[ajhalls]

Thanks Lynne, I tried using that page to create the pages I wanted so I could do standard include(); I got the header to display, but couldn't get the header and navbar to work when I did:

<?
include("./header.php");
include("./navbar.php");
?>
I created some templates called idiotadmin-header and idiotadmin-navbar and left the appropriate code in each.

I tried this for header.php

<?php

// ####################### SET PHP ENVIRONMENT ###########################
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

// #################### DEFINE IMPORTANT CONSTANTS #######################

define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'test');
define('CSRF_PROTECTION', true);  
// change this depending on your filename

// ################### PRE-CACHE TEMPLATES AND DATA ######################
// get special phrase groups
$phrasegroups = array();

// get special data templates from the datastore
$specialtemplates = array();

// pre-cache templates used by all actions
$globaltemplates = array('idiotadmin-header',
);

// pre-cache templates used by specific actions
$actiontemplates = array();

// ######################### REQUIRE BACK-END ############################
// if your page is outside of your normal vb forums directory, you should change directories by uncommenting the next line
// chdir ('/path/to/your/forums');
include('./global.php');

// #######################################################################
// ######################## START MAIN SCRIPT ############################
// #######################################################################

// ###### YOUR CUSTOM CODE GOES HERE #####
$pagetitle = 'idiotadmin-header';

// ###### NOW YOUR TEMPLATE IS BEING RENDERED ######

$templater = vB_Template::create('idiotadmin-header');
$templater->register_page_templates();
$templater->register('pagetitle', $pagetitle);
print_output($templater->render());

?>

and this for navbar.php

<?php

define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'idiotadmin-navbar');
define('CSRF_PROTECTION', true);  
// change this depending on your filename

// ################### PRE-CACHE TEMPLATES AND DATA ######################
// get special phrase groups
$phrasegroups = array();

// get special data templates from the datastore
$specialtemplates = array();

// pre-cache templates used by all actions
$globaltemplates = array('idiotadmin-navbar',
);

// pre-cache templates used by specific actions
$actiontemplates = array();

// ######################### REQUIRE BACK-END ############################
// if your page is outside of your normal vb forums directory, you should change directories by uncommenting the next line
// chdir ('/path/to/your/forums');
include('./global.php');

// #######################################################################
// ######################## START MAIN SCRIPT ############################
// #######################################################################

$navbits = construct_navbits(array('' => 'idiotadmin-navbar'));
$navbar = render_navbar_template($navbits);

// ###### YOUR CUSTOM CODE GOES HERE #####
$pagetitle = 'idiotadmin-navbar';

// ###### NOW YOUR TEMPLATE IS BEING RENDERED ######

$templater = vB_Template::create('idiotadmin-navbar');
$templater->register_page_templates();
$templater->register('navbar', $navbar);
$templater->register('pagetitle', $pagetitle);
print_output($templater->render());

?>

I tried changing the $templater to $templater2, tried removing the global.php from the second file, and making lots of other edits to prevent overlap. Both files work fine by themselves, but put them together and it fails.