Beta 0.0.4 is out. The next branch will be 0.1.0 to mark the first milestone - the completion of the default skinning. Code wise version 0.0.4 has this in place already, but it is using the Joomla tables and classes at the moment and they haven't been rewritten to use vbulletin class elements. This is the last step before going to .1

The next component I will be working on is the Installer. This should aid more people into getting this component up and running. The completion of the installer will mark beta .2 completion.

As of now vJoomla has all but completely replaced Joomla's template system. This means Joomla templates *will not work* on it. However, all vbulletin templates will work, though occassionally they'll need minor adjustments or additions.

I'm not sure what you mean by presentation layers. I have ditched the Joomla skinning system (though patTemplate still works within vJoomla for those modules that require it). Modules written for vJoomla will have the option of using patTemplate or vbulletin's template engine at the author's choice.

If someone has a test board with some custom style and vjoomla installed for a demo, that would be great. i can't install this on my production board yet....not until this go to .2 at least.
Thanks Michael, you got me intererested in joomla again.

Thx for this amazing mod.

Here?s my DEMO.

your demo looks great but giving error on your page with this linked:
http://www.s7v7n.com/index.php?optio...&id=1&Itemid=2

I want the opposite, i want vbulletin to use joomla's template xD

Need some help, please. Followed the steps correctly, I think. But getting this error message when trying to access the joomla index: Am I doing something wrong?

Using vb 3.6.5 & Joomla 1.0.12

No update? Is there a problem with the latest beta release? Could someone please post older versions which are working so I can compare and possibly fix the issue if no sign from the developer. Are you around, Michael? Standing by, thanks a lot...

I haven't observed that error myself. Try turning off all your plugins and see if it works (vJoomla has no plugins to turn off at this time). The error is coming from a file that I haven't touched and I can't imagine why it would malfunction - so my first guess is there is a compatibility issue with another plugin.

Can Joomla modules be targeted to individual vBulletin forums? If so, is this handled through the Joomla menu system using link URL?

That's what I first thought when I got the error so I went ahead and installed a clean joomla + a clean vBulletin on my localhost, same error popping up. What else can I do to help track this down, please?

I'm not sure what you're asking here. It would depend on the modules - but any module that worked with the vbulletin forums would have to be custom written.

At this point I don't know what could be triggering it unless...

Did you remember to install the vJoomla product file? If you don't the joomla templates wouldn't be loaded in and you'd get an error when they are called.

Yes, I did.
- Installed Joomla 1.0.12
- Installed vBulletin, inside /forum, using the same database, different table prefix though (not sure if that matters)
- Installed the vJoomla plugin using the xml file
- Overwritten the joomla files
- Copied the required vb folders to joomla directory as per your instructions

Anything missing?

Your help is so much appreciated, Michael. I am keen to use this on my production site that will go live soon, and your mod does exactly what I need, too sad I can't get it installed. Hopefully you can help me out, thanks!

P.S. Do you mind putting up an older version of the beta for me to make a quick test? Also, could filepath be an issue here? I'm running the scritpts on XAMPP server locally.

I'll look into it further when I get the chance but it might be a couple days.

I had version 0.0.2 working just great and just updated to 0.0.4 and getting
on the top of my pages. was I missing anything?

Allow me to clarify. I've been using Mambo/Joomla a long time so I'll see if I can explain:

In Joomla you can create modules that can be placed based on their Module Position using code like - <?php mosLoadModules ( 'user7', 'true' ); ?> - placed in a template.

You can then assign a Joomla module to this position and also assign it to show only for certain pages. These pages are determined by the menu structure that is set up. So even though many pages follow the same template that all have the "user7" module position, the only pages that will actually show the module are those that have been selected to display it (this is done when configuring the module).

I assume even though your plugin is using the vBulletin templating system that I will still be able to assign Joomla modules (as noted above). If so, then back to my original question, can I assign Joomla modules to a specfic Forum so that for example in Forum1 I can show a specific Joomla module (e.g., in "user7" position) and in Forum2 not show the module.

Are you able to place Joomla modules on forum pages at all, even with this bridge?

Not yet - Hadn't actually thought of doing that. Hmmm...

Ok, it only took about 5 minutes to write the plugin to allow joomla modules to be called from vbulletin templates. I agree that this should be part of the final bridge but since it's something I just tossed in and haven't tested I'm keeping the xml plugin separate from the rest of the download for the moment.

