Editable Module.

[rwoscott]

I have a module for Injuries ( on a football site), It changes weekly, unfortunately.
I have created two modules ATM, one is a template, one is BB code.
They both perform the function required, but only admins can update them because you need to access admincp.

I want a module that can be updated by people who don't have admin access.
IE I create a page with a form and people I give access too, can update it as required. When it is saved it save to the template/bbcode member, whichever is easier.

Is this easily doable?

[rwoscott]

So it is not possible?

[bobster65]

So it is not possible?

no, its actually pretty easy. Finding someone to do it for free is going to be a challenge tho.

[rwoscott]

no, its actually pretty easy. Finding someone to do it for free is going to be a challenge tho.

Ohhh. Really.

Well, my alternative was to create a little DB, and matching form, and do it that way.
I just thought if I could read/update the template it would be a bit simpler.

Might have to do the DB then. Thanks bobster.

[DaddyJimmy]

Why not use a copy of the News Module, give it a custom template so it only showed the body of the post, have it only show 1 post (the most recent), ignore forum permissions (for the module) and make the forum it points to private.

It's a little tricky to set up, and maybe someone else can explain it better, but I think what you want is possible without any code changes.

[rwoscott]

Why not use a copy of the News Module, give it a custom template so it only showed the body of the post, have it only show 1 post (the most recent), ignore forum permissions (for the module) and make the forum it points to private.

It's a little tricky to set up, and maybe someone else can explain it better, but I think what you want is possible without any code changes.

I get where you are coming from. I tried that.
I copied news module created injury module, pointed it to a specific forum (for testing).

To explain why I gave up on that idea:
I have 3 different news modules pointing to 3 different forums. All in the center column. I then have 3 matching News Archive modules in the right column (not all of them show as I don't have enough article, yet). Anyway what happened when I created the above "injury news" module, one of the news Archives picked up all the threads in my test forum, for no apparent reason. If I remove that Archive module from the homepage, the next Archive module picked up all the posts in my test forum.
I couldn't figure out how this happened. I check all the archive settings, I checked the new module. So then I though of this idea.

[bobster65]

Ohhh. Really.

Well, my alternative was to create a little DB, and matching form, and do it that way.
I just thought if I could read/update the template it would be a bit simpler.

Might have to do the DB then. Thanks bobster.

If you know basic php, don't get all wrapped up into the vbulletin template system... the only thing you need vb wise (and really don't need it) is the user groups permission to block access to the file... just create a simple DB with a table (or tables), create a php file for an injury maintenance page so that your users can add, update and delete ... then just pull the info from the new DB and use it for your module on the portal. Way too many people get all wrapped up into having to use the vbulletin template system and all of vbulletin's "ways" its beyond simple and would take about 30 minutes to an hr to complete start to finish with basic php knowledge.

[rwoscott]

If you know basic php, don't get all wrapped up into the vbulletin template system... the only thing you need vb wise (and really don't need it) is the user groups permission to block access to the file... just create a simple DB with a table (or tables), create a php file for an injury maintenance page so that your users can add, update and delete ... then just pull the info from the new DB and use it for your module on the portal. Way too many people get all wrapped up into having to use the vbulletin template system and all of vbulletin's "ways" its beyond simple and would take about 30 minutes to an hr to complete start to finish with basic php knowledge.

OK. Might take me a bit longer than 30-60 mins, but I doknow a bit of php, and can I think I can handle that. I'll get on it as soon as I finish my other php tasks.

Thanks again for the advice.

[bobster65]

OK. Might take me a bit longer than 30-60 mins, but I doknow a bit of php, and can I think I can handle that. I'll get on it as soon as I finish my other php tasks.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cool Beans.. just wanted to let you know that you are in no way constrained to vbulletin when creating custom modules for CMPS that have nothing to do with vbulletin.... If you need some help, let me know... PM is open anytime..

[DaddyJimmy]

If you're going to go with something custom, why not read/write to/from a file instead of adding another DB query. Make a simple PHP module that reads/writes to a file using:
file_get_contents()
file_put_contents()

Might make it a bit simpler and quicker.

[bobster65]

If you're going to go with something custom, why not read/write to/from a file instead of adding another DB query. Make a simple PHP module that reads/writes to a file using:
file_get_contents()
file_put_contents()

Might make it a bit simpler and quicker.

The overhead between the DB option and file option isn't enough to say one is better than the other in this case. I still don't get why members are all wrapped up in "another query" .. it isn't the amount of queries, its how they are written, executed and their individual performance hit on the server. In this case, this is something very simple and isn't going to require multiple joins and a bunch of logic. Either way requires CPU processing and usage of Memory and if you bench marked both against each other, I doubt you would see any difference.

EDIT.. btw Jimmy, hope you understood that I wasn't cutting your suggested method down.. as a matter of fact, I use it a lot for various things and recommend that people know both methods when they are learning

[rwoscott]

Cool Beans.. just wanted to let you know that you are in no way constrained to vbulletin when creating custom modules for CMPS that have nothing to do with vbulletin.... If you need some help, let me know... PM is open anytime..

Thanks bobster, I'm currently writing an application for statistics, which I'm quite pleased to say, is going very well. Last year I did it in Access, exported it to an XML form, then wrote a page which used an XML parser. I've now got all that in a DB, and the enquire and sort functions work a treat. (My first PHP class as well). I'm now working on the Add/Update functions. A little bit more tricky, but I'm getting there slowly.

If you're going to go with something custom, why not read/write to/from a file instead of adding another DB query. Make a simple PHP module that reads/writes to a file using:
file_get_contents()
file_put_contents()

Might make it a bit simpler and quicker.

Thanks Jimmy, I already use this way for my season Fixture, as I already had it in a text file, it was easier this way.
It's also a good way to learn some of the different access methods of PHP!!

Now to just find those extra hours in the day.

[bobster65]

I've got some pretty cool football stats and live scoring/stats stuff (all custom). I run my own fantasy football software that gets live feeds, so I figured, why not use the real stats for something else since you already got them, so I wrote a bunch of code to have live game day pages for each matchup .. it all starts from a single module on the portal that displays the current games of the week, when there status changes from schedule to 15:00 1st Quarter, the module changes to now display a link to the live game day page for that particular game.. on the live game day page is the scoring, indivdual stats for every player that has compiled a stat (broke out by playing position) and team stats.. Thats as far as I got last season.. this upcoming season I plan to add even more (To include dynamic Injury status). My Members love it ... and the cool thing is that it is 100% automated