Templates won't recognize my variables
 

What am I missing here? All I want to do is add a conditional on FORUMHOME, so that one certain forum does not display regular forum bits, but rather some custom markup. I thought it would be a breeze.

In forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost, I want to change this
to this
The problem is that no matter where I attempt to define $my_custom_var, the template will never recognize it. I have tried every hook imaginable, and also tried to define it directly in index.php, global.php, and init.php. Nothing works.

I'm sure I have the problem isolated to $my_custom_var because this works as expected...
In addition, I assigned some custom text to a known recognized variable ($show) and that also works as expected...
Of course, I don't want to, and shouldn't have to dump a big chunk of markup into the $show array. Do I need to register my custom variable somewhere so it gets recognized? Again, I have tried all the hooks, I have tried direct file edits. I have used DEVDEBUG (which annoyingly spits out the expected variable :ermm: ).... yet it just refuses to get recognized by that template. Now I'm aggravated. I been lurking here for years and always found my answers by searching. Aaaaaggghh ;)

Can anyone please fill me in on what I'm missing here?

Well $show would be the most appropriate place to put it. But try adding a 'global $my_custom_var;' to your script.

Thank you, I didn't know that $show would be the appropriate place for it. I'll probably just use that then. :)

It is good custom to prefix your variables in this kinda places, to avoid possible future problems with Jelsoft variables.

So use:
$post['mutus_myvar']

and not:
$post['myvar']

Thanks again Marco

I do always attempt to uniquely identify any custom variables or function names of my own. I only used $my_custom_var as an example.

My real names I don't think will ever surface in native VB code. :classic:

at least I should hope not... :paranoid: :nervous:

the point here is that all your variables may not be globalised by vB itself when you call your template, because the call itself is a function, though you need your variables to be known by the function... using the default vbulletin variable arrays is the best way... like $show and $post... because you're sure they will be detected...!

so instead of $yourvariable, use $show[yourvariable] when creating and calling your variables, and you're sure it will be done correctly in a strange situation... :)