RC1 to RC2 - News Disappeared for Not logged in users

[KenDude]

You can see it here: www.caymanclub.net

I upgraded from RC1 to RC2 and now my News section does not show up for people who are guests to the site, only logged in users.

I went to admincp and checked the News module settings and ALL groups are checked off to view it, including those not registered / not logged in.

I then went to my forum permissions for that forums and checked and the not registered / not logged in group has permissions to read that forum (but not author in it).

So as far as I can tell my permissions are exactly as I had them under RC1 but now after RC2 my news is not showing up on the home page.

Can anyone help???

[KenDude]

Ok I found the issue with a little searching, it seems that RC2 has changed to NOT allow teaser news items. In other words people who weren't logged in for RC1 could SEE the news items on the home page but when they clicked on the News item they couldn't read anything further because they didn't have access to the forum.

I think RC2 should be changed back to the way RC1 worked because that is what those forum permission settings are for.

Turn "View Forum" On but have "View Thread Content" as Off should allowthem to see the News item on the home page but if they click the title or the "read more" link then they get prompted to log in to read the whole news item.

Can we go back to doing it this way so we can have "teaser" News items? The way it is set up now someone who is not logged into my site can now read all of the news item (no enouragement to log in and become a member) because I had to turn "View Thread Content" ON for the News item to show up at all.

Unless I'm missing something it looks like RC2 killed "teaser" items so can we please get them back or get another way of doing them?

Thanks in Advance!

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[Brian]

Actually that was more of a bug that was corrected with RC2 in order to apply permissions correctly. If you still want users to be able to view threads they don't have permission to view, there's a setting called 'Apply Permissions' with the news module that can be disabled.

[KenDude]

Brian,

It is not a matter of letting them view threads or not in their entirety as that could be accomplished with the forum permissions as setup now in RC2, it is an all or nothing proposition. I don't see how removing the Apply Permissions setting for the news module would let those who aren't logged in see the news item but not see the entire news item if they click the "read more" link.

That's really the crux of the problem, in RC1 you could set up teaser news items where even guests could see and read the first X number of characters of the news item but if they clicked on the read more they would be prompted to log in. It is these sort of teaser news items that lead to new registrations. IF you give them the all or nothing then either they can't see the news item and don't find your site as interesting, or they can see the whole news item and don't have to log in so they don't join the site.

We ran a particular group buy item where the code needed to get the discount was in the last part of the news item but we talked about it in the first part so guests/visitors could read the first part of the item and be enticed to click the read more to get the discount code but in order to read the entire news message they had to be logged in.

Is this making sense? I don't care in what way you do it with permissions or a custom settings in the News module but right now I don't see any way to create a "teaser" style News item as I could in RC1. Can you please instruct me on how to set up a teaser news item if possible in RC2 or else can you add that feature for RC3 or provide me with some hack instructions to make it happen such as reverting to the RC1 style permission settings by changing the code someplace. Could I simply replace the news module from RC2 with the RC1 news module for the time being?

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[Brian]

If you edit the settings for the news module and turn off the 'Apply Permissions' setting, then it will function exactly like you are describing.

[KenDude]

Brian,

Excellent, thanks!

BTW I have a follow-up question about news items. I visited www.babblers.org and saw that his news items have images in them, I clicked on the news item and saw that the image was actually an attachment. How do I get attachments to show up in the body of the news item? When I try this on my site I get the body of the news item then underneath it I get the attachment, not exactly what I want. I tried playing with some settings but cannot seem to get it to do what it does on the babblers site (Tom M's)

Thanks in Advance!

[Brian]

In thier case it looks like they may have modified the 'adv_portal_newsbit' template to move the attachment to where the avatar is usually placed. The easiest way though would be to just use the [attach] tag within your news posts to position the attachments where you would like.

[KenDude]

Ah so you mean when I type a news story I could first type [attach] then the body of the story and any attachment to that post will show up there in the body? That would be easier than messing with the template so I'll have to give that a try. If not, I'll modify the template, just thought it might be a setting somewhere that I was unaware of.

[KenDude]

I must not be doing something right as I type either and then some text and then at the end add an attachment to the message via upload and it doesn't show anything, or I try it with both an opening [attach] tag and then a closing tag but nothing shows up inbetween, I have a feeling I don't know how this tag works exactly. Can you assist in more detail?

[KenDude]

I still can't get it to work and I've searched this site high and low for instructions on how to get the tag to work. I do have the tag enabled in the admincp so that isn't it. If you look at my home page you can see exactly what I typed in to try and get it to show up.
http://www.caymanclub.net

[Brian]

You have to add the attachmentid between the and tags.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/misc.php?do=bbcode#attach

This thread (http://www.vbadvanced.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135688&postcount=5) also has a better explanation.

[KenDude]

Ok let's keep banging my head against the wall. I look at the attachment and I see a long string of numbers which I assume is the attachmentid, in this case 4251d1201279073 so I put that between the attach tags and it doesn't show up, it just shows that number so I assume that it isn't the attachment id but if it isn't, then how do I find the attachment id? I'll keep digging but check my site and see if you can tell me what I am doing wrong please! Thanks!

BTW when I try to access that thread you said had a better explanation I get a message saying that I don't have access to that area. :( :(

[Brian]

Sorry, didn't realize that thread was posted in the vBa Dynamics forum. Here's the contents of the post.

Just attach your images when adding the entry, then in the message use tags like this:

X
X

Replace the X there with the attachmentid for that attachment. If you hold your mouse over the link for the attachment in the 'Attach Files' section, then you should see a URL like this in your browser's status bar which shows the attachmentid.
/dynamics/attachment.php?attachmentid=X&stc=1&d=3432423

[KenDude]

Brian,
I am not using dynamics I am using Vbadvance CMPS, can you PLEASE just look at the home page of www.caymanclub.net and tell me what the attachment id is of the attachment to the very first news item, then look at the body of the news item itself and see the number I put in there and tell me why it isn't working???

Thanks!

[KenDude]

Ah I found the problem VBSEO appended more info to the attachment id, the number above should have been 4251 not 4251d1201279073. I turned off VBSEO and was able to see the true attachment id, used that, and now it works! Woot!