UBB.threads and Wordpress experts

Bob is the Oil Guy

SD — Mon, 16 May 2011 01:41:16 +0000

I just finished up a remake of a highly trafficked UBB.Threads forum and it turned out very well.

The UBB.Threads forums are the number one ranked for their category on Google, but the front portal was an aging Joomla install.

Enter WordPress.

With a very nice theme to start from (Glance ) and some custom WordPress plugins that I wrote, we have a much needed and functional makeover.

I’m happy with the way it turned out.

Stop by and check it out.

Custom Vimeo BBCode for UBB.Threads

SD — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:11:54 +0000

I’ve had quite a few customers request a custom BBCode for Vimeo, so rather than go into a long post about it, I will post the file and some short instructions on how to implement.

There are really two ways to add a Custom Tag. One being to manually type all the appropriate fields in and the other is to import from a previously exported tag from a working UBB.Threads site.

Since I have one working on many sites, I exported it for your convenience.

The file to import into the Custom Tag Editor is below:

Vimeo Custom Tag - v1 - Downloaded 118 times

To import this file, go to your Admin Control Panel, Content tools and select the 2nd Tab ( Custom Tag Editor ).

The URL to this page would be:

“http://yourforums.com/forums/admin/rebuildcontent.php”

where the colored text would be replaced with the base URL to your forums.

Locate the bottom menu ( or tabs, if you prefer ) and click on “Import New Tags”.

Once imported, you will see the following form:

The ‘Custom Tag’ I used is ‘vimeo’, however you are free to use the more common ‘video:vimeo’ if you would like. I prefer the shorter / less typing approach.

The other reason I use the vimeo tag, is that it mirrors the same tags or “shortcode” used in WordPress. Makes sense to keep it consistent

So when the user inserts the tag into a post with the following as an example:

[ vimeo ]http://vimeo.com/23199805[ /vimeo ] ( no spaces )

The result is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have at it and enjoy !

A Better YouTube custom BBcode

SD — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:52:42 +0000

A forum that I consult to ( SimHQ ), recently informed me that YouTube has changed the URL format for when you click the “Share” Link below the video. It no longer matches the URL in the address bar and this was causing some confusion.

The URL in the address bar is the still the familiar one that links to youtube.com, adding the ?v=xxxx parameter as always, but the Share link has gone a different way now.

Namely, YouTube decided to use “http://youtu.be/kXRSZSxXB9g” for example.

This, of course broke any existing BBcode regexes that UBB.Threads had in place and simply didn’t parse if the user used the URL generated from the “Share” button.

Quandary, you say?

I looked at the resulting embed code and it is the same as before, so the regex simply needs to be updated to handle both cases; old and new.

For UBB.threads forum admins, go to your Control Panel, Content Tools and Custom Tag Editor ( shown below ):

Click to see Full size

The only line that needs to be modified is the Matching regex:


(|.*youtu\.be/|.*v=)([a-zA-Z0-9_-]{8,12})(|&.*)

and you are good to go.

You can double click on the regex above and the line will be automatically selected. You can then copy it and paste it into your UBB.threads admin BBcode edit window.

Just a note on the regex. It actually parses three different types:

YouTube URL from address bar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOddp-nlNvQ&feature=grec_index
YouTube from “Share”: http://youtu.be/JOddp-nlNvQ
YouTube ID: JOddp-nlNvQ

All three produce the same embed code and a case in point would be:

[yt]http://youtu.be/JOddp-nlNvQ[/yt]

produces:

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can also just download the entire custom text file below and import it, so as to play with it separately before enabling. I used the ‘yt’ tag, instead of what you may be more familiar with ‘video:youtube‘. Typing [yt] seems much easier for my forum members anyway!

Youtube Custom BBcode for Import - v1.1 - Downloaded 116 times

Enjoy

UBB.threads user selectable tooltip preferences

SD — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:13:11 +0000

From what I’ve seen, the naysayers win in most cases and it ends up with the forum turning off the option entirely. Whoever wants it, just can’t get it. Matter of fact, this is the case over at Ubb.central right now ( I posted the solution there as well ).

