Why won't this plugin work?

[Mark.B]

This is me attempting to convert a "thread of the day" hack from 3.8.

I've read the article on variable registeringand have converted quite a few hacks, so I've *sort* of got my head round that.

However, the below (at search_start) simply doesn't work. the contents of the template are output fine, but the variable $devebd['whatever'] does not output at all.

I think I have done the registration of the variable right, because if I add this line to the plugin:

$devebd['test'] = ""Something";

...then I can make that print in the template just fine.

So, I think there is something wrong with how that query is being handled. I know it's being executed, because if I add a rogue character to any of the table names it throws a database error at me.

Yet, the query is identical to how it was in vB3 and it worked.

Any suggestions on what's wrong? Here is the plug in:

$exforums1 = $vbulletin->options['btwexfor'];
$exthreads1 = $vbulletin->options['btwexthr'];
if($vbulletin->options['enbwt'])
if($vbulletin->options['enbt'])
if($vbulletin->options['encolbt1'])
    $devebds = $db->query_read("
             SELECT thread.postusername,
                    thread.postuserid,
                    thread.title AS fth,
                    thread.lastposter,
                    thread.replycount,
                    thread.views,
		thread.lastpostid,
                    thread.threadid,
                    thread.forumid tid,
                    forum.forumid AS fid,
                    forum.title AS ft
             FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread AS thread, " . TABLE_PREFIX . "forum AS forum
             WHERE forum.forumid = thread.forumid
             AND dateline BETWEEN " . (TIMENOW - 86400) . " AND " . (TIMENOW + 86400) . "
             AND thread.forumid NOT IN ($exforums1)
             AND thread.threadid NOT IN ($exthreads1)
AND thread.threadid != 90094
AND thread.postuserid NOT IN (2501,2087)
             ORDER BY thread.replycount DESC LIMIT 1
             ");

while ($devebd = $db->fetch_array($devebds))
{
$devebd['trimmed'] = fetch_trimmed_title($devebd['fth'], 43);

}

 $templater = vB_Template::create('threadoftheday_day2');
    $templater->register('devebd', $devebd);
    $dev .= $templater->render();
$template_hook['totd'] .= $dev;

I then call this plugin in template search_resultlist using {vb:raw template_hook.totd}. It outputs the content of the template threadoftheday_day2 ok, but does not output the results of the query.