vBulletin Community Forum

CMS Attachments in articles

2005 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:36:46 GMT

How will this be handled in CMS. Will it be possible to attach 10 images, and choose the one you want to display in a certain place within the template, as the "primary image" for the article. AKA the thumbnail that shows floated left/right on the front page and category listing pages. Then have remaining showing elsewhere.

Or will each one need to be uploaded/chosen from list, and then manually inserted into the article in the place you desire.

I can see both being useful, but need scenario 1 for "news" style postings, and scenario 2 for full "articles" on topics.

The layout and display of images and data will differ depending on what type of article you are doing. Need control as to where images show, and how automated it is. And differ that depending on what section you are in.

I know you can change page layout depending on sections, but I havent read about changing text/data/image layout based on section/cat/type yet.

Bandwidth Reduction

anthonyparsons — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:17:30 GMT

I have to say how impressed I was by dropping images from my database into the file system to reduce bandwidth overall. I dropped from over 22Gb a month to under 9Gb a month. A massive reduction for the server overall...

Not that bandwidth was an issue for me, though I wanted to stop my server doing anything useless that was tying it up from providing maximum performance to the users. Impressed with that one.

H E L P - Moved Server-cannot access AdminCP

jimjam — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:15:17 GMT

Just switched to a new server. I can access using the new site using the new servers IP address as propagation is not complete and www still points to the old server.

On the new server I can log in OK, but when try to access the Admin CP it thanks me for logging in and then dumps me back at login.. Hope you can help. Thanks

CMS sections / categories question

2005 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:14:43 GMT

How would one handle, and then the sidebar widgets display, the following situation.

Home
-- News
---- News Cat 1
---- News Cat 2
---- News Cat 3
--Character Bios
---- Male
---- Female
---- Robots
-- Reviews
---- Product Type 1
---- Product Type 2
-- Gallery (just articles with images as primary content)
---- Section 1
---- Section 2
---- Section 3

It looks like if I put News, Character Bios, and Gallery as sections, and then have sub-cats, and sub-sub cats, and sub-sub-sub-cats, that all the different content types will show up in the "Categories" widget, mixed together.

Is there a way to define top level "areas" of your site, like Home, Forum, News (articles), Character Bios (articles), Gallery (articles). And then have sub-sections and or sub-cats that will follow a structure?

Basically, vb has the site split into CMS, Blogs, Forum. Good, as is supposed to be. But what if we want to have other supposedly "equal" top-level areas alongside those, which then have sections and sub-cats and "mini-front-pages" of their own. Starting points and categorization unique to each area, which have nothing to do with each other.

How would CMS handle that?

Thanks.

Search button alignment

ccplim — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:46 GMT

Hope I am posting in the correct place. I have tried doing a search but can't seem to find any related post.

Was trying out VB4 on Firefox and noticed that the search button is floating and is out of alignment. If I click on it, it will go back to the correct position. This problem doesn't seem to appear on IE6.

Thanks!

Attached Images

Search button.JPG‎ (7.3 KB)

CMS CMS article / thread connections

2005 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:31:57 GMT

Pre-Existing Threads
When creating a new article - option to enter the url or thread ID of a pre-existing thread to then use as comments for that article.

Many times discussions are started which contain news that needs to eventually hit the front page. The threads on forums will be several pages deep by the time staff members get around to promoting it to the front page. We do not want to split or redirect the conversation anywhere else. So, you enter the already-existing-thread's ID, and that is used as comments on the article. The quick reply form on article pages actually enters replies to that thread. If you are viewing the thread on the forum, and reply, it shows up as latest comment on article.

This is a must. Otherwise, you are forcing members to comment on the same content in 2 places. One area or the other will lose out, your community will be fragmented, and your mods will need to police two areas.

There is the duplicate content issue, but if your members post the same thing in 2 places you still have duplicate content issues. So at least make it easy for us to use and manage.

This can be done RIGHT NOW using other VB based solutions and scripts. NOW.

New Threads Creation on Articles
If you have news or content that isn't yet being discussed on your forums, lets say because a company sent you a press release no one has seen yet, then you want to create a thread in the forum for the story so they can discuss. An option to "create thread with link to front page article" should be available when creating the article. The thread name and sub-forum location should be an option as well.

Comments on articles that are not also threads in the forum are pointless to me. Everything needs to be intertwined. Discussion should be forum threads, front page should be content site-owners create with links to discussion threads and/or modified display of forum threads, about said content.

These threads need to be in any forum, not a designated "front page discussion forum". Might as well leave them as comments-system-only if you are going to segment like that. Which is pointless and will fail (in most cases, IMO).

