News & Article Management [Support]

Archived News & Article Management support thread can be found at:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11372

Original post on Jan 23 2005. 311 posts in the archived thread.
Last post in archived thread is May 04 2006:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=lastpost&t=11372

Link to module download and documentation is at:
http://www.dream-scape.com/pub/zencart/News_Articles_Management/

Awhile back I installed version 2.110 of this mod on Zen Cart 1.27. However the N&AM "Summary" appears on the shoppe home page twice (directly on top of each other) and I still do not know how to repair.

In Admin when I set Display News Summary to false both Summaries go away. But setting to true again redisplays the duplicated summaries.

Is this a bug? Other folks have asked this question before without any response. Any ideas what would cause such behavior?

Another question: Can comments be moderated? In admin can set "Comments require customer login" for user to post comments.

But is there a moderator queue (ala mailing list) for comment posts? Or at least a method to edit posts? (I understand I can edit the dB but hoping an admin GUI is available for moderation... If not suggestion for a future upgrade). Thanks.

Woody

Looks like no solution to the duplicate summary issue I pointed out in previous posts. Bummer.

Beyond that I just discovered someone is spamming comments to a posted news article. Even though I configured the mod to allow comments from logged in users only, this person is not logging in when making comments (at least I see no account name with the name the spammer is using to post).

And unless I missing a configuration setting I cannot see any method to turn off posting Comments.

Below are my settings under Configuration > News & Article Management:

Display News Summary false
News Summary Cutoff Days 365
News Summary Length 300 Info
Comments Require Customer Login true
Comments Name Min Length 3
Comments Text Min Length 25
Email Admin Comments Notice true
News RSS Feed Days 365

So time to uninstall this mod. Too bad. :down:

And I will revert back to News Manager which runs well with Info Pages on Zen Cart 1.27 and is not open to comment spamming as apaprently News & Artilce Management is.

And I will port News Manager so it works on 1.3x if it does not already and ensure it cooperates with ez-pages.

Woody

can you post a working news management system? I'm really needing one.

thanks,
Shackle :)

Woodymon:

Looks like no solution to the duplicate summary issue I pointed out in previous posts. Bummer.

Beyond that I just discovered someone is spamming comments to a posted news article. Even though I configured the mod to allow comments from logged in users only, this person is not logging in when making comments (at least I see no account name with the name the spammer is using to post).

And unless I missing a configuration setting I cannot see any method to turn off posting Comments.

Below are my settings under Configuration > News & Article Management:

Display News Summary false
News Summary Cutoff Days 365
News Summary Length 300 Info
Comments Require Customer Login true
Comments Name Min Length 3
Comments Text Min Length 25
Email Admin Comments Notice true
News RSS Feed Days 365

So time to uninstall this mod. Too bad. :down:

And I will revert back to News Manager which runs well with Info Pages on Zen Cart 1.27 and is not open to comment spamming as apaprently News & Artilce Management is.

And I will port News Manager so it works on 1.3x if it does not already and ensure it cooperates with ez-pages.

Woody

http://www.dream-scape.com/pub/zencart/News_Articles_Management/install.html

Works fine in v1.3.0.1.

Woodymon:

Looks like no solution to the duplicate summary issue I pointed out in previous posts. Bummer.

There is nothing wrong with the module that I can see off hand that would cause this. Numerous sites are running it just fine in ZC 1.3 without this issue, including the Zen Cart site.

The only thing that I can think that would make that happen is if you are including the news_summary.php multiple times. Are you sure that you have not accidentally placed its call inside of a loop?

Woodymon:

Beyond that I just discovered someone is spamming comments to a posted news article. Even though I configured the mod to allow comments from logged in users only, this person is not logging in when making comments (at least I see no account name with the name the spammer is using to post).

Whoops. Boy is my face red :oops:

It is fairly easy to fix good enough until such time as I get enough time to make an updated version with better comment spam protection. Though this + requiring login should work fairly well.

1. Open includes/modules/pages/news_comments/header_php.php

2. Find the lines, approximately around line 50:
[php]// Oh posting the comments!
if (isset($_POST['action']) && ($_POST['action'] == 'process')) {[/php]

3. Directly after those lines, add the following:
[php]
/**
* Prevent users from directly hitting the form when NEWS_COMMENTS_REQUIRE_CUSTOMER is true
*/
if ((NEWS_COMMENTS_REQUIRE_CUSTOMER == 'true') && !isset($_SESSION['customer_id'])) {
exit;
}[/php]

4. The final result should appear something like:
[php]// Oh posting the comments!
if (isset($_POST['action']) && ($_POST['action'] == 'process')) {

/**
* Prevent users from directly hitting the form when NEWS_COMMENTS_REQUIRE_CUSTOMER is true
*/
if ((NEWS_COMMENTS_REQUIRE_CUSTOMER == 'true') && !isset($_SESSION['customer_id'])) {
exit;
}[/php]

And that should stop anonymous spam when NEWS_COMMENTS_REQUIRE_CUSTOMER is true. :)

could you be a little more exact on how this fix this please? I didn't edit anything i uploaded as is.

dreamscape:

There is nothing wrong with the module that I can see off hand that would cause this. Numerous sites are running it just fine in ZC 1.3 without this issue, including the Zen Cart site.

