This is the complete documentation for the Mambo UBB.threads Integration. Please read this entire document before you try this package. It is not only a simple component, there are some modifications needed to both Mambo and UBB.threads for this package to work.

Requirements

The following is needed to run this integration properly:

• UBB.threads 6.4.2
• Mambo Open Source 4.5 1.0.8

N.B. Both systems need to be installed in the same MySQL database to work properly.

Installation

Follow these steps to install this integration properly:

1. Install the zip file as a Mambo Component, it should install the component and some modules for you.
2. Create a directory called "cache" under your Mambo installation and make it world writeable (chmod 777).
3. Go to the configuration of UBB.threads Integration from the Mambo Components menu in the administrator.
   1. Change the path to UBB.threads to where your forum is installed.
   2. Change the path to your cache directory.
   3. Enter the Keyword for the forum where all comments to articles should be posted.
4. If the installation script couldn't install the threadsframe.php you will need to copy this file to the "classes" directory under your Mambo installation and name it mambo.php. Make sure you backup the current mambo.php file so that you can restore it later if you need to.
5. If the installation script said that the mambot wasn't installed you need to upload the file threadsbot.php to the "ambots" directory under your Mambo installation.
6. Make sure all old login/logout/user creation modules are unpublished and that you don't have any links to them or the Your Details component. The UBB.threads Integration package provides new versions of all of these which should be used instead.
7. Modify your UBB.threads scripts according to the instructions in the file ubbthreads-changes.txt.
8. Now click on Components -> UBB.threads Integration -> Merge User Databases in the Mambo Administrator to merge the user database of Mambo Open Source and UBB.threads. You can use this function at any time if you suspect that some users are only in one of the user databases, but generally you only need to run this once.

Usage Instructions

Once you have followed the installation instructions above you should be able to start using Mambo and UBB.threads with seamless integration.

Some notes

User registration, logging in and logging out should only be done via the Mambo component and modules provided in this package. If you have followed the instructions for changing UBB.threads the links for these things in UBB.threads should redirect to the proper pages in Mambo.

Users should only be able to change their profile information from the Control Panel in UBB.threads as Mambo uses the UBB.threads database. At the moment the password won't be changed in Mambo when doing this, so if admins change their passwords in UBB.threads it has to be changed in the Mambo administrator as well.

New administrators in UBB.threads won't automatically be administrators in Mambo and vice versa, so you will have to update them separately in both admin pages when creating new admins.

Don't use the User Manager in Mambo Administrator to update user information, use the admin pages in UBB.threads instead. Except for the things mentioned above.

Templates

There are two template files that you can change freely to change the appearence of the content comments. These files are called "posttemplate.php" and "template.php". The first one is how each comment should look like and the second one is for the entire content.

Configuration Settings

In the configuration you can tweak how the integration and comment system works. Here are description on what each of the settings are for.

Server path to your UBB.threads installation.

This is required to be set to the path of your UBB.threads installation or the integration won't work.

Server path to where to save temporary cache files.

At the moment only the UBB.threads Statistics module uses this cache directory, but it might be used by others in the future. This directory isn't needed, but as the statistics module is heavy on the server it is a good idea to use it. Make sure the directory is world writeable.

Default forum for new comment threads.

Enter the keyword for the board in UBB.threads where the threads for article comments should be placed. The keyword is the one you entered when creating the board, and it can be found if you look at the link to the board, the keyword is written after "Board=".

Only show comment form on selected content items.

If set to "Yes" you will have to add the mambot {moscomment} to the text of all content items you want comment ability on. If set to "No" all content items will have the comment form.

Strip HTML from comment text body.

If this is set to "Yes" all HTML will be stripped from the comment body text before they are shown on the comment page. If you use the comment cut-off setting below you should set this to "Yes" to avoid problems with broken HTML.

Make username into link to their profile in UBB.threads.

If this is set to "Yes" the username in each comment will be linked to that users profile in UBB.threads.

Only show comment subject if it has been changed.

Set this to "No" if you want the subject line to show on each comment, otherwise it will only show if it has been changed.

Show the username in the same color as in UBB.threads.

UBB.threads can have different colors on usernames, if this setting is set to "Yes" that color will be used on comments in Mambo as well.

Maximum number of characters of each post to show below articles. (0 = Don't cut off the text body)

Set this to "0" if you want to show the complete comments, or set it to the number of characters you want to show.

Modules

There are several modules included with this package that provide information from UBB.threads as well as a new login module.

UBB.threads Login

This is a replacement for the standard Mambo login module, you must use this instead of the original one for the login to work.

UBB.threads Forum List

This module shows a list of all forums available in UBB.threads. For logged in users it shows only their favorite forums. This module has two available params: showfavoriteforums = set to 0 to show all forums even for users that are logged in; forumcols = the number of columns the forum list should be split into, defaults to one column.

UBB.threads Private Messages

Shows information on how many Private Messages the users has as well as a link to view them. Shows nothing for users who aren't logged in.

UBB.threads Latest Threads

Shows the latest active threads from UBB.threads. Available params: threadcount = the number of threads to list, defaults to 10.

UBB.threads Menu

Provides some links to functions of UBB.threads.

UBB.threads Stats

Shows some statistics about UBB.threads. Available params: cacheupdate = Number of seconds between updates, defaults to 3600.

Information

If you have any bugs to report, or want to make a feature suggestion, or just want to inform me of your site running this component you can write about it on the forums at my Mambo site which you can find at this address: http://mambo.theyard.org

All components and modules I've released are available from that site so if you are looking for more Mambo enhancements, feel free to visit.

I'm also often available at the UBB.threads hacking site ThreadsDev.

Credits

Thanks to all those who donated money to get this done.

Rick Baker for writing UBB.threads.

chillin from ThreadsDev who provided me with some code to get started with this integration.