MTF Releases

ok, so i have most of MTFs back-end code down and now working on having the templates work with the back-end. This sounds good but i have not down any work with the MOTM and i was wondering if it would even be needed for the version here. It definitely should be in the public release because you know people would request it. Then eventually after the public release is out maybe a week or two later we can just upload it here (and probably turn MOTM off).

So how does this sound?

iTrader now under vbEnhancer’s ownership, here comes version 2.5

Some people already know that vbEnhancer.com is now the place where to look at when we talk iTrader. The goal is to provide support and upgrade for this great engine, because Jason* is unable to provide support anymore due to real life commitments.

So now is the official announcement for the new release to come, as i received more than enough emails asking for this upgrade in the last week, due to a leak on vb.org…

Here is the plans for the next days. I have no deadline for the delivery, because i have to evaluate what is left to be done, as i received Gio~logist addons for iTrader only two days ago and i’m not finished recoding them. They will be fully integrated to the new version, and i will provide a HowTo for the ones who already have these addons on their sites, so i have to write that documentation too.

I’m also reading all the discussions of the official release on vb.org, to find the bugs and the fixes that goes with them, and i’m checking if some requests can be fulfilled with this first re-release. This is hard time as i can not focus more than 2 hours per day on this task, as my family life take over the virtual life of the internet — i know, some of you do not understand real life, but i am.

I have to recode the entire iTrader engine to make it a single-file built. It’s not complicated, but it have to be done once and bug free. I’m also writing the french language file because there are possibilities to use it in any language and i received some requests to have it in french.

So planned like this, i have to calculate at least 15 hours of work, split in about 10 days… so calculate a release to be around March 15th…

MTF menu on the fly in admincp?

is it possible, when we edit a forum, that when we use the dropdown menu to have a reload/submit of the page, so the users are not messed with wrong settings?

actually, when you submit the form in the basic vB, we are redirected to the forum listing, which is pathetic.

i know that a select redirect is easy, we just do this:
[html]

MTF KNOWledge base

Post Ranking System – vBulletin.org Forum … this addon is mainly what we need in a Knowledge base, BUT… we also need it to be more like this: Answer Forums – Vbulletin Modifications

a merge of the two could be the solution, so our client would have the choice to RANK posts or TAG posts as best answers…

and as both engines are coded like sh*t, we can simply recode them as addons to MTF and nobody will ever notice that we were inspired by them.. lol

pathetically, neither of the two coders was able to set a real usage for these two engines. they just say « you can do this, do that »… but basically, they are the real concept of Web 2.0 , asking members to share and participate. Bigger groups are interested to see that kind of gadget by choice on their forum, where they can simply switch to have a more flexible forum… this is part of our goals, so we have to answer them.

MTF FAQ… so simple, my 7 years old daughter can do it…

ok, it’s simple to create a FAQ engine… vBulletin have a crappy one, and we all know it.

at the difference of a Knowledge Base where members offer answers/solutions, a FAQ is basically built by moderators and admins. We do not need a specific forum structure for it, just different templates and 2 or 3 new functions that nobody will have to act upon:

1- a sub-forum is a type of FAQ
2- each thread is a topic
3- each reply to that topic is a sub-topic (answer)

so basically, we need a showthread that make the firstpost as a resumé of the topic, and each reply will be different answers to that topic. we need a list of each reply title in the first post as the references, and so we jut have to click the reply title in the first post to be redirected to the correct anchor.

here is the sub-topics list:

  1. this is first sub-topic
  2. this is secondly thought
  3. job done for a third one

needed: we need the urls to not be opening a new window, because they are anchors…

we then need the postbits to be simplier, because they are in the same content, no need to all these user infos, just posts…

Credits? what for ???

As you see, vbCredits is installed on this site, as a money handler. You do not gain anything by posting or voting, so please avoid posting just to raise your postcount, it worth nothing else than just bothering me.

The Credits are used for transactions, they are used for you to pay directly the products you are interested in, and for the coder to receive payment of that transaction.

The difference here is that you do not have to make direct transactions between you and the coder via anyother payment processor. It may not be safer, but at least it is simplier, and we can track if a transaction was applied, instead of just waiting for some echoes from Paypal™.

We have different ways to proceed. You can buy credits directly from paypal, or you use the subscriptions engine to use some other payment processors, if you prefer. The transactions will be logged to the name of paypal@nexialys.net because a company is safer than a simple untraceable user. The company is responsible of all the transactions on paypal, so we make sure nobody get involved in a scam or leech.

Once you have enough credits, you can purchase the service or script that you are interested in, and that transaction will be logged in your profile, so we know exactly what’s going on with your status.

note: we have promotions during the year, where we could apply rebates on scripts released on the site… it’s up to you to purchase your own at that time, but it is not permitted to complain about a different price depending on when you buy it.

mtf Levels..

Ok so i was starting the planning of the release addon and i thought we need some way in a forum to find out what « level » it is (how many sub/parent forums with the same type are). i started writing some code for this and i realized it is not a simple thing but needs some discussion.

My idea is that while viewing a forum/thread you can get the forums level with the level being the number of parent forums with the same type above it plus 1 (i.e. if we had:
Forum 1 (Type: Blah; Level 1)
— Forum 2 (Type: Blah; Level 2)
—- Forum 3 (Type: Default; Level 1)


Forum 4 (Type: Blah; Level 1)
). This seemed good to me and then on say the release engine a forum with level X would have a template of X. But then i was thinking about more and i realized say that that would not work because we do not know the depth of that forum.

So what do you think the best approach would be?

I’ll loose some friends in the next days…

Based on the evaluation of what was done on vb.org and some other sites lately, i think it will be pointless to invite other coders to release their hacks here in the form of a paid directory… the discussions i had is that they all want to be on their own sites, without interferance with others…

So be it.. we will simply provide a banners system that let them advertise, with a list of the announcers as a blogroll.

Also, as my big plan was to take-over the biggest projects to reload or simply crash burn, it is going well… and with the MTF, we will be able to break anyother project, even the biggers. some of the tools that are not yet to be replicated are burning already because they were not able to find their market… the Geek stuff is completely abandonned, even if the Morgan girl is supported to support her stuff. Gio is quite occupied in real life, so he is not even supporting his own site, and Lionel is not releasing a lot of stuff, trying to support his buggy releases… we will crush them all.

Anyway, as i now control most of the releases that were made in the last 5 years on vb.org, i suppose i have enough stuff to put in the site and make people come here to register anyway. The goal is to provide the best enhancements for vB, we will.

In the next 6 days i’m alone at home, so i’ll fill the site with the extra stuff i already have done/upgraded, and i’ll try to make the rest of what is to be debugged.

I’ll also make the site more clever, with a better distribution of forums and content. The style is going well, you can see it on https://unpapapro.com/?styleid=6 … i’m redesigning some parts that Jelsoft never built properly, and i try to hide most of the crap i find.. lol

ok, let’s see if i can do something cool here!

Alt/Title Tags for sub-forums

Actually, when you want to be fully XHTML compliant, you need to have alt content for your icons, and a title content for your links… vBulletin sub-forums have no alt/title tags, and this is not good.

So here is the little quicky to change this situation…

when you hover the sub-forum icon, you will see the title of the forum itself, and when you hover the link, you will see it’s description.

nex_alt_title_subforums.jpg

It’s an automatic template edit, nothing to modify on your side, just upload the product and tada…