It’s turned off for whatever reason.

So, that leads me to this post and the first modification to stock UBB.threads 7.5.6. This post will walk you through what you need to do in order to give the users the option to have it or not by editing their profile and choosing which they prefer.

Step 1:

Go into Registration settings / Registration screen and set the Custom field prompt ( example picture below ) to something meaningful:

When saved, this will add an extra field to the user profile screen that allows them to show the Tooltip ( 1 ) or to not show it ( 0 ).

Step 2:

Enable tooltips globally for the forum. In other words, it will be turned on by default. This is done in Display Options, General and is pictured below:

Step 3:

Open up the file ‘scripts/postlist.inc.php’ and make 2 small changes. This will essentially look at the user profile setting and enable tooltips or not.

Find:


"user_fields" => "t2.USER_TOPIC_VIEW_TYPE, t2.USER_TOPICS_PER_PAGE, t2.USER_POSTS_PER_TOPIC",

Change to:


"user_fields" => "t2.USER_TOPIC_VIEW_TYPE, t2.USER_TOPICS_PER_PAGE, t2.USER_POSTS_PER_TOPIC,USER_EXTRA_FIELD_1",

Then find:


$postrow[$z]['tooltip'] = "";
if ($config['TOOLTIP_LENGTH'] && $config['TOOLTIP_LENGTH'] > 0) {

and change to:


$postrow[$z]['tooltip'] = "";
if ($config['TOOLTIP_LENGTH'] && $config['TOOLTIP_LENGTH'] > 0
                                              && $user['USER_EXTRA_FIELD_1'] == '1') {

Step 4:

Tell your forum members about it or better yet, link to this post!

That’s it!

My Review of Roku HD Player

SD — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:12:53 +0000

Originally submitted at Roku

The new HD, with built-in wireless, delivers top value in high-definition streaming.

Roku HD Player

Works As advertised

By Haleunit from Valencia, CA on 1/1/2011

Pros: Built in Wi-Fi, Easy to set up, Reliability, Easy to use

Cons: Need fast internet service

Best Uses: Bedroom, Primary TV, Living room

Describe Yourself: Technophile, Netflix fan, Power User, Movie buff, Home entertainment enthusiast, Early adopter

Primarily for Netflix, but i also stream mp4s from my local in-home server

Stackable USB plugs: I like

I am so gonna get one of these

SD — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 18:01:50 +0000

I remember watching the original Tron movie by Disney and was fascinated back then with the whole idea.

Now I can relive it every time I check the time!

It’s a ‘design’ now, but if it ever becomes reality, watch for it [ here ]

This watch design takes its inspiration from one of Scott’s favorite films as a kid, TRON, and from his Pimp Pimpin Ain’t Easy watch. He wants something that will get noticed when it lights up and that’s why he came up with an electroluminescence strip around the whole watch strap.

The two rings (styled on a Tron Disc) represent minutes (outer) and hours (inner). The break in the ring represents the time in a normal clock face layout.

The electroluminescence strip and LED watch face makes the whole watch light up and will definitely stand out from other watches.

The llama approves

Innovative way to use Google

Image upload directly into your post

SD — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 08:05:57 +0000

A feature that has always been needed on ubb.threads is a simple way to upload images directly into a new post without having to either upload to a gallery forum first or a popular picture sharing site, then link to it.

There are other methods too, including having a companion photopost installation that links the board members together, but in the end, you can’t beat, just clicking on a button in the editor toolbar, selecting a number of images and uploading them right into a post.

Furthermore, it would be nice for all the bbcode markup to be auto-generated without thinking.

Bottom line: Click, browse and Save!

Well, this now exists as a custom modification. The difference with this modification is that I won’t be posting all the files to change here, because they aren’t trivial. I will instead describe how it works, then make it available as a paid modification by me for your board.

