[vB3 RC3] Welcome Hack v1.2
 

Hack Author:
Name: Hwulex
E-Mail: vbhacks[at]hwulex[dot]com
Forums: http://forums.xaprief.com


History:
I'm sure most of us are aware of trilOByte's popular Welcome Hack that was available for vBulletin 2.
I myself had it installed on my vB2 forums, and after upgrading to vBulletin 3 missed it, so, seeing as nobody else had, I decided to make my own version.


Description:
This hack does two things:
1. It alters the look of your forum's index page by reducing the size of the "What's Going On" box to just one line (more if birthdays / calendar events present). This box is also shifted up to the top of the page, beneath the navbar.
2. The information that it strips out of that box is not lost though as it is moved up in to the navbar box at the top of the page. The general statistics are only displayed on the forum homepage, as well as your avatar, and the number of new-posts and active-threads since your last visit. On all other pages, the navbar remains as it was.


Zip Contents:
welcome_hack_vb3_v1_2.zip
|- instructions.html :: Instruction on how to install this hack.
|- forumhome_loggedin.gif :: Shows what your ForumHome will look like after installation with a logged in user.
|- others_in_and_out.gif :: Shows screenshots of the hack in various states, plus a screenie of the vB2 version.
|- noavatar.gif :: Placeholder for those users who don't have an avatar set.
`- guestavatar.gif :: Placeholder avatar for guest viewers.

Testing:
Tested on vBulletin 3 RC 2


Files to Modify:
forumroot/index.php


Templates to Modify:
forumhome
navbar


Phrases to Add:
active_threads
info_forum
info_user
info_visitor
online_now


Phrases to Edit:
$vbphrase[welcome_to_our_newest_member_x]
$vbphrase[last_visited_x_at_y]
$vbphrase[forum_contains_new_posts]
$vbphrase[forum_contains_no_new_posts]
$vbphrase[forum_is_closed_for_posting]
$vbphrase[most_users_ever_online_was_x_y_at_z]
$vbphrase[private_messages]


Images to Upload:
noavatar.gif
guestavatar.gif


Notes:
If you do install this hack, please click on the INSTALL button.
You will receive updates in your e-mail whenever I add new features to it.
Please also post a reply with your comments, they are appreciated.


Updates:
1.1
- Fixed 'X' problem for NewPosts and ActiveThreads.
- Added noavatar.gif, and accompanying instructions, to the package.
1.2
- Made NewPosts and ActiveThreads display on forumhome only.
- Moved queries to index.php reducing per-page queries by two.
- Added guestavatar feature for indexpage.

nice hack!

/me clicks Install

MGM out

That's weird, works fine here.

Built using WinRAR 3.20 in WinXP Pro.

<EDiT>
Where'd your post go? :rolleyes:

Yes very useful

Yes, I've been waiting for a vB3 welcome hack. Two things;

- I personally would just use the index page bit. Sending queries to every page can be server intensive and global.php has two queries to add. If someone tells me two queries to every page makes bugger-all real difference to the server I'll be a happy man.

- Any chance of guest/no-avatar-selected additions like the original vB2 hack? I can see why you've opted not to show the guest one. Room needed for the login section. Hmm... See, I made customised versions of those avatars and the guest avatar made the place much more inviting.

Hack looks and works great, apart from a couple of little things.

Whenever a member is logged in, where it says new posts and new threads, instead of a number there is just a single black X

When someone is logged in without an avatar, it is looking for an image, with the url insertdomainhere.com/forums/{ imgdir }(without the spaces)/noavatar.gif

(the domain being whatever site it is installed upon)

EDIT: i've rehacked 3 times now, and readded all the templates etc, and it's still doing it, any ideas?

Thank you for pointing this out, I'd completely forgotten to add the image and accompanying instructions.

I think I know why it's displaying a single black X as well, I will report back in about a half hour with an updated instructions file.

Cheers.

I had thought abuot this myself; having two extra queries per page in global.php is a bit much.

What I might do now (seeing as I've got to do some other bits anyway) is alter the conditionals so that the New Posts and New Threads only display on the Forum Index.

Any other thoughts on this?


I'm going to look at the template now, see if I can alter it to accommodate a 'guestavatar' option as well. :)

Ok. X problem for NewPosts and ActiveThreads is now sorted. I'd accidently pasted a testing template into the instructions rather than my live version. Apologies.

I have also added noavatar.gif and it's instructions to the package.

Update to 1.1. File in first post updated.

Those of you who would like to sort the above X problem quickly, then update to version 1.1, else, please wait about another half an hour and I will upload 1.2 which reduces the queries (only used in index.php) and also has the guestavatar facility.

