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.

[Airwork]

This is really the script I've been looking for, it looks just great.
Unfortunately, I can't get it to work. Tried everything, looked everywhere and am now desperate. Hope someone knows a brilliant solution to this:

Warning: main() [function.main]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php) is not within the allowed path(s): (/www/htdocs/airwork) in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

Warning: main(/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php) [function.main]: failed to create stream: Operation not permitted in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

Warning: main() [function.main]: Failed opening '/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

You can find it at http://www.airwork.nl/test.php

I contacted my host, but they say it has to do with my path, which I should set to usr/local/lip/php. I did as instructed, but still get the same error.

Anyone???

[danchuee]

Originally Posted by Airwork

This is really the script I've been looking for, it looks just great.
Unfortunately, I can't get it to work. Tried everything, looked everywhere and am now desperate. Hope someone knows a brilliant solution to this:

Warning: main() [function.main]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php) is not within the allowed path(s): (/www/htdocs/airwork) in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

Warning: main(/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php) [function.main]: failed to create stream: Operation not permitted in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

Warning: main() [function.main]: Failed opening '/usr/local/lib/php/webwelcome.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /www/htdocs/airwork/test.php on line 17

You can find it at http://www.airwork.nl/test.php

I contacted my host, but they say it has to do with my path, which I should set to usr/local/lip/php. I did as instructed, but still get the same error.

Anyone???

You may want to contact your host again. It is a server issue. The admistrator is restricting access to specific directories. Usually in a hosting environment, they only allow you to access your directories. This is a security issue. Try placing the file within a directory you know works. Then try it.

Also you can call them to make sure that you can create more folders within that dir and that the config of the server os allows it.

Below is some info about what open_basedir is all about.

open_basedir string
Limit the files that can be opened by PHP to the specified directory-tree, including the file itself. This directive is NOT affected by whether Safe Mode is turned On or Off.

When a script tries to open a file with, for example, fopen() or gzopen(), the location of the file is checked. When the file is outside the specified directory-tree, PHP will refuse to open it. All symbolic links are resolved, so it's not possible to avoid this restriction with a symlink.

The special value . indicates that the directory in which the script is stored will be used as base-directory.

Under Windows, separate the directories with a semicolon. On all other systems, separate the directories with a colon. As an Apache module, open_basedir paths from parent directories are now automatically inherited.

The restriction specified with open_basedir is actually a prefix, not a directory name. This means that "open_basedir = /dir/incl" also allows access to "/dir/include" and "/dir/incls" if they exist. When you want to restrict access to only the specified directory, end with a slash. For example: "open_basedir = /dir/incl/"

[Airwork]

Originally Posted by danchuee

You may want to contact your host again. It is a server issue. The admistrator is restricting access to specific directories. Usually in a hosting environment, they only allow you to access your directories. This is a security issue. Try placing the file within a directory you know works. Then try it.

Also you can call them to make sure that you can create more folders within that dir and that the config of the server os allows it.

Thank you danchuee. I have mailed my host your reply, but they still say it's the paths, because when a file is included in PHP it should state the whole path. As a service, they altered the paths for me in webwelcome.php and in the testpage (http://www.airwork.nl/test.php). So these should be allright this way.
On the upside the result is that I don't get errormessages anymore, on the downside it doesn't show anything at all...
Does that mean that the PHP problem is solved but that I did something wrong in other pages, perhaps the templates or somewhere else?

[Airwork]

Anyone please help? I really would like this feature on my website, I tried to find something like this for a long time. It's pretty frustrating that I can't get it to work.

Diana

[Airwork]

Guess not...

[Darren Lewis]

Airwork, the page http://www.airwork.nl/test.php is showing the login box. What's the problem you're having?

[Airwork]

Sorry Darren, just minutes after my previous message I worked through the templates again and now it works. I am very, very happy and a quite embaressed that the solution was so simple in the end...

Thanks for this great hack!

[Darren Lewis]

Great. Glad it's working OK for you

[Pikok]

Hi, i'm getting this error on the bottom of my main page after fully installing and configuring this hack:
Warning: mysql_query(): 17 is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/hosting/host1009/forum/admin/db_mysql.php on line 93



There seems to have been a slight problem with the FFIntelligence headquarters database.
Please try again by pressing the refresh button in your browser.

An E-Mail has been dispatched to our Technical Staff, who you can also contact if the problem persists.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

i don't understand why i'm getting this error,...
could it be becos i use vbb 2.3.2?
the login box works perfect...i just need to get that error out of the way on my main page
any thoughts?

[Darren Lewis]

What other scripts are you running on your page? Are they all using the same database? Have you got a link to the page causing the problem?