Context Sensitive (?) $vbphrase usage?
 

In the Navbar template I have added code to create submenu headings using $vbphrase.

Here's a snippet:

<tr>
<td class="thead">$vbphrase[forum_tools]</td>
</tr>

On some pages (e.g.: within forums), this item displays just fine. On others (notably index.php), the string does not expand, making my menu header disappear. But... not on all pages.

I've had the same problem with other texts. For example, $vbphrase[new_posts_nav] seems to work ONLY on Index.php but not when within a forum.

Are there restrictions as to which phrases can be used where..?

Phrases are only fetched according to their "phrase group". A PHP file will request X, Y & Z phrase groups when loading the page. The only exception is Global, which is fetched on every page, and CP Global, which is fetched on every Admin/Mod CP page.

Superb, thanks for the quick reply. Great answer.

Is there a summary somewhere of which pages use which phrase groups...? Or do we need to reverse engineer it?

You would need to look it up in the source, but most groups are self-explanitory.