The only thing that I can think that would make that happen is if you are including the news_summary.php multiple times. Are you sure that you have not accidentally placed its call inside of a loop?

shackle:

could you be a little more exact on how this fix this please? I didn't edit anything i uploaded as is.

You would have had to have editing something to install the optional news summary module, unless you uploaded the included tpl_index_default.php, but that is only for an unmodified Zen Cart 1.2.5 or something from long ago. To get the summary into newer Zen Cart's, you'd want to manually do it as the directions say to, so all I can say is look to where you placed it in your index template, and remove it from a loop it may be in.

I did everything listed at your site. I added the code the those files at the bottom i didn't upload the TPL or meta tags i learned that does not work with the newer zen-cart.... still kinda puzzled i don't rememeber changing anything.

dreamscape:

You would have had to have editing something to install the optional news summary module, unless you uploaded the included tpl_index_default.php, but that is only for an unmodified Zen Cart 1.2.5 or something from long ago. To get the summary into newer Zen Cart's, you'd want to manually do it as the directions say to, so all I can say is look to where you placed it in your index template, and remove it from a loop it may be in.

shackle:

I added the code the those files at the bottom

That is what I am saying; you have accidentally added it inside of a loop in the file. just move it out of the loop.

dreamscape:

That is what I am saying; you have accidentally added it inside of a loop in the file. just move it out of the loop.

forgive me for being a noob, but whats a loop and where can it be found?

shackle:

forgive me for being a noob, but whats a loop and where can it be found?

A loop is something that repeats a process until it reaches some point at which it is told to stop. Common PHP loop constructs are for(), foreach(), and while().

Where it can be found is whereever you placed the call to the new summary module. I have really no idea where that is or what exactly it looks like. I can't magically see your code in my head ;)

Your statement, "I added the code the those files at the bottom [..snip..] still kinda puzzled i don't rememeber changing anything," makes little sense. There is no way you could have added the news summary code to your site without changing your index template. So let's just assume that you did change a file, your index template, since the news summary is showing up [otherwise it would be impossible for it to show up]. The installation directions do not say exactly where you should put the news summary code in the file, because you can put it where-ever you want on the page; however, you have apparently placed it inside of a loop, which is why you see it repeating. You must remove it from the loop and reposition it in the code some place that is not being looped over. You'll need at least basic PHP knowledge to do this in order to know if you are inside or outside of a loop.

I mean i didn't change anything other then what the website said.

here are the 2 files changed:
Includes/modules/meta_tags.php
includes/templates/template_default/templates/tpl_index_default.php

download here: http://www.guildvalor.com/files.zip

dreamscape:

A loop is something that repeats a process until it reaches some point at which it is told to stop. Common PHP loop constructs are for(), foreach(), and while().

Where it can be found is whereever you placed the call to the new summary module. I have really no idea where that is or what exactly it looks like. I can't magically see your code in my head ;)

Your statement, "I added the code the those files at the bottom [..snip..] still kinda puzzled i don't rememeber changing anything," makes little sense. There is no way you could have added the news summary code to your site without changing your index template. So let's just assume that you did change a file, your index template, since the news summary is showing up [otherwise it would be impossible for it to show up]. The installation directions do not say exactly where you should put the news summary code in the file, because you can put it where-ever you want on the page; however, you have apparently placed it inside of a loop, which is why you see it repeating. You must remove it from the loop and reposition it in the code some place that is not being looped over. You'll need at least basic PHP knowledge to do this in order to know if you are inside or outside of a loop.

Just as I've been saying, the problem is that you have placed the new summary inside of a loop.

The loop starts at line 44 with:
[php]while (!$show_display_category->EOF) {[/php]

and it ends at lines 85-88 with:
[php]<?php
$show_display_category->MoveNext();
} // !EOF
?>[/php]

You need to move the call to the news summary module outside of the loop.

Thanks! worked well!

Hi I'd just want to list news in one page. lets say five latest entrys and then link to previous five entrys. No archives etc. is it possible with this? thanks a lot

or if it cant be done. Can I somehow display just recent news and change the article heading instead of date.

News for Friday 19. Mayta

* test

View all news for Friday 19. Mayta on one page

Recent News

* Monday 08. May
* Monday 01. May

News archive


So that would change in to:


Recent News

* Test (Friday 19. May)
* Test 23 (Monday 08. May)
* test 3030 (Monday 01. May)

*the dates doesnt need to be displayed

Yea i was having the same issue mines set to show 7 days of news but when ever i make a new post my old ones are gone. :(

poosk:

Hi I'd just want to list news in one page. lets say five latest entrys and then link to previous five entrys. No archives etc. is it possible with this? thanks a lot

shackle:

Yea i was having the same issue mines set to show 7 days of news but when ever i make a new post my old ones are gone. :(

No the setting is not to show 7 days of news. It is to show the news summary if there has been news in the past XX [7 by default] days. So if you don't post anything for a week, then the summary will stop showing up. And it only shows for the last news day, only a summary of the top most entry.

If you want something different, you will have to code it. Yes anything is possible, but you have to program it yourself. This is part of what open source is all about. The tools are all there, and the news module code should show you enough to get done what you want done.

If I've gone over your head now, then you will probably not be able to do it yourself, and thus your best course is to hire a programmer to do the programming for you... gee who would have thought there are these professionals called programmers who do programming :wink2: