Accessing notifications on an external forum page

[Majidm]

Here is my set up...

1) I have a header.php and footer.php file outside of vBulletin that defines the style of my entire site

2) I include these files into vBulletin via a custom plugin hooked into global_start:
global $headerinclude;
ob_start();
require ('/web/includes/header.php');
$headerinclude = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();

global $footerinclude;
ob_start();
require ('/web/includes/footer.php');
$footerinclude = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean();


Same for footer, this lets me reference my header.php file (which has a lot of custom PHP code in it) inside a vBulletin template using: $headerinclude and footer with $footerinclude

3) To make pages outside of vBulletin that can access it's resources, I do something like this:
require_once("include_top.php"); //this file references forums/global.php and other files that let me access vBulletin resources
include "includes/header.php";
*page code here*
include "includes/footer.php";

This lets me reference variables from vBulletin like $vbulletin->userinfo etc in my forum-external page

4) Everything works fine, I figured out that the array is called $notifications.. if I do a var_dump($notifications) in my header.php file and load my external page I get: array(11) { ["pmunread"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(23) "Unread Private Messages" ["link"]=> string(11) "private.php" ["order"]=> int(10) ["total"]=> string(3) "438" } ["vmunreadcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(23) "Unread Visitor Messages" ["link"]=> string(40) "member.php?u=2&tab=visitor_messaging" ["order"]=> int(20) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["vmmoderatedcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(27) "Unapproved Visitor Messages" ["link"]=> string(40) "member.php?u=2&tab=visitor_messaging" ["order"]=> int(30) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["friendreqcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(24) "Incoming Friend Requests" ["link"]=> string(28) "profile.php?do=buddylist#irc" ["order"]=> int(40) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["socgroupreqcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(27) "Social Groups Join Requests" ["link"]=> string(21) "group.php?do=requests" ["order"]=> int(50) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["socgroupinvitecount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(24) "Social Group Invitations" ["link"]=> string(24) "group.php?do=invitations" ["order"]=> int(60) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["pcunreadcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(23) "Unread Picture Comments" ["link"]=> string(19) "album.php?do=unread" ["order"]=> int(70) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["pcmoderatedcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(34) "Picture Comments Awaiting Approval" ["link"]=> string(22) "album.php?do=moderated" ["order"]=> int(80) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["gmmoderatedcount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(25) "Unapproved Group Messages" ["link"]=> string(25) "group.php?do=moderatedgms" ["order"]=> int(90) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["dbtech_usertag_mentioncount"]=> array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(12) "New Mentions" ["link"]=> string(31) "member.php?u=2&tab=mentions" ["order"]=> int(110) ["total"]=> int(0) } ["dbtech_usertag_tagcount"]=> &array(4) { ["phrase"]=> string(15) "New Thread Tags" ["link"]=> string(31) "member.php?u=2&tab=usertags" ["order"]=> int(110) ["total"]=> int(0) } }

The problem is when I go into the Forums (which loads the same header file) I just get a NULL value for the $notifications array

Any ideas?:confused:

[kh99]

I think the problem is that the global_start hook code is called before the $notifications array is created. Maybe try a hook location that's called later on global.php, like global_setup_complete.

[Majidm]

I think the problem is that the global_start hook code is called before the $notifications array is created. Maybe try a hook location that's called later on global.php, like global_setup_complete.

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately when I do that my header & footer do not get parsed before the forum loads so therefor my customize HTML/PHP doesn't get loaded in the forums

Seems like the reasoning is on the right track though... just gotta figure out how to parse it in the right location

[kh99]

Oh, right...should have thought of that. Unfortunately there's no hook between creating the notifications array and evaling the header and footer. But the html for the header and footer is stored in $header and $footer, so maybe you can modify that after the fact (like put in place holders and do a str_replace on them later).

[Majidm]

Not sure what you mean, can you give me an example?

[kh99]

Sorry - yeah, I might be wrong. After reading your OP I should have asked, what template are you putting $headerinclude and $footerinclude in? I guess I was assuming that it was the header, navbar, and/or footer templates.

ETA: ...but assuming I guessed right and you are using the "header" and "footer" templates, what I was suggesting is that instead of inserting $headerinclude and $footerinclude in the templates, change it to something like <!-- Custom Header -->, etc. Then move your plugin to global_setup_complete (where the header and footer templates will have already been processed and the $notifications array created), and add this to the end of your plugin code:

$header = str_replace('<!-- Custom Header -->', $headerinclude, $header);
$footer = str_replace('<!-- Custom Footer -->', $footerinclude, $footer);


Also, I think the way you have things set up, on your custom pages your header and footer php files will be read in the plugin and then again in your page code, so for efficiency you could surround the plugin code by an "if" statement that checks THIS_SCRIPT and doesn't do the include if it's your custom script.

(BTW, I haven't tried this code).

[Majidm]

Sorry - yeah, I might be wrong. After reading your OP I should have asked, what template are you putting $headerinclude and $footerinclude in? I guess I was assuming that it was the header, navbar, and/or footer templates.

ETA: ...but assuming I guessed right and you are using the "header" and "footer" templates, what I was suggesting is that instead of inserting $headerinclude and $footerinclude in the templates, change it to something like <!-- Custom Header -->, etc. Then move your plugin to global_setup_complete (where the header and footer templates will have already been processed and the $notifications array created), and add this to the end of your plugin code:

$header = str_replace('<!-- Custom Header -->', $headerinclude, $header);
$footer = str_replace('<!-- Custom Footer -->', $footerinclude, $footer);


Also, I think the way you have things set up, on your custom pages your header and footer php files will be read in the plugin and then again in your page code, so for efficiency you could surround the plugin code by an "if" statement that checks THIS_SCRIPT and doesn't do the include if it's your custom script.

(BTW, I haven't tried this code).

Yes I'm putting $headerinclude in the header template, and $footerinclude in the footer template.. I will try your suggestion, thank you

--------------- Added 1297014391 at 1297014391 ---------------

Yes I'm putting $headerinclude in the header template, and $footerinclude in the footer template.. I will try your suggestion, thank you

It worked!!! Thank you so much