tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Announcing the WHMCS Collective! Any of you that have been around for a while have seen plenty of request from new and veteran users for knowledgebase sharing. This is my attempt to provide a solution to all wHMCS customers. You can shared your knowledgebase articles and view articles others have shared. Even import them into your WHMCS installation. All for free!!! There was another thread here: http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?t=16837 that kind of got this whole idea in motion. I've decided to take the idea to the next level. How it works: You sign up for an account here: http://www.whmcscollective.com/register.php. Once signed up, you will download the WHMCS Collective Addon to install in your Admin Modules. Once your account has been activated and you have contributed 10 Knowledgebase articles to the collective knowledgebase, you will be able to view and download any of the user contributed articles. It's all open source on the module side so you can rest assured your information is secure. It is fully automated and you are able to import articles straight into your existing knowledgebase. This has been tested and it works well. I am looking for suggestions, feedback and obviously people to test it. As of 12/22/09, all new accounts must be manually approved and activated by me before the module will work. I hope in the very near future to have an automated activation process in place. All support will be in this thread. Download the module here: WHMCS Collective KB 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) Is there a reason as to why you are collecting everyones WHMCS license key? function remoteCurl($url, $cData=array()) { global $licensing; global $CONFIG; $cData['license'] = $licensing->licensekey; $cData['referrer'] = $CONFIG['SystemURL']; $cData['ipAddress'] = $_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']; $cData['company'] = $CONFIG['CompanyName']; If you use this module you will be sending your whmcs license key, Server IP, Company Name, and URL. Edited December 23, 2009 by sparky 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 To prevent user intervention such as usernames and passwords for transmitting the data. This way when the request is made, the license key is matched to the one that is used when you sign up to use this. From what I understand of the WHMCS licensing system, the key itself is not "private" like a password. Is there a problem with this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 To prevent user intervention such as usernames and passwords for transmitting the data. This way when the request is made, the license key is matched to the one that is used when you sign up to use this. From what I understand of the WHMCS licensing system, the key itself is not "private" like a password. Is there a problem with this? The license key is private between whmcs and the whmcs license user!! It is not something that is publicly available and I'm damm sure that I don't want my license keys known to anyone else. Imagine if the pirate world got a hold of this information that you want to collect. Sorry but NO WAY!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 (edited) The license key is private between whmcs and the whmcs license user!!It is not something that is publicly available and I'm damm sure that I don't want my license keys known to anyone else. Imagine if the pirate world got a hold of this information that you want to collect. Sorry but NO WAY!! I don't think you need to get hostile! I have no issues with changing that functionality. I am pretty confident that the license key itself is not enough for anyone to "Pirate" WHMCS. My objective was to grab a unique value from each WHMCS installation for the sole purpose of ensuring only active WHMCS customers were accessing this data. I in no way set this up to gather license codes. If you can think of a better way to ensure valid WHMCS customer access to this feature then I am all ears! I've requested clarification from Matt about this. FYI Edited December 23, 2009 by tsiedsma 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Hey... sorry not meaning to be hostile at all. Just viewing a strong point of view Don't you think that just the URL is enough for a unique value? If you want to check thats its a valid license then use the license checker on whmcs here. www.whmcs.com/members/verifydomain.php 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 The license key was a start. I was hoping for a fully automated method of validation in the long run. The license key just seemed like an obvious unique identifier for any installation. I appreciate your input and will make the appropriate changes and re-upload the files. This is the point of it being open source, for community feedback and support! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Why not genetate a hash on sighnup based on the 3 values. Concat the domain name, IP, URL then a secret hey and MD5 is. They they enter that in the configuration. reguest isn't coming from ip/domain +ur key hashed its the wrong user. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 Why not genetate a hash on sighnup based on the 3 values.Concat the domain name, IP, URL then a secret hey and MD5 is. They they enter that in the configuration. reguest isn't coming from ip/domain +ur key hashed its the wrong user. I've actually done something very similar. Only problem is with open source, there is no "secret" key. Either way, this will work! Ok, I've updated the download to version 1.0.1. This doesn't reference your license number in any way shape or form. It simply takes your WHMCS URL and Company Name as stored in General Settings. Please download and give it a try! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 FYI, I just received confirmation from WHMCS support that the license key by itself is no big deal. Hi, If the license key became public it would not put anything at risk, Regards, Andrew 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNS_Harrison Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 anyone tried this yet with proof? when you click submit without any entry filled in it puts: Your account was created, please check your email. Activate your account using the instructions on your mail.Mailer Error: Language string failed to load: instantiate maybe we can get a MOD or Matt to check this out? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 anyone tried this yet with proof? when you click submit without any entry filled in it puts: Your account was created, please check your email. Activate your account using the instructions on your mail.Mailer Error: Language string failed to load: instantiate maybe we can get a MOD or Matt to check this out? What do you need to know? Are you trying to register at the whmcscollective.com site or are you trying to use the addon module without registering? You have to register for the module to work. It's a very simple concept. I've left the code open source because I am not hiding anything. I simply developed this addon to solve a need in the community. