New-B vBulletin Owner - First Question
 

Hello all,
I just took the plunge and purchased a vBulletin Publishing suite license this weekend. I have it set up in a sub-domain that is not accessible to the general public until I get it all set up (probably going to take a couple months).

I have been running UBBThreads for 10 years, so I have a lot of work ahead to get it all transferred over to vB.

My first question is, with Threads I could make other pages that would match the style and look of the main Threads pages. Can I do this with vB?

Yep. :)

Lynne's article here should get you on the right track.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ht=custom+page

There's also this article: www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=229194 It's a less flexible solution but only requires that you create a template with your content.

Edit: ...actually, what I said above it's quite correct - your custom template would still need to be a complete html page, so this option is really just a shortcut.

Thanks guys! A million other questions to follow :)

Well, I started to try this, and step 1 was straight forward and I undersood it - create a .php page based on the example and upload it to my vB root directory. Easy enough. However, being very new to vB I got stuck at step 2. It says "Create a Template" in your MASTER STYLE. Do I just make a HTML page that looks like the example? How do I tell it to be in my MASTER STYLE? (Is that the same a "Default Style?"). Also, what file extension does the template need and where do I put it?

Also, the instructions for adding my new page to Who's Online - is that code I put in the template? DOes it matter where in the template? I'm sure these instructions make perfect sense if I understood vB better, but can you help me out and explain a little more about "how" I create the Template in the "MASTER STYLE and where do I put it and what file extension does it need?

Thanks in advance.

To create it in your master style you will need to be in Debug mode, the code for who's online is entered in to a plugin using the plugin manager>add new plugin

Ok, I modified my config.php and entered debug mode. I see that it now lists all the Templates used and Included Files, Hooks, etc. Ok, now what? I see in step 2 of the instructions that it provides HTML code for a template. Do I simply make a file with that code in it, or is there some other process I must follow? If I create this template for my new page from a stand alone editor, I know the file name is case sensitive, but what file extension, if any, do I give it (for example, in UBBThreads, which i'm moving from, templates had a .tpl extension. I guess what I'm asking is can you break down Step #2 in the above linked instructions and walk me through HOW I create a template for a page and put it where it needs to be. I got step one ok - created a page and uploaded it to my root. Sorry for the dumb questions, but I'm new at vBulletin and it seems to work quite differently from what I'm used to.

EDIT: Ok, stand by - I think the light bulb just went on. I found where I can "Add New Template" based on the "MASTER STYLE" in the Admincp. I copied the HTML in your example into that Template editor, then went to my "mypage.php" script and viola! It worked!

I'll play around awhile more - don't go too far - I may need you again! :)

For MASTER STYLE, Go to Admincp > Styles and Templates > Style Manager > MASTER STYLE and create a new template

Thanks - see my edit above. I sort of stumbled on it and so far it seems to be working. Thanks for your help. Don't go too far thought LOL!

Glad you're sorted :)

Being brand new to vB I am running a test board for several weeks/months until I figure my way around it all before I go live. Thanks for the help.

You should ALWAYS have a test board and take back ups off-server as frequent as you can :)

Good advice. I have a separate hard drive on my server onto which I do highly backups.

Dont forget to comment out the debug statement in your config.php like this //, because as it stands everyone could see that information if you were live.