Announcing VBExtern

[Mas*Mind]

I'm working on one file which contains all often requested features to be displayed on another page outside vbulletin...There are alot of files like: online users on another page, top threads on another page so I thought it would be better to make one big file that could all that, that would be integrated with vb's template-system and easily could be extended/upgraded to newer versions and more features..

It currently supports:


number of threads
number of posts
number of members
newest member
todays birthdays
online users
threadslisting (nr and sorted by configurable)
memberslisting (nr and sorted by configurable)
forumslisting (nr and sorted by configurable)


All layouts are configurable through the vbtemplate area..

You can totally customize everything: You can choose what you wanna display, in which order and how..

No matter how many modules you load, global.php is included only once (php 4 required, if you have php3 there's a workaround on this).

I would like some feedback on this; Tips, requests etc...

It will be released within 1-2 weeks (depending on my spare time)

A sample page would look like:



Code:
---------------
Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------

nice i think lots of people would love this :D

Yeah, this could be a succes

It'd be pretty kool. also add total views. i know it's more quries but it would be better then.

Total views? You mean the total views of all threads? Wouldn't be problem at all..Since you can choose what you wanna display I'll add it

very nice :)
Hurrrrrry up :D

http://www.promotionbase.com/ go to bottom!

sounds great!

todays new posts, threads and members would be nice to see too :)

How about showing the most active or recent poll(s)?
This would be great.

Sounds great. Can't wait!
:D

Originally posted by PimpDaddy1
How about showing the most active or recent poll(s)?
This would be great.

That would be at the very end of my todo list..sorry...

Don't see the use for it honestly

any idea in days/weeks when you will finish man?

Synx:

Originally posted by Mas*Mind
It will be released within 1-2 weeks (depending on my spare time)

:)

Oh damn! Sorry guys, I gotta pay more attention when I read! LOL! Sheesh . . . .

Sounds very nice, but a suggestion. Don't make it a fixed table size for output if you plan to, just pass the info along and let the user determine where it should be placed in the web page. For example, I use a left border table and would like to have output for:

X number to current topics - say 10

Then put those topics in the table that can wrap the text to fit inside the fixed width. Example: 180, or whatever. After which newer posts, according to the date/time replace the ones there.

It's basically what I think you are doing, I just would like to pass it as variable text and not pre-formated so I can make my own for the home page, etc.

Keep us posted, :)

Jeff

All layouts are configurable through the vbtemplate area..

Cool hack, I cant wait :)

15 days?hum........ok :)

I can't wait for this hack! It would be great if it would include the persons username if they are logged in (hello, username).

Can't wait.

I'd agree, I've had to put together alot of little scripts to do this before... having one nice script with template support is wonderful :)

Whoa, awesome, looking forward to it!

How about 'Threads with 0 replies' ?

and ' 10 Busiest Threads'

Originally posted by Mitchell
How about 'Threads with 0 replies' ?

and ' 10 Busiest Threads'

For your first idea,i dislike but for the second yes!!

I like the threads with 0 replies idea. I had a hack on my old UBB 5.46 that showed the last 30 "virgin" topics (as it called them) and I think it helped people see posts that might have gotten lost in the shuffle.

10 busiest threads is also a good idea! ;)

Originally posted by tubedogg
I like the threads with 0 replies idea. I had a hack on my old UBB 5.46 that showed the last 30 "virgin" topics (as it called them) and I think it helped people see posts that might have gotten lost in the shuffle.

10 busiest threads is also a good idea! ;)

Hum........yes
the better is to open a little window at the load of the page no?

was allready implemented..You can do something like this:

<?php

$sorttype = "asc";
$sortby = "posts";
$action = "listusers";
include("vbextern.php");

?>

Whaouuuuuuuuuuhhh cool :D

Ready in how many time?:D

This hack keeps sounding better and better! It almost seems like it should included into vb.

Any time frame on when you'll have a version finished?

Actually the code-example I gave wasn't right, but it gives the idea how to do it...

I hope releasing it this week, but I'm nog sure...still busy getting my forum upgraded and moved...

Sounds like a great combination to add into my vbPortal CMS.

Originally posted by wajones
Sounds like a great combination to add into my vbPortal CMS.
Sure you can put a personnal form a the registration for every users :)

Sounds great. Another suggestion, maybe add a list of the current private Messages. I don't know if someone suggested this, as I didn't exactly read the whole post. :)

Originally posted by Sean
add a list of the current private Messages.

Wouldn't work. This is just for general use outside the vB, and the user would have to have a cookie set by the vB to do that.

Ohh, ok. Still be awesome. :)

Just curious if there's any news on this? I know I'm not the only one looking forward to it.

Same here...

