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.

[Wells]

SOMEBODY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[Wells]

DOVBANYI hack!

[Frank]

Well I have SQL errors with this hack, it's trying to access other databases for some reason

Does that complicate things even more?

[Frank]

Okay everyone with header errors try using the full http path when including the file.

i.e. <? include ("http://yoursite.com/forum/webwelcome.php"); ?>

This solved my problem, but I still have the problem of it not recognising my cookie, which is very annoying.

[glo]

Can anyone else tell me if they are successfully using this hack on 2.2.9?

I dont think this hack is hard but I cant get it working!

[Darren Lewis]

Apologies for my abscence. I'm not installing/writing any more vb mods until vbulletin V3 is out, so I haven't been here for a couple of months.

gohanssj2:
The page hasn't accessed your vbulletin global.php file. Probably a problem with the paths of the include statement on your page.

Bubba:
Are you by any chance runing phpadsnew? There's a known problem with phpadsnew overloading a site's cookie file and causing very random, obscure logout / session expire problems.

Wells:
I've not come across this problem before. It looks like a problem with the paths. Check your include statement on your main page, as well as any other paths in the script. Some servers require the full include path.

Frank:
Are you accessing other databases on your page?
Try adding

PHP Code:

mysql_select_db("vbulletin"); 


where "vbulletin"is the name of your vb database, before the include for the webwelcome.php file.

Glo:
I'm running it on vb2.2.9 - I never could understand why it doesn't work on your server. The files you sent to me worked fine on mine

[glo]

Hi Darren,

HOw are you!

I have managed to get it to work to some degree.

It will display the login screen if a guest comes on, but it truncates the "There are currrently X users online" cutting it back to "There are currently X" You can try it at www.glo-racing.com/v3/test.php

When I have already logged into vBulletin, it wil display the correct "Welcome message, but again, truncates the "There Are currently X.......

Its really quite strange.

Plus, if I add it to a html page, and change it to a php extension, the php will not work???

[TYorke]

I don't know if I was right in doing this, but I simply added:

chdir("../community");
require('global.php');

inside the webwelcome.php file and it works like a charm. Anyone sees any problems with this?

[glo]

Hi Tyorke,

Is your directory structure set up so that the forums are situated on the same level as your main site?

In my case, my directory structure is a little different with the forums located at www.glo-racing.com/forums and my main page situated at www.glo-racing.com/v3/main.html

However this shouldnt have any bearing on the outcomeas long as the paths are correct!

[TYorke]

yes, basically. My site is www.nhl-league.com and my forums are community.nhl-league.com same as www.nhl-league.com/community

The only thing that I see wrong with this is that my count is off. It says there are "6 members online" meanwhile only 4 are displayed. Not sure if it includes people in invisible mode, I guess not.