vBadvanced CMPS - News Digest Module 1.02

This header message last editted October 10th.

News Digest for vBadvanced CMPS
vers. 1.0.2

This hack allows your vBadvanced hompage to display news in a digest format. Instead of having each article appear in a box, it will appear as an item in a bulleted list. These lists are sorted by date and then by category. If you're site has more than a couple of news items per day you should find this hack useful, especially if those news items are particularly small by themselves (only a line or two of text).

Live examples:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/index.php (starting below the ad for Dundjinni).

This hack requires that you have vBadvanced CMPS of course. Image support for the categories (as seen on the enworld site) can be accomplished by installing BeerMonster's banner images on forumhome hack. If you don't want to install this other hack, or if you're boards has a different hack that associates images with forums, you'll need to modify the provided newsdigest.php file.

BeerMonster's hack is found here...
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=63994

During the installation of this hack you will create 3 templates. This hack requires no file modifications in and of itself, but some supplemental hacks do require such modifications, and they'll be dealt with in detail shortly. First, the primary hack:

Step 1: Prepare the newsdigest.php file.
Download the attached file and put it in [yourforum]/modules/

Step 1A:
If you don't want to have any forum images for your categories, or don't wish to install the forum banners hack above then open the newsdigest.php file and search for the following code.

Find:

PHP Code:

SELECT thread.threadid, postusername, postuserid, thread.dateline AS postdateline, thread.forumid, forum.title as title, forum.fhbanner as icon, post.postid, pagetext, allowsmilie 


Replace With:

PHP Code:

SELECT thread.threadid, postusername, postuserid, thread.dateline AS postdateline, thread.forumid, forum.title as title, post.postid, pagetext, allowsmilie 


Advanced Users Note: the only difference between these two blocks is the 2nd lacks the "forum.fhbanner as icon," entry. If you have already installed a hack that creates forum images for use with categories you can change this line to refer to the column you've set. For instance, on enworld the line is "forum.icon as icon,"

Step 2: Create the Templates
Create a new template called adv_portal_newsdigest_date and insert the following into it:

<if condition="$prevdate"><br /><hr></if>
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
	<tr>
		<td align="center" valign="top" class="tborder">
		<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" width="100%">
			<tr>
				<td align="center" valign="top" class="tcat">
					$datelongform
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		</td>
	</tr>
</table>
<br>

Create a new template called adv_portal_newsdigest_category and insert the following into it.

<b>$news[title]</b><if condition="$news['icon']"><img src="./images/forumicons/$news[icon]" align="right" height="60" weight="60"></if>

If you don't want category images insert this code instead:

<b>$news[title]</b>

Create a new template called adv_portal_newsdigest_item and insert the following into it:

<div align="justify">$news[message] - scoop submitted by $news[postusername]</div>

Step 3: Set up your News Forums
Go to your forum manager and create one news forum for each news category you desire to have on your news page. Also choose their display order at this step by modifying the display orders of the forums themselves. Note their forum #'s

Step 4: Prepare the News Page
Open your vBadvanced CMPS control panel and select "Add Module"

Module Title: News Digest
File to Include: newsdigest.php

Templates to Include: adv_portal_newsdigest_date, adv_portal_newsdigest_category, adv_portal_newsdigest_item

Step 5: Activate the Module
Go to your page settings and turn the original news module off (It's redundant). Enter the forum #'s of each forum you want in any order (the display order of the categories is the same as the forums. Turn the newsdigest module on.

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

FINISHED.

Version History
Version 1.0.0 had several little glitches due to me rushing it out the door in my excitement from creating my first big hack. I'll demonstrate a bit more patience in the future.

Version 1.0.1 (and prior) has a serious month wrap bug.

Version 1.0.2 is current.

If you like this hack please click install - thx.

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

Supplemental Hack: Bump and Debump News
The date of the news is important with this hack. If you find an item displaying on the wrong day then you can use the following tools to scoot it around. Note - this "supplemental" hack is almost exactly like Rigel Kentaurus' "Bump Thread and Make Thread Older" hack, so I'm not going to take any credit for originality. Here is the modified version of his hack for bumping news items around for the digester.

