welcome/login panel on non-vB page

I've seen a lot of requests for this around here, but no solutions.

Latest version is 1.30
Works with V2.2.9 Should work with earlier version of 2.2.x too.


OVERVIEW
========
This hack/modification is designed to create a welcome panel on your non-vB homepage, so that users are either welcomed back if they are registered, or invited to login/register if they are not.

There are config options to show avatar and/or PM information and/or who's online (with or without usernames) in your welcome panel.

If you want to see a working example, then go to http://www.thebookforum.com The hack installed there does not show all of its features, but gives a general idea. The templates allow complete control over the look of the login/welcome panel.

There is one PHP file (webwelcome.php) to upload, and ten custom VB templates to create.

The templates can be modified to suit the design of your site. The ones that I have included in the zip file are those that I created for my site.

There are options to include the following additional info
- Avatar for guests or user's own avatar if logged in. If no avatar selected, a default one will be shown. Example guest and default avatars included in this release package.
- PM info to logged in users (will not show if user cannot use PMs or has chosen not to)
- Who's online (number of members of guests). Additional option to choose whether to show usernames.


CREDITS
======
This hack also uses some code originally written by several members of vbulletin.org in particular Firefly and MrLister.

Full credit is given in the php file for the relevent bits of code used. I have modified their code slightly to work with this hack.

I have not formally asked their permission due to the open source nature of the hacks at vbulletin.org
If they object I will remove their code from this hack release.


HISTORY
======
V1.30 13 September 2002
Hack creation now very simple. No more copy & paste. I've changed a lot of the original vb code so copy & paste would be nearly impossible.
Added option to include PM info and who's online (with or without usernames) in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
New templates for the additional info to be shown.

V1.20 11 September 2002
Added option to include user's avatar in the welcome panel.
Default templates included in the hack release altered to include these new options.
Default templates altered to be more generic.

V1.10 13 May 2002
Fixes the bug where the "most users online...." on the forum page keeps reseting to zero.
Removes a lot of the unecessary bloat from the script.
Creation of script simplified. Now just cut and paste.
NB template name change in this version - webwelcome_home is now called webwelcome.

V1.00 07 April 2002
Original release.

[Nitesh]

Originally posted by Colon33
Hey Higgins, you need to allow GUESTS to view your board without registering. I had the same problem.

Hi, is there any way around this? Ive tried various hacks thoughout this board but none of them work.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[Buck Satan]

I keep getting the "Call to a member function on a non-object in webwelcome.php on line 24" error even though Guests are able to view my forums. Any ideas?

[Grunt]

Originally posted by Darren Lewis
The other two (the Book News, and the Site News) are ones that I wrote myself. They're basically identical hacks but each one looks to a different forum ID for the info, and use different templates. The book news is a public forum, the site news is a private forum so can't be seen in the forums by guests and members (but it can by me )

In writing them, I used code and ideas from several of the news hacks available here. To cut the title after x charcters, have a look at KuraFire's newsportal and thread overview hack and Tubedog's latest threads hack. To pull forum info to a non-vb page have a look at vbhome or vbindex (look for the news bits in the code).

I suppose if enough people are interested I could release them as a separate hack (when I get a bit more time )

Darren.

*raises hand and yells - Im interested!

[glo]

any one got this working with 2.2.8????

I am still stuck!!!

[Tony DiMera]

This is what I get:

PHP Code:

Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /home/virtual/site11/fst/var/www/html/webwelcome.php on line 24 


I am having the same problem as Buck, and it is an addition which I have put in.

[Darren Lewis]

This error is because the vbulletin global.php file has not been called or found. Make sure that the paths etc are correct at the top of your homepage.

[Tony DiMera]

Thanks a lot it works. I got it as a subdomain and version 2.2.8 and it works great. "Clicks Install" The only thing is when I go to login on my homepage, it takes me to my board and if I go back to my homepage it shows me logged out, I even try hitting refresh. Is there anyway to fix this?

[NTLDR]

Make sure that your cookies are set to:

Cookie Domain: .mydomain.com (Yes 2 dots )
Cookie Path: /

That may do the trick.

[Tony DiMera]

I don't have that problem on the board just the homepage. BTW mine is a subdomain how would i put it? forums.mydomain.com

[NTLDR]

If the homepage is at www.mydomain.com and the forums at forums.mydomain.com then use the settings above and I'm 99% sure that will solve the problem.

If not then forums.mydomain.com is what to put in