Promotion
Promoting of posts to the front page as an article. Great addition. I like the automated feature of "posted by XYZ here from this Thread here". I would like that to be available, but have the story "author" not be the poster, but rather our staff member that triggers the promotion. So it is his story in archives or search results or for editing purposes. Just leave the "credit" of "alerting" the content to the original poster in that sub-line. All CMS content should be by a staff member (IMO).

Or at least, an option so that can happen. If people want original posters to be the authors of content on their front page, that's fine, but there should be an option.

Those are my thoughts.

I have the pre-existing threads connection functionality right now using Dynamics and a hack. I manually do the promotion style. I do not have the "create new" functionality, but want it.

If VBCMS is going to be in the running for replacing 3rd party front page solutions, or even VB Based Dynamics like solutions, then full integration with the forum threads for comments is needed. Otherwise it's just another half solution.

Sorry to sound rough, just hoping some input will help steer this in the right direction (IMO) early.

All of the above is my OPINION, based on 10 years of personal EXPERIENCE. Ive been hacking together or using vbulletin based (no wordpress etc) solutions to do exactly what VB's CMS page is presenting today. I know what I need functionally and I know what I need for the community to use and engage with these areas. Ive seen methods fail hard and have to abandon a script or method due to non-use. So again, opinion and personal experience. Everyone is different. Just give us the option, if desired, to do it the way I laid out above.

Thanks for reading.

Usergroups promotion/demotion methods

petacat — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:31:07 GMT

One major difficulty with vbulletin has been the limited promotion system. We use promotions to reward our community members for their loyalty and participation. Those who are infracted should be penalised. Right now there is no way apart from hacking the vbulletin promotion coding to take infractions into account.

Less important but nice to have would be to include factors like use of the reputation system, and tap into rating systems.

CMS CMS left sidebar widgets code super bloated

2005 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:45:48 GMT

I am no pro coder by any means, and I'm sure there is some reason for doing so, but I know personally, before anything I run went live using VB4 the sidebar widgets would need to be 100% recoded. Causing auto upgrading a pain in the ass before anything even starts.

Layers and layers of divs, inside a UL. Not desirable, but can deal with that. Then I opened it further, and saw a full table structure for every single category/section entry? What is the purpose of that? Icons? There are open source javascript/css solutions for doing expandable content using nothing but unordered lists.

ul = Sidebar

li = Widget 1

ul = Sections

li = Section Name 1

li = Section Name 2

/ul

/li

li = Widget 2

ul = Categories Title

li = Cat Name 1

li = Cat Name 2

/ul

/li

li class="noformatting"

div class="nonlist type blocks"
/li

/ul

I'm not trying to bitch and moan here, my current sites are bloated by my own doing, but I wanted to use my switch to VB4 to begin to lighten up, clean up. This is almost more bloated than it is now, regardless of validating.

Please look into reducing that, and/or offering a pure unordered list method for sidebars with reduced functionality if needed.

Green Test Great Green Beans

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:44:31 GMT

..................

Blue Test This is now categorized as a Blue Test.

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:43:18 GMT

Technology is amazing. No subforums required.

:) Test Fail alert

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:31:17 GMT

Asdf

Green Test Arctic Cat Green

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:27:27 GMT

Spleen!

Blue Test Spam and eggs

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:26:54 GMT

BLUE SPAM ftw tbh

Bold Test This post was prefixed as Bold.

BigDXLT — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:23:51 GMT

So now I can search for it, right?

Some pre-sale questions about CMS

amaiman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:19:04 GMT

I run a site that has been online for close to 8 years and has quite a few users and a large amount of content. I'm strongly considering migrating to vBulletin, as the site is currently running an ancient version of PHP-Nuke that I've been duct taping together with homebrew patches to keep it from being overrun with spammers (wrote my own reCaptcha implementation for it among other things).

The new CMS to be released shortly seems like the perfect fit for our site, as it currently consists of two sections. The first is where users can submit stories that are reviewed by us and then posted to the main page. The second part is the forums, currently running phpBB integrated with the PHP-Nuke user database.

Here are my questions:

1) Does the new CMS support the ability for users to create stories (not forum posts), but have them not be displayed until a moderator/admin approves them? I'd like the approved posts to be attributed to the author's username along with showing which moderator approved/published the post (similar to how the PHP-Nuke articles section works). Is this possible with CMS? Also, can I prevent the user from being able to edit their post after it is approved (to prevent malicious changes to an approved story)?

2) Can the CMS send e-mails to the admins when a new story is submitted for approval?

3) How difficult is the site migration going to be? Do scripts exist for migrating a PHP-Nuke site, including stories to CMS and forums to forums, along with all relevant data such as poll results, etc.? If not, will I be able to do the conversion more or less manually in SQL without having to spend weeks on it? (I don't have a problem writing some queries to transform data, but I don't want to have to do any manual post-by-post work)

4) Any other caveats about this migration that I should be aware of (such as having to make all of my users change their passwords, not really looking to do that)

5) I've seen vBulletin sites that have a mobile version. Is this included with the software, or do I have to purchase something extra?

