Simple newsportal / thread overview to add to your board...

Okay, this isn't really a hack, since you don't have to modify any vb-files really, but I figured this was the best place to make it public anyhow. I found it rather useful myself, so I figured others might, too.

Last update: April 28th, 2003!
** Update summary: **
The bug that could occur due to MySQL stupidity has been fixed. Version 2 of the Newsportal script is now attached in this post, you can simply overwrite the newsportal.php on your site with the one from the attached zipfile to upgrade.
From now on, no more vB files need to be adjusted nor do you have to make any database changes. If you've already done all that due to the mysql-bug in a previous stage of this hack, you can just leave it like that, it won't do any harm. If you're intent on 'cleaning' your files again, let me know if you can't get it done yourself.


Q&A:
What does this 'hack' do?

http://www.kurafire.com/newsportal.php

That's a live example of the fully functional version of the Hack (version 2). I think it speaks for itself.

The amount of newsposts & threads on the right is set in a variable at the beginning.


Is this hack hard to install?
Absolutely not. You upload the newsportal.php, you add the new templates (see zipfile), and you place a link to newsportal.php wherever you want it on your site. That's it.
You don't have to modify any vB files, nor your database.


Does this hack include my style and everything?
Yes, the newsportal page will use your headinclude, header, footer and style-colors (pagebgcolor, tableouterwidth, linkcolor, etc.) and all these settings are easily configureable. You just edit the templates like you're (hopefully) used to with all the normal vB Templates.


Version 2:
The newsportal script now uses 2 queries to get the necessary information for your News posts. One for all thread info and the postid's of the starting posts, and one for the pagetext (ie. post contents) of all those postid's. You can use 2, 20 or 200 newsposts, that won't matter, it'll always be 2 queries (though I discourage using more than 20 newsposts ). ^_^

That's it, you're all done. Have fun with the newsportal! ^_^

[AnkisethGallant]

You gotta screenshot KuraFire?

[TECK]

any pics? or a site in action? thanks.

[KuraFire]

And an example of how it looks with the default configuration of the templates, and my own colors etc.

(I didn't display the header here, because I'm keeping it a secret till all goes online - this page isn't available to be viewed online at the moment, really, only on my work-in-progress board so far)

[AnkisethGallant]

That actually looks pretty cool, I might just end up installing that. Nice work.

[KuraFire]

holy [better wash my mouth][better wash my mouth][better wash my car;)][better wash my mouth] you guys are fast...

edit: LOL @ censoring here! :lol:

[Floris]

Way cool, way cool, way cool.

[KuraFire]

Note that this 'hack' does not (yet?) incorporate Permissions, so if you don't exclude your Admin/Moderator's forum (which I expect everyone has) normal users will be able to view those forum's threads' names (not able to read the threads 'mselves of course)

[Floris]

http://www.marietje.nl/vbb/newsportal.php?s=$session[sessionhash]

As you can see, works just fine!
Installation was so easy, I thought I forgot something

Great hack! Love it!


Found a little bug though. Sometimes its the second post or the last one from a news thread :/

[KuraFire]

dude: "$session[sessionhash] " <= this is for in your TEMPLATE, not for use on forums etc.

Anyhoo, yeah that bug is making me go crazy, I haven't found a pattern in it at all, and on my own system it has totally disappeared (for now, anyway). I REALLY don't know what's causing that, though...

Might be a problem with the Query, but then again, it shouldn't be malfunctioning (it worked for me in the past, in a different page setup)