Advanced News

[Michael Pfaff]

SMF stores the news in a weird way. All the entries are stored in a single setting, which means without dates, or other reliable sorting aids. However, it explodes them into a simple aarray which can be reversed in bulk, so the first becomes last and vice versa.

Gotcha.

Well, thanks so much for the quick support and information. Very much appreciated!

[live627]

We can try it anyways and see what happens...

Code (Find in AdvancedNews.php) Select Expand

isAllowedTo('view_news');

Code (Replace with) Select Expand

isAllowedTo('view_news');

// Reverse the news. There's _some_ chance that a newer item goes first.
$context['news_lines'] = array_reverse($context['news_lines']);

[Michael Pfaff]

We can try it anyways and see what happens...

Code (Find in AdvancedNews.php) Select Expand

isAllowedTo('view_news');

Code (Replace with) Select Expand

isAllowedTo('view_news');

// Reverse the news. There's _some_ chance that a newer item goes first.
$context['news_lines'] = array_reverse($context['news_lines']);

Nice! I'll give this a shot tomorrow and see if it pans out.

[live627]

Cool. Post back  when you do, eh? Others may want to do the same.

[pierrelogic]

Was digging into my installed mods and tried to use the SMF Package Parser to look at Advanced News mod.

What does it mean when the parser itself throws an an error?

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'String could not be parsed as XML' in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php:381 Stack trace: #0 C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php(381): SimpleXMLElement->__construct('') #1 C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php(271): parsePackage('/temp/package-i...', 'install', 'all') #2 C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php(170): parseArchive(Array, '0', '0') #3 C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php(150): PackageInstructions() #4 C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php(1443): PackageParser() #5 {main} thrown in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\smfhacks\packageparser\package.php on line 381

Just try again later?

[live627]

I have no idea what you're trying to do. Well, okay, I do, but this mod doesn't modify any files and therefore, using a parser won't do much good.

Whatever software you're using is still buggy.

[pierrelogic]

I have no idea what you're trying to do. Well, okay, I do, but this mod doesn't modify any files and therefore, using a parser won't do much good.

Whatever software you're using is still buggy.

I understand that this mod is really not modifying any files.  However (please correct me if I'm wrong) the parser is a tool to help with manual installs, right?  My question and point I was trying to make was why did the parser not work the first time but it worked just fine when I tried it later on the same mod?  Website hiccup? 

Not a big deal, I was just curious.

[NekoJonez]

Bug report: I had to manually add this line in my language file but the help text wasn't showing up.

[Jessica.]

Installed with no errors; only issue is that the menu item "News" is not appearing in the menu.

[Arantor]

And it won't because of Menu Editor Lite.

[Jessica.]

I installed this mod before Menu Editor Lite and it did not appear.

[Arantor]

Don't know about that, but if MEL is installed, all mods that change the menu will be similarly affected... It completely ditches anything in the menu and substitutes its own.

[Jessica.]

I removed MEL and reinstalled Advanced News. Menu item "News" still not appearing.

[rcane]

Hi,

I was curious about using this on 2.0.18.  It seems to work, showing the check box to make news appear, but I cannot get it to work with a restricted unique permission group.

I made a group that has it's own permissions but it's tied to the 'no primary group' for some reason.

[Dave En Velo]

Has anyone got this to work on 2.0.17.  I installed the mod as if for 2.0.5 and had some file permission issues which I resolved with chmod 777.  It does not seem to have done much apart from removing News from the Login screen and all users, apart from Admin. I don't see any new functionality.

[live627]

To get the menu item to show, find in ./Sources/AdvancedNews.php

Code Select Expand

function advanced_news_menu_buttons($menu_buttons)and replace with

Code Select Expand

function advanced_news_menu_buttons(&$menu_buttons)

[Dave En Velo]

Thanks live627 I now see the added menu item and finally understand what the mod does, although the description is clear enough when I read it again.  My summary would be:

• Makes News visibility permissions based so can be limited by user, including not visible on login screen.
• Adds News menu item.  Not sure I see the value of this since it is only offered when permission is granted and then it is in its normal position top right anyway.  Probably I am missing something. 

Anyway it does what I want which is to remove News from login screen.

Thanks again.