Templating Grouping/Enhanced Management
 

NOTE: This hack involves the modification of your template admin files. You may want to backup any files involved in this hack to guard against any major problems. Alright, on with the hack. :)

What's it do?
Ya know those template groups you see when you're modifying templates? The ones with titles like "Calendar templates" or "Forum Display templates" that reveal the templates they contain when you click on the "[expand]" link next to them? Well, this allows you to create, edit, and delete those easily through your admin CP. In addition, it allows you to switch ANY template from standard (like the way the default templates are displayed) to custom, or custom to standard...which means that you can have it placed as a "normal" template, and not under the "Custom template" heading.

I've attached an archive containing the files you'll need, and a text file containing the instructions. No screenshot is necessary, really, as I think the description tells you all you need to know.


Some Specifics
First off, if you add a new template group, and it doesn't show up, don't worry: that doesn't mean it isn't working. You need to create a standard, matching template before the group shows up. Here's a quick example (using a hack of mine called vBGlossary very shamelessly. :D):

• Create a template called glossary_template
• Specify it as a standard template by clicking "[make template standard]" on the Edit Template screen.
• Notice that it's now among the "Default templates" that come standard with vBulletin.
• Create a template group. Enter "glossary" in the "Group Text" field, and "vBGlossary" in the "Group Title" field.
• Go back to your templates: now, near the bottom, you should see "vBGlossary [expand]" -- clicking on it will expand the group...in which you'll see the glossary_template template! Create any more standard templates beginning with "glossary" and they'll show up under the same group.

The ability to group as you please is nice, but in my opinion, the real value here lies in being able to make templates custom or standard, and then managing them with the groups. If you install a lot of hacks, you probably have a lot of custom templates. It's a big mess, in my opinion, to have them all stuffed together under one heading at the top. This hack lets you organize them easily with the rest of the "standard" vBulletin templates! I dunno if ya'll like it...but I love it. :D

One more quick example: vBulletin comes with 3 Avatar-related templates. I believe they are avatar. avatars, and avatarbit. Creating a template group called "Avatars" with a "Group Text" value of "avatar" will place these three templates in their own group. No switching is necessary, because they come standard with vBulletin...which means they're already standard templates. :)


Potential Cause For Confusion
It's not really a bug, because I think it's unavoidable: if you have a standard template, and you edit it, thus creating two templates (your current one, and the default template, which you can, of course, revert to or view as needed), switching it to standard will have BOTH templates show up under the custom heading...two, instead of one.

This hack has been tested by several others, but due to its specific nature, and the files and such involved, it is HIGHLY recommended that you backup the /admin/template.php file before proceeding with installation.

I hope this isn't too confusing. Enough talk: enjoy the hack!

Sounds very nice, i will install this one later. Nice job, thanks.

Gracias. :) Oh, by the way: a HUGE thanks to the people who were kind enough to beta test this hack for me. I really appreciate it! Your feedback has been invaluable.

Wow, nice hack! Installed it, and worked perfectly. Thanks for sharing.. :D

Switching to standard will set templatesetid to -1? If so, what happens when I update my vB? The update routine kills every template with templatesetid=-1...

Well, I don't know how upgrade compatible it is; but why would an upgrade kill all those templates?

this hack sounds great TWTCommish thankz ur work!

i will use this hack after my forum problem solved !!

Upgrading vB does the following:

DELETE from template WHERE templatesetid=-1

and then all templates are inserted via INSERT INTO... that is why you can't edit templates with -1 directly via the CP - they would be lost.

Hmm, well, I haven't tested it for upgrade compatibility at all. When the next upgrade script is released I'd be glad to take a look and try to find a way around it, though, if it's plausible. Any thoughts/suggestions?

Maybe mark them as -2 ??? Just an idea

I haven't installed this hack yet, but will soon. Very nice, beats using phpMyAdmin for default template editing.

Great Job!!