Thanks in advance for the answers, and I'll post another message in this thread if I come up with more questions. If everything works out, I'm looking to purchase a license before the current sale ends and migrate as soon as V4 is available.

No more than 7 days to go

ywwz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:07:51 GMT

today is 8th. no later than 15? ok, only 7 days to go from now! i am excited, r u guys???

HTML permisssion for Admin only.

NewbieGuy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:05:00 GMT

How about Admin (or site owner) only, permission for the use of HTML?

I know as of now, it is either for everyone (not safe for site), or nothing :(

Thanks :D

User having problems with usercp

spinz4 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:49:31 GMT

When he tries to access it he gets this:

Quote:

404 Error - Not Found
The resource you have requested could not be found on the server. There are many possible reasons for this. Either the file does not exist, there is an error in your request, or the file is not accessible in the requested directory. Please verify that:

* You have used the proper case; requests ARE case-sensitive!
* You have entered the URL correctly. (i.e. proper directory/filename)
* You used the FULL URL. (i.e. proper file type: .html, .gif , .jpg, etc.)
* You use a tilde (~) before user directories. (i.e. www.furcen.org/~jurann/ )
* The user/file still exists on this server.

I asked him to clear his cookies and nothing changed. Thanks for any help.

How to check to see if I am missing any vbulletin files?

brettxw — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:19:13 GMT

How could I check to see if I am missing any vbulletin files? When moving files from one server to another I am not totally sure if everything was 100% moved. How can I do check this?

How to set style permissions

need2fart — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:01:56 GMT

Okay so I'm back and I need to fart again!

I want to use a custom theme for administrators only.

How would I enable this theme to be chosen and used my administrators only, and possibly change the "Allow User Selection" only be seen by administrators too; I don't want users to see the theme.

I want to create this a private theme for administrators only; is this possible? If so, please help mee. <3

Thanks.

Threads Mark thread unread

kontagio.us — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:37:08 GMT

Can you make a button for making a thread appear as unread. The same way you can mark an e-mail as unread.

Tags: unread, read, thread, database, function, cookie, button, forum view

Internet Spades - Addictive

anthonyparsons — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:13:42 GMT

I am sure this damn internet spades is addictive... because I find myself spending more time online with this thing. I think I never installed the games from XP, but now win7... found them and began playing. Maybe I should remove them again... distraction!!! :)

Option to turn on full WYSIWYG editor in quick reply

kyrgyz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:46:38 GMT

I am requesting an option to turn full WYSIWYG editor on in quick reply from AdminCP. I find the stripped down editor in quick reply to be restrictive and having to click "Go advanced" annoying. Posting messages should be a pleasurable experience for members. I know there is a hack to do that in vB3.8. I just wanna this to be a stock option in vB4.

CMS Lightbox enlarging

vskylabv — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:13:01 GMT

Click on an image - it enlarges in lightbox! what do you think?

Uhm, a comments forum?

Shelby — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:50:16 GMT

What is this place?

When is VB 3.8.5 going to be released?

0ptima — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:47:06 GMT

Its been almost 3 months since 3.8.4 was released. I would like to know when 3.8.5 is planned to be released.

CMS Can you make it easy to jump to the related sub-forum from CMS?

ywwz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:23:47 GMT

I wish my visitors will be able to jump to the related sub-forums easily when they browsing CMS pages.

Avatar Requirement for join

3rdclick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:14:04 GMT

Hi, I'm just wondering with vB4 is it possible to force the user to upload an avatar when they join?

Thanks.
3rdclick

Searching forums user

hitmancode47 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:01:37 GMT

Recently noticed a person on a forum i help with moderation on i was looking at their profile, and i found that the following activity was there

Searching forums user: (My username)

What exactly does that mean? a tad confused

Thank you.

Forums Style Suggestion

lancerforhire — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:31:43 GMT

As many others have mentioned on vBulletin.com, the default vB4 style has a trashy, sub-par look that is generally not liked; and I would personally be ashamed of putting it up on a production site.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

vBulletin 4 is only in beta. You will find, probably both free and paid, styles being made available once the production version is released.

You are paying for complete forum software, and unless IB is giving out money to purchase a default style that does not look like it was made in MS Paint, this is not acceptable. When you are paying $195 for their forum software, IB is not settling for anything less than that amount, so why should you settle for anything less than what you want?

It is too late to change the default style, but, as an alternative, the legacy/vB3 style (modified for vB4 of course) could be re-implemented as an optional style after the first release. Administrators against the new style will have a reasonable option and others who prefer the new style are satisfied as well.

Thanks for reading.