Here is how it works:

First of all the modification adds the editor buttons to the quick reply area. This is logical, since those images are cached once the images are loaded the first time. No speed issues really apply. The new and improved quick reply is shown below:

There is a new kid on the block, which initiates the image up-loader.

It’s the 5th icon over from the left

The blue up arrow over the image is the symbol for uploading the image into a post.

Clicking this image pops up a nifty shadowbox dialog that guides the user through the process of uploading one or more images into the post.

The dialog is shown below:

When first used, there is a fairly lengthy help text to guide the user through what is really an easy and painless process. You simply browse to your computer and “Add file from your PC” or alternatively can paste a URL from a remote picture (ie: imageshack, tinypix or photobucket) and the up-loader will send it to the server.

Since the process is so easy, you will find that the help text is no longer needed and that can be hidden (cookie based to remember your preference) by clicking the [ Hide help ] button on the upper right corner.

Uploading is all ajax driven and you will get feed back as the file uploads with a loading icon ( ). Once complete, the dialog shows a thumbnail for each image on the left. An example of two images is shown below:

The user can continue to repeat the process of adding files from their PC or from remote URLs and the thumbnails will keep being added to the vertical list.

If for some reason, you change your mind after seeing a particular thumbnail, just click on the [ Remove ] button to the right of the specific thumbnail and it won’t be included in the batch to be inserted into the post.

When ready, you have two options to save into the post and they are “Lightbox” or “Standard”

Lightbox would normally be used if you are uploading very large pictures, that you want to expand as a lightbox effect when clicked. I actually use a free library called “Shadowbox“, which is based upon the Lightbox idea.

Standard is for normal or smaller images that don’t need to be clicked on at all to see their full potential.

There are admin settings to set the maximum width of an image when it appears in a post, so as to not interfere with the board display as well as a maximum physical width of the expanded image in lightbox mode.

For this example, I saved the images as a Lightbox to see how this effect works:

The IMG tags are auto generated, with an additional set of parameters (gal and a hash value) to specify that they are to be treated as a lightbox gallery.

Clicking either image, brings up the lightbox and you can click on all the images to cycle through them:

I’ve installed this on quite a few sites now and they simply love it, since it’s all in one place.

If you are interested, just use the contact form and ask for a quote. You can view my profile comments on the many satisfied customers that have had this and / or other modifications done.

One satisfied customer even went as far as to write an article on it here

Upcoming events Custom Island

SD — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 05:26:18 +0000

Ubb.threads has a very underused, but powerful capability in what are called “Custom Islands”.

You essentially can have a php code module be scheduled to run at whatever interval you want to produce output to be used as one of the custom islands (left or right) on your forums.

I was recently asked to provide such a beast for a customer of mind at Fishing Minnesota and figured that I would share it with the Threads public. Thanks to Rick Paquin for this!

I’ve done the work, so all you have to do is copy the code and paste it into one of your empty custom islands, enable it, set a schedule for how often it updates and you are good to go.

The code is shown below:

/* PHP CODE HERE, IF NECESSARY */

# Change the next parameter to the maximum future events you want
$maxEvents = 10;
# Change to whichever column this Custom Island will be shown (for CSS)
$portalCol = 'left';

# -- Nothing changes below, unless you are non-n00bers ;)
$intTime = time();
$dateParts = getdate($intTime);
$dtYr = $dateParts['year'];

$q = "
 SELECT ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_SUBJECT, ce.TOPIC_ID, t.POST_ID,
 ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_DAY, ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_MONTH,
 ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_YEAR, ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_BODY
 FROM {$config['TABLE_PREFIX']}CALENDAR_EVENTS ce, {$config['TABLE_PREFIX']}TOPICS t
 WHERE ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_TYPE='public'
 AND ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_RECURRING = 'never'
 AND ce.CALENDAR_EVENT_YEAR >= $dtYr
 AND ce.TOPIC_ID=t.TOPIC_ID
";
$r = $dbh->do_query($q);
$ceList = array();
while (list($ceSubject, $topicID, $postID, $ceDay, $ceMon, $ceYr) = $dbh->fetch_array($r)) {
 $ceTime = mktime(0,0,0,$ceMon,$ceDay,$ceYr);
 if ($ceTime >= $intTime) {
 $ceList[$ceTime]['Subject'] = $ceSubject;
 $ceList[$ceTime]['postID'] = $postID;
 }
}

