[Attilitus]

How are you putting it inside vbulletin? (The template engine will not parse php code, if you are trying to add your code that way.)

Make a plugin in global_start and put this code:

ob_start();  
include('/path/to/file/');  
$yourvariable = ob_get_contents();  
ob_end_clean();

Edited: Changed it to the proper way of doing it. (Found Kirk posted this solution in response to another post)