Using Goups For Contests - Possible??

Regular Joined: Sep 11, 2004 Posts: 84

I have an idea and I dont know if I can do this.

Embarassed

May be a no brainer to you veterans out there, but it isnt for me since this is kinda new.

But I would like to run a contest on my site. I would like to set it up so that the first person to said point amounts wins.

Is this possible with the groups module and if so I would I do this?

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:26 pm

It is definitely possible to do - there are probably a couple of ways you could do it.

The first thing that comes to mind is a separate table that keeps track of user point additions and the date and time that the points were changed. The table would at a minimum need to store the unique record id, the user's id, the date and time, and the new point level.

The only trick there that I can see is the mechanism(s) that add points (say after adding to a post, etc) would need to be tweaked to include the call to that particular function (say if you created a function called recordPointInfo() ).

Minor tweaks - an include to include the function and the actual call, but there are probably several modules that make calls that are included in the points functionality (including posts, news submissions, surveys, etc.) so it could be a bit of a bear to go through every option and add them.

You could then write whatever you wanted to write that accessed the record keeping table and identify the first person to reach the goal amount.

Make sense?

-sting

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:28 pm

Sting,

Although this probably is the best way to go. (your tutorial above)

However, it went right over my head. worship

I tell you what I did figure out that will work for me.

Maybe you can tell me if there is a different or better way to achieve this.

I'm not really worried about groups and restricted access to mods for these groups, so I can reset points over and over by deleting the table then replacing the table. (resets all point values)

So I figured what I could do is set-up a point amount to reach. I erased all points added up before the start date. Then I set up a group for one member who reaches that point amount, thus the winner of the points race. (kinda like nascar boxingself

)

Now the problem I have encountered is where, other than the personal account page, can a user see what their point total is? I also looked for a block to use to display in the side blocks, but I cant find one to work with ravens script.

Anyone know any blocks out there that work?