Can someone Walk me through it?

[JakeC]

Can someone walk me through the process and theory behind making a Variable visible in a template that it was not intended for? I am trying to integrate $activeusers, $totalonline and some others into my $welcometext and they will not show up. I was told that this requires some hacking, so here I am. I am fairly proficient at modifying templates, but the inner workings of vB is a mystery. I want to change that ASAP so maybe I can give out some advice for a change. Thanks in advance.

JakeC

By the way, one of you super vB hackers out there that can swing a pen ought to write a "How to hack vB" book. Not necessarily a book on PHP per say but one that walks you through like 10-15 sample hacks from easy to complicated. I'd buy one.

[Xenon]

well, learning from a book don't work i think.
best way is learning by doing.
try and error rules ;)

to answer your question:
the variables must be defined inside of the function which calls the template, so you have to edit a php-file (index.php in this case)

and there before you parse the template (gettemplate function will be seen in the sourcecode ;)) you have to add something like $activx = "Blabla", then you can use $activx in your template

[Graphics]

LOL i don't think instilling hacks is that hard most of the time there is a help file :D

but ALWAYS try on a other forum first :D

[NTLDR]

Make sure the variables are assigned the values before the template is evaluated.

[JakeC]

Ok, the light is beginning to shine a little brighter but I need you guys to break it down even further. Is there any way you could give me an example. Maybe walk me through all of the steps so I can get an idea of what is doing what and why it works. I am a rank beginner so allot of the terms and tasks you mentioned are a little new to me. Thanks.

JakeC

[NTLDR]

eval("\$hw = \"".gettemplate('hw')."\";");
$outputtext = "Hello World";

Adding $outputtext to the hw won't work as its assigned after the template is evaluated, however doing it this way will work as its assigned before the template is evaluated:

$outputtext = "Hello World";
eval("\$hw = \"".gettemplate('hw')."\";");

[NTLDR]

Originally posted by Xenon
to answer your question:
the variables must be defined inside of the function which calls the template, so you have to edit a php-file (index.php in this case)[/B]

$d="1";
function a($a) {

if ($d=="1") {
$c=2;
}
}

$d won't be set and can't be used, however either of the following two methods will work:

function a($a) {
$d="1";
if ($d=="1") {
$c=2;
}
}

$d=1;
function a($a) {
global $d;
if ($d=="1") {
$c=2;
}
}