Applets....
 

I use an applet on my site ... that is updated three times an hour and appears in the header -- and I really want the applet to appear in the vBulletin forum header. On other site pages, when the applet is being updated ... it inserts the code for the %applet here% into page.html.parse -- and then the parse file become the updated file page.html.

Is there a way to do this with the vBulletin? Would appreciate your comments....

You could use fopen and fread and put the content of the file in a var, which you could use in your template.

The applet that is executed three times hourly is a lengthy perl file. When the applet concludes, it performs a gen_applet() ... and then replaces %applet here% in the parse files for the actual applet code and renames the file without the parse in its name.

My tracking is ... if I give the perl file a code on where else to send the updated applet info ... perhaps create a template to stick the completed applet coding into (it is lengthy), and then refer to it appropriately in the "header" -- my problem would be solved. It seems like a mighty mountain to climb for us php rookies.... :)

Just read your response Sparkz. Something tells me that may do the trick -- but -- I'm clueless on where and how to use the fopen and fread comments. You also suggest that I "put the content of the file in a var, which you could use in your template." Okay, the perl coding I see is for "replace_applet" ... and I see how the programmer developed that. I could place the contents of the applet in a "simple.txt" file. How could I get the template to read the contents of that file to be used in the header? Thanks!!!

I now have the results of the perl file which updates three times hourly ... being stored to a "simple.txt" file which begins with < applet > ... and concludes with < /applet >. I need to have the values that are saved on this "simple.txt" file read or imported into a template for use in the header. How do I do this? Many thanks for your help. I will post the solution here when I achieve the end result.

The applet is now appearing as hoped for in the header on the site. It involved the following modifications

• Modified cron perl script to write updates to a "simple.txt" file.
  
• Added the following lines on global.php:
  
  // ###################### Import applet #######################
  // start snag applet
  $datadir = "/home/www/truckz.com/htdocs";
  $file = fopen("$datadir/simple.txt", "r");
  $simpletext = fread($file,8192);
  fclose($file);
  
• Added the following include under global on header.php --> $simpletext
  
• Applied the $simpletext reference where I wanted the applet to appear in the themeheader template.

That was it! You can check the regularly updating applet in action at http://truckz.com. Thanks for your comments and observations. :)