To get a module to show up on a forum template with this plugin you'll need to place $module[position] at the spot the module contents should display. I did this to get my joomla main menu to show up on the forum pages.

It appears to work, but again I just tossed this in. I'm currently working on the templates and trying to find the source of the two bugs noted in the thread.

Completing this aspect of the bridge will need to be a little trickier. The approach I'm considering is this - the installer program will read over the list of forums vbulletin has and create a menu that holds all the vbulletin forums. These menu id's will be the keys off which the modules work. This particular menu will need to be updated via plugin any time vbulletin adds or subtracts a module. The advantage of this approach is it will incidentally create a forum menu that can be displayed on joomla pages with a minimum of fuss.

Spotted source of error - will be fixed next version.

Found a workaround. Apparently that function can't take an argument in versions of PHP prior to 4.4.2. Will be fixed next version.

Kudos for all the great work you've done so far. I'm sure the Joomla Modules plugin will come in handy.

Version .1 has been released. Please check the privacy policy that has been added. I set up an email specifically for the purpose of monitoring these bug reports - I suspect I'll have a couple hundred messages in there by the time I check again tomorrow.

You are moving at a very fast pace, Michael.
I'm sure we will have version 1 or 2 by the end of this month.

I have joomla installed but will need to see a couple more working demo with various components, plugins before I join.

Thanks for all the hard work.

MOTM

Thanks for the update, Michael!

No matter what I try however, still getting this error, even with the 0.1 beta :( Any setting that I'm missing, really? I am not using any mods, standard joomla and standard vb files, uploading vjoomla product and overwriting the joomla files, copying images cpstyles and clientscripts to joomla root, yet nothing. Any other setting inside vB admin?

Really want to be able to use this hack, eh...

Thanks for your quick work on this. I'll see if I can get you some feedback over the weekend.

PM me your absolute forum path on the server side - I have a few error reports and need to figure out which one is yours

Getting the following errors:

Running MySQL version: 4.0.27
Running PHP version: 4.4.4

Warning: main(/homepages/6/d94334881/htdocs/administrator/includes/compat.php50x.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /homepages/6/d94334881/htdocs/administrator/includes/joomla.php on line 60

Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/homepages/6/d94334881/htdocs/administrator/includes/compat.php50x.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /homepages/6/d94334881/htdocs/administrator/includes/joomla.php on line 60

Not sure exactly what is going on, appreciate the help though.

J.T.

Great job :). Although I will not be using the modification as I no longer use Joomla instead using a commercial CMS, I must say this is a very large contribution to both communities. The reason why I no longer use Joomla is do to the fact that no coder could ever sustain some form of true integration, and the bbpixel module would destroy the database and contained illegal Vbulletin files. I'm very happy to see someone finally take the initiative to integrate these two brilliant products and seem to be in it for the long run.

kudos :)

Hi Michael: Database Layer, Functional Layer, Presentation Layer i.e. templates, themes, styles etc.

I see you have coded vJoomla to utilise the vB template system - not the way around I would have wanted as I believe there are many more effectove CSM type styles out there for Joomla/Mambo than vB (vB is not a CMS, Jomla and Mambo are more close to it) - so for me I guess that's a shame. I would say people who would want this bridge would want it to add CMS functionality to their forum and NOT forum functionality to their CMS.

Super work though... as Mr Bob said above... kudos.

Not necessarily, John. My main goal is to add CMS functionality to the forum, yes but it is limited to sharing joomla extensions functionality on a common userbase platform. And, partly because it didn't work for me, I switched the templating thing off and now I'm able to share user authentification and keep joomla templating functionality the way it is. Afterall, I guess this is best option for me at this point.

Great job, Michael :)

Sure thing pxd, I respect your requirements absolutely. If that's what you are interested in using vJoomla for, then thats brilliant and I wish you the very best of luck so doing and I would be interested in seeing what you come up with.

As with all applications and software development, it is about what works best for you after all.

On a personal level this is in fact exactly what I have done (mainly because there was no CMS module/app available that I could use effectively for my site). On a business level though, for my clients... it is a different matter alltogether. They'd would be looking to use a CMS based application on/for their site first, and then if required, add forum functionality to it - not the other way around.

Until a stable release of Joomla 1.5 what you desire isn't possible. We won't have a stable release of that platform for at least another year and I need to revise vbulletin site still stuck on 3.0 NOW. I use Joomla at work and I really don't want to work any longer with the portal systems available for vbulletin. While I appreciate the hard work that has gone into them, they are ultimately insufficient for my needs.