I'll do my best to release it this week, but I have to study, to work and to move/upgrade my existing board...So when I've time I'll work on it..most functionality is allready built in, only a few things have to be hacked in...

Originally posted by Mas*Mind
I'll do my best to release it this week, but I have to study, to work and to move/upgrade my existing board...So when I've time I'll work on it..most functionality is allready built in, only a few things have to be hacked in...

Plz try :(

Thanks for your hard work.

Wishing you lots of luck with your hack, Mas*Mind. I'm sure such a hack would be very useful for many other vBulletin users. :)

Originally posted by jojo85
Plz try :(

Come on, jojo. You know that he isn't getting paid for it or anything else. It'll get released when he has time.

i don't know if this is possible but what about adding the last X (or posted in the last X days) threads into this script from a certain section of your forum, which the user could choice (for example i would choose to display important announcemnts)

Any chance of linking in a BFC Weblog style news system outside vB?
(BFC Weblog is a pain to setup :))

--WildWayz

[Essam]

what about doing a version of the hack with php/javascript so that any site (any site in the world) can add the code.

[veritas]

That's a good idea. Also, I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if you could make it so polls could be used externally from the forum ...

[PimpDaddy1]

Hmm Vbportal seems close enough. I think I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.

[veritas]

What exactly can we do with this hack? I'm not quite sure I understand the basics (I'm a newbie to PHP). From what I can gather, we'll be able to pull stuff like current posts and plug it into a page outsite of vBulletin. Is that the gist of it?

:confused:

[mferrell]

Yes, that's the basic gist of it. This script should allow us to easily put vb items (newest member, newest post, username, etc.) on non-vb pages with ease. It sounds like he's making a very easy to use template system, so you'll only have to reference (include) one file.

[veritas]

I want it

:cool:

[mferrell]

As do we all.

[Swoosh]

Please forgive me for asking this silly question, but: can we use this wonderful hack in vB pages, too?

Once again, I'm very sorry for that question. I am just a beginner, so please be bare with me. Thanks! :)

[jojo85]

Originally posted by Swoosh
Please forgive me for asking this silly question, but: can we use this wonderful hack in vB pages, too?

Once again, I'm very sorry for that question. I am just a beginner, so please be bare with me. Thanks! :)

No sorry

[Shoe]

Yes, I plan on using it on a vbpage. I think we can stick the code into a template.:)

[veritas]

With this, you could probably create your own portal quite easily...

[PimpDaddy1]

I don't want to be a nag but is this still being worked on? And if it is what is the progress on it.

Thanks.

[Mas*Mind]

It's been delayed a little bit :(

I'm working on it, but cannot say exactly when It's releasable

[jojo85]

:(

[mferrell]

I don't care if it takes you a while longer to finish this project, I'm just glad you're working on it!

:)

[GimmeTech]

After reading the idea behind this I must admit that this hack/add-on sounds like a winner to me. I like the news fader, stars, etc... as well as the next, but in all reality, the idea of content management (news) and a hack of this kind are far above more useful to sites that are focused towards bringing content to the public. I'm pretty excited about reading this thread. Take your time on the programming. This one will be worth the wait.

Hooper

[Mas*Mind]

update: I'm tidying up and debugging it now. And make sure it limits querys (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14780)

But I've got a working demo (http://forever.feyenoordnet.nl/fmb/fmbstats.php)

Three things are added: Total views, todays events and latest polls

Note that you can choose exactly how and what you wanna display, everything is 'parameterble' (is that a word?) and works with vb's templates.

To give you an idea how fmbstats.php looks like:



Code:
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Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
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I'll maybe add an option to generate javascript for the latest threads so you can give the webmasters amongst your users the option to let the latest threads be displayed on their homepage.

I expect to release it within a week :)

[veritas]

Can't wait until the release, thanks for doing this :)

[TechTalk]

Funny. I actually made this exact script for 1.x for carrie of weddingchat.com

I feel cheated :(

[Mas*Mind]

I made this from scratch, I can asure you.

btw: Why didn't you release it?

[TechTalk]

hehe i know you did. :)

I was contracted to make it for carrie and it wouldnt have been fair to release it to everyone.

[fruitsalad]

any updates? This addon/hack would be great!

[PimpDaddy1]

anyone still working on this? I know a lot of people are looking forward to it...

[Mas*Mind]

I'm sorry...It's again been delayed...

It's allready working though, but I merely gotta clean up a bit

[PimpDaddy1]

No need to apologize.
I too am busy with a lot of stuff.

Good luck with it.:cool:

[Robert Basil]

Originally posted by Mas*Mind
I'm sorry...It's again been delayed...

It's allready working though, but I merely gotta clean up a bit

W00! H00!

Looking VERY forward to this hack. Keep up the great work, and thanks!