Code Modifications: 2 in 1 file
Template Modifications: 2 in 1 template
New phrases: 4

###################################################################
# Code modifications in file "postings.php" 
###################################################################

-------------------------------------------------------------------
search for this code:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

	case 'removeredirect':

-------------------------------------------------------------------
change it to:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

	case 'removeredirect':
        
	// Hack: bump and debump
	case 'bumpnews':
	case 'debumpnews':



-------------------------------------------------------------------
search for this code:
-------------------------------------------------------------------



// ############################### start do open / close thread ###############################



-------------------------------------------------------------------
change it to:
-------------------------------------------------------------------



// ############################### start news bump and de-bump ###########################
if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'bumpnews')
{
	// only mods with the correct permissions should be able to access this
	if (!can_moderate($threadinfo['forumid'], 'caneditthreads'))
	{
		print_no_permission();
	}

	// Bump
	$DB_site->query("UPDATE ".TABLE_PREFIX."thread SET dateline=".TIMENOW." WHERE 

threadid='".$threadinfo['threadid']."'");

	$url = "forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$threadinfo[forumid]";
	eval(print_standard_redirect('redirect_bumpnews'));
}

if ($_REQUEST['do'] == 'debumpnews')
{
	// only mods with the correct permissions should be able to access this
	if (!can_moderate($threadinfo['forumid'], 'caneditthreads'))
	{
		print_no_permission();
	}

	// De-Bump
	$DB_site->query("UPDATE ".TABLE_PREFIX."thread SET dateline=dateline-86400 WHERE 

threadid='".$threadinfo['threadid']."'");

	$url = "forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$threadinfo[forumid]";
	eval(print_standard_redirect('redirect_debumpnews'));
}



###################################################################
# Template modifications in SHOWTHREAD
###################################################################

-------------------------------------------------------------------
search for this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

<option value="removeredirect">$vbphrase[remove_redirects]</option>

-------------------------------------------------------------------
change it to:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

<option value="removeredirect">$vbphrase[remove_redirects]</option>
<option value="bumpnews">$vbphrase[bumpnews]</option>
<option value="debumpnews">$vbphrase[debumpnews]</option>


-------------------------------------------------------------------
search for this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

<div><label for="ao_rrd"><input type="radio" name="do" id="ao_rrd" value="removeredirect" />$vbphrase[remove_redirects]</label></div>

-------------------------------------------------------------------
change it to:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

<div><label for="ao_rrd"><input type="radio" name="do" id="ao_rrd" value="removeredirect" />$vbphrase[remove_redirects]</label></div>
<div><label for="ao_bump"><input type="radio" name="do" id="ao_bump" value="bumpnews" />$vbphrase[bumpnews]</label></div>
<div><label for="ao_dbump"><input type="radio" name="do" id="ao_dbump" value="debumpnews" />$vbphrase[debumpnews]</label></div>


###################################################################
# New phrases
###################################################################

Add these four phrases in the admin control panel (Phrase Manager -> Add new Phrase)

Type: Show thread
Name: bumpnews
Text: Bump News

Type: Show thread
Name: debumpnews
Text: Make News older

Type: Front-End Redirect Messages
Name: bumpnews
Text: The News item is now set to today

Type: Front-End Redirect Messages
Name: debumpnews
Text: The News Item is now one day older

a onsite example would be cool..

[Michael Morris]

Certainly.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/news.php

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Michael Morris

The goal output is

http://www.enworld.org/forums/news.php

Ah, now I understand what you're describing! In this case each "category" is really a forum, right?

[Michael Morris]

Originally Posted by KW802

Ah, now I understand what you're describing! In this case each "category" is really a forum, right?

Yuppers.

[Michael Morris]

Out of beta now - it's been running 12 hours on my site and I've tested everything I think. I will pitch in if it causes problems.

My apologies for getting all giddy yesterday and rushing this out a wee bit early - this is my first major hack (though it's nothing compared to what I've planned).

[robert_2004]

sweet dude
honestly - i always wanted this sort of setup for my old board (running phpbb :S )
this will allow the 5 or so news posters to put up news throughout the day and not continue to make new boxes, that clutter.
it was hard to understand what you meant at first, until i saw your example.
i'll keep you posted after some testing in a few days....

[Michael Morris]

Found a display bug. I was using vbdate (); out of habit, but apparently that causes problems for any visitors who aren't on the same time zone as the server. Corrected by simply changing the newsdigest.php file - no changes to the install instructions or templates necessary.

[Michael Morris]

This has been working a week now without any errors on my setup. Anyone have any ideas for improvements?

[LPH2004]

This is gorgeous but how do I only get 2 days worth ... and not a whole HUGE string of days ... ?

I'm installing it on www.whatisnew.com