# Create the list
$i=0;
sort($ceList);
foreach ($ceList as $ce) {
 $cssExt = ($i++&1) ? '2' : '1';
 $cssClass = 'class="' . $portalCol . 'alt-' . $cssExt .'"';
 if ($i == 1) {
 $htmlList .= "{$ce['Subject']}";
 } else {
 $htmlList .= "";
 $htmlList .= "{$ce['Subject']}";
 }
}

/* DO NOT CHANGE THE LINE BELOW */
$body = <<
There really are only two things to change here:

How many upcoming events to display (line 4)
Which column the island will be on (left or right – line 6)

That’s it for the code!
The final thing to do is to configure the custom island’s behavior and I’ll just show a screenie of the parameters I chose:

I set the island to update every 2 hours (120), gave it a title and that was it! Well, almost. One final thing was to go to portal settings and select which column (left or right) to display it on and what order.
Here’s how it looks on the right hand column at Fishing Minnesota forums:

Enjoy and hit the tip jar on the upper right of the site, if you find this worth it   
Related posts:

UBB.threads Custom Island from an RSS feed
UBB.threads Twitter Custom Island
Getting more out of the Custom Island Editor

Innovative way to use Google

SD — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:34:30 +0000

This is an interesting use of Google Adwords.

I’ve notice it in the past where I will Google (yes, that is also now accepted as a verb ) something and the top hit returned is something seemingly unrelated or pretty ‘far fetched’ from what I was actually looking for.

Cudos to this guy for taking advantage of it.

Watch and see what he did!

Smart man!

No related posts.

Adding a Gametrailers.com video tag

SD — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:41:08 +0000

A customer of mine recently wanted to know if I could gin up a custom ubbcode tag for Gametrailers.com and I obliged him.

The first thing is to note a pattern that can be matched from the video URL and the resulting embed code at the site. In most cases, this is what you want to do; look at a source URL or other identifier and try to find a correlation between that and the resulting html markup that is normally called the embed code.

For this example, the URL I used was:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pax-east-breach/63822

and the resulting embed code was:


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
    Video Games |
    Breach |
    PAX East 10: Destruction Walkthrough
  
  
    XBox 360 |
    Playstation 3 |
    Nintendo Wii

I cleaned up the code to be on multiple lines, instead of a giant glob of embed code, for readability.

The first thing I want to do is just to remove the extraneous crap after the object and embed code. No need to have all those extra links, so we’ll just remove them and the resulting embed code looks like this:

Also note that I wrapped the whole thing in a containing div with the class=”gt-embed”

The key things to note is the relationship between the URL and the resulting embed and to further hone in on that point, lines 10 and 13 are key. They take the numeric value from the URL and include it there.

This is where a regex comes into play. We’ll capture that number from the URL and substitute it into the embed code and be done with it.

The regex that does this is:

(|.*/video/.*/)(\d+)

It has two captures, with the first one being just to discard all of the URL up to the final numeric value. The second capture is then used in the substitution markup as follows:

Lines 10 and 13 use the \\2 to represent the 2nd capture value; namely the number.

That’s it!

One further thing to note is that the gametrailer site also has user videos too and the relationship between URL and resulting embed is slightly different. It is different enough to warrant another ubbcode tag.

Rather than go into all of what would pretty much be the same concept, I will just include the exported tags. You can import both of them in the Custom Tag editor and make any changes you’d like. For example, you might want to use different tags than what I chose ( and ).

That is all up to you.

Text or Zip available, you decide:

Gametrailer ubbcode - v1.1 - Downloaded 195 times
Gametrailer ubbcode (zipped) - v1.1 - Downloaded 179 times

The approves.