MyBB Community Forums

Social Groups
Latest Version: 2.0 submitted 7/2/2014
Demo: http://teamdimensional.net/testforums/groups.php
Download Link: http://mods.mybb.com/view/social-groups
Github: https://github.com/dragonexpert/Social-Groups

Collaborators: jvdabs
Languages available in:
English
Persian: Whoever added Persian tell me and I'll give you credit here.

You are allowed to submit a translation.

Description: This plugin allows for the creation of social groups similar to how Vbulletin has built in.

Features:

• Group leader is able to perform moderator actions in any group he or she created with the exception of giving warnings.
  
• Forum Moderators and Admins are able to perform moderator actions as well as close the group from discussion.
  
• Option to enable or disable MyCode and HTML in posts.
  
• Option to make members who aren't part of the group not be able to read threads, note that Moderators and Admins will still be able to see the threads.
  
• 3 Join types:
  • Anyone can join - any member can join the group instantly.
    
  • Requests must be approved - anyone can fill out the form to join, however the group leader is able to approve or deny the request.
    
  • Staff Only - Only users with Mod CP or Admin CP access are able to join the group.
• Option For SEO Support
  
• Category System with Category permissions
  
• Logos: Can either be an url or by file upload.
  

Installing:

1. Upload groups.php, groupthread.php, and showgroup.php, and groupcp.php to your forum's root directory.
   
2. Upload socialgroups.php to your /inc/plugins directory.
   
3. Upload socialgroups.lang.php to your /inc/languages/english directory.
   
4. Install and Activate from the Admin CP.

Upgrading:

1. Deactivate, not uninstall, the current version you are running
   
2. Upload the new files
   
3. Activate the plugin
   
4. Go to socialgroupsupgrade.php and select the version you are upgrading from. Note that there is no upgrade to 1.9 if you had an old version because database and templates did not change.
   

If you are having some kind of problem, please let me know and I'll see what I can do to get it fixed for you.

Version history
Version 1.4
This was a big release and would really determine if the plugin would work or if it would fail. I had to fix a couple vulnerabilities. I also had to do major recoding to support multiple group leaders and work with the permission system. That was what this upgrade was mostly about.
- Fixes some SQL Query errors
- Fixes some security issues
- Supports multiple group leaders
- Be able to control what permissions each group leader gets
- Improved permission system

Version 1.5
This was a huge update and took quite some time to do. I had complaints of how it was setting up tables so I had to make sure to get that fixed up, hopefully this does the trick. I also had to fix a couple bugs that were pointed out in the last release so template edits weren't necessary by members. This release also added many possibilities to groups. It also had what I believe to be a much better layout design. An upgrade script was something I had to make so those who have an earlier version didn't need to use a backup to restore everything. Once this upgrade gets approved, I hope to hear more feedback. Hopefully the feedback will be positive, but if there is something you think can be done better, I am open to suggestions.
- Rewrite a couple queries to fix compatability
- Fix group editing
- Add option to be able to create social groups on a per usergroup basis
- Fix extra button showing up when creating a group or a thread
- Add bb code inserter
- Limit on group joining
- Limit on creating groups
- Make the group editing have correct things selected by default
- Allow moderators and admins to edit any group
- Improve templates for showthread
- Group Announcements
- Create an upgrade script

Version 1.6

• Group Control Panel Features completed:
  • Only accessible by those with Mod CP or Admin CP access.
    
  • View All Groups
    
  • View All Threads
    
  • Lock specific group
    
  • Lock all groups
    
  • Unlock specific group
    
  • Unlock all groups
    
  • Edit specific group
    
  • Delete Thread
    
  • Delete specific group ( Limited to only those with Admin CP access )
    
  • Delete All groups /* Only a member in usergroup 4 (admininstrator) is able to use this feature.
• Bug Fixes:
  • Unable to join from being in too many groups
    
  • Moderators and Admins not being able to view threads on a private group
    
  • Fixes some errors where two commas somehow got combined in a row. This would trigger an SQL error 1064.
    
  • Some errors on the approval status of a thread.
    
  • Special file to alter table collation and character set.

Version 1.9

• Made it so tables use the character character set by default
  
• Fixed a couple permission issues.
  
• Changed most things to use the mybb input array.
  
• Made more use of the built in redirect function
  

Version 2.0

• Add Online Location correctly - Note that only staff get the name of a group thread due to being less server intensive. If you want anyone to be able to view this, ask and I will help.
  
• Category System - Categories are managed in the Admin CP
  
• Create an Admin Module - Manages Group Information & Categories
  
• Admin Log Entries
  
• Fix member_profile not updating
  
• Allow group images to be uploaded instead of remote url only
  
• SEO Support, not through Google SEO Plugin because I couldn't work with it.
  
• Cache for social groups and categories
  

Version 2.1

• This release fixed many bugs.
  
• User experience improved slightly by using some redirects after actions.
  

Implementing SEO
Go to your .htaccess file. Add the following Rewrite Rules to it:

# Custom Rules for social groups
# Social Groups SEO URL Rule for Groups:
RewriteRule ^socialgroup-([0-9]+)+(.*)\.html$ showgroup.php?gid=$1 [L,QSA,NC]

# Social Groups SEO URL Rule for Categories:
RewriteRule ^category-([0-9]+)+(.*)\.html$ groups.php?cid=$1 [L,QSA,NC]

# Social Groups SEO URL Rule for Group Threads:
RewriteRule ^conversation-([0-9]+)(.*)\.html$ groupthread.php?conid=$1 [L,QSA,NC]

After doing this, enable seo urls under Admin CP->Settings->Groups.

Version 2.1 is currently available for download here. Feel free to suggest additional features. I want MYBB to be the best and I can't have this plugin be the best without suggestions and feedback. I also have a repository on Github for this plugin. It can be viewed Here

2.2 Planned Updates
- Try and make it work with the calendar
- Force add user to group

The new update is now live on the mods site.

Thanks, many people aks for somthing like this.

Really awesome work on the plugin.

Screens?

Quote:MyBB has experienced an internal SQL error and cannot continue.

SQL Error:
1267 - Illegal mix of collations (utf8_unicode_ci,IMPLICIT) and (utf8_general_ci,IMPLICIT) for operation '='
Query:
SELECT g.*, u.*, ug.gid, ug.namestyle FROM mybb_socialgroups g LEFT JOIN mybb_users u ON (g.uid=u.uid) LEFT JOIN mybb_usergroups ug ON (u.displaygroup=ug.gid) WHERE g.leader=u.username

I'm not sure why that is giving you an SQL error. I tried running that query in my PHPMyAdmin and it worked fine.

@Mario14125: Sorry, I don't have screenshots at this time.

I definitely can use this for one of my sites! Thanks!

Oh my god, thank you so much man .

EDIT: I got the same sql error as fluffybunny.

Love this idea! I have a question though...

I already have a groups.php file from group legend plugin i believe...is there anyway to change the name of your groups.php file? I don't want to overwrite the original...

http://mods.mybb.com/view/social-groups