Posts in Search Engine: yes
Forum is open: yes

You can chose whether the forum is hidden or visible, but make sure the username you specified above is in a group that can post to this forum.

Permissions

I didn't want others to post so they have no post permissions. To get to the blog, they click on the link in the post and get taken there directly. To be able to see the posts they must have.

Can View Forum: yes
Can View Thread Content: yes
Can View Others' Threads: yes
Can Search Forums: yes


A working version is at www.midlandsweather.org.uk
My blog forum (so that you can see an example of the posts made is at www.midlandsweather.org.uk/mwf-blog


Please click ***install*** if you use this.

[optrex]

reserved for future use

[KURTZ]

great mod! when the 3.7.0 goes gold i'll install this for sure ...

[optrex]

just to let you know its not exclusive to 3.7 it also works on 3.6.8

[cajunboy2208]

Awesome! I have been looking for something to alert members of a new blog.
Thank you.

[Milad]

This is a mere workaround, it won't solve the problem

[molieman]

This is an excellent add on, if I can get it to work. Number one complaint at my site, others not know of a blog post

May be I'm taking your instruction too literally

This is what I have in my "Body Template"

PHP Code:

{rss:content:encoded} 
[url={rss:link}]Click here to be taken to the Blog...[/url] 
[url="http://www.mycockpit.org/forumtest"]MyCockpit[/url] 


and this for the "Title Template" {rss:title}

I'm still learning.... so pardon me for my ignorance

I get the following when I do a preview: XML Error: Empty document at Line 2

I hope you can help

[optrex]

Your blog RSS url or "URL of FEED", in your case, should be http://yourwebsite.com/forums/blog_external.php

[molieman]

BINGO!!!! Thank you, works!!!

[TaBaTaN]

installed, working perfect.