[Darin]

Looking forward to it too! Would you need to have .php extensions on the outside pages of vB for this to work? Would it work on pages with a .shtml extension?

[veritas]

I'm guessing you have to have the .php extension on all the pages you want this code included. Just a guess, but you'll have to wait until Mas*Mind can tell you officially.

[Robert Basil]

Mas,

I am dying for this script. I don't want to bug you because I know you are getting paid a lot of money for this script ;) :p

Any more word on a compleation date?

Thanks!

[Robert Basil]

<bump>

[SuitCase]

I, too am eagerly anticipating this hack... It looks great, exactly what I am looking for. Good luck, man!

[JackG]

Yup, this sounds like a great idea -
Can't wait for it to be ready!

[veritas]

Yeah, it's been, like, months now. Guess he's pretty busy nevertheless.

[Robert Basil]

<bump>

[Mas*Mind]

It's comming on. Can't say when but it's coming on :)

[Haoshiro]

After looking at your examples, I thought I'd suggest putting the script into a function. Instead of including the script multiple times, just include it once and call the function more than once:



Code:
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Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------



Just a suggestion, but since many people will likely use multiple features of the script, it seemed logical.

Also, is there any way to allow users to get full posts emailed to them? Like, if i want to receive this thread by email, any time a post is made i get the full post mailed to me?

That would be a nice feature... I'm myself will be looking into adding it ;)

[Sean]

Originally posted by Haoshiro
After looking at your examples, I thought I'd suggest putting the script into a function. Instead of including the script multiple times, just include it once and call the function more than once:



Code:
---------------
Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------



Just a suggestion, but since many people will likely use multiple features of the script, it seemed logical.

Also, is there any way to allow users to get full posts emailed to them? Like, if i want to receive this thread by email, any time a post is made i get the full post mailed to me?

That would be a nice feature... I'm myself will be looking into adding it ;)




One downside. That would be hard on a busy server, unless you used an SMTP server. But, even then, if you have a lot of big threads, and a busy forum, you will need to send tons of those out a day. Just a point.

[Haoshiro]

Well that's true, but how much more of a load will that be then the Reply Notification already used?

I received an e-mail notification that you had replied to this post, all i'm saying is instead of just notifying me, send the post too :)

[Sean]

Oh, now I understand. Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be such a server hog. Sorry, I misunderstood. ;)

[Mas*Mind]

Originally posted by Haoshiro
After looking at your examples, I thought I'd suggest putting the script into a function. Instead of including the script multiple times, just include it once and call the function more than once:



Code:
---------------
Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------



Just a suggestion, but since many people will likely use multiple features of the script, it seemed logical.

Also, is there any way to allow users to get full posts emailed to them? Like, if i want to receive this thread by email, any time a post is made i get the full post mailed to me?

That would be a nice feature... I'm myself will be looking into adding it ;)

Good point, but right now the structure is one of actions:

$action = "bla";
include("vbextern.php");

while then vbextern has the following structure:

switch($action)
{ case "bla" :
doThis();
exit;
case ".." :
...
exit;
default :
doThat();
}

But I may take a look at it....

As for your other suggestion: This would be a totally different hack, so it wouldn't be included in it...

[Haoshiro]

Well that would be a very easy mod:

vbextern.php:


Code:
---------------
Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------



and to use it:


Code:
---------------
Code is only visible to licensed users, and only when logged into the forums.
---------------

[Mas*Mind]

yeah, I noticed that while I was typing my previous message :)

[Ed FvC]

This hack looks great! I can't wait to get my hands on it and use it. :D Keep up the great work, Mas*Mind.

[TechTalk]

Ummmm......

WHERE IS IT?

[Robert Basil]

I think MAS does not have enough time to work on it and has given up on the project.

MAS, if you like I would be more than happy to take up where you left off, (as I am sure others would also) Can you release the code you currently have?

[Mas*Mind]

Well, maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm really running out of time lately. The thing is that I will go to South Africa for a year and that takes a time to settle things amongst my work, study and coming vacation (friday: Finland here I come :))

[TechTalk]

DOH! Someone please close this thread since this is not a vb 2.0 release but instead a hoax! :p

[JackG]

it would be great to have this hack.

[mam14]

Personally.... I'd give up waiting for this hack!


(but I really need it, so I have no choice but to wait)

[Robert Basil]

I've given up on it.

[Rostor]

Originally posted by Sportbikeworld
I've given up on it.

Y'v done FINE, i want that script ..... hoping it works on IIS5 ;)

[mferrell]

[bump]

Any news on this?

[mferrell]

It's sad that this seems to have been forgotten.

[ldydvr]

Is it dead?

[TWTCommish]

I'd imagine so...it's been 5 months, hasn't it?

[mferrell]

Sadly, it does seem very dead.

[mcyates]

has this been made yet?