Cheers.

Version 1.2 uploaded. See original thread for updated zip and changes from last version. :)


For those of you running versions 1.0 or 1.1, you basically just need to move the queries from global.php into the same place as the other alterations in index.php, upload the two images, and then replace your navbar template with the new one in the instructions file.

lol thank god someone updated it i was wondering is that x for no posts
coz i know that no one would be posting on my forum since its closed so i couldn't tell :$

Nice hack
Thank you.

It would seem that this welcome panel needs to be made more compatible with 800x600 resolution. Also, the presentation doesn't work well with larger avatars.

I'll post a screenshot of what I'm getting on 800x600 resolution;

There's nothing I can really do abuot that. Obviously, the larger the avatar you use, the worse it's going to look.

As for the 800x600 resolution; you could try shortening some of the phrases?

Actually; looking again at your screenshot, you've not actually done any of the phrase edits! I would imagine that would reduce the problem by about half at least! :D

Yes, that's right. I didn't do the phrase edits in that screenshot. I took it while I was trying something, but it didn't occur to me that shortens the sentences so I'll be back with an update.

EDIT: Actually that did sort out the problem. I owe you an apology.

No worries. :D

That's the main reason I edited the phrases because I had the same problem to start with. :)

this looks great, will install soon. thanks!

is it possible to put REGISTER avatar for not login user like it was in 2.x version? :)

Cool hack anyway, thanx!

I'm not sure I understand what you mean, sorry.

At the moment, if a guest views the boards they will get an avatar reading 'Guest Please Register', and this avatar is a link to the registration page.

If you would like the avatar to read something different, then just create your own new one. :)


@porouian: Cheers. Let me know how it goes. :)

sorry, didn`t see that on screen shots so didn`t realize that hack do this
thanks!

Good point. Guess I should update the screenshots. :rolleyes:


<EDiT>
Done. :)

ah great job Hwulex was just gonna ask about the X's :D

Nice job Hwulek! My members love this.
Thank You

It does work in RC3. :)

Yep... Just upgraded to RC3 myself and it still works... YAY!!!

When I download the zip file there is no instructions

Well *that's* weird.

Fixed. Re-download. :)

Can you entertain me & post the necessary code for me to add so it shows on like every page?

I hate the look of just one page showing that welcome hack. I want it on every page.

And yes, I don't care about the Database abuse. :D

Cyricx

Love the hack..one of my fav's atm.. but I just have one prob/question..

In your screen shot of the forum you posted look in the visitor Info section..

Online now: 20
`- 5 members and 15 guests

Is this an error maybe as its the same on my page also..

The `- is meant to show that the breakdown of "X members & X guests" is a branch from the "Online Now" part. If you do not like it, it is easily editable in the navbar template. :)

You could make the welcome hack appear on every page, but you need to make some changes to index.php and global.php, as well as replace your navbar template.

The navbar changes I've got sorted, but I need to finalise the changes in global.php and index.php. If it doesn't take too long, I will try and work it all out for you. It will add around 5 queries per page though, just so you know.

Ok, I have mocked up this for you. It's not the most efficient thing in the world, and could add anything up to ten or twelve queries per page (as it's all called in global.php).

I have not re-written the biggest of the code/queries used here for getting the online users as it's too much work for me to do right now. This does, however, work. But please bear in mind that if you use the welcome hack on every page, you lose the original functionality of the navbar all together. You could of course modify the template to show the navbar underneath the welcome hack, perhaps, but I have not done that here.

The attached instructions are not comprehensive in their installation from scratch. You will still need the original instructions for phrase edits. Use the file edits and template additions from these ones though.

Cheers

Yea, no problem.

Gotcha :) I'll work on this today :) Thanks!!

Cyricx

just one more question - where to change this:

i mean i need phrases to translate to my origin language! Thanx

It appears the phrases regarding PMs don't show if you have PMs disabled. I can't say for sure because I modded this hack for my board. You may wish to test it in any case.

If you look at www.myfootballforum.com you will see that after a topic title is so long it puts ... at the end to shorten it. How can I adjust this so more of the title will be shown?

How do I edit the phrases? I am using RC4? I think it was made it so you purposefully cant edit the standard phrases. Did I miss a hack for that or should this be done via a query in the DB?

Edit the phrases in the Phrase MAnager, the same as you would for any other phrase.

As for the no-pm thing, I'll look into that later. :)

I've had a closer look. It's probably my own code that was doing it as I've fixed that on my board. :)