Invite Only System

ADM

There was a new addon released earlier today which turns your forum into a Gmail like invite only system, thought it'll be wise to create an official release thread.

Basically it adds an invite code to the registration page so the only way for people to register is for them to be invited by members on the boards, each member gets a certain amount of invites and they can invite whoever they want. When they run out of invites they can request more from the admin.

This way if you run a private community you can give the power to the people and not have to worry about approving accounts and all that. On the account of the invitee it says "Invited by: Username" so that way you know who invited them just incase they turn out to be a problem

Check it out
http://lussumo.com/addons/index.php?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=156

timberford

sounds cool i'll be checking this out. would it be possible to show who had accepted your invites on the account page of the person who sent the invite out?

ADM

"would it be possible to show who had accepted your invites on the account page of the person who sent the invite out?"

What would be the exact need for that?

Dinoboff

On the account page, we were think to put all the list of members that have been invited by you, somethink like the role history.

For the invitation that have not been used, our choice is more to delete them (the extension allow the admin to delete the ones that are not valide anymore). We didn't think to what you want. That could be done, but on the invitation page.

timberford

"What would be the exact need for that?" well it's not like it's essential but it would just be a nice feature. just to see which user has been the most successful with their invites.

Ludwig

Hey! I love this add-on it works great I just have a few questions; 1) This add-on destroys the "Whipser to:" input form everywhere on my vanilla installation as well another member of lussumo's install (they replied to a help topic I made making the connection between Invite-Only and Whispers) so do you know how this could be remedied. 2) How can I change the outgoing email to only send the Link to the Registration page with the Activation code seperate and then also the custom message below it instead of a link taking you to the registration page with the activation code already in the input field. Thank you!

ithcy

1) is wrong.. check the other thread.

ADM

1) No idea about this one to be honest.. never did it like that for me.

2) Just edit the Email_Invitation.txt that's with the addon.

Ludwig

Thank you o so much, sorry for 1) it's wrong and I still have to get to the bottom of the problem.

Dinoboff

I find a bug with whisper (failed to enable whisper) in my addons.
To fix the bug download the version 0.2.1 (or be sure that whisper is enable on your forum, you need to look into conf/settings.php).

This addons force whisper to be enable:
in version 0.2.0:
if ( in_array($Context->SelfUrl, array('people.php', 'account.php', 'settings.php')) ) { ... if ( $Context->Configuration['INVITATION_SYSTEM_REQUEST_ON'] == 1 ) $Context->Configuration['ENABLE_WHISPERS'] = 1; }
In the version 0.2.1, I took off the first condition.

argie01

Hi, I'm testing your extension, and even when this is enabled as extensions and turned on I can't find where to write an email to send an invitation. I checked it as admin and also as a normal user. Then, what is the function of the option "Category for request" ? Could you explain in a more extensive way ? There is a way to activate the extension for every user ? I know this is off by default... Thank you !

Dinoboff

You have to activate the extension in the registration setting page.
You also need to add the permission to send invitations (settings >> Role and permission).
(Add also to your moderators and admin the permission to add more invitations to user)

Then there will be a new link to invite someone in your account page.

One more thing (not required), you should set you forum private in the forum option (Application settings).

"Category to request" is the category where you will receive the request from your users for more invitation.

timberford

i've enabled the extension and set up the permissions in the roles.

however, when i send an invite i get:

"Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect"
"Framework.Class.Email.php on line 184"
"A fatal, non-recoverable error has occurred"
"Could not connect to SMTP host"
"Email.SMTPSend(); The error occurred on or near: 111: Connection refused"

I've not had any problems previously with the forum sending emails. I get membership application emails etc. no problem.

timberford

bump. anyone know what i can do about this?

Dinoboff

I will look at it tomorow.

ragingapathy

Normally, I'd just bang my head against my laptop until I get a solution, but it's a little late for that. This is my problem: A fatal, non-recoverable error has occurred Error Message Could not create the Invitation Table Affected Elements Invite System Installer.OpenConnection(); The error occurred on or near: Duplicate column name 'InvitationID' Happens right after I activate the extension. What do I need to edit? I can undo the fatal error by deleting and uploading a backup copy of my config folder, but I'm getting tired of doing this while poking around. Anyone know how I can fix this?

Dinoboff

You need delete to the 'InvitationsSent', 'InvitationsAllowed' and 'InvitationID' in the user table.

If the message appear again. Check that $Context->Configuration['INVITATION_SYSTEM_FIRST_ACTIVATION'] = 1; is in /path/to/vanilla/conf/settings.php

ragingapathy

I'm on it. Thank you very much. I appreciate the help.

August

I installed this extension and used it without issue for a couple of days, and then I decided that I should change my invitation message. At which point I get a syntax error message for settings.php. Now, it's easy enough to edit out and fix (it turns out that part of the message gets duplicated where it shouldn't), but it also causes "$Configuration['LAST_UPDATE']" to be written *after* ?> in the same file. Again, easy enough to edit out, and after I do so, everything works again, but I'm not sure I want to do this every time I want to change the settings for this extension, as it renders my vanilla install unusable until I do so. I'm not especially competent with php or MySql, so I'm sorry if this isn't enough information to go on, or if I've missed something very obvious. But can anyone help me with this?

Mark W

Sounds like the same issue I had with the announcement bar - were there carriage returns in your announcement message?

August

Yes, actually.