Your defense of Joomla's "template" engine doesn't impress me. Joomla! templates SUCK. They aren't proper CSS, yet they require CSS to attempt to style them (good luck considering most Joomla components as written are table cities). They suck so bad that I use a modified version of Joomla commericially that rewrites key files to use the patTemplate engine to draw the html, instead of the asinine default Joomla! approach of putting html output into class files that are nigh unreadable (Could be worse though - could be OS Commerce). Considering they will be DEAD ANYWAY once Joomla 1.5 is released I'm not going to cry for them.

So yes, vJoomla grafts Joomla! onto vbulletin - it doesn't allow the reverse at present. I can't conceive of a reverse either - I'm never seen a pure CMS system with more than a handful of users (though I'm sure they are out there) though any vbulletin board worth it's salt has at least a couple hundred (or in my case a couple hundred thousand) user accounts to worry about if you were ever to merge them.

You also completely missed one final point. When it comes down to it - bbpixel is illegal. vJoomla is not. I put all the hacks in the Joomla code because, in the end, I will be re-releasing it under the GPL as a seperate package. The beautiful part of Open Source and the GPL license is you can do this under it. If I where to modify and distribute any part of the vbulletin code (as bbpixel does) this would be a violation of Jelsoft's commerical license.

I plan for vJoomla to be around for the next couple years as a branch off the Joomla 1.0 trunk, development of which has ceased in favor of 1.5. (So there should be a minimum of problems with 1.0 compliant components and modules). When 1.5 is released I will then develop a version for 1.5 which - if all the hype around 1.5 is true - should be possible without executing any code hacks in 1.5.

Fully loaded, up and running on test server.
Beleieve me this is a dream come true, imagine the possibilities!

Woah there.... I am not criticising you, and I haven't missed any point at all. My compliments to you for taking this project on and sticking to it, but don't come all angry at me - I have done nothing. I have never looked at bbpixel let alone used it.

I appreciate you are defending your work, which is admirable... but I am not attacking it so really there's no need.

What defense of Joomla's template engine!!?? All I said was that people want sites first, forums after that's all. Unless you are wanting to run thegreenperilfromhellclan dot com!!

Take a look at large business' www sites... CMS and quality content all over the place... forums, well... these are nowhere to be seen really are they - hence the CMS first then forums if required.

I'm sorry - pre morning coffee post, or something like that. Anyway, I prepare large business CMS sites for a living. One of the reasons I want to move to Joomla as a CMS for my vbulletin boards is to unify my component work load and get more reuse out of me code. Every CMS I've built for a company though has always been with a custom style designed for them by a design firm. At the end of the day I found it was easier to replace Joomla's "template" engine with patTemplate (a move Joomla itself is doing in version 1.5). Translating templates from patTemplate to vbulletin is about 2 minutes work or less / template -- in other words it's a piece of cake.

Grafting vbulletin to an existing Joomla site would be a pain since there is no user import feature at present. Most companies though don't need a forum package as full featured as vbulletin so Simpleboard or Fireboard for Joomla will probably serve them well enough.

Again, this is primarily meant as "joomla as an addon for vbulletin" rather than the other way around. I could write it the other way, but I believe that waiting for 1.5 for such a product release is probably more realistic.

Will it, later on, be possible to have joomla into i a subdirectory instead of vb?

The installer program will make an attempt to find the forum path. It will look in same root, then ./forum, then ./forums. If it cannot find it then it will ask you to provide the absolute path to the forum library. It will then test to make sure it can parse vbulletin. If it succeeds then it will install joomla and add the forum path to the joomla configuration vars as well as copying the appropriate elements from the vb config to it's own.

So the answer is that in the final version you will be able to put the forum on any path you wish so long as PHP's open_base_dir directive doesn't block joomla from executing forum scripts.

Wow, that really sounds great!

Just another question, my users use a lot of special characteres in their usernames. All other bridges, that "just" sync usertables got problems with charecters like '#*~, because joomla does not support them! Will this also be a problem with vJoomla?

Regards,

Tobi

vJoomla allows vbulletin to handle all aspects of user management - it doesn't manage users itself so this shouldn't be a problem.

No probs Michael... none at all mate.

I admire what you are doing here, and I may very well use it at some point. Appreciate the response.

This is sure going to be of significant benefit to the vB community. Keep up the great work.