UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 7 Development How Do I? Feature restriction by user group

Is there a hack to limit new users ability to send and receive PM’s? A probation period sort of. I thought of putting all new users in a specific group but don’t see a way to control the PM feature by group.

I’m sure it’s probably around here somewhere but I couldn’t produce the results I was looking for with a search.

Thanks

Rather than just writing the hack.... I'll answer this as a How do I....

This same technique can be applied to a variety of scrips.

Near the top of each script, there is an authenticate function, which gets the user name, number, permissions etc.....

In sendprivate.php, look for this:




First we need to get this users groups, so we can add the database field to the list, like this:


Then after that bit of code, we can give it a shorter variable name if you want, like this:


Then, after that authenticate function, add a check to see if they are part of a usergroup that isn't allowed to use PMs. If they are, then we use the "not_right" function to send them a generic error message.



Hope that helps a bit.

Thank You for the lesson and help. You answer is very clear and I'll get into it later tonight.

Well here is what I did

Found the authenticate function in sendprivate.php

This

// Get the user info
$userob = new user;
$user = $userob -> authenticate("U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_Preview,");
$Username = $user['U_Username'];


changed to this
// Get the user info
$userob = new user;
$user = $userob -> authenticate("U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_Preview,U_Groups");
$Username = $user['U_Username'];
$UserGroups = $user['U_Groups'];
if (preg_match("/-7-/",$UserGroup)) {
$html = new html;
$html -> not_right('You are currently not allowed to use this feature.',$Cat); }

As you proabily know it did not redirect to a not_right html. I have played with it untill I got errors and more play just seemed to move the problem. I double checked my user group number but the error seems to follow this line if (preg_match("/-7-/",$UserGroup)) {

Another leasson please.
Thanks

$UserGroup should be $UserGroups

Thanks Eagle Eye. Typo in my haste. Sorry.

You're welcome, Four Eyes.

LOL -

I'd trade the 4 eyes for 2 that saw things as good as yours do.

My problem is I do 9000 things at a time..... and get scattered.

Thanks for the answer. I thought I had changed that at one point but obviously not.

The above code changes work like a new John Deer on a sunny day but does not prevent reply to PM's. If I wanted to prevent that I would edit the sendmessage.php authentication function correct? Need to make sure I am really understanding my lessons.

Thanks everyone for you patience.

I wrote this as a result of our conversation here.

This little hack will prevent sending of private messages on your forums by user groups. It’s simple to install and can be be applied in various files by modifying the ubbT authinication script. In this example it is for sending PM’s .

All credit should be given to ubbdev.com and it’s members. Special thanks to JoshPet and Dave_L also to the owner and staff of ubbdev.com who so graciously provides the medium for all to learn.

Open your sendprivate.php file
Find this code

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Get the user info
$userob = new user;
$user = $userob -> authenticate("U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_Preview,");
$Username = $user['U_Username'];


changed it to this
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Get the user info
$userob = new user;
$user = $userob -> authenticate("U_TextCols,U_TextRows,U_Preview,U_Groups");
$Username = $user['U_Username'];
$UserGroups = $user['U_Groups'];
if (preg_match("/-7-/",$UserGroups)) { //Edit the number 7 to match your user group.
$html = new html;
$html -> not_right('You are currently not allowed to use this feature.',$Cat); }
//You can edit the 'You are currently not allowed to use this feature.' Message to something else if you like.



Additional Steps to find out user groups number.
Go to the admin control panel of your forums. Click on sql commands under databse management.
In the window frame type this command

SELECT G_Id
FROM w3t_Groups
WHERE G_Name = 'groupnamehere'



Simple, quick, and functional hack for your threads management needs. Have Fun

If you find any bugs let me know.

Good job. Looks like this little "starter" lesson has been useful to you, and probably to others. It's always easier to comprehend once you do it and figure it out for yourself.
I know I didn't really have a clue (although I had applied many hacks) until I rolled up my sleeves and gave it a whirl.

Good to practice all you want on a test board. If you are testing on a live board, backup your files before you modify.

You can restrict replies to a PM in this file: mess_handler.php

Here's a tip if you are looking to restrict a certain feature. Go and try that feature, and look at the URL to what script it's using. For example, when I hit "reply" to a PM, I noticed mess_handler.php in the URL. Then you know what file to modify.

Hope that helps more. Your hack looks real good.

Here's another "tip" as we have talked about building multi-language support into our hacks.... as multi-language support is a very powerful feature of threads.

Instead of hard coding the error message like this:

$html -> not_right('You are currently not allowed to use this feature.',$Cat); }


You can use a language string, like this:

$html -> not_right($ubbt_lang['NOT_ALLOWED'],$Cat); }


Then in the language files (for each language you use).... example /languages/english, look for the file with the same name as the script (like sendprivate.php).

Add a string in like this:

$ubbt_lang['NOT_ALLOWED'] = "You are currently not allowed to use this feature.";


If it's a string that's used in several scripts, you could also put it into the generic.php language file.

That' how you build in language support.