Bypass Admin Approval For News Submissions

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 7:00 am

I have a very tightly controlled site and want to bypass the approval of news submissions ... how?

Thanks, I searched the site but found nothing ...

Jay

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

This is actually something that was added in the 2.0 version of NSN News from NukeScripts.net. There have been some issues with this version, but nothing that should prevent it's use. If you have a test site, I'd suggest testing it before implementing it as it does require database changes.

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 9:51 am

Hey, I saw your post, and was working on a solution for you.

I have a solution for Regular nuke, this is a simple Hack so to speak and file based so you need to set this up by the settings Provided.

Sorry Kguske, I just spent about an hour or so on this, Just didnt think it would take me this long lol.

Open modules/Submit_News/Index.php

Find:

$result = $db->sql_query("INSERT INTO ".$prefix."_queue VALUES (NULL, '$uid', '$name', '$subject', '$story', '$storyext', now(), '$topic', '$alanguage')");

Comment out by adding // in from of $result so it looks like //$result , then right above that line add:

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//News Hack to allow anyone to post News--Begin//
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

$hometext = $story;
$bodytext = $storyext;
$author = $name;
//I'm not sure if this is even used anymore but if its not, it will create a situation where it is easy to delete all News posted by people other then admins.
// If this setting causes any issues, make $catid='0' and that should take care of any problems.
$catid = '1';

//These Settings below are for EVERY single time someone submits something.
//Enter admim username here that you want listed as entered in, same thing as approved by.
$aid = admin name;

//Do you want comments activated with these stories? 0=no, 1=yes. set to no by default
$acomm='0';
//Do you want them to publish in Home? 0=yes, 1=No. Set to yes by default.
$ihome='0';

$result = $db->sql_query("Insert into ".$prefix."_stories values (NULL, '$catid', '$aid', '$subject', now(), '$hometext', '$bodytext', '0', '0', '$topic', '$author', '$notes', '$ihome', '$alanguage', '$acomm', '0', '0', '0', '0', '')");
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//News Hack to allow anyone to post News--End//
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 2:16 pm

Ok, because I forgot to add this note in my previous post, you can surround that with an If statement to help to prevent Spammers.

You could even add a captcha to prevent spammers as well.

But This will NOT prevent someone from throwing something on your site and distorting the view or exploiting your site, it is a very big Risk.

thanks Jaded for letting me know I forgot to throw this warning in there.

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 7:57 am

I opted to go with the latest NSN News module but still cannot find a way to bypass the approval function.

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

Jay

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 11:43 am

My hack will bypass the approval. Completely, but as I stated previously, Spammers will Get you, perhaps I can change the code it an if(is_user) function only allowing users to do it, but also you could make it only registered users can even view the module, that would be the easiest thing, now mind you that it will make it so that each news will be posted on Home Page.

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:00 pm

Posts are on the home page and only registered users can even see the news posts. So now what, will your hack work as posted above without further mod?

Thanks, Jay

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 3:34 pm

I sounds like this doesn't meet your "specs" but I will ask anyway in view of the risks that the hacks expose you to. Are you sure that it would not be sufficient to just put a subset of your users in as news admins. It just means adding them to the authors table and giving them administrative privileges over news only. I had a situation where I did this for the Board of Directors of a group I run the web site for. It's far from an ideal solution, I agree, but it doesn't expose you to spam risks. Anyone pretty much can get registered and, with the hack, you will have them posting news without any approval.

It would be great if we had Approve Membership built into Your Account AND the ability to assign privileges to groups AND an easy way to manage group memberships but we don't so it's choose your poison.

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 4:03 pm

fkelly ..

This particular site and user-base is small enough that I can do that, yes.

Thanks, may be the best option in this case.

Jay

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 4:25 pm

fkelly ...

Well, that didn't work. Maybe I just don't have a clue. Run over the procedure once for me so I can see where I erred ... Thanks, Jay

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 4:44 pm

Just to clarify, dad7732, are you using NSN News 2.0RC2? If so, I believe you must authorize who can submit without approval. There may be a way to allow anyone, and may also have integration with NSN Groups (i.e. anyone in a group can submit without approval). If not, those would be nice enhancements...

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 5:38 pm

On the test site I'm running NSN 2.0rc2 but on the production site, I'm not. I really would like to not have to install NSN on that site but it looks like we're headed in that direction. Thanks, Jay

Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 6:23 pm

The procedure, if you are running standard Nuke news, is to go into admin, go into edit admins, add new admins for each user and give them access (or administrative control) over the news module. Then notify them. You'll have to give them each a password for admin (I used the same one to keep it simple). I also told them to go into your account, your home and set up a little icon to log them into admin with a link to admin.php. I believe their browser will log them in on visits subsequent to their first.

Then when they are logged in they just use NEW story in the admin block, instead of submit news.

Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 9:15 pm

That works but for whatever reason I can't get an icon link in Home. Sad

Thanks, Jay