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 anyone tried this yet with proof? when you click submit without any entry filled in it puts: Your account was created, please check your email. Activate your account using the instructions on your mail.Mailer Error: Language string failed to load: instantiate maybe we can get a MOD or Matt to check this out? Ahh, it looks like you tried to register with noting in the fields. If you read the page, it says right below the form: "This form is very basic and has no validation. All fields are required. If you don't fill out all the fields, your Addon won't work!" Anyways. If you follow directions, things will work and you shouldn't be disappointed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxon Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 I just read through the v1 thread and this one and want to give a big thanks out to all the folks who have been working on this. I am working on setting up my own hosting business as we speak and would love for my KB to hit the ground running when I launch. Populating a KB that would be full and useful for my clients was a daunting task as my business is and will be for a while, a one man show. It also seemed stupidly redundant to have so many hosting businesses rewriting their own versions of what is 95% of the time totally generic tutorial information. So thanks a bunch. Once I get my copy of WHMCS up and functional, I will absolutely be signing up. Is the 10 contributed articles threshold still in place. I have no problem contributing, but I'm not entirely convinced that I'll really have anything new to say;) Thanks again! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavis Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 I just can't figure why anyone would want to bury (lock up) all the FREE Knowledgebase files that so many members wanted to give away freely anyway! I'm the one that posted the first one. I put it there because it was the right thing to do. Share that is! That is why we are all here anyway isn't it, to help each other? Lets just use the KISS method and keep it simple somehow! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted January 29, 2010 Author Share Posted January 29, 2010 I just can't figure why anyone would want to bury (lock up) all the FREE Knowledgebase files that so many members wanted to give away freely anyway! I'm the one that posted the first one. I put it there because it was the right thing to do. Share that is! That is why we are all here anyway isn't it, to help each other? Lets just use the KISS method and keep it simple somehow! This is supposed to make it simple and not bury or lock them up. It is a way to encourage contribution before you can just take all you want. If you didn't have to give to receive, how many people do you think would just give? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavis Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 We'll I can't speak for others! But you see, besides myself (as I only had just the one file to post back then) then there is Sparky's rash of files, I'd say it was off to a real good start. Buy hey, that's just my opinion. So that brings me to current. I filled out the request for access to the not locked up file location area and are waiting for access conformation to get in. Is there a delay issue? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtbhost Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 I just downloaded and installed the module... 10 good articles? There are barely 10 on the your system! I think for this to work, and for people to really get into it, 2-3 articles would be better.... that way there would 2-3 really good ones, rather than trying to put together 10. More people would join, and the KB would grow much faster... what do you think? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxon Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 First off, thanks a ton for working on this project OP and everyone! I think it's a great effort and I'm excited to become more involved. 10 is definitely over what I can pull together while starting up/running a business very full time. I like the concept of having to contribute to gain access but I think 5 or less is much more reasonable. In the end, this limitation isn't meant to keep all but the hardcore away, it's just meant to keep the free-loaders out. Just my two cents:) Keep up the good work! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavis Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 tsiedsma, when are you going to manually approve my access. A week ago I filled out the request for access to the not locked up file location area and are waiting for the ability to download the module you are requiring us to use to get to any knowledgebase files..... Is there a delay issue I need to know about? OBTW, I cant agree more with what is being said above "10 files at first is asking allot" how about being magnanimous and make it 5? It's not just that it takes hours to write 1 one file, for most newbies 10 files they have to submit is a burden and would discourage most from participating. Besides, if they really wanted to go around all this (#@&P) all they would have to do is a Google search for "Knowledgebase" and rip-off anyones files who they come across in the search. We don't want to see that, now do we? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drac0 Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 Still waiting for approval from over a week ago too. Please process these requests! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted February 9, 2010 Author Share Posted February 9, 2010 (edited) Looks like everyone's status is correct. You should be able to use the system now. I'm changing the requirement to 3 KB Articles. Thanks for all of your feedback. Any other suggestions would be great. Also, the KB Articles that exist are basic and just examples. I think we can make a great collection if everyone contributes a couple good articles. Edited February 9, 2010 by tsiedsma 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rldev Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 How many articlea are there at this point? I might be interested in joining. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Gwynne Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 This website has the potential to become extremely good, however it's lacking a lot at the moment, shame to let it go to waste like this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsiedsma Posted February 11, 2010 Author Share Posted February 11, 2010 How many articlea are there at this point? I might be interested in joining. There are less than a dozen right now. Do it for the greater good and contribute a couple. It will eventually grow into something wonderful. This website has the potential to become extremely good, however it's lacking a lot at the moment, shame to let it go to waste like this. What are you talking about? This isn't a website thing, it is an addon to WHMCS. The website is only used for signing up which will eventually be moved into WHMCS so it is all inclusive. Any suggestions would be great, what